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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Academics'
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1
McShane, Kim. "Technologies transforming academics : academic identity and online teaching." University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Education, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2100/391.
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As the discourses of the “technological imperative” and student-centred learning have gained momentum in university teaching and learning, one way for the lecturer to signal excellence has been to adopt the flexible, student-centred practices of online teaching. This thesis investigates academics’ insights and experiences about their changing teacher identities in the context of being, or becoming, a facilitator of online student learning. This was an empirical research project, a collective case study that explored the teaching experiences of twelve university lecturers in two Australian universities who taught online, or were making the move online. Primary research data were drawn from semi-structured conversations with the lecturers, online teaching artefacts and email communications. The interpretative analysis was organised according to three overlapping lecturer identities: the teaching metaphors of performance, care and creative direction. From the perspective of each metaphor position, the move to becoming a facilitator of blended learning was uneasy. The performer/carer/director lecturer struggled to entertain, care and intervene in familiar ways in asynchronous, computer-mediated communication. Online, the performing/caring/directing lecturer was ignored by students, and became instead a helpless and highly reflexive bystander to students’ learning. The findings suggest that the teaching values and practices of the performing/caring/directing lecturer, in particular lecturer-student responsiveness and reciprocity, do not adapt to online pedagogies. Indeed, blended learning establishes the conditions for a new moral order in university education, with the move to online facilitation best understood as a move to management-centred regulation of teaching and student learning. And so, overlooked in higher education policy and research, and ignored by her students online, the performing/caring/directing lecturer is under erasure, at the same time as the work of the facilitator is being archived.
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Larson, Daniel Scott. "Academics and Athletics: The Academic Reform Policy in the NCAA." Marietta College / OhioLINK, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=marietta1114631788.
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Graham, Patricia E. Mahon Hawkins Peggy L. "Nursing students' perception of how prepared they are to assess patient's spiritual needs." Click here for access, 2008. http://www.csm.edu/Academics/Library/Institutional_Repository.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--College of Saint Mary -- Omaha, 2008.Presented to the faculty of the graduate program at College of Saint Mary in partial fullfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctorate in Education with an emphasis in Health Professions Education under the supervision of Peggy Hawkins, PhD, RN, BC, CNE. Includes bibliographical references.
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Gabriel, L. Sue. "Intimate partner violence the lived experience of an individual's perception of the holistic severing of one's self from an intimate partner relationship /." Click here for access, 2008. http://www.csm.edu/Academics/Library/Institutional_Repository/.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--College of Saint Mary -- Omaha, 2008.A dissertation presented in fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor in Healthcare Education. Includes bibliographical references.
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Humphreys, Jo Ann. "Academic and non-academic predictors of future success on the NCLEX-RN licensure examination for nurses." Click here for access, 2008. http://www.csm.edu/Academics/Library/Institutional_Repository/.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--College of Saint Mary -- Omaha, 2008.A dissertation submitted to the doctoral program of College of Saint Mary in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate in Education with an emphasis on Health Professions Education. Includes bibliographical references.
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Piskac, Ellen M. Hawkins Peggy L. "Characteristics of retained nursing faculty." Click here for access, 2008. http://www.csm.edu/Academics/Library/Institutional_Repository.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--College of Saint Mary -- Omaha, 2008.Presented to the faculty of College of Saint Mary in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education. Under the supervision of Peggy Hawkins. Includes bibliographical references.
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Ehrlich, Jeff. "The emotional impact on native and non-native employees who stay after an internal appointment of a leader in a higher education institution." Click here for access, 2008. http://www.csm.edu/Academics/Library/Institutional_Repository/.
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Smid, Mary Kay. "Nursing student's self efficacy following participation in a service learning teaching activity." Click here for access, 2009. http://www.csm.edu/Academics/Library/Institutional_Repository.
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Thesis (Ed. D)--College of Saint Mary -- Omaha, 2009.A dissertation submitted by Mary Kay Smid to College of Saint Mary in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctorate in Education with an emphasis on Health Professions Education. This dissertation has been accepted for the faculty of College of Saint Mary. Includes bibliographical references.
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Roberts-Andersen, Janet Patricia Hawkins Peggy L. Morin Patricia J. Erhlich Donna. "The perceived role of physician office health coaches in delivering chronic care to patients in a primary care clinic group in the midwest a phenomenological qualitative study /." Click here for access, 2009. http://www.csm.edu/Academics/Library/Institutional_Repository.
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Thesis (Ed. D)--College of Saint Mary -- Omaha, 2009.A dissertation submitted by Janet Patricia Roberts-Andersen to College of Saint Mary in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Education with an emphasis on Health Professions Education. This dissertation has been accepted by the faculty of Saint Mary by: Peggy L. Hawkins, PhD, RN, BC, CNE, Professor, Health Professions ; Pat Morin, PhD, RN ; Donna Erhlich, PhD. Includes bibliographical references.
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Leibold, Nancyruth Hawkins Peggy L. Morin Patricia J. McKinney-Williams Angela. "The effect of a school nurse led education intervention on blood pressure and physical activity levels in adolescents." Click here for access, 2009. http://www.csm.edu/Academics/Library/Institutional_Repository.
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Thesis (Ed. D)--College of Saint Mary -- Omaha, 2009.A dissertation submitted by Nancyruth Leibold to College of Saint Mary in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor in Education with an emphasis on Health Professions Education. This disseratation has been accepted for the faculty of College of Saint Mary by: Peggy Hawkins, RN, PhD, chair ; Patricia J. Morin, RN, PhD, committee member ; Angela McKinney-Williams, PhD, committee member. Includes bibliographical references.
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Jacobs, Ellen Mueller Keith J. "In search of a message to promote personal health information management." Click here for access, 2009. http://www.csm.edu/Academics/Library/Institutional_Repository.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nebraska -- Omaha, 2009.Presented to the faculty of the Graduate College in the University of Nebraska in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Medical Sciences Interdepartmental Area Health Services Research and Administration. Under the supervision of Professor Keith J. Mueller. Includes bibliographical references.
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Pierorazio, Daria A. "A reframing of protective factors in the contexts of risk, adversity and competence in adolescents." Click here for access, 2009. http://www.csm.edu/Academics/Library/Institutional_Repository.
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Thesis (Ed. D)--College of Saint Mary -- Omaha, 2009.A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Education with an emphasis on Health Professions Education. Includes bibliographical references.
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Wallace, Connie M. "Measuring changes in attitude, skill and knowledge of undergraduate nursing students after receiving an educational intervention in intimate partner violence." Click here for access, 2009. http://www.csm.edu/Academics/Library/Institutional_Repository.
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Thesis (Ed. D)--College of Saint Mary -- Omaha, 2009.A dissertation submitted by Connie M. Wallace to College of Saint Mary in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctorate in Education with an emphasis on Health Professions Education. This dissertation has been accepted for the faculty of College of Saint Mary. Includes bibliographical references.
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Orduña, Audray. "Experiences of African Americans in nursing education." Click here for access, 2009. http://www.csm.edu/Academics/Library/Institutional_Repository.
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Thesis (Ed. D)--College of Saint Mary -- Omaha, 2009.A disseratation submitted by Aubray Orduna to College of Saint Mary in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor in Education with an emphasis on Health Professions Education. This dissertation has been accepted for the faculty of College of Saint Mary. Includes bibliographical references.
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Delahoyde, Theresa Hawkins Peggy L. Morin Patricia J. Hutchinson Christine. "Generational differences of baccalaureate nursing students' preferred teaching methods and faculty use of teaching methods." Click here for access, 2009. http://www.csm.edu/Academics/Library/Institutional_Repository.
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Thesis (Ed. D)--College of Saint Mary -- Omaha, 2009.A dissertation submitted by Theresa Delahoyde, MSN, RN to College of Saint Mary in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor in Education with an emphasis on health professions education. This dissertation has been accepted for the faculty of College of Saint Mary by: Peggy Hawkins, PhD, RN, BC, CNE - chair ; Patricia Morin, PhD, RN - committee member ; Christine Hutchinson, JD - committee member. Includes bibliographical references.
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Taylor-Trujillo, Ann Hawkins Peggy L. Morin Patricia J. Brown Martha. "Psychiatric nurses' perceptions of competence in developing therapeutic relationships." Click here for access, 2009. http://www.csm.edu/Academics/Library/Institutional_Repository.
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Thesis (Ed. D)--College of Saint Mary -- Omaha, 2009.A dissertation submitted by Ann Taylor-Trujillo to College of Saint Mary in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctorate in Education with an emphasis in health professions education. This dissertation has been accepted for the facutly of College of Saint Mary by: Peggy Hawkins, PhD, RN, BC, CNE - chair ; Pat Morin, PhD, RN ; Martha Brown, PhD. Includes bibliographical references.
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Braband, Barbara J. Hawkins Peggy L. Clark Connie L. Morin Patricia J. "The suffering journey lived experiences of persons who have endured life-impacting suffering events /." Click here for access, 2009. http://www.csm.edu/Academics/Library/Institutional_Repository.
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Thesis (Ed. D)--College of Saint Mary -- Omaha 2009.A dissertation submitted by Barbara J. Braband to College of Saint Mary in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor in Education with an emphasis on Health Professions Education. This dissertation has been accepted for the faculty of College of Saint Mary by: Peggy L. Hawkins, PhD, RN, B.C., CNE, chair ; Connie L. Clark, PhD, RN, committee member ; Pat Morin, PhD, RN, committee member. Includes bibliographical references.
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Fitzke, Molly M. Hawkins Peggy L. Morin Patricia J. Linden Lois L. "Nurses' attitudes toward sex offenders." Click here for access, 2009. http://www.csm.edu/Academics/Library/Institutional_Repository.
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Thesis (Ed. D)--College of Saint Mary -- Omaha, 2009.A dissertation submitted by Molly M. Fitzke MSN, RN to College of Saint Mary in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Education with an emphasis on Health Professions Education. This dissertation has been accepted for the faculty of College of Saint Mary by: Peggy L. Hawkins, PhD, RN, BC, CNE, chair ; Patricia Morin, RN, PhD, committee member ; Lois Linden, EdD, RN, committee member. Includes bibliographical references.
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Moos, Daniel D. Hawkins Peggy L. Morin Patricia J. Hadenfeldt Sharon. "Barriers to the publication of scientific literature by academic certified registered nurse anesthetists." Click here for access, 2009. http://www.csm.edu/Academics/Library/Institutional_Repository.
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Thesis (Ed. D)--College of Saint Mary -- Omaha, 2009.A dissertation submitted by Daniel D. Moos in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor in Education with an emphasis on Health Professions Education. This dissertation has been accepted for the faculty of College of Saint Mary by: Peggy Hawkins, RN, PhD, chair ; Patricia J. Morin, RN, PhD, committee member ; Sharon Hadenfeldt, CRNA, PhD, committee member. Includes bibliographical references.
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Idris, Mohd Kamel. "Occupational Stress in Academic life: A Study of Academics of Malaysian Public Universities." The University of Waikato, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10289/2597.
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Stress can lead to poor health and loss of productivity among employees across occupations. Stress does not only affect individuals but also organizations by causing work absence and staff turnover. Academics in Malaysian public universities are no exception. Due to the rapid developments in tertiary education, academics in Malaysian public universities are believed to be experiencing increased job demands that potentially lead to increased stress. This study was carried out to examine: i) the direct effect of role stressors (i.e. role overload, role ambiguity and role conflict) on strain; ii) the direct effect of strain on the outcomes of strain (i.e. cynicism, professional efficacy, and organizational commitment); iii) the moderation effects of organizational support, peer support, and self-efficacy on the relationships between role stressors and strain; iv) the mediation effect of strain on the relationship between role stressors and strain; and v) the mediation effect of outcomes of strain (i.e. cynicism, professional efficacy, and organizational commitment) on the relationship between strain and intention to leave among those academics. This study used a non-experimental two-wave panel design. Eleven of the 12 study variables were measured using pre-existing scales except for self-efficacy, iii which was measured by items specially developed for this study. A longitudinal survey with a six-month time interval yielded 357 respondents (academics) at time 1 and 210 respondents at time 2. Data were analyzed using multiple regression, hierarchical regression, and structural equation modeling (SEM) to test for direct effects, moderation effects and mediation effects respectively. The findings of this study indicate that academics who experienced increased levels of role stressors were more likely to have increased levels of strain. Subsequently, the strained academics were more likely to show higher levels of cynicism and lower levels of professional efficacy and organizational commitment. The predicted moderators (i.e organizational support, peer support, and self-efficacy) had no significant influence on the relationships between role stressors and strain. Mediation analyses consisted of two parts. In the first part, I found that strain strongly mediated the relationship between role ambiguity and outcomes of strain (i.e. cynicism, professional efficacy, and organizational commitment). In the subsequent mediation analysis, I found that cynicism and organizational commitment fully mediated the relationship between strain and intention to leave, but not professional efficacy.
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Read, Mary. "Reconfiguring academic identities : the experience of business facing academics in a UK university." Thesis, University of Hertfordshire, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2299/5819.
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The university sector at the beginning of the 21st Century is shifting in response to national and global changes in the role and purpose of Higher Education. Some universities, including the University of Hertfordshire, have chosen to focus attention on engagement with business and commerce. This practice based research examines the experience of academics in relation to the new challenges posed by this strategic development. There are three threads of investigation; interviews, examination of key concepts and the practitioner dimension. Drawing on a qualitative and constructivist approach, individual interviews with a range of business facing academics explore their experience of engaging with new activities. My perspective, as a manager of business facing academics, provides an important thread and situates the work firmly in the practice context. The implicit expectations arising from strategic positioning as a business facing university are examined. A conceptual framework is established with a focus on the nature of business facing activity, including its relationship with traditional forms of teaching and research, learning through work in the Higher Education setting and the idea of an enabling local context. The research found that amongst those undertaking business facing activity, academic identity is a fluid and multi-faceted construct reconfigured through experience and learning in the workplace; by its nature not easily defined, labelled or bounded. The challenge for universities is to nurture and sustain individuals in the creation and use of academic identities, in order to meet the undoubted challenges to come. This requires a forward looking, inclusive and innovative stance, resisting the temptation to judge current academic identities by the established notions of the past. Management of academics involved in business facing activity requires a more flexible, trusting and individual approach than is traditionally seen in universities.
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Chanthes, Suteera. "Delivering academic services at regional level : a grounded theory study of Thai academics." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2010. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/336221/.
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Investigating the work of Thai academic staff, this thesis addresses the extent to which academic services are delivered at regional level with respect to the national development plan to build Thailand as a knowledge economy. This is a grounded theory research project involving three investigatory propositions namely regional, institutional and individual profiling of academic staff. The empirical setting of this investigation is a multi-site case study carried out in three traditional public universities. The thesis concludes that academic services are performed as either responding to regional needs or using resources existing within the regional proximity. For public universities, in response to the national expectation of their service roles, these universities have an institutional organisation that serves systematic service performance. However, at the operational level, despite the fact that there are many different forms of academic service delivered, part of this work is misconceived and undermined which results in an under-accounting of work and the underuse of designated institutional organisation of service delivery. With the grounded theory approach employed, these findings also function as hypotheses of a substantive theory developed regarding the three investigatory propositions. Supporting the theory developed, this thesis helps make a contribution to the knowledge by shedding new light on the way in which systematic services are to be promoted.
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De, Silva Sureetha R. "The changing academic work in universities: Lived experience and perceptions of Australian academics." Thesis, Griffith University, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/394721.
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This thesis examines the changing academic work environment in Australian universities and the impact of this change on academics. In particular, this thesis explores the lived experience and perceptions of university academics working in public universities in Australia. Across the globe, universities are facing complex issues that can lead to transformational change. The main drivers of change are globalisation, burgeoning knowledge-based economies, the rapidity of new technology adoption, and global competition. The impact of these drivers and the subsequent reforms are ultimately reflected in the changing nature of academics’ work and in their analysis.
Over the past four decades since the Australian government reforms in the 1980s, public universities in Australia have been experiencing change, mainly influenced by new political and economic ideologies, including neoliberalism, corporatisation, managerialism, marketisation, and commodification of education. The consequences of these influences are reportedly having detrimental effects on academics, whereby academics’ esteem value, academic identity, academic freedom, and academic autonomy are all undermined. Academics report experiencing intimidation, bullying, mistrust, and harassment. As such there is a need and urgency for a research study, giving voice to Australian academics themselves, to investigate this problem to better understand it.
The public university system in Australia is a vast industry with a large workforce, and the services it provides to the country and economy are many. University academics who play a main role in this industry need to be happy, effective, and efficient in order to be productive. It is therefore important to provide academics with a work environment that enables them to exercise academic freedom, academic autonomy, and an academic professional identity esteemed by their peers. Given the scale of the public university system and the impact of its services on, and economic contribution to the country, this study is relevant and significant. This study emphasises the importance of prioritising attention to academics to ensure that the changing nature of academic work does not result in detrimental effects on academics and that they can effectively operate in a conducive work environment. To date, there is little research that has focused on Australian academics’ lived experience and perceptions relating to their changing academic work environment. Hence this thesis is unique and significant because it explores the lived experience and perceptions of academics in Australian public universities.
The study adopts a qualitative research approach, employing an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore and analyse the lived experience of the participants. To support inductive research and commence a generation of “new” thinking, the data collection method consists of 16 in-depth, one-on-one, and face-to-face interviews with academics working in eight Australian public universities who are experiencing change. The study takes the approach of standpoint theory.
The thesis points to two findings. The first is the formulation of the academic predicament model (APM), which explains the erosion of academic professionalism and how the change de-professionalises academia in Australia. The second is an understanding of the conflicting forces impacting on academics. On the one hand, in the changing learning environments, academics are expected by management to be innovative, collegial and collaborative, and involved in excellent research activities. On the other hand, with changing university governance, academics’ autonomy and academic freedom are challenged. Academics’ esteemed identity is devalued and undermined. Some academics feel a sense of obligation to conform to Senior Management directives and adhere to the introduced mechanisms of accountability. They report being pressured and stressed by what they regard as undue compliance, competition, and university managements’ high expectations of innovative creativity.
The key recommendations of the study call for strategies for enhancing respectfulness and collegiality, strategies to resist constraining ideologies, strategies for resolving work intensification, and strategies for improving existing processes and procedures relating to academics.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School Educ & Professional St
Arts, Education and Law
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Pack, Justin. "Academics No Longer Think: How the Neoliberalization of Academia Leads to Thoughtlessness." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/19727.
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In my dissertation, I argue that the neoliberalization of higher education results in the university becoming less and less a place of wonder, self-cultivation and thinking and instead more and more a place to specialize, strategize and produce. This is a result of the volatile infusion and mixing of the logic of calculative rationality at work in consumer capitalism with the logic of scientific instrumental rationality already hegemonic in academia. This adds to the demands of the academic world of production the demands of the world of consumption. Now the academic (and also the student) is interpellated not only as a producer of knowledge but also as an object of consumption (to be consumed by others). These new pressures, previously kept at a distance from academia, explosively accelerate the already rapid process of rationalization of which science is already a key part and increasingly structure higher education as a field of strategic action in which students no longer have the time to think and to develop good judgment.
I worry this undermines the opportunity for students to develop into good citizens that can truly think critically and judge carefully. Thinking and judgment are, according to Arendt, the only things that can save us if the powerful machines of science or capitalism begin to work in ways they should not. Arendt saw Nazi Germany use the newest science and the best economic management to systematically kill six million Jews. She saw the disturbing inability of the populace and the intellectuals to capably resist the Nazi machine once it got rolling. I argue than unless checked, neoliberalization threatens to turn the university into a place that discourages thinking and the development of judgment in favor of hyperspecialization and strategic action.
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Raburu, Pamela. "Women academics' careers in Kenya." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2010. http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/54644/.
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This thesis examined the experiences of women academics in relation to their family contribution, educational experiences and, factors that motivated them towards academia, while highlighting strategies that they have employed to reach their present professional and academic ranks. In addition, any challenges experienced by the women academics were explored. The study is a contribution to knowledge and the extant literature on women academics’ career experiences which has been under-researched, especially in Kenya. It claims to have made a contribution to a wider understanding of women academics’ experiences, exposing a significant impact of culture, family, work tensions, gender role expectations, male-dominated university cultures, and a lack of role models and mentors, which contribute to the slow progress of women academics’ careers in Kenyan universities. Using a qualitative research approach, the researcher used a face- to- face in- depth interviewing technique with sixteen women academics from three universities in Kenya while drawing from a feminist perspective. My aim was to create a dialogue on the lived experiences while at the same time using theory to inform and reflect on those experiences. With the use of thematic analysis, the data generated five themes; family socialisation, educational attributes, motivational factors, challenges and strategies. The findings of this research demonstrated that very few women have progressed into senior academic and professional ranks and that, the pace is slow. They continue to be hampered by socio-cultural attitudes towards women and their roles in Kenyan society. This is not the full story as some of the women interviewed reported that they had to put off marriage for career and likewise, others put on hold or postponed career for family responsibilities. To maintain their positions or climb the professional ladder, they therefore, had to employ a range of strategies such as; working hard, focusing on research and publication for promotion purposes. The wider implications of these findings are discussed.
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Lewis, Shannon K. "Revisiting Feminism: Academics versus Activism." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/42243.
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Today, feminist theory, instead of accompanying a movement or being generated by a movement, is out there on its own. There is no large-scale social movement to complement it and to act on it. The energy and excitement of collective action is what many feminists miss and what is implied through critiques of contemporary feminist theory. The lament is for unity, for what was conceived of as “sisterhood” and what emerges as a myth. Many feminists share a nostalgia for a time that was filled with the potential for and intensity of social revolution.
When we look at the theory of early second wave feminism and the theory of more recent years, the differences are negligible. What is different, and glaringly so, is the social climate. Theory is not to blame; we are. Theory is not the culprit. Theory is just as impacting and politically useful as it ever was, but it is missing its partner. This realization should be no cause for alarm, however, because there still exist many opportunities for activism, albeit different sorts of activism, based on different sorts of political issues that complement our present needs and abilities.Master of Arts
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Hu, Yijun. "Being and Becoming Academics: A Case Study of Chinese Returned Academics Working on Knowledge Recontextualisation." Thesis, Griffith University, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/397594.
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This study investigated the teaching and research work of early career Chinese academics in an elite Chinese university after they completed their doctoral studies in English-speaking countries. In particular, the study focused on how this group of academics brought back discipline-specific knowledge and research methods which they acquired during their overseas research studies. Secondly, the study examined how they translated and appropriated such knowledge and methods throughout their everyday work in the Chinese context. Thirdly, this study explored how the academics exercise their agency and construct professional identities while positioning themselves in the international research community and contributing to the Chinese higher education sector via knowledge recontextualising work.
The research problem was contextualised in the policy literature documenting the rapid rise of China in the global higher education arena. This literature noted policies which encouraged Chinese students to complete their research qualifications in the West before returning to work in China. While a number of empirical studies have investigated the experiences of Chinese students who have completed research degrees in the West, these studies have mainly focused on summarising the reasons for their return, the working situations upon their return, the benefits of studying abroad, work challenges encountered, and how they lived up to university expectations. By contrast, this thesis focuses on the specifics of knowledge translation or recontextualisation undertaken by this cohort based on their transnational education experiences.
This thesis draws on concepts from the sociology of education, mainly the work of Basil Bernstein (1971, 1990, 1996, 2000) to analyse the empirical data. In addition, it extended Bernstein’s concept of the pedagogic device by incorporating ideas from theories of educational globalisation (Appadurai, 1996, 2000) to understand the increasing flows of knowledge and knowledge exchanges at an international level. The study adopted a case study approach to explore the research questions. The empirical data was collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with nineteen early career returned academics working in humanities and social sciences (HASS) faculties of an elite research-intensive Chinese university. The academics provided accounts of their teaching, research and service work, and specifically talked about how their overseas research study had informed their current work. As the beneficiaries of national policies around internationalisation, the academics, upon return to China with their Western qualifications, brought to life such policy discourse through their everyday pedagogic work.
The rich accounts provided by the early career returned academics are analysed and presented in three ways. Firstly, the returned academics’ professional life and the intensification of academic work are portrayed in the format of composite biographies. The analysis draws attention to the conflicts between the academics who returned with Western qualifications and their locally trained colleagues, as well as between the academic work captured in the early career academics’ imaginations and that in reality. The analysis explores the ways in which the early career academics managed the pressures of work and forged their professional identities and trajectories. Secondly, this thesis documents the returned academics’ comments on the formation of disciplinary knowledge discourses in HASS areas and power structures embedded in the knowledge production and reproduction. Additionally, their attempts of referencing and presenting diverse knowledge discourses through teaching and research and empowering themselves and Chinese university students as knowers, as termed by Maton (2014; 2013), formed further topics of discussion. Lastly, the pedagogic practices of the academics as they produced and reproduced knowledge in the Chinese university are detailed. Through introducing the course curricula, pedagogic models and assessment approaches that were widely implemented in elite Western universities, they aimed at preparing their Chinese students for future studies in the West and fuller participation in the global research community. However, they also commented on the resistance to such pedagogic changes from students, their other colleagues, and entrenched institutional practices.
The research makes three major contributions to theory and practice. Firstly, this study extended Bernstein’s theoretical corpus to capture the movement of knowledge/ideas across national borders in the increasingly globalised arena of higher education. In doing so, it allowed an exploration of educational governance beyond the national level as academics recontextualised knowledge from one nation to another, and within the official policy parameters of their employing institution in China. In addition, this study reported the Chinese early career returned academics’ conduct of their teaching, research and
service work, and the resulting powerplays as they were positioned in and by the local and international research communities. This research is instructive for the returned academics in navigating their professional development during their early career stage. Lastly, this study presented the ways in which the internationalisation policies of the Chinese government had been translated and recontextualised within a specific university context. To build upon the positive consequences of these policies in recruiting the returned academics, this study suggested further development of the policies to better support this group of academics in relocating back to the academy of their home country and translating and implementing their overseas-attained knowledge, skills and modes of pedagogies in their daily work.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School Educ & Professional St
Arts, Education and Law
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Sharifian-Sani, Maryam. "Involving non-academic users in social science research : collaboration between management academics and practitioners." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/22626.
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The motif of a 'closer relationship' between academics and practitioners in doing research and the impetus for 'user engagement' in different stages of social science research has become a subject of considerable interest to policy-makers over recent years and has featured in policy statements of government. Following the UK Government's 1993 White Paper, Realising our Potential: A Strategy for Science, Engineering and Technology, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) emphasised meeting the needs of the non-academic users of social science research and introduced a policy which enhanced funding opportunities to academics proposing to engage with an explicit agenda of collaboration. But is this initiative sufficient to realise the benefit of its proposed outcomes? Are policy-makers aware of the possibilities and limitations of research collaboration between academics and practitioners in practice? The aim of this qualitative study is to explore the perceptions of academics and practitioners of the process of research collaboration and to provide a better understanding of this process. Projects for study were identified from those which were on ESRC's list of funded research projects in the management discipline and which appeared to be responding to the ESRC's encouragement of collaboration between academics and non-academic users of their research. Findings from this study are presented through three cases of research collaboration between academics and practitioners, who were interviewed in their workplaces. The findings are combined with the results of supplementary interviews with academics in other management departments in British universities and policy-makers in the ESRC. Bringing the results together demonstrates how research collaboration works out in practice, and what the academics' and practitioners' views of research collaboration are. The findings also reveal some limitations of collaboration on both sides which need to be considered by those promoting or entering into research collaboration. In addition, this study develops a theoretical discussion of research collaboration based on existing literature of collaboration in other contexts (especially science and technology Research and Development and inter-organisational collaboration) and suggests directions for future research.
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Sundberg, Matilda, and Sara Nilsson. "Academics Abroad : A cross cultural study." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Handelshögskolan vid Umeå universitet, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-42830.
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This paper aims to investigate if individuals from an academic setting encounter the same types of difficulties and problems as those discussed in literature for individuals working in a business abroad. There is much literature on the most common difficulties and problems that business individuals may encounter when working overseas. We have identified three main areas which are communication, relationship to hierarchy and decision making norms. However, there is little documentation on difficulties from an academic perspective. In order to see if any similarities or differences existed within these areas, we interviewed individuals from an academic setting, to see if their experiences are similar to the business individuals or not. The sample in this paper consists of teachers and researchers at Umeå University which have experiences from working overseas. In total we interviewed ten individuals and the result point in the direction that individuals from an academic setting do not experience the same difficulties and problems as individuals from the business world do. From the three topics identified as the most common problem areas in a business setting, two (communication and relationship to hierarchy) showed a result that is not in accordance with the existing literature on the business context and one (decision making norms) was not directly related to the individuals represented in this sample .
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Samuelowicz, Katherine. "Academics' Educational Beliefs and Teaching Practices." Thesis, Griffith University, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/365985.
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The research presented in this thesis focuses on two questions—how academics conceptualise teaching and learning and whether their educational beliefs and teaching and assessment practices are ‘thematically related’. The interest in finding answers to these questions lies in their implications for improving teaching and ultimately students’ learning. Although academic staff development as such was not the main focus of the present research, understanding how academics think about teaching, how they teach and what they value as learning outcomes is a prerequisite for effective staff development. Several literatures were relevant to the present research: phenomenographic analysis of conceptions of teaching (eg. Prosser, Trigwell & Taylor 1994); research focused on academics’ educational beliefs (eg. Fox 1983; Gow & Kember 1993); and research exploring the relationship between beliefs and practices of academics (Quinlan 1997; Bain 1998) and of school teachers (eg. Thompson 1984; Wilson & Wineburg 1988). The relevance of the ‘conceptions’ research lies in a shared research focus on how academics perceive teaching and learning. The relevance of the ‘beliefs’ research in the school sector lies in the methods used and the beliefs described thus far. The present research was conceived within the ‘beliefs’ framework and borrowed the research approach from it. The dimensions revealed by both streams of research were used in devising the interview schedules.
Thirteen academics participated in Study 1 and 37 in Study 2, with 20 of the latter also participating in Study 3. Data were obtained through semi-structured interviews which, in Studies 1 and 2, ranged widely over such issues as teaching, learning, understanding, knowledge, knowing, and curriculum design. In Study 3 the questions were closely focused on participants’ assessment tasks and desired learning outcomes. Participants were encouraged to exemplify their perspectives by reference to their teaching practices because the aim was to elicit beliefs grounded in practice rather than espoused beliefs (Argyris & Schön 1974). The method of analysis proceeded from global categorisation of the participants’ orientations to teaching and learning to detailed analysis of the similarities and differences between orientations. The initial categorisation process was based on the constant comparison method (Glaser & Strauss 1967) and proceeded on the working hypothesis that beliefs and practices were ‘internally related’ (Marton & Svensson 1979) in thematically coherent ways. Once the orientation categories were stabilised they were analysed for the qualitative dimensions on which their underlying similarities and differences could be arranged. The resulting framework is a matrix comprising orientations (rows) and qualitative dimensions (columns). This framework enables academics’ ‘typical’ and relatively stable ways of thinking about, and understanding, teaching (Studies 1 and 2) and assessment (Study 3) to be described and compared. The results (Study 2) confirm previous findings that academics conceptualise teaching in qualitatively different ways. Seven orientations to teaching, ranging from imparting knowledge to encouraging knowledge creation, were identified. Broadly, academics think about teaching in two major ways—they either orchestrate situations in which students are encouraged to learn (learning-centred orientations) or they transmit knowledge/information to students (teaching-centred orientations). Within each of these major groupings several distinct orientations to teaching were identified. These seven orientations to teaching are described in terms of nine dimensions that reflect academics’ beliefs about: learning, desired learning outcomes, students’ understandings, the nature of and responsibility for transforming/organising knowledge and the nature of teacher-student interaction. Dimensions (and the coding system developed) also provide a mechanism for ordering the categories from simple (less well developed) to complex. Findings (Study 3) show that assessment practices are not belief-free. What is assessed depends on how knowledge, learning and the role of teachers and students in the getting of knowledge are conceptualised. The six orientations range from assessing students’ ability to recall information presented to them in lectures and study materials, to assessing students’ ability to integrate, transform and use knowledge purposefully. The six orientations can be simplified (in an analogous way to orientations to teaching and learning) into two major orientations expressing the two contrasting beliefs just implied: assessing knowledge as presented by teachers and texts versus assessing knowledge (re)formulated by students and used to understand and interpret the world. The orientations just referred to are composites of beliefs and practice (or beliefs grounded in practice), because the relationship between these domains was emphasised in the method of questioning and in the method of analysis. The force of this claim is demonstrated through narrative descriptions of the perspectives of academics selected to illustrate major orientations to teaching and learning. These narratives provide a strong sense of thematic coherence: academics’ beliefs are closely aligned with their practices; there is a compelling sense in which one constrains the other. For example, academics who set tasks requiring students to transform knowledge or to use knowledge to interpret the world believe that students have to ‘do the learning’ and that their role as teachers is to facilitate the learning process. Conversely, academics who test students’ ability to recall information or emulate a decision process believe that reproduction of knowledge and skill are worthwhile learning outcomes and that their task is to provide the knowledge and skill in an accessible form. Finally, investigation of the congruence between orientations to teaching and assessment practice showed a strong relationship between beliefs and practice. The assessment practices of all but three academics (17 out of 20) were congruent with their orientations to teaching and learning.
The research presented in this thesis makes a considerable contribution to the literature. First, it extends understanding of the ways in which academics conceptualise teaching by describing their typical and stable ways of thinking about teaching indicative of a disposition to teach in a particular way. In contrast, ‘conceptions’-based research, prevalent in higher education and mostly conducted using phenomenographic methods, identifies possible ways in which teaching and learning can be conceptualised (eg. Dall’Alba 1991; Prosser, Trigwell & Taylor 1994), The two features—typicality and disposition to act in a particular way—increase the usefulness of the findings of the present research for staff development activities. Second, the present research confirms previous findings of Samuelowicz and Bain (1992) that academics conceptualise teaching in two broadly distinct ways (teaching-centred versus learning-centred) and provides no empirical support for Kember’s (1997a) ‘transitional’ category which he conjectured may provide a bridge between the two major sets of orientations. Third, the present research adds to a rather modest literature on how assessment is conceptualised and practised. And perhaps most importantly it advances understanding of the relationship between beliefs and practice by detailed mapping of the patterns of this relationship, providing a firmer foundation for conceptualisation of activities aimed at improving teaching and ultimately learning. And finally, the present research provides the first empirical support for studies (eg. Quinlan 1997; Bain 1998) which have reported congruence between beliefs and self-reported teaching practices in higher education.
Further research is needed in several areas. Given the claims (eg. Quinlan 1997) that teaching is framed by beliefs about the nature of academic disciplines, further research is needed into how discipline knowledge is conceptualised and how such knowledge is translated into courses. Efforts to improve teaching are predicated on the assumed link between teaching and learning, but this relationship has to be further investigated since only three articles (Gow & Kember 1993 and Kember & Gow 1994; Sheppard & Gilbert 1991) have been published in this area. The strong alignment of beliefs and practices documented in the research presented in this thesis has implications for how staff development activities are formulated. It suggests that efforts should be directed more at changing beliefs than on altering teaching approaches. Because relatively little is known about effective ways to change educational beliefs further research in this area is needed.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning
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Reinert, Leah. "Lesbian academics: Negotiating career and family." OpenSIUC, 2011. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/588.
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This study explores the experiences lesbian academics have in making decisions in the areas of family life and career. While the area of queer studies is a continuously growing field, the literature and discussions often group lesbians with gay men and as a result push them as a group to the side. Lesbian identified faculty members are in a unique position of being women and facing the pressures and expectations that all women academics face while also encountering additional obstacles and experiencing added advantages due to their sexuality. In exploring the consequences, advantages and choices lesbian academics make related to career development, expectations, decisions on family creation, and challenges with the public/private spheres through in-person interviews, several themes emerged. The goal of this study is to identify the decision-making process of lesbian identified academics within the higher education setting and how those decisions are related to the academic environment's specific pressures and expectations. The implications of this study could inform higher education policies in terms of inclusion, recruitment, and retention of lesbian identified faculty.
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Clayton, Sue. "Women being and becoming academics : exploring gendered career journeys and their implications for academic development." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2015. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/54339/.
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Whilst the literature of academic identity is well represented in the sociology of Higher Education (HE) in the UK, personal narratives of journeys through the process of being and becoming an academic are less present. The potential of narrative methodology to produce different knowledge by producing knowledge differently (St. Pierre, 1997) is used as a conceptual framework to co-construct case stories of the career journeys made by five women academics within a globalised academy in the early 21st century. The study draws on two principal theoretical frameworks to contrast the dynamic relationships between gender, structure and agency and their implications for Academic Development. These are: the critical realist theories of Margaret Archer (1995; 2000; 2003; 2012) and Judith Butler's work on gender ‘performativity' (1990; 2005; 2004). In terms of senior roles at policy level the Academy can be seen as a male dominated sphere. My thesis focuses on women's journeys to foreground the effects of wider social relations and how they impact on women's academic identities and careers to continually reproduce dominant discourses of a male hegemony and neo-liberal socio-economic climate. The consequential distortions in academic development practices are framed in the light of this knowledge. This contributes knowledge to the literature of Academic Development in Higher Education and has implications for my own professional practice as a Head of Continual Professional Development (CPD) for Teaching and Learning in a pre-92 University. Three broad research questions guided this exploration. 1. What are the experiences of women academics in developing their careers and academic identities? 2. How can case stories of the career choices made by women academics help academic developers understand gender inequalities in higher education? 3. What are the implications of gender equalities in the academy for the practices of Academic Development? The stories at the centre of this thesis speak of grand narratives; the ontological puzzles of structure and agency; class and gender oppression finding symbolic expression in women's lives and institutional structures. There is no lack of agency in the voices of these women, and the first person narrative highlights that sense. However, from the narrative can be seen identity formed by individual struggles within macro and micro sociological forces. By theorising academic women's lived experience at the micro-level, this thesis makes an original contribution to the field of Academic Development and affords opportunities for the widening of debate within the macro policies and micro practices of Academic Development; it supports counter-hegemonic gender discourses of HE which have been established from global studies of equalities in Higher Education. My study accords with feminist standpoints which conclude that policies based on polarised understandings of equalities which focus only on agency rather than structure will not redress the wider nor internal social inequalities which women face (Morley, 2012). I argue that the subsequent distortion in equalities policy making in the academy has implications for Academic Development. A significant finding in my study is that academic development practices cannot be seen as a dominant influence in the career journeys of my respondents. This finding supports the counter-hegemonic discourses of Academic Development which suggests that Academic Development and practices, promoted through managerialist agendas are inevitably seen as part of the masculinist, neo-liberal hegemony, and are more likely to reproduce hegemony rather than contest it. In conclusion, looking for strategies whereby Academic Development may better support gender equalities, my thesis suggests that academic developers, caught in the eternal dilemma of ‘straddling' personal values and hegemonic discourses become more explicitly aware of the game (Lee and McWilliam, 2008) and make more creative use of the ways in which non-formal value-based approaches and dialogue can replace monolithic initiatives.
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Renc-Roe, Joanna. "Academics in transition : internationalisation of academic professionals in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union." Thesis, Keele University, 2011. http://eprints.keele.ac.uk/3849/.
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This thesis investigates the experiences of internationalisation among academics from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, focusing on the role of internationalisation in the construction of academic identity, practice and approaches to university reform. The research is situated in the context of profound policy and ideological change in higher education systems in this region during the transition period, and in a wider discussion of global trends in higher education. The study adopts a qualitative and biographical approach, drawing on data from life story narratives elicited in interviews with twenty individual academics. Thus, the thesis presents an alternative look at internationalisation conceived not as an institutional policy but as individual experience responsible for the formation or reformulation of academic identity, values, dispositions and academic practices. The concept of individualisation is used as the main theoretical tool through which experiences of internationalisation can be studied and understood as elements of individual life story. The findings of this research concern the different ways in which a novel and hybrid or multiple set of academic identities and practices have been constructed on the basis of significant internationalisation experiences among academics located in particular (and partially shared) historical and policy contexts. Among the interviewed academics, internationalisation is found to be a very productive tool in the shaping of academic identity, practice and attitude towards university reform, which is reflected through a specific individualised life story.
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Ramadan, Ibtihal. "Experiences of Muslim academics in UK Higher Education Institutions." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/31350.
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The intertwining of political, economic, societal and global changes has resulted in accentuating even more so the 'Muslim question', both domestically and globally. Research has shown that the negative focus Muslims and Islam receive in the West is becoming increasingly mainstreamed, not only through the media, but principally through mainstream political discourse. This mainstreaming is within a global and local narrative of a 'war on terror'. The former followed 9/11 at the outset of this millennium and the latter is represented in the myriad of 'anti-terrorism' initiatives recently augmented in the UK by the Prevent duty. This intensely hostile backdrop has nurtured 'normative truths' about Muslims/Islam. Although Islamophobia did exist long before 9/11, it has now become commonplace and, even, legitimised within the context of tackling terrorism, affecting the experiences of the majority of Muslims in the West and elsewhere in diverse ways. British academia has opened its doors to non-traditional academics, including those from racial and/or ethnic minority backgrounds. Equality policies have been developed, particularly subsequent to the Race Relation Amendment (2000), which has sought to fulfil the recommendations of the Macpherson report (1999). Nevertheless, inequalities do permeate British academia and the experiences of non-traditional academics have been tainted by institutional racism, in both quantity and quality. Statistics attest the former, highlighting the underrepresentation of non-traditional academics in British academia, more particularly in senior leadership and professorial positions. Empirical research findings attest the latter through citing several factors, including career trajectory barriers and the double standards racial bias that operates in a subtle way within higher education institutions (HEIs). These broader and institutional dimensions set the scene for this thesis, the aim of which is to examine the experiences of Muslim academics. The particular experiences of this group of academics have been ignored in previous research, as faith/belief matters have largely been overlooked in studies that explored the experiences of minority academics. This thesis adopts a qualitative approach utilising theoretical bricolage that principally draws on Critical Race Theory (CRT). The notion of race in CRT is, however, expanded to include faith/belief. The thesis also draws on Post-colonial and De-colonial theories, Bourdieu's concept of 'habitus' and Fraser's model of 'status recognition'. It explores the perceptions of Muslim academic participants regarding their own personal/professional identities and how Muslim academics negotiate their Muslim-ness in academia and considers how wider narratives have influenced how they speak about their 'Muslim identity'. The views of the participants are particularly important to examine the extent to which, if any, the 'normative truths' have penetrated academia. This thesis also examines the perceptions of the participants regarding their career experiences and considers whether the experiences of this group of Muslim academics corresponds to, or differs from, the experiences of their fellow non-traditional academics. The Whiteness of the academy was an overarching theme, under which the participants' experiences of racism vis-a-vis job opportunities, career advancement and the multi-faced forms of epistemic racism were discussed. Exceptionalism seemed to be a pre-requisite of gaining a positive experience. Not only did exceptionalism temper perceptions of 'otherness', but being exceptional was an aspect that advanced the career trajectories of some of the participants. Silence was another major theme that recurred in various forms across the fieldwork. These silences appear to have been a consequence of the wider stigmatisation of the Muslim identity, which became evident in the ways some of the participants chose to go about interpreting, or declaring, their Muslim-ness in their workplace. While being Muslim created challenges and required some of the participants to exert substantive negotiations and efforts to fit in, it was advantageous for others, in terms of their career trajectories. Religious micro-aggressions were habitual to the participants with regards to their interactions with staff, and this was particularly acute for females wearing the hijab, where the religious micro-aggressions in HEIs took on a gendered aspect of the 'Muslim problem'. Silence also penetrated the narratives in relation to issues of institutional racism. Networking with other non-white academics was another main theme that featured in the accounts. Muslim academic participants, like other non-traditional academics seek support and mentorship from other minoritised academics to be able to survive in academia. The current study concludes by suggesting that there is a need for more consideration to be given to the aspects of faith/belief in HE policy and practice. This needs to be conducted within a framework that acknowledges the existence of religious microaggressions and the overwhelming normativism of Whiteness in academia.
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Hunt, Clive. "Red sky in the morning, academics take warning : the (re) construction of academics at one post-92 university." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.633036.
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Kelly, Mary. "A phenomenographic study to explore academics' experiences of their research role in one academic nursing department." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.658613.
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This study explores academics' experiences of their research role in one Irish university nursing department. Since 2002, nursing has been an all-graduate profession. This policy change means that nurse education is now based in higher education institutes. For the study, interviews were conducted with eighteen academics, ranging from lecturer to senior lecturer and above from several disciplinary backgrounds using a phenomenographic approach, to enable an understanding of the range and variation in experiences. Three categories of experience emerged from the data: 'getting a foothold on research'; 'navigating an early research career' and 'research as core to the academic role'. In each category there is variation in the focus of awareness concerning involvement in research and research networks, individuals' research aims, and research as a component of the overall academic role. Three dimensions of variation were discerned in the analysis. These relate to involvement in research, identity as a researcher, and control over the nature of work. A critical boundary area concerning membership of the community of research practice is PhD study. The findings indicate that sustained and structured support is required in order to promote the visibility of research within the department and to facilitate continuity of research activity.
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Nyamapfene, Abel Zvamayida. "Teaching-only academics in a research intensive university : from an undesirable to a desirable academic identity." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/34169.
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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.
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Bell, Edward Earl. "Impact of self-esteem and identification with academics on the academic achievement of African American students." Lynchburg, Va. : Liberty University, 2009. http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu.
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Kamau, Margaret Njoki. "The experiences of women academics in Kenya." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1996. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/NQ35440.pdf.
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Armenti, Carmelina. "Women academics blending private and public lives." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/nq53860.pdf.
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Yu, Xinying. "Job satisfaction of university academics in China." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/940.
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Higher education systems throughout the world are experiencing a difficult process of change that is impacting significantly on employees. This has meant that university academics have to do complex work in an increasingly demanding environment. The issue of academic job satisfaction is of growing concern because it has significant quality implications for universities. Many research studies of job satisfaction have looked at varied applications to the Western context, however, in the Chinese context, it is still relatively unclear what accounts for academic job satisfaction. This study can fill a gap in the previous job satisfaction literature in China and explores the idea that the influences upon this factor are culture related. This study investigates job satisfaction among university academics in China, It adopts a mixed methods approach which combined qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis techniques. The qualitative data were collected by semi-structured interviews with a total of fourteen academics in North University. Specifically, the interviewees were asked to consider the factors impact on their job satisfaction. NVivo 7 was used to categorize the qualitative data for analysis on the basis of the work related factors. The quantitative data were collected by questionnaires. A sample of 204 academics from six universities in Northeast China was sampled. The quantitative data were analyzed based on the factor analysis of principal components to derive groups of variables. Simple percentages, means and t-test were then used for data analysis. The findings revealed that academics'job satisfaction has strong relationships with their perceptions to a number of factors. Although there were no significant differences with respect to personal characteristics relating to overall job satisfaction, age had significant influence on job satisfaction with self-esteem and self-efficacy. Work related factors that prompted academic job satisfaction related to work groups, work itself and to intrinsic factors such as self-esteem, self-efficacy and self-actualisation, while the factors that contributed to dissatisfaction were mostly extrinsic factors related to pay and promotion. These findings are discussed in the light of motivation theories, higher education changes and cultural context. Cultural factors, such as power-concentrated, group-oriented, holistic relationships, have significant influences on Chinese academics' perceptions of their work. As these effects are particularly relevant to China, not all Western models of job satisfaction can be applied to the Chinese context. This thesis concludes that intrinsic factors tend to be dominant in Chinese university settings and are more likely to evoke university academics' job satisfaction rather than extrinsic ones, academics are satisfied with overall levels of job satisfaction, although not with pay and promotion.
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Kilbourne, John R. "Building a bridge between athletics and academics." The Ohio State University, 1994. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1240496158.
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Teixeira, Hugo C. "Wellbeing and Occupational Stress in Dentistry Academics." Thesis, Griffith University, 2022. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/419085.
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Occupational stress can impact adversely on individuals’ physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing, and have occupational consequences. Dentistry professionals can experience significantly higher levels of occupational stress, and poorer wellbeing, than other health professionals. Previous research on occupational stress among dentistry professionals has demonstrated differences by individual-level personal and professional characteristics, identified work content and work context sources of occupational stress, and indicated that dentists may not be able to relieve their stress properly. Previous research has, however, focused on dentistry clinicians and students, and less is known about dentistry academics who are likely to have different correlates and sources of occupational stress given differences in their occupational role. Therefore, this research program aimed to investigate occupational stress and wellbeing among dentistry academics including individual-level personal and professional characteristics associated with poor wellbeing, common sources of occupational stress and associations with poor wellbeing, and self-care activities and associations with wellbeing.
This research program used a cross-sectional design with a convenience sample of academics in dentistry departments across nine universities in Australia and New Zealand. The thesis comprises three quantitative studies and examined data from an online survey to assess wellbeing, personal and professional characteristics, perfectionism, work content and context sources of occupational stress, and self-care activities. Data were analysed using multiple regression.
A total of 119 people consented to the online survey, with 94 (78.9%) providing complete data. The average age of respondents was 50 (±11.7) years, 56.8% were men, and 67% had more than 10 years’ experience as an academic. Results demonstrated poor wellbeing among this group of dentistry academics, with an average score on the iii Psychological General Wellbeing Index (PGWBI) of 67.0±14.1. Lower scores were obtained on PGWBI dimensions of vitality (58.3±19.4), anxiety (62.0±16.9) and positive wellbeing (62.2±17.2) than other dimensions.
Study one found a significant association between hours of undergraduate teaching and psychological wellbeing, after adjustment for age, gender, income, and overall health (F(6,79)=19.651, p<.001, adj.R2=.56). Dentistry academics doing more than six hours of undergraduate teaching per week had poorer wellbeing than their counterparts (rpb(92)=- .288, p=.005, age r(84)=.315, p<.005). There were no significant bivariate associations between perfectionism, or other personal and professional characteristics, and wellbeing.
Study two found that the leading sources of “substantial” occupational stress were work overload (61% agreement), administration demands (55% agreement), multiple role demands (54% agreement), and time pressure at work (49% agreement). A multiple linear regression model comprising job future, workload and responsibility, job satisfaction, social support, time pressure at work, age, income management, and overall health significantly predicted psychological wellbeing, F(8,77)=13.141, p<.0001, adj.R2=.53, with no significant associations for any of the specific sources of stress with wellbeing.
Study three found that the most common types of self-care done “frequently” were lifestyle (57.8%), exercise (44.4%), and recreational (44.4%) activities. The least frequent were intrapersonal activities (13.3%). The multiple linear regression model comprising self-care domains of intrapersonal, interpersonal, exercise, recreational, and professional activities, with adjustment for age, gender, income management, and overall health significantly predicted psychological wellbeing, F(9,76)=9.705, p<.0001, adj.R2=.53, with no statistically significant associations between any of the individual self-care activity domains and wellbeing.
The findings of this research program contribute to evidence on occupational stress and wellbeing in dentistry academics and can inform workplace interventions. Results suggest that interventions to improve wellbeing in dentistry academics could prioritise those who are younger, with lower income, in poorer health, and/or teaching more than six hours of undergraduate teaching per week. These interventions could include individual-level and organisational-level strategies to help manage time pressure, work overload, administration demands, and multiple role demands; and increase social support and positive perceptions of job future and job satisfaction. Interventions could promote intrapersonal (e.g., gratitude, mindfulness), interpersonal (e.g., social support), and professional self-care activities (e.g., networking skills) given potentially low rates of these. Future research is warranted to extrapolate and confirm these findings with a larger sample, define the study sample homogeneously, and explore the impact of COVID-19 on sources of stress. Future research is also needed to provide a deeper exploration of ‘lived in’ experiences of dentistry academics related to aspects of undergraduate teaching that contribute to poor wellbeing, or specific aspects of the work role that contribute to work overload; and to explore other aspects of intervention delivery such as preferences for duration, frequency, and type of interventions.
If successful, such workplace interventions could reduce the adverse physical, psychological, behavioural, and organisational consequences commonly associated with poor wellbeing and occupational stress among dentistry academics, as well as the financial burden of related compensations claims. In turn these interventions could promote mental and physical wellbeing, and quality of life, as well as organisational indicators such as staff morale and overall work performance and productivity.
This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.Thesis (Masters)
Master of Philosophy (MPhil)
School of Applied Psychology
Griffith Health
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Kline, James Jeffrey. "Star Academics: Do They Garner Increasing Returns?" PDXScholar, 2016. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2713.
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This study examines the criteria which help academics receive National Institute of Health funds (NIH). The study covers 3,092 NIH recipients and non-recipients in the same department or institute at twenty-four universities. The universities are drawn from those below the top twenty in terms of receipt of NIH funds. With regards to performance, non- recipients have lower performance than recipients. A key determinant of the receipt of NIH funds is individual performance, as measured by the number of articles published and average citations per article in the two years immediately prior to the grant application. Professors receive more NIH money than do associates and assistant professors. Other positive contributors are the field of study, whether the academic has both a PhD. and Medical degree, and has licensed an innovation, been involved in the start of a new business and patented an invention through the university. To the extent that individual performance criteria represent the quality of the research proposal, allocation of NIH funds is based on merit.
A Tobit model indicates that being highly cited does not guarantee increasing returns. Likewise, career citations have only a small statistically significant impact. In addition, a negative coefficient associated with the second derivatives of both articles published in 2006-07 and their associated citations indicate diminishing marginal returns.
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Krikorian, Margaret. "Factors influencing academics' usage of electronic journals." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2004. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/786.
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Through a survey of academics at Edith Cowan University, Australia, this study explored their usage of and attitudes towards academic electronic journals (EJs). The data provided insights into the way academics were using EJs at the time of the study and their thoughts on how they will use them in the future. The emergence of academics publishing their work in EJs is a fairly recent phenomenon compared to the established tradition of publishing in paper-based journals. Many publishers have also begun to replace paper journals with electronic ones and many librarians have begun incorporating EJs into their resource collections. Librarians need to know their clients' attitudes towards new service delivery mechanisms and/or formats, such as replacing paper-based journals with EJs. The study's findings supported the earlier work of previous authors, indicating that while some academics were adapting EJs into their work practices, there remained a significant number who were strongly opposed to them. The study drew the following conclusions: I. At the time of the survey EJs were not wholly accepted by academics; 2. A group of committed enthusiasts existed who advocate EJs; 3. There was almost an equal number of academics who avidly preferred print journals, and were unlikely to change their preferences for the foreseeable future, perhaps for the rest of their career; 4. Most academics were not submitting articles to EJs, although more were open to doing so in the future; 5. Academics believe that publishing in EJs is given lower respect than publishing in paper-based journals; 6. Academics are troubled about historical access to EJ articles; 7. While academics are not using EJs fully they are normally aware of them; 8. Academics appear to have no time to obtain new skills such as using EJs, although there is a willingness to do so; 9. Academics are not inclined to have personal subscriptions to EJs; and 10. A minor number of academics cited EJs in their research however, a larger number thought their usage of them would increase in the future. Whatever the future of print journals or EJs may be, academic librarians need to continually assess how their clients will be able to gain access to archival information. Short-term access to bundled EJ titles may seem to be a panacea for stagnant or shrinking library budgets unable to keep up with escalating journal costs; however the true cost of abandoning paper journals in favour of EJs needs to be fully considered if the library is unable to maintain the future licensing costs of EJs.
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Karlsson, Jan. "Learning in Collaboration : Academics’ experiences in collaborative partnerships." Doctoral thesis, Pedagogiska institutionen, Lunds universitet, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-73.
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There is an ongoing debate both in the United States and Europe about the need to develop a broader view of scholarship and the different activities connected with it, including “service to the community”. In Sweden, service takes the form of practice-oriented engagement and collaboration with the surrounding community, as stipulated by Swedish law regulating universities’ activities. Collaboration is frequently perceived as a supplementary task, in addition to education and research, hence the name ‘the third task’. Many academics, university teachers and researchers, are today involved in different collaborative partnerships. This thesis focuses academics’ learning in two different contexts: collaboration with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and in a multidisciplinary research programme at the National Institute for Working Life in Sweden (NIWL). The results of the first investigation reveal that the academics learn different strategies to instigate, accomplish, deepen and further develop collaboration between universities and SMEs. The results also show also that academic professionals engaged in this type of activity need to handle the rigid structures of the academic organisation, which neither encourage nor reward these individuals’ efforts to collaborate. However, this study shows that although academics and practioners from SMEs come from different working cultures with their various traditions associated with language and interaction, a continuous exchange and dialogue creates trust and competence for all parties, as well as learning in the form of new knowledge that is useful for both the academia and SMEs. Collaboration across disciplines is rapidly becoming an integral feature of research, due to the desire to explore problems and questions that are not confined to a single discipline and the need to solve societal problems. The second empirical investigation focuses on the workplace learning of researchers in a multidisciplinary research (MDR) programme at the National Institute for Working Life in Sweden (NIWL), and their collaboration with practitioners. The results show that academics in this multidisciplinary context reach a deepened awareness of the perspectives of their own and others’ fields of research, as well as a heightened curiosity to learn more. The learning also involves gaining new insights about their own learning and how this takes place; its impact on their own professional development, and discovering, sometimes surprisingly, how their competence can be used in new areas of research. The interaction of knowledge and experience with researchers of different disciplines and practitioners creates a context that demands a different type of learning for the academics, compared to working in their own disciplines. Both investigations give an understanding of how academics experience their learning in collaboration with practitioners and researchers from different disciplines. It shows how the holistic integration of knowledge deriving from the academic functions of collaboration, teaching and research contributes to development within the academia and in working environments outside it.Det finns en pågående debatt, både i USA och i Europa om behovet att utveckla en bredare syn på akademisk kompetens och de olika aktiviteterna som den innefattar, bland annat det som kallas “tjänster riktade mot samhället”. I Sverige tar dessa samhällsorienterade tjänster formen av praktik orienterad involvering och samarbete med det omgivande samhället, i enlighet med den lagstiftning som reglerar högskolans verksamhet. Samarbete uppfattas ofta som en uppgift som ligger utöver utbildning och forskning; den kallas därför också “den tredje uppgiften”. Många akademiker, universitetslärare och forskare, är idag engagerade i olika former av samverkan. Avhandlingen fokuserar akademikers lärande i två olika sammanhang: samverkan med små och medelstora företag (SMF), och samverkan inom ramen för ett flervetenskapligt forskningsprogram vid Arbetslivsinstitutet (ALI). Resultaten från den första undersökningen visar att akademikerna lär sig olika strategier för att initiera, genomföra, fördjupa och vidareutveckla samverkan mellan högskolan och SMF. Resultaten visar också att akademikerna som är verksamma inom detta område behöver hantera den akademiska organisationens rigida strukturer, som varken uppmuntrar eller belönar dessa individers ansträngningar att samverka. Akademiker och praktiker i SMF kommer från olika arbetskulturer, med olika traditioner förknippade med språk och interaktion. Undersökningen visar dock att kontinuiteten i utbytet och dialogen skapar ett förtroende och kompetensutveckling för alla involverade parter, samt ett lärande i form av ny kunskap som är användbar både för akademin och för SMF. Tvärvetenskapligt samarbete håller på att bli en grundläggande del av all forskning, beroende på önskan att utforska problem och frågeställningar som inte är begränsade till ett enstaka ämnesområde, och behovet att lösa de problem samhället ställs inför. Den andra empiriska undersökningen fokuserar forskares lärande på arbetsplatsen inom ett flervetenskapligt forskningsprogram vid (ALI), samt deras samarbete med praktiker. Resultaten visar att det som akademiker lär i detta flervetenskapliga sammanhang är en fördjupad medvetenhet om perspektiven i deras egen och andras forskningsfält, samt en förstärkt nyfikenhet att lära mer. Lärandet innebär även att komma till nya insikter om deras eget lärande, och hur detta äger rum; hur det påverkar deras egen professionella utveckling, och att upptäcka - ibland överraskande – hur deras kompetens kan användas i nya forskningsområden. Samspelet mellan kunskap och erfarenhet hos forskare med olika ämnesbakgrund och med praktiker skapar ett sammanhang som kräver en annan typ av lärande for akademikerna, jämfört med deras inomdisciplinära arbete. Resultaten från båda undersökningarna ger en förståelse av hur akademiker upplever sitt lärande i samarbete med praktiker och andra forskare från olika ämnen. Det visar hur den holistiska kunskapsintegrationen som härrör från de tre akademiska funktionerna samverkan, undervisning och forskning, samtidigt bidrar till utveckling i arbetsmiljöer både inom och utanför akademin.
Populärvetenskaplig beskrivning på svenska av artiklarna I-IV.
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Chan, Arthur. "Perspectives of academics and practitioners on design thinking." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2016. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/22445.
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Design thinking has attracted a significant amount of interest and attention from the non-design sector in areas such as finance, government services and transport. This has resulted in new definitions that appear to describe design thinking as the mythical process that generates innovation and as a result, creating confusion and causing some to question its meaning. Research was undertaken to explore the possible knowledge gap that exists between academic and practitioner understanding of design thinking and its practical application. The relationship between the two has been articulated and a data driven model of design thinking created to further understanding of the meaning of design thinking. Firstly, an initial literature review was conducted to examine the origins, ownership and relationship between design thinking and four other related terms. Secondly, four common characteristics of design thinking were identified from projects reported by academics and practitioners as examples of the application of design thinking. The literature review provided the point of departure for the design of the empirical research instrument (RI). From the initial literature review four common characteristics of design thinking was identified; they were: drivers , experts , impact and processes . The research methodology employed constructivist grounded theory using a multi-qualitative method to maximise the capacity to gather high quality data. Pilot studies were conducted internally to test out the research instrument. From the pilot studies an additional common characteristic identified: design problem , being traditional or non-traditional. Following the pilot studies, primary data collection methods of interviews and online survey were employed. A total of 56 participants took part in the study, the participants who took part were academics and design practitioners from around the world. A total of 13 interviews were conducted and 43 survey responses were collected. The interviews and online survey used in data collection formed two stages of a triangulation strategy that was used to explore all the research questions. ii Two data sets were created from the interviews and online survey, which were analysed by thematic analysis and content analysis. From the thematic analysis, the five common characteristics identified from the literature review and pilot studies were confirmed; two additional common characteristics were identified as multidisciplinary and knowledge . Content analysis was conducted to identify evidence to describe the 7 common characteristics identified. Furthermore, the modes of expression for design thinking were also identified from the data in order to explore its relationship to design education. Case study analysis was the third stage of the triangulation strategy employed. It was conducted to check the reliably of the findings. This involved three design school case studies and three practice-based case studies of which two were for product designs and one was for service design. A qualitative data model of design thinking was developed to present the findings of the research. The research was then validated by a PhD seminar at Lancaster University and a validation study with experienced design practitioners. A final literature review was conducted after the validation studies to compare the research findings to the most recently published literature. From the literature review and validation studies, any appropriate findings were incorporated into the theory constructed.
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Wollison, Susan. "Academics in retirement, updating and extending previous research." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/MQ57595.pdf.
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Van, Balkom Wilhelmus Duffie. "Professional and personal adaptation of returning Indian academics." Thesis, McGill University, 1991. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=70245.
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Indian academics leave India in large numbers to study or work abroad, primarily in the U.S.A., Great Britain, and Canada. Some subsequently return to India with new skills, knowledge, behaviour patterns, views and expectations.This study focuses, within the context of the migration process, on the professional and personal adaptation of returning Indian academics. It examines adaptation in relation to motivations for emigration from India, life abroad, and return motivations.
Professionally, returnees face conflicts with the nature of the institutional environment, with limited opportunities to maximize the skills and knowledge acquired abroad, with the lack of support for research, and the resulting constraints on the contributions they could otherwise make to science and development.
At a personal level, they face conflicts with regards to salary and living conditions, differences in culture and value systems, and conformity with the expectations of others.
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Kim, Hong Goo. "Job satisfaction among Korean academics : a critical investigation." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2011. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12976/.
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This study aimed to go beyond a simple descriptive analysis and attempt a critical investigation of phenomena related to job satisfaction. Specifically, the purpose of study was to identify the conditions under which Korean academics work; what aspects they valued in relation to their jobs; how satisfied they were with their jobs; the challenges they faced; how these challenges influenced their job satisfaction; and whether or not there were differences in job satisfaction between particular groups based on demographic and institutional factors. In this study, a qualitative interview and a questionnaire survey were deployed as data collection methods. Twenty-five academics from ten universities in Korea participated in the interview. In addition, 700 questionnaires were sent to academics from fourteen universities and 519 of which were returned. After some of these were deemed unusable, 498 questionnaires were used for the study. The academics involved in this study exhibited different levels of satisfaction with different job aspects. Generally, they reported being satisfied with their work, academic freedom, recognition, development, interpersonal relationships, and job security. However, they were dissatisfied with their pay and with policy and administration, and were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with their working conditions. Overall, they were slightly satisfied with their jobs. Korean academics attached more value to intrinsic aspects, e. g. work, academic freedom, development, and recognition, than to extrinsic aspects, e.g. workload, pay and administration. This was corroborated by the finding that intrinsic aspects were more likely to have a greater impact on overall job satisfaction than extrinsic aspects. This thesis showed differences in job satisfaction between groups defined on the basis of age, gender, academic discipline, control type, and university location. Older academics exhibited higher job satisfaction than did their younger colleagues. The reason put forth is that older academics enjoy advantageous circumstances in areas such as pay, professional development, and promotions. Female academics reported lower satisfaction with most job aspects and lower overall job satisfaction than did their male colleagues. This gender gap was attributed to the male-dominated culture in academe, heavy family responsibilities, and the lack of support structure. Academic discipline influenced job satisfaction to some extent, which was thought to be attributable to differences in working conditions and culture between academic disciplines. Academics at private universities reported higher pay satisfaction than their counterparts at public universities, whereas academics at public universities reported higher satisfaction with university administration than did their counterparts at private universities. Academics at universities in Seoul reported higher satisfaction with most job aspects, as well as higher overall job satisfaction, than those at universities in provincial areas. This was likely because academics at universities in Seoul enjoyed better conditions than those at universities in provincial areas.