Academic Citizenship Research Articles

Accounting Faculty’s Motivation to Engage in Academic Citizenship: Evidence from Australia and New Zealand

ABSTRACT Academic citizenship, encompassing service and broader community engagement, is declining despite its pivotal role in the academic ecosystem, largely due to being underrecognized and underappreciated in university reward systems. This study identified factors that support and inhibit faculty engagement in academic citizenship so that initiatives to reverse this trend can be designed. We interviewed 24 accounting faculty from 11 universities across Australia and New Zealand. Drawing on social cognitive theory, this study identified personal factors such as faculty self-efficacy, goal commitment, and self-evaluation of progress as drivers of engagement. Our findings underscore the urgent need for university management to support academic citizenship, particularly among junior faculty, and to formally recognize it in institutional workload models, performance evaluations, and reward systems, to ensure the sustainability of the academe ecosystem. JEL Classifications: M49.

The contribution of educational developers to academic citizenship in higher education

ABSTRACT Educational Development activity is pivotal to the sustenance of academic citizenship within the academy, with Educational Developers integral to supporting academic staff to engage with citizenship pursuits and making significant contributions of their own. However, the nature of this contribution to the operation of the university and the broader academic community has not yet been explored in the literature. This qualitative study investigated how Educational Developers navigate their roles, balancing teaching enhancement activities with broader contributions to nurturing citizenship. Findings indicate an opportunity to shape the expectations of citizenship for Educational Developers and integrate them into their evolving professional identity.

The instrumental academic: Collegiality and the value of academic citizenship in contemporary higher education

AbstractCollegiality and the contribution to the sustenance of the academy through academic citizenship are central to commonly held conceptions of what it is to be a university. This study investigates the articulation and recognition of academic citizenship through institutional promotion criteria, including both traditional research and teaching‐focussed career pathways. The study adopts a qualitative research approach and examines promotion criteria from a sample of 55 mid‐sized universities in the UK. Findings point to a progressive shift in formal recognition of service activities associated with citizenship as part of the core academic workload. Institutional service is pervasive across all academic roles and levels, student service is largely invisible, and activities associated with public service are most notably acknowledged in traditional academic roles at the professorial level. The evolving nature of expectations of citizenship necessitates a more nuanced consideration of the core dimensions of an academic role and citizenship activities to ensure equity and inclusivity in career progression.

‘Just One Day of Unstructured Autonomous Time’: Samuel A. Moore Supporting Editorial Labour for Ethical Publishing within the University

Universities have traditionally supported the distribution of critical and cultural theory through departmental and centre publishing (e.g. Working Papers in Cultural Studies) and the establishment of university presses. However, over recent decades publishing has been increasingly outsourced to commercial providers, buttressed by volunteer academic labour extracted for profit by the publishing industry. At the same time, faced with ongoing casualisation and ever-increasing workloads, the labour required for academic publishing is severely undervalued by the university and in a permanent state of crisis. In this article we put forward a radical proposal for universities to provide scholars dedicated time to support publishing as part of their academic service work. We intervene strongly into discourses that approach the publishing labour crisis by arguing for calculative solutions in the form of payment or credit. Instead, this article explores reorienting the labour underpinning academic publishing within the university itself by positioning it as an integral part of scholarly research and what it means to be a researcher. We make this argument through an in-depth engagement with debates on academic citizenship on the value of service work and discourses on academic labour derived from within critical university studies. We further support our argument by drawing on discussions on labour and open access (OA) publishing, referencing various alternative models currently being developed that, based on scholar-led, library-led and ‘new’ university press publishing, are experimenting with innovative ways to value and perform labour relations as part of community-controlled collective organisations. As universities are increasingly financially and infrastructurally supporting such initiatives, particularly with recourse to library budgets, we explore how this in many ways has left labour issues for publishing as a service performed as part of an academic’s workload unaltered. We therefore argue for the urgent need to reconfigure how universities view the labour behind academic publishing, to support more ethical engagements and relations with publishing, bring knowledge production back under the control of academic communities, and to support greater academic autonomy within universities.

Seven years of embracing the sustainable development goals: perspectives from University of South Africa’s academic staff

As this article was being finalised, the world was left with less than 7 of the 15 years of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation to 2030. There were still huge gaps in the attainment of the SDGs in institutions of higher learning globally, especially that COVID-19 brought a barrier leading to a known pushback. However, the pandemic did not imply there was no work done prior, during and after COVID-19. This article investigates the extent to which the University of South Africa’s academic staff activated and mainstreamed the SDGs in their core mandates between 2016 and 2022. Data was generated through a survey (n = 121), participatory action research, and document analysis. It emerged there is a greater degree of awareness of the SDGs, with 78% of academic respondents confirming this. However, the percentages drop across the four core mandate areas when it comes to SDGs implementation. About 52.6% of academics indicated they were promoting SDGs in their teaching, research (63.3%), community engagement (55.5%) and academic citizenship (54.5%). Findings further reveal key enabling institutional policies like the SDGS Localisation Declaration, and the Africa-Nuanced SDGs Research Support Programme. Large gaps remain on the publication front, where over 60% of the responding academics had not published an article explicitly on SDGs. There is also bias in publications towards certain SDGs. The work recommends that University of South Africa management continue raising awareness on the SDGs and systematically address barriers identified in the main article to enhance the mainstreaming of the SDGs across all core mandate areas.

Rethinking academic citizenship for collective agency in times of crisis

AbstractA crisis constitutes a catalyst for rethinking academic responsibilities in societies facing a major threat. When a crisis escalates, such rethinking moves to the centre of both academic and social discourses, resulting in scrutiny, as well as synergy of scholarship and citizenship. Delving into the existential threats faced by Ukrainian scholars during the genocidal campaign unleashed against their country by Russia in 2022, this paper re‐examines academic citizenship in times of war. The interviews analysed in this paper contribute to identifying synergies between scholarship and citizenship, and unpacking a collective agency shaped by crisis. Once peripheralized by neoliberal universities, academic citizenship is acquiring new meanings, while it reframes communal obligations and repositions professional duties in view of the life‐and‐death choices brought on by the war.

Academic citizenship for a digimodern academy

In this essay, we are resituating the practices of academic citizenship within a digimodern academy. We propose that in a world of fragmented narratives surrounding higher education in America, academics should act as stewards of what ever positive higher education narratives they wish to promote and to align their academic citizenship practices accordingly. We argue that rather than having narratives imposed upon academics externally, there is power in creating and controlling our own narratives. This essay situates the academy in a digimodern context, and it explores the connection between power and narratives about higher education. This essay then examines academic citizenship in light of creating and maintaining higher education narratives and finally illustrates how it may look in practice.

Academic citizenship: A radical practice perspective

This article presents how we might think about academic citizenship through a radical practice perspective. The assumption is that academics, alongside other actors, enact the university in their everyday practices. Everyday academic citizenship is not a choice, it is something we all partake in, whether we are aware of it or not, whether we wish to or not. Through analysing an un-remarkable statement by an academic, drawing on Austin’s speech act theory, this article illustrates how we can understand such statements as a particular form of academic citizenship in which the present and future university are envisioned. The article concludes by inviting academics to become more deliberate in their citizenship.

Public education without proper compensation: An empirical argument for promotion and tenure reform to encourage public scholarship and academic citizenship

Institutions of higher education desire their faculty members to be high-quality researchers while also acting as engaged academic citizens who produce public scholarship. However, traditional promotion and tenure processes do not reward public-facing academic citizenship, instead valuing peer-reviewed publications and grant dollars. Therefore, a paradox exists: How can institutions of higher education claim they value academic citizenship without recognizing their faculty members for performing such work? This essay argues for a fundamental reform in promotion and tenure policies for tenure track faculty members to encourage academic citizenship and to reward these faculty members for performing this critical, public-facing, community-building work.

Citizen instructors: Academic citizenship, graduate student instructors, and COVID-19

Academic citizenship entails seeing the academic community as worthy of love beyond what might prove useful for an annual performance review, even amidst a pandemic. The academic community must deserve what Harry Broudy called ‘enlightened cherishing’. Through a qualitative longitudinal study of graduate student instructors (GSIs) at a U.S. public university during the recent pandemic (2020-2022), involving multiple interviews and focus groups, we discovered that the GSIs remained academic citizens during emergency remote teaching necessitated by COVID-19 by adopting the notion of hustle. They were motivated to act with intensified resourcefulness and creativity because of a future-orientation in which a better tomorrow for the community was envisioned. They found more resources than those provided by their university, embraced flexibility, and recognized their students not just as students but as fellow human beings. The academic community, as opposed to the official institution, remained worthy of ‘enlightened cherishing’ because individuals within it could continually show flexibility and empathy in difficult times. To support this hustle, without it leading to burnout, we recommend that academic institutions foster, as an important part of academic citizenship, the virtue of misericordia, which Alasdair MacIntyre calls ‘grief or sorrow over someone else’s distress’—here for students caught up in tragedy.

Academic citizenship, together: Prioritising care and reflexivity in scholarly life

This essay explores dimensions of academic citizenship relating to collegiality and collectivity within academia. Building on notions of reflexivity and care, and from a starting point that highlights some of the problems of the conditions and nature of contemporary academic work, it offers a discussion of how scholars might define and interrogate values for relating to one another as colleagues. Though we focus on and discuss our own values and practices, we argue for the processual, unfinished nature of these. Academic citizenship is thus framed as a reflexive process that aims to create caring spaces within academia

For a nomad ontology against academic citizenship

This paper argues against the apparently benign concept of ‘academic citizenship,’ drawing on resources and conceptual precedents from within higher education generally and philosophy specifically. It does so not only in order to offer a critique, however. By considering the directions from which criticism can be levelled at the notion of ‘citizenship’, and the State-centric conceptualisation of the university underlying it, an argument for an alternative conceptualisation of academic being is offered. Ontology is suggested as a suitable route to dealing with the urgency of the questions confronting those inhabiting contemporary higher education. Drawing on the work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, along with Isabelle Stengers, it proposes a ‘nomad ontology’ as both a form of analysis and possible mode of being for academics.

The meaning of academic profession in light of the genuine mission of academic citizens

The main goal of this paper is to examine the power of the notion of academic citizenship to become a widely spread, accepted, and well-grounded concept useful for better and more progressive higher education policy solutions at a global level. I claim that the chances this might occur depend on the implementation of notions of transdisciplinarity and post-nationality into its future theoretical conceptualisations. Furthermore, I recognize the quality of transcending the given infrastructural boundaries as crucial for tertiary education and deal with the distinctiveness of the academic profession which could serve as its organizing principle. The approach from which I observe academic citizenship is geopolitical positionality and I argue the concept might be useful in finding better solutions for transnationally mobile scholars. Key principles of academic citizenship are a sense of belonging to the profession, openness followed by solidarity, freedom and unconditionality of endeavours. While minimal requirements for academic citizenship status are related to formal recognition, the additional qualities are gradually added up. One of the layers of belonging to the academic community is collegiality. In the final part, this article examines the potential of academia to fight back for the values and qualities inscribed into the role of academics.

Academic citizenship as a mediating mechanism

Various skills necessary to conduct mediation—a popular alternative dispute resolution mechanism—from effective trust-building to active-listening can be extrapolated and applied to defining and manifesting good academic citizenship. This essay suggests that learning how to communicate better, by understanding the interest of others while advocating for our own, is an essential—and often lacking—skill for many academics. Not only is communication a sign of respect that we are willing to engage with one another, but perhaps more relevant to the issue of academic citizenship, effective communication entails empathy and kindness, which fosters the willingness for the other side to reciprocate. This feeling of mutual respect and reciprocity are key ingredients to engendering safety and a sense of belonging, which often produce successful outcomes in mediation. This essay, relying on personal narratives, submits that these elements are currently lacking across many pockets of academia, where various instances of failure to communicate have created a sense of distrust and unnecessary acrimony. Learning how to mediate could offer academics a path out of this conundrum, which could also contribute to strengthening our collective sense of academic citizenship.

Academic citizenship and a world in crisis

In this paper I consider how the university might contribute to a regenerated commons. I discuss the problems of global citizenship as a heuristic, putting in its place, Appiah’s notion of cosmopolitanism to describe the Global Humanities bachelor program at my own higher education institution—Roskilde University in Denmark. I then consider the academic citizen as one participating in a space of dialogue and exchange where differences are recognized and the world is read through the lens of pluralism rather than over-confident and singular commitments to social justice, human rights or some idealized commons that threatens yet another dominant/dominating worldview. I end the paper with a reflection on the theme of hopelessness—viewing universities as central to creating academic citizens geared to the logic of deficit-thinking, endless development and abstract progress. Rather than trying to overcome hopelessness, we might be better advised to embrace it as one aspect of a broad and inclusive humanistic imagination; one where there are many knowledges but where most will not be encountered, and where there are no simple solutions

Reimagining academic citizenship: Challenges, prospects, and responsibilities

In this introduction, we present the context for the special issue on academic citizenship. We provide a short conversation with recent literature on the topic, and we develop some of the most significant cross-cutting themes that the essays illuminate.

The helpers, the doers, and the ones left behind: Reflections on the gendered dimension of academic citizenship in Dutch academia

Gender disparities in academia are pervasive. From the well-known ‘leaky pipeline’ phenomenon, which demonstrated the progressive decrease of women academics from occupying senior scientific positions, to the gender pay gap, women in academia do not enjoy a level playing field. Across the world, women have a harder time climbing the academic ladder, due, in part, to policies that discriminate towards people with caring responsibilities (most of whom, albeit not all, are women), general gender-based biases, or a substantial gender pay gap. An additional yet important aspect of the evident gender disparities in academia can be attributed to the engagement of what is commonly known as citizenship behaviours, such as taking part in academic committees or mentoring colleagues. Studies have shown that women engage in such activities at a higher rate than their male counterparts, leaving less time for research and, ergo, widening the academic gender gap in the long term. Based on findings from a study conducted at Maastricht University, the Netherlands, this essay aims to highlight the gender disparities in academic citizenship behaviours and suggests that more attention should be paid to the distribution of service work at the department, faculty, and university levels, with a specific focus on gender equity. The overall aim here is to provide a reflection on how structural and cultural discrimination in the internal society of universities can affect why, how, and to what extent academics engage with citizenship behaviours, and propose an approach to study the gendered dimension of academic service work.

Academic citizenship in an age of anti-intellectualism

This essay focuses on the fundamental idea that established theory can guide faculty professional service to inform and educate the general public. More specifically, we explore how faculty can use Boyer's scholarship of engagement as a framework for faculty academic citizenship and partnering with external audiences. Two recommendations are made related to intentional structural changes to universities as organizations for faculty academic citizenship to be relevant and make important contributions in the future.

Academic citizenship through the bundle of academic roles

As academic developers and higher education researchers, we, the authors, have pondered why engaging in public discourse is often found to be difficult by academics and how we can conceptualise and help prepare for the role of academic citizen in general and in more discipline-specific terms. Rather than approaching citizenship as an extraordinary task or role for the academic, we find that it may be best understood and approached as integral to being a researcher and teacher. We use perspectives on the knowledge society and the concept of co-production of science and society to suggest some conceptual inroads for understanding what shape the task of academic citizenship might take.

For one and all: Being an academic citizen on an interconnected Earth

The idea of citizen implies a polis, a collectivity of persons contributing their voices and actions to the good running of the community. In uttering and acting as citizens, both the public realm and a public is formed. The university as an institution and its educational processes are doubly implicated here. First, issues arise as to the extent to which the university is itself a kind of public, modelling the public realm, and founded on critical dialogue among equals. Second, issues arise as to the extent to which the university might be able and willing to advance this public realm. These issues generate two questions: what does academic citizenship mean? And, what if potential members of the public are voiceless? I answer these two questions together. Being an academic citizen is a matter of an ever-widening sphere in which this citizenship is located. This entails successively reaching out from one’s discipline and one’s students, to the world, and to the Earth. The pool in which academic citizenship is enacted is all the time widening, to those who lie beyond the current boundaries of the university, and all the inhabitants of Nature. Ultimately, to be an academic citizen is to be for one and all across this whole Earth.