Abstract
Academics as well as educational and academic development practitioners often find themselves in an ambiguous space in which personal and professional transformation can take place. Moving constantly between contexts and cultural learning environments at the university, these practitioners inhabit a strange, in-between space between mainstream academic support work, leadership and advocacy and other roles at the periphery.This space known as the third space from which other positions emerge, displaces the histories that constitute it and sets up new structures of authority, practice and discourses which are not always congruent with the university at large. This paper critically reflects on the experiences and insights of academics in a specific professional development course for new academics.Using a critical discourse analysis of in-depth, semi-structured narrative interviews, the authors explore the journey of new academic practitioners as they exercise their agency to carve out a hybrid identity in the third space across institutional boundaries.While resistance and struggle are challenging aspects of third space work, these constitute legitimate processes of identity construction and socialisation through contestation of traditional roles at the university. This paper interrogates the university’s role in creating and sustaining enabling institutional conditions so that academics can work in creative, responsive and relevant ways in a changing higher education landscape.
Highlights
With the expansion and massification of higher education, access has been opened up to students from different political, economic and social backgrounds (Bassnett, 2005)
It explores the concept of hybridity of roles and identities in an emerging field known as the third space (Bhabha, 1994; Whitchurch, 2008, 2013) to see if there are opportunities for professional development practitioners to grapple with the shifts and changes in traditional university practices
The other two professional development practitioners were appointed on academic conditions of service but were involved in many activities that went beyond the traditional academic role of teaching and research
Summary
With the expansion and massification of higher education, access has been opened up to students from different political, economic and social backgrounds (Bassnett, 2005) This diversity includes a large proportion of students who are ‘differently-prepared’ for university study, placing new demands on the role of academics (HESA, 2011) in the classroom. This study critically reflects on the experiences and insights of academics and professional development practitioners on a customised professional development course for induction of new academics at a research-intensive university It explores the concept of hybridity of roles and identities in an emerging field known as the third space (Bhabha, 1994; Whitchurch, 2008, 2013) to see if there are opportunities for professional development practitioners to grapple with the shifts and changes in traditional university practices. Even in this challenging space, academics can find their voices and exercise their agency in optimistic and positive ways, especially, as this article suggests, if they are inducted into the academy in thoughtful and deliberate ways
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