The perceptions of acceptance by new academics to a Higher Education Institution

Abstract

The aim of this study was to gain a perspective of new members of staff who attempt to gain entry into an existing community of practice, to ascertain how this process occurs, and to explore new ways of inducting teams into established communities of practice. This research is situated, while demonstrating uniqueness, against a critique of Lave and Wenger’s Community of Practice theory, to analyse its applicability to the current Higher Education world. A qualitative, phenomenological study was conducted in a UK Higher Education Institution Faculty. Semi-structured interviews with eight members of academic staff, consisting of nursing and non-nursing lecturers who were all within two years of joining the institution, provided the data for this research. Data were examined using Miles and Huberman’s qualitative data-analysis model.This research argues that the community of practice notion does not fully correlate in this context with participant experiences. Results demonstrated that participants were exposed to varying levels of incivility, with differing levels of acceptance to the community of practice. There was a dissonance between participants attempting to enter the nursing and non-nursing community of practice. Conclusions made demonstrate how gaining entry to the nursing community of practice posed hostility compared with the non-nursing community of practice. The difficulties may have implications for all levels of the academic institution, although this would need to be tested against a larger sample for general applicability.