Academic Identities in Higher Education The Changing European Landscape

by Evans, Linda; Nixon, Jon

• ISBN13: 9781472579508
• ISBN10: 147257950X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-06-18
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Academic identity is continually being formed and reformed by the institutional, socio-cultural and political contexts within which academic practitioners operate. In Europe the impact of the 2008 economic crisis and its continuing aftermath accounts for many of these changes, but the diverse cultures and histories of different regions are also significant factors, influencing how institutions adapt and resist, and how identities are shaped. Academic Identities in Higher Education highlights the multiple influences acting upon academic practitioners and documents some of the ways in which they are positioning themselves in relation to these often competing pressures.

At a time when higher education is undergoing huge structural and systemic change there is increasing uncertainty regarding the nature of academic identity. Traditional notions compete with new and emergent ones, which are still in the process of formation and articulation. Academic Identities in Higher Education explores this process of formation and articulation and addresses the question: what does it mean to be an academic in 21st century Europe?

Author Biography

Linda Evans is Professor of Leadership and Professional Learning at the University of Leeds, UK, and previously worked at the University of Warwick, UK.

Jon Nixon is Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Lifelong Learning Research and Development, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong. He also lectures at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and holds an honorary chair at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Table of Contents

Part I: Introduction
1. Identities in transition: Perspectives, trajectories and reformations, Linda Evans (University of Leeds, UK) and Jon Nixon (Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong)
Part II: Frameworks and perspectives
2. The challenges of the French ‘homo academicus’: Modernization, identities and the sense of justice, Romuald Normand (University of Strasbourg, France)
3. Academic identity: Ideational shifts in European higher education, Tero Erkkila (University of Helsinki, Finland) and Ossi Piironen (University of Helsinki, Finland)
4. Academic identity formation: Reframing the long shadow of Europe, Terri Seddon (Monash University, Australia)
Part III: Academic trajectories
5. Swiss higher education: A particular showcase at the heart of the European landscape, Nicole Rege Colet (University of Strasbourg, France)
6. Academic identity in Slovakia: A personal comparative view, Štefan Benuš (Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia)
7. The Scholarship of academic entrepreneurship in 21st century Europe: A Swedish relief carved from personal experiences, Eva M. Brodin (Lund University, Sweden)
8. Predicaments of fusion and transformation: A journey from Georgia, Liana Beattie (Edge Hill University, UK)
9. Competitiveness, elitism and neoliberal performativity policy: The formation of a Russell Group academic identity, Linda Evans (University of Leeds, UK)
Part IV: Formations and re-formations
10. ‘Orderly’ identities: University rankings and the shaping of the academic mind, Jon Nixon (Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong)
11. High-flyers and underdogs: The polarisation of Finnish academic identities, Oili-Helena Ylijoki (University of Tampere, Finland) and Jani Ursin (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)
12. The changing conditions of academic identity: The Portuguese open university, Darlinda Moreira (Universidade Aberta, Portugal), Luisa Lebres-Aires (Universidade Aberta, Portugal) and Susana Henriques (Universidade Aberta, Portugal)
13. Policy, profession and person: The formation of reflexive academic identities in an Irish Institute of Technology, Carol O’Byrne (Waterford Institute of Technology, Republic of Ireland)
14. Laws, regulations and economics: Academic identity formation in Greek higher education, Antigoni Papadimitriou (University of Oslo, Norway)
Part V: Reflections
15. Academic identity and the changing European landscape, Niilo Kauppi (French National Centre for Scientific Research, France)
Bibliography
Index