Negotiating Transitions in Academic Identity: Teacher or Researcher?

Abstract

<p>The international teaching experience had seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity: a higher salary; improved teaching and research conditions; and a higher standard of living. But if I had the chance to do it all again, would I?<br/>&nbsp;&nbsp; This chapter is a self-reflexive endeavour that recalls my transitional experiences as an international academic (Thomas and Malau-Aduli 2013), upon entering a rural regional university in Australia. As lived experience, the narrative uses first-person storying (as described by Hunter 2009) to explore transitions in and portray academic identity through the lens of social identity theory (Tajfel 1981). Vignettes of competing academic discourse depict my entry into a culture where powerful self-interest groups used entrenched laws to challenge academic identity (Smith 2009: 112) in an attempt to construct and position new identities. The cross-cultural experience associated with transition was to become a 'significant life event' (Zhou et al. 2008: 69). It was an experience that tested my beliefs and values about teaching, research and scholarship within lecturing in teacher education. For a time, finding a way to cope with views of teaching and student learning that were antithetic to mine, and with individualistic research agendas in the institution, proved elusive. In recounting these experiences, self-reflexivity has enabled me to reconcile the economic and sociocultural forces at work in the Australian academic context. Through the narrative, I acknowledge my inner resilience and the resolve to build a career as an academic in another country.<br/>&nbsp;&nbsp; In sequencing this chapter, I start with a framework revealing my understanding of the formation of academic identity. I then detail the power relationships that prompted my transitions in academic identity when entering the new academic and cultural context. Next, the narrative explores my lived experience as I analyse the challenges to my values and beliefs that came with transition. I close the chapter by discussing the implications arising from my experiences and offer some practical strategies for others seeking to undertake international teaching experience.</p>