Exploring influences on academic identity development: stories of Visiting Lecturers in post-’92 UK business schools

Visiting Lecturers (VLs) on hourly paid casual contracts are frequently employed in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) for flexibility of staffing, cost benefits to the institution (Beaton and Gilbert, 2013; Bryson, 2013) and, depending on the subject, the value their practical experience brings to students. Existing literature on VLs portrays a largely negative picture of their experience (Kimber, 2003; Gottschalk and McEachern, 2010; Crimmins 2016, 2017; Ryan et al, 2013), showing VLs to be excluded and marginalised at their workplace in spite of their optimistic expectations. I am an academic manager in a post-’92 university business school and my work with these colleagues on a daily basis motivated this study. I wanted to explore VLs’ identity development in an academic context and understand the apparent gap between VLs’ expectations and experience. A key purpose of this study was to explore experiences which influence VLs in their academic identity development. Adopting an interpretivist, qualitative approach, I undertook a small-scale narrative inquiry of 10 post-’92 business school VLs, analysing data though a Bourdiuesian lens of capital, habitus and field (Bourdieu 1977, 1984). My findings indicated that VLs hold the capital valued in a post-’92 business school that allows them agency to choose the work they prefer. In addition, VLs hold an expert identity in relation to their areas of business experience. Therefore my research has implications for existing models of the pracademic. However, the context of the business school means that although they may have choice, VLs do not always have control, and that less experienced VLs struggle to fit into an academic setting. Not all VLs desire an academic identify and I explore reasons for this through this research. I identified four ways in which business schools could better support VLs, through: (i) providing an induction; (ii) giving them access to timely and appropriate information; (iii) offering opportunities for Continuing Professional Development (CPD), and (iv) involving VLs in research. This thesis adds to an under-researched area of VLs and academic identity development. It combines Bourdieu as a theoretical framework along with narrative inquiry methodology to bring new insights into the academic identity development of VLs. It may assist colleagues and managers to better understand their VLs by recognising that VLs’ investment in developing an academic identity depends on their past capitals and motivation to be a VL, their present support in the business school and their future career ambitions, whether in academia or continuing a portfolio career.

Grantor dc:publisher

Oxford Brookes University

Year dc:date

2021

Author dc:creator

• Glass, Lesley

Contributors dc:contributor

• Potter, Jacqueline
• Arthur, Linet

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.24384/ky4y-9h30

OAI identifier oai:identifier

tle:7c260de9-f6d5-4827-83ea-6f92efb6ffcf:d6bd9758-527a-46cd-bfe2-c433766e8fca:1