Transitions into Academia: Workshop for providing direct support to new academic staff from practice backgrounds
For members of staff coming to academia from practice backgrounds, the initial transition can be the hardest part to navigate.
The following quotations, taken from interviews with lecturers who entered their roles from practitioner perspectives, along with the accompanying prompts can be used in workshop sessions to help new academic staff articulate their experiences of the transition into academia from practice.
Academic transitions
“I mean, I’d been in industry, and I’d been a student myself, but that was my knowledge base at that time. So, it was a bit like, ah! They were in a bit of a panic, and just said, we need somebody to teach (academic subject). You’ve done the interview, so fine. And then writing the degree. They did give me some time to research, but I’d never written an academic programme before, so that was quite challenging, I think, but really, really useful. I think once you’ve done that, you understand quality assurance benchmarks and why they’re there. And researching other people’s programmes, and what worked well and what didn’t. It does help you to develop your own in the future. With the major rewrite that I’ve just done as part of my job as course director, we’ve had major changes going on for the new credit framework. And I felt very comfortable rewriting that, because I had structured and written a programme before.”
Transition into teaching
“I think the transition, yes, I think the transition… when I was looking about teaching, I think I had my big transition around teaching several years ago when I began teaching. And I remember now the sort of same feelings about, oh, dear, you know. I remember them happening then and being slightly overwhelmed by a course handbook, and I’d been a student for years, and I was suddenly aware of the fact that I probably wasn’t aware of the course handbook, um, or what learning outcomes were or the structure of a course. So it went over my head, you know?”
‘Yes, it has, really. I was thrown in at the deep end in (name of university). That felt very much like a… that was the first teaching that I’d ever done, and was very supported by a couple of other tutors there to what teaching, you know, entailed really. I’d never been a lecturer before.’
Transition into research
“That part I have found difficult because I've been eager to start my research, like straight away, and I haven't found how to start it. Like, I've been sending emails to anybody I thought it could be… I don't know. I just didn't know how to start. I mean there's loads of things within things I'd done that I want to take forward.”
“And it's… I found that a bit strange, a really sort of strange area because, um, because when I interviewed for the job and as I looked at the job as well, there was a lot of emphasis on this research part and…But no guidance on the research, no.
- Discuss your own experiences in each of the transitional aspects described in the quotations above: How do you feel your own experiences compare to those of the speakers?
- Have any particular aspects been harder to adapt to than others?
- What have you found effective/ineffective in helping you to navigate these aspects of academia?
Clash of Values
“I don't know. I just find… I don't know if I'm wrong, but I think maybe some research… people who become researchers sometimes become self-indulgent ... it's almost like you end up in that world and it's not relevant anymore.”
Coming from a practice background can sometimes involve a clash of values, particularly when the previous working context was perhaps more people-focused, care-orientated and/or community-based, in sharp contradistinction to the sometimes individualised, niche world of academic research.
- Have you experienced any value clashes in your transition into academia? Have you been able to resolve these or are they still a difficulty?
- Aside from altruism vs ‘self indulgence’, what other sorts of value clashes can be experienced by those coming to academia from practice roles?
- What do you think of the views expressed in the quotation? Can academia be seen as self-indulgence or irrelevant? Are there other ways of looking at it? How to navigate these tensions?
Getting support
“The time I spent researching was mainly researching other courses. So, speaking to other course directors of other… and other students, actually, that were studying. And other lecturers that I’ve met, who were teaching in other institutions. So, it was time speaking to them about their programmes, and this particular unit worked really well, and… um, so it was… it was mainly researching other courses, rather than researching how to write a degree.”
- What kind of support networks do you feel are available to new members of academic staff at your institution/in your department?
- Have you found any other ways to gain support and guidance to those described in the quotation above?
- How have you found the approachability of your colleagues and students to be?
“...It was very, very informal. They were just very supportive generally in sharing their… you know, this is how I’ve got a lesson planned together, and this is how, you know, this is how the sort of institution works, just in terms of getting registers together, and where you send them. It was very informal, but they were very, very supportive. And they’d been teachers in an FE institution for a long time, so had lots of knowledge and sort of structures of teaching, really. And I’ve since done my PG Cert, which obviously sort of consolidated all of that. And that was, again, really, really, helpful.”
- How have you found the overall style of your own department/institution? How do you feel about its levels of formality/informality?
- How easy has it been to join networks within and between institutions in your experience?
“I think that's felt quite easy, even though I feel it's a big institution that you have to, you know, you have to kind of know, this is with this, this is with that, this is with that, you know, even though I feel there's a lot of people you kind of… to ask a question, but I know how to direct it now.”
- How have you found that the size of your institution/department has affected your experience of making the transition into academia? How does it compare to organisations you have worked for prior to your academic role?