Professional doctorates: A pathway to legitimacy for non-academic HE professionals?

Eamonn Moran,Debananda Misra

doi:10.18546/lre.16.1.08

Abstract

This article discusses the current challenges faced by the two authors – both participants on a professional doctorate (PD) programme in education at a leading UK university – in gaining legitimacy as higher education (HE) professionals. By: (1) reflecting upon their own professional experiences in HE and as PD students; (2) utilizing semi-structured interviews with academic and non-academic professionals from their home institutions (in Ireland and India); and (3) drawing on Celia Whitchurch's typologies of 'third-space' HE professionalism, they found that in Ireland the current reform of the HE policy and praxis environment offers some real and positive opportunities for PD participants through the emergence of more progressive models of HE professionalism. In contrast, the relative lack of reform and a highly regulated Indian HE environment, presents ongoing difficulties in terms of applying one's PD learning in the work environment. This suggests that in India, PD graduates might, in fact, be afforded greater career progression opportunities by transitioning to a more traditional academic role.

Highlights

This article explores the challenges faced by two non-academic higher education (HE) professionals in fulfilling their career and self-development aspirations through a professional doctorate (PD) programme at a UK university
It has been suggested that the academic and administrative overlaps described above indicate that the boundaries between the two domains are already blurring, but it may be that those boundaries have never been clear
It might be the case that what is needed now is a clearer definition of the respective roles in the changing higher education environment, so the two groups can collaborate from a shared understanding of each other’s work and their respective contributions to institutional management

Summary

Introduction

This article explores the challenges faced by two non-academic higher education (HE) professionals in fulfilling their career and self-development aspirations through a professional doctorate (PD) programme at a UK university. In doing so, it seeks to identify whether their own effectiveness in leveraging their participation in the PD programme to gain increased legitimacy in their professional settings is, in any way, influenced by their respective Irish and Indian HE environments. The authors interweave their findings from a limited number of semi-structured interviews with academic and non-academic HE professionals at their home institutions (nine participants from Ireland and five from India) to allow for some, albeit limited, methodological triangulation (Seidman, 2013). Given the dearth of research and publications specific to Irish and

76 Eamonn Moran and Debananda Misra

Conclusion

Findings

Notes on the contributors