Embodying Artistic Reflexive Praxis: An Early Career Academic's Reflections on Pain, Anxiety, and Eating Disorder Recovery Research

Early career academics (ECAs) are a highly vulnerable group, typically facing job insecurities, persistent pressure to publish, and conflicts in academic values and beliefs. Researchers have noted the precarious position of ECAs in neoliberal universities and expressed growing concerns regarding the effects of neoliberalism within higher education on ECAs’ academic identity construction. To generate a comprehensive picture of ECAs’ academic identity construction in neoliberal higher education, this paper reviewed existing studies (n = 17) on ECAs’ identities from 2008 to 2022. A thematic synthesis revealed that ECAs’ identities are fraught with insecurity and ambivalence but maintain a certain authenticity. In addition, it also found that ECAs use various identity construction strategies, including alignment, adherence, negotiation, and withdrawal. The paper also critically assessed the research methodologies utilized in ECAs’ identity research and highlighted directions for future research. The review contributes to our understanding of the impact of neoliberalism on academic identity and ECAs’ strategies for professional survival in a neoliberal context.

Early career academics (ECAs) face substantial pressures in establishing their academic careers, often prioritising research outputs over teaching. While much focus has been placed on supporting ECAs’ research-related development, less attention has been given to enhancing their teaching practices, particularly in supporting student writing. The expertise required to teach and support student writing only compounds the difficulty of this situation, especially if learning development support is not available to students. This presentation reported on the findings of a SEDA-funded project that responded to calls to equip ECAs with the skills needed to foster confidence and self-efficacy across multiple academic activities (Dore and Richards, 2022). The project contributes to ongoing discussions about the role of ECAs in supporting student learning alongside learning development while ensuring their own professional development and wellbeing. Focusing specifically on writing support within the context of generative AI – a growing challenge in higher education – we have been working on developing a practical toolkit for ECAs to better support students in academic writing while addressing issues of AI integrity. Exploring ECAs’ needs and perspectives through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions has informed our understanding of what such a toolkit might look like and how generalisable and transferable it might be. During the session, we shared our observations, designs and hopes for this toolkit, which aims to assist ECAs in balancing student support with their own wellbeing, thereby protecting them from overwork and enhancing their teaching practice.

Navigating academia as early career academics (ECAs) is increasingly challenging, with many facing structural inequities, the rise of precarious work, and the increased marketisation of higher education in the United Kingdom and beyond. The purpose of this article is to provide a platform for learnings and insights gleaned from our experiences as five ECAs who worked together to lead the ‘early career network’ for a learned association between 2021 and 2023. In the article, we explore some of the challenges, opportunities, and call for actions that come out of our own encounters with the neoliberal higher education landscape as both students and workers in the social sciences. We propose a dual conceptualisation of solidarity as both resonant and differential, and mobilise this theoretical contribution to reflect on themes of community, materiality, care, knowledge, and labour as key strands which shape the interface between ECAs and complex higher education ecologies. Theoretically and practically, we aim to facilitate solidarity in early career communities, mobilising ‘ECA’ as more than a purely temporal category. Finally, we make recommendations to colleagues across the discipline for forging and nourishing collaborative, healthy, and inclusive environments in which ECAs can thrive.

This study reports on the experiences of early career academics (ECAs) in a private Malaysian higher education (HE) institution and its impact on their academic identity. Through the use of a qualitative inquiry, the findings revealed that the ECAs’ academic identity development was imbued with challenges and complexities, as they navigated academia. Due to the performative culture in HE, the formation of a stable identity is continuously challenged by the demands represented by the institutional context. ECAs reported having to negotiate their core academic identity as teachers due to tensions from having to assume multiple roles in the organization. The findings also revealed narratives of resistance and marginalization, highlighting misconceptions about academia and the disconnect between the ECAs’ personal, professional and organizational goals, which contribute to the global literature on the academic profession in two respects. First, it contributes to the empirically grounded knowledge of the complex manner on how ECAs negotiate, challenge or comply with the new managerialist agenda. Second, it explores the emerging academic identity that the ECAs are forming under this competitive HE context. The study proposes strategies for a more inclusive career development process to nurture and support ECAs in the HE setting.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the information behaviour of early career academics (ECAs) within humanities and social sciences (HSS) disciplines who are starting their first continuing academic position. The proposed grounded theory of Systemic Managerial Constraints (SMC) is introduced as a way to understand the influence of neoliberal universities on the information behaviour of ECAs.Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative research used constructivist grounded theory methodology. Participants were 20 Australian and Canadian ECAs from HSS. Their information practices and information behaviour were examined for a period of five to seven months using two interviews and multiple “check-ins”. Data were analysed through two rounds of coding, where codes were iteratively compared and contrasted.FindingsSMC emerged from the analysis and is proposed as a grounded theory to help better understand the context of higher education and its influence on ECAs’ information behaviour. SMC presents university managerialism, resulting from neoliberalism, as pervasive and constraining both the work ECAs do and how they perform that work. SMC helps to explain ECAs’ uncertainty and precarity in higher education and changing information needs as a result of altered work role, which, in turn, leads ECAs to seek and share information with their colleagues and use information to wield their personal agency to respond to SMC.Originality/valueThe findings from this paper provide a lens through which to view universities as information environments and the influence these environments can have on ECAs’ information practices and information behaviour.

Conducted as part of a multi-country study of the teaching-related experiences and expectations of early career academics (ECAs) in Africa, this study investigated the major influences on the teaching practice of ECAs at Makerere University; the mechanisms by which these academics learn to teach; the teaching-related challenges they experience; and their suggestions for the better deployment of ECAs into university teaching. Using questionnaire and interview, data were elicited from ECAs and their deans and principals. The findings were that the ECAs’ teaching is influenced primarily by ‘self-help’ reading on teaching and the pedagogy of their teachers – because the ECAs are not trained teachers nor are they given any systematized teaching induction programmes. The study attributes the absence of such programmes to the assumption that ECAs are teaching well. However, ECAs reported challenges in preparing for teaching, teaching and student evaluation and requested mentoring and workshops on teaching methods.

This paper reports an investigation of ‘transformation narratives’ emerging from early career academics’ reflective writing. The pieces of writing analysed describe self-initiated teaching development activities embedded in the early career academics’ practice. Using a transformative learning framework, the analysis reveals the following changes in early career academics’ practice: a move from non-reflective habitual action to more conscious practice; a more sophisticated view of teaching than was previously held; increased agency where teaching practice is perceived as something that can be developed; increased confidence; and a more multifaceted conception of an academic role than their original conception. The limitations of the transformative learning approach and implications this might have for those designing and delivering these types of programs are then explored.

PurposeMentoring can be an important source of support, particularly for those who are in the early stages of their career in academia. Drawing upon data from a larger study, the authors investigated opportunities for mentorship, factors that hinder or support mentorship and the value of mentorship from the perspective of early career academics (ECAs).Design/methodology/approachUsing a mixed-methods approach and social identity theory, the authors collected data via a survey and follow-up interviews with members of staff at the Open University, of which 19 ECA experiences were contrasted with 17 academics who received mentorship but were not early career.FindingsECAs and non-ECAs had equal access to mentoring, but mentoring seemed to be more visible and accessible to ECAs. Factors deemed to support mentorship included mentors having empathy and confidentiality. Mentorship was valued by ECAs because it helped to provide them with support that was in addition to their line management and to help them make sense of “being an academic”. From the data presented, mentorship supported ECAs in their academic career and identity development in higher education.Originality/valueThis research provides a mixed-methods approach to investigating early career mentoring within the context of a higher education institution in the United Kingdom. It considers the topic of mentoring of both junior and more senior staff who are often working at a distance to the institutional setting and provides a theoretical perspective in terms of social identity for academics.

Within the highly competitive research funding ecosystem, early career academics (ECAs) in mainland China face unavoidable pressures to participate in grant competitions as a prerequisite for academic career entry and progression. Focusing on resource inequality within divergent universities, this study investigates the tactical approaches Chinese ECAs employ to navigate their research agendas tailored to funding demands, alongside comparative insights into how research agenda setting diverges between elite-forging and non-elite-focused universities. Drawing on resource-based view and mobilization strategies (optimization/bricolage), this narrative inquiry interviewed 30 ECAs across 24 elite-forging and non-elite-focused mainland Chinese research institutions. Findings reveal that grant acquisition is contingent on both institutional and individual resource capacities. To navigate this grant competition, ECAs adopt a hierarchical framework of four strategies aligning with incremental resource availability, ordered as follows: necessity-based bricolage, lean-condition optimization, ideational bricolage, and asset-rich optimization. Institutional disparities underpin this pattern: ECAs at non-elite-focused universities predominantly rely on the first two resource-constrained approaches, whereas their elite-forging university counterparts normally leverage the latter two resource-abundant strategies. These insights offer actionable frameworks for ECAs to thrive amid funding competition, while also calling attention to structural inequities in funding systems that universities and policymakers must address to better support ECAs.

Orientation: South African public higher education institutions (HEIs) are facing significant challenges to attract and retain quality early career academics. Therefore, the need exists to explore the potential antecedents and consequences of effective talent management practices for early career academics.Research purpose: The objective of this study was to explore the causal relationship between the antecedents (i.e. talent attraction; management support) and consequences (organisational commitment; intention to quit) for early career academics employed in selected South African public HEIs.Motivation for the study: Research using a holistic approach for the effective talent management of early career academics is lacking.Research approach/design and method: Quantitative data were gathered by administering a Talent Attraction Tool, a Talent Development Measure, a Talent Retention Diagnostic Tool and the Organisational Commitment Measure, using a sample of early career academics in public South African HEIs (N = 117).Main findings: The results showed that management support, talent development, compensation and recognition, and satisfaction with institutional practices significantly enhances the organisational commitment of early career academics and reduces their turnover intentions.Practical/managerial implications: The results highlight the importance of management support in enhancing the effective application of talent management practices among early career academics. Higher education managers are encouraged to implement talent development opportunities and adequate compensation and recognition practices to retain early career academics.Contribution/value-add: The research provides useful information on how talent management practices can be effectively applied to enhance the commitment and retention of early career academics.

The purpose of this study was to describe the influence of secondary organizational socialization on seven early career faculty members’ (FMs’) implementation of physical education teacher education (PETE). Data were collected with four qualitative techniques and analyzed with standard interpretive methods. FMs delivered PETE that was either a hybrid of the traditional/craft and behavioristic orientations to teacher education or of the critical inquiry, traditional/craft, and behavioristic orientations. Cultural elements and conditions that helped or hindered FMs’ in PETE were identified. FMs coped with negative and unfavorable elements of their cultures and conditions by fully complying with, strategically complying with, and strategically redefining their situations, or finding a new position. The stories of these FMs should inspire administrators, senior colleagues, and those training doctoral students to reflect on the degree to which they help or hinder neophyte FMs, as well as aid doctoral students preparing to make the transition into faculty positions.

This study draws on the career construction theory to investigate how individual and institutional features enhance the subjective career success of early career academics in a university in South Africa. A qualitative research design was used to gather and analyse data by way of semi-structured face-to-face interviews among 16 early career academics who were purposively sampled. Results revealed that hierarchical barriers, perceived unclear policies on work processes, and challenges pertaining to academic freedom impede early career academics’ subjective career success. Conversely, availability of teaching and learning resources, exposure to professional networks, and social interaction enhance the subjective career success of early career academics. At the individual level, early career academics’ sense of inadequacy, challenges in socialising with colleagues, and high teaching workloads negatively affect their subjective career success. This study recommends that universities should prioritise the subjective career success of early career academics by supporting their individual goals through institutional support mechanisms that include career advising and mentoring.

Cultivation of professionalism and dispositional values of junior faculty members/early career academic in higher education institutions is a global challenge. This paper explores how Graduate Assistants are mentored at work in the higher education institutions in Eritrea. The paper assesses the institutional significance and challenges of mentoring the Graduate Assistants in the context of Eritrean higher education institutions. The research involved the leadership of the colleges, the senior faculty members and the Graduate Assistants. Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered through a Likert scale questionnaire and in-depth interviews. The findings show that Graduate Assistants receive poor professional mentoring at the higher education institutions. A large number of early career academic revealed a need of serious professional molding to effectively shoulder more responsibilities at the colleges. The early career academic are looking for genuine advisement for career aspiration and professional development opportunities. The colleges’ efforts to ensure recognition, delegation, accountability and encouragement of Graduate Assistants are not yet systematic and hardly materialized in practice. The higher education institutions are required of a firm institutional commitment to sharpen the junior staff’s professional competence in teaching and research through mentoring. Based on the findings, alternative mentoring strategies to mentor early career academic at the higher education institutions are forwarded. Keywords : early career academics, graduate assistantship, mentoring, stimulation, inspiration DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-15-01 Publication date: May 31 st 2020

The dominant definition of "early career" in academia is a normative one. Typically five years post-PhD, the early career academic (ECA) moves from post-doctoral, tenure track or Level A to Assistant Professor, Level B, Reader and onwards. This assumes steady employment and continuous research and professional development, and does not reflect the lived experience of many ECAs. Academic work, especially during the career development phase, is excessive and frequently performed outside work hours. For women, intensifiers include unacknowledged work or academic "housework," high teaching and administrative loads, and under-representation at senior levels (Grant and Knowles 2000; Probert 2005). When motherhood and early career intersect, the challenges of research and career development are further intensified. This chapter explores ECA motherhood in two ways. First, it presents an authoethnographic account of mothering an ill child during PhD, and coping with secondary infertility and ectopic pregnancy as an ECA. Second, it examines survey data from Australian women ECAs with caring responsibility for children.

Taking our lead from Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, this project represents our attempt to stimulate dialogue between 30 physical education and sport pedagogy (PESP) early career academics (ECAs) and 11 PESP professors. First, the ECAs were invited to write a narrative around their experiences as PESP ECAs. Second, a narrative analysis was undertaken and three composite ECA letters were constructed. Third, these letters were shared with the professoriate, who were each invited to write a letter of response. Finally, six of the professors participated in a symposium, which focused on the letters. The professors’ letters and the transcripts of the symposium constitute the dataset for this paper. While the larger project engages with ECA voices this paper focuses on how the professors construct the university and PESP and the implications of these constructions for how they advise and mentor ECAs. Theoretically, we recruit the work of Pierre Bourdieu, and nascent ideas about mentoring, to challenge our interpretive complacency, and help us think in generative ways about the data. Our analysis engages with three broad themes: constructions of the university; constructions of PESP; and constructions of self. Findings suggest that while much of the professorial advice might be interpreted as targeted towards the development of more accomplished neoliberal subjects, there was some evidence of a more radical, collegial mentoring of sorts, through advice that foregrounded strategies of resistance.