Gerlese S. Åkerlind

Growing and Developing As an Academic: Implications for Academic Development and Academic Practice Gerlese S. Åkerlind

This book explores the meaning of growing and developing as an academic, as experienced by academics themselves. It discusses the implications of this for our understanding of the nature of academic development and academic practice, in terms of what it means to be an academic, engage in academic work and grow as an academic over time. The research presented is based on intensive interviews with 28 academics, all on teaching and research appointments in a research-intensive university in Australia. A phenomenographic research approach was employed. Phenomenography provides a methodology for investigating variation in human meaning or experience of essentially the same phenomena, such as ?growing as an academic?. The primary question addressed in this book is, ?How do academics experience and understand their own growth and development?? This is complemented by an investigation of development as a university teacher in particular, plus an analysis of relationships between the different understandings of development that emerged, and the opportunities and constraints on growth afforded by each of the understandings.