abstract: This action research project explores masters level graduate student writing and academic identity during one semester in an interdisciplinary masters program. Informing this study is a two part theoretical framework including the Academic Literacy Model (Lea and Street) and Wenger's concept of identity. The purpose of this exploration was to understand how first semester graduate students experienced academic writing and what characteristics of their academic identity emerged. A mixed-methods approach was used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data included results from the Inventory of Processes in Graduate Writing (Lavelle and Bushrow, 2007) and the Graduate Student Identity Survey. Qualitative data was collected through researcher observations, student blog entries, writing group transcripts, and individual interviews. The following themes emerge from the data: a) graduate students attribute their successes in writing to previous experiences, b) graduate students experience struggles related primarily to academic quality and faculty expectations, c) graduate students negotiate ways of being in the academy through figuring out expectations of faculty and program, d) work done in the writing group meetings shows evidence of meaning-making for the graduate students, e) the focus of the MA program was critically important to graduate students in the graduate writing project, e) participants' role as graduate students felt most strongly in contexts that include academic activity, and f) students acknowledge change and increasingly identify themselves as writers. Ideas for future cycles of research are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2012

Recent research by Boyd et al (2009) and Murray (2007) designed to explore the experiences of new academics moving into higher education from vocational and professional backgrounds, indicates that the transition from clinical practice to academic roles can be challenging. Additional research by Hurst (2010) further demonstrates that despite having established successful clinical careers, clinicians often experience feelings of uncertainty and inadequacy following such a move, taking between 1.5 and 3 years to socialise into their new academic roles (Hurst, 2010). In addition, the transition of pre-registration nurse training into higher education is relatively recent, following its wholesale relocation from schools of nursing located in the National Health Service to higher education institutions in the early 1990s. This move was initiated in response to growing concerns that the traditional apprentice model of pre-registration training, with its focus on functional competency, failed to give nurses the freedom or status required for professional development (UKCC, 1986). Therefore, given the relative recency of the move and growing evidence of the difficulties experienced by health professionals, it is pertinent to examine how they have managed the transition. Therefore, the purpose of this constructivist study is to investigate the academic role of the nurse educator and its contribution to the formation of personal academic identity. Undertaken over a three year period, this study uses intensive interviews with 14 academics employed in pre-1992 and post-1992 universities. Data analysis using grounded theory techniques provides a rich and detailed picture of nurse educators' personal academic identities, juxtaposed by a number of institutional, social and professional drivers. The main findings also signify congruence with previous studies (Boyd et ai, 2009, Murray, 2007) and indicate academics experience multiple challenges when making the transition into higher education. Challenges inhibit their ability to assimilate into an academic identity and realise academic roles, a position leading respondents to express concern about the efficacy of the competency based curricula and their ability to meet the wider educational needs of pre-registration nursing. The reciprocal processes of data collection, analysis and theory generation leads to the production of a model of academic identity transformation and explicit recommendations that may be used to direct the ongoing development of nurse education.

Originally conceived as Regional Technical Colleges and located in regions across Ireland, the Institutes of Technology (IoT) have evolved as a major sector of the binary system of higher education in Ireland. The Institutes of Technology are identified as focussed on teaching however recent years have also seen increasing focus on research. Following convergence in the sector, recent policy measures and changes signal a 'future higher education landscape' which opens the possibility of technological university status to Institutes of Technology who merge as part of the process for recognition as technological universities. The traditional orientation to practical, vocationally focussed teaching in Institutes of Technology is now challenged by the potential changes being driven at policy level and it is in the context of this changing higher education system that this study examines IoT lecturers' negotiation of professional identity. The research uses narrative enquiry to access the stories and narratives of lecturers working in a number of the institutes located in the Dublin region. Through an in depth qualitative study of eight lecturers in four IoTs, the study, in line with the research questions, identifies three major themes that underpin the professional identities of the sample - discipline; professional development; and external influences and policy decisions. Associated with these three themes are six constructs - Discipline; Professional Practice; Teaching; Development; Community Orientated Values; and Research - that resonate with this changing and volatile higher education environment and that intersect in different ways for individuals in the study to produce varying 'portraits' of professional identity. An analysis of how these identity portraits emerge is facilitated by a theoretical framework proposed by Paul Gee (2000) that gives appropriate insights into the dialogic process of the negotiation of professional identity. The study, through a synthesis of data generated themes and constructs and a theoretical identity perspective proposed by Gee (2000), contributes to knowledge in the field by creating a proposed framework for facilitating a generative analysis of the location and negotiation of professional identity. Such a framework enables, for example, explanations for both the strong links in the data between academic identity and subject discipline and yet also evidence of the fragmentation of an academic identity and an associated emphasis on practice-based experience. Given the way the framework allows for a multiplicity of factors to be combined in particular ways that reflect both structure and agency in individual lecturer's negotiation of professional identities, an argument is made for its application in the design and implementation of development structures at the level of the individual and the organisation - one that recognises that a Higher Education professional development model based on a "one size fits all" approach will not work. Instead the temporal nature of the impact of policy decisions and external influences is highlighted with a call for more focus on discourses on higher education, the associated importance of lecturer autonomy and the nature of professionalism and professional identity.

Failure, according to the academic canonical narrative, is anything other than a tenure-track professorship. The academic job hunt is fraught with unknowns: a time of fear, hope, and despair. This personal narrative follows the author’s three-year journey from doctoral candidate, to visiting assistant professor, to the unemployment line. Using a layered account and through a Foucauldian lens the author examines the academic success narrative, delving into the emotional bipolarity during the job search, and the use technologies of the self. It concludes with a reexamination of academic discourses and the canonical narrative of academic success as well as an appeal to continue to do good work.

In this study, Gwen Gray Schwartz argues that students exhibit academic identities that do not always match their instructors' expectations for them and assumptions about them, which creates problems when second language writers enter mainstream composition classes. Using ethnographic methods, she studied three Vietnamese immigrant students from Generation 1.5 who placed into mainstream composition at a large university in the Southwest and found that while each student struggled in some ways to meet the expectations of mainstream composition, their academic identities and notions of success played a large role in how they engaged in or disassociated from the class activities and assignments. Schwartz analyzed the students' writing, and through extensive conversations with them and their mainstream composition instructors discovered that Generation 1.5 students who cross over into mainstream classes have academic identities that are complicated by their status as cross-over students--they juggle multiple languages, cultures, and school systems, all while writing in English while continuing to learn English. And while mainstream instructors do not know how to meet these students' needs, their numbers are increasing steadily across the country. Schwartz begins by complicating the term "Generation 1.5" and "ESL student" and suggests a new term, "cross-over student," to describe those students in Generation 1.5 who place into mainstream composition. Then she describes the term "academic identity" as a lens through which to examine these students' experiences in mainstream composition and their notions of success, which often are quite different from their mainstream instructors'. After extensive analysis of each student's writing, she offers solutions to the placement dilemma this group presents and provides concrete ways for mainstream instructors to better meet the needs of this student population.

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The current study investigated the role of racial identity dimensions (racial centrality and private regard), academic identity, and parent socialization (specifically, academic and ethnic/racial socialization: cultural socialization and preparation for bias) in promoting success among a diverse sample of Black students. The study aimed to examine how parent socialization and academic identity mediated the relationship between racial identity dimensions and academic achievement. Data was collected nationwide from 685 Black students through an online survey conducted in Spring 2022. Path models were employed to explore the relationship between racial identity dimensions and academic achievement. To account for contextual factors, the analyses incorporated academic identity and parent socialization (academic and ethnic/racial socialization, including cultural socialization and preparation for bias) as mediators, while gender was considered as a moderator. However, the mediation analyses did not yield statistically significant results, highlighting the need for further research to investigate the nuanced relationship between these factors. In addition to the path models, supplementary analyses were conducted, including bivariate correlations and exploratory factor analyses of the scales used: Identification with Academics (IAS, Osborne, 1997), Identification with School Questionnaire (ISQ, Voelkl, 1996), Education Socialization Scale (ESS, Bempechat et al., 1999), and Parent Ethnic/Racial Socialization (PERS, Hughes & Chen, 1999). The results of the exploratory factor analyses and subsequent evaluation of psychometric properties revealed inconsistencies between the factor structures suggested by previous studies and the current study for the Identification with Academic, Identification with School Questionnaire, and Education Socialization Scale. This suggests the need for further refinement and validation of these measurement instruments. However, the exploratory factor analysis of the Parent Ethnic/Racial Socialization scale aligned with existing literature, indicating its appropriateness for use with Black students. Bivariate correlation analyses demonstrated small-to-moderate relationships that were consistently observed across most variables. Academic identity demonstrated a strong and significant correlation with private regard and a moderate and significant correlation with racial centrality. GPA demonstrated a moderate and significant correlation with academic identity and private regard and a small but significant correlation with racial centrality and parent academic socialization. Students who endorse a stronger academic identity and racial identity (private regard and racial centrality) are more likely to have better academic outcomes, including higher GPA. Furthermore, the findings related to parent academic socialization suggest that parental support and engagement may continue to have some influence on the academic performance of Black students, even in adulthood. The implications of the findings were such that fostering a strong academic identity and a positive racial identity contributed to better academic outcomes for Black students. Further, the findings highlight the sustained influence of parental support and engagement on the academic performance of Black students, even as they transition into adulthood. This underscores the significance of ongoing parental involvement throughout a student's educational journey. / School Psychology

Teaching-only academics now constitute a significant proportion of the academic staff in UK higher education. This thesis is a three-part study in which I sought to contribute to a more indepth understanding of the teaching-only academic role. I did this through an investigation of the career trajectories, perceptions, work-related experiences and academic identity constructions of teaching-only academics working in a research-intensive institution in the UK. In the first part of the study I carried out a systematic review of the literature on teaching-only academics in the UK, Australia and Canada. In the second part of the study I investigated the virtual identity of teaching-only academics at the UK research-intensive institution. I did this by undertaking an analysis of how these teaching-only academics self-represented and projected themselves on their institutional webpages. In the third part of the study I carried out a life-history analysis of senior teaching-only academics in the engineering faculty of the case study institution. A principal finding from this thesis, which is collaborated across all the three parts of the study, is that the teaching-only academic role is a non-homogeneous role comprising individuals who come from different backgrounds, have followed different career trajectories into the role, and have different academic identities. Findings from this thesis also suggest that whilst teaching-only academics were introduced as an institutional response to the demands of the RAE/REF, the very act of creating the role has further exacerbated the separation between research and teaching, and between undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. Specifically, undergraduate teaching within the case study engineering department now tends to be the responsibility of teaching-only academics, with research-and-teaching academics increasingly focussing on research and postgraduate teaching. This separation has implications for research-led teaching, particularly in research-intensive institutions. The thesis also reveals that despite the pre-eminence of research, teaching remains important within the university, and individuals on the teaching-only academic role are able to accumulate substantial, and valued, teaching-related academic capital. This capital, in turn, is enabling them to secure and advance their positions within the same institution, and to pursue career advancement through seeking employment in other higher education institutions.

The philosophy of pharmaceutical care, which defines a patient-centred approach to practice, has been embraced and upheld by national and international pharmaceutical organisations for two decades. However, pharmacists have been slow to change their practice and implement a pharmaceutical care approach. It has been suggested that amongst other factors, short-comings in pharmaceutical education have contributed to this reluctance of the profession to transform practice. Efforts to address these short-comings in pharmaceutical education have focused on the curriculum and pedagogic practices, and not on the pharmacy educators themselves. Palmer (1998) asserts that “good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher”. In essence, "we teach who we are" and good teachers have one common trait: “a strong sense of personal identity that infuses their work”. This study identified, described and analysed the self-perceived professional identities of pharmacy educators within the South African context. This included ascertaining factors and contexts which contributed to participants’ self-perception of their professional identity. In an effort to understand the influence the educators have on practice and on changing practice and vice-versa, the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of participants regarding the philosophy and practice of pharmaceutical care, and pharmaceutical education were also explored. Situated within a constructivist-interpretive, qualitative paradigm and making use of methodological triangulation, this study was conducted in three phases, each employing a different qualitative method to collect data. The first phase made use of narrative analysis to gain an in-depth understanding of pharmacy educators’ perceived professional identities and to explore how their experiences, across various contexts, have formed their professional identities. In-depth individual narrative interviews were used to provide a forum in which the participants could reflect upon and tell their professional life-story. This phase of the study also made use of the exploration of metaphors to further investigate the participants’ professional identity and, more particularly, their images of themselves as “teacher” and role model for students. A maximum variation, purposeful sampling approach was used to recruit eight pharmacy academics - one from each school or faculty of pharmacy in South Africa, as participants in this phase of the study. The second and third phases explored more widely, the insights gained from the first phase and the formation of professional identity, attitudes, beliefs and practices of pharmacy educators in South Africa. Two focus groups were employed during the second phase and the study sample was broadened to include a further ten pharmacy educators. In the third phase, a purpose-designed, qualitative questionnaire was used to extend the study sample to all pharmacy educators in South Africa. A convenience sampling approach was used in both the second and third phases of the study. Thematic analysis and interpretation of the narrative interview and focus group transcripts and the questionnaire responses were conducted using qualitative data analysis software – Atlas.ti®. A multiplicity of self-perceived professional identities was described. However, all of these were multi-faceted and could be situated on a continuum between pharmacist identity on one end and academic identity on the other. In addition, six key determinants were recognised as underpinning the participants’ self-perception of their professional identity. These included three structural determinants: expected role; knowledge base; and practice, and three determinants relating to the emotional dimensions and agency of professional identity: professional status; passions; and satisfiers. The professional identity of the participants had been formed through membership of multiple pharmacy-related communities of practice and continued to be sustained through a nexus of multi-membership. There was extensive support by the participants for the concept of pharmaceutical care; however, it did not impact extensively on their role as pharmacy educators. Furthermore, many expressed concern around the use of the term ‘pharmaceutical care’: its definition; its lack of penetration into, and implementation within the practice environment; and even its relevance to the South African healthcare context. Many of the participants perceived the professional development of future pharmacists to be integral to their role as educators, and was often their source of greatest professional satisfaction. However, concern was also expressed at the dissonance that students were perceived to experience, sometimes, because of the incongruities that they are taught and what they experience in practice. This study has afforded pharmacy educators in South Africa an opportunity to understand better “who” they are as professionals, and to reflect on their role as educators and as role models for future pharmacist. Moreover, the findings contribute to a collective understanding of the professional identity of pharmacy educators and socialisation of pharmacy students into the profession. The insights and recommendations emerging from the study have the potential to make academic pharmacy a more attractive career choice which may have positive implications for the future attraction and retention of pharmacists to academic posts within universities.