Creating a Positive Casual Academic Identity Through Change and Loss

Yoo, Joanne

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-95834-7_5

Creating a Positive Casual Academic Identity Through Change and Loss

Joanne Yoo⁴

Chapter
First Online: 19 December 2018

618 Accesses

Part of the book series: Palgrave Critical University Studies ((PCU))

Abstract

Neoliberalism has significantly impacted higher education institutes across the globe by increasing the number of casual and non-continuing academic positions. Insecure employments conditions have not only affected the well-being of contingent staff, but it has also weakened the democratic, intellectual and moral standing of academic institutions. This chapter provides one practitioner’s account of the challenges of casual work, but rather than dwelling on the negativities, it outlines the potential richness of an identity based on insecurity and uncertainty. This exploration draws on the literature of retired academics and identity theory to illustrate the potential generative spaces within an undefined and incoherent identity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter: USD 29.95; Price excludes VAT (USA)

eBook: USD 119.00; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Hardcover Book: USD 159.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

1.
Paul Kniest, “Australian Universities’ Casual Approach to Employment,” Connect: The Magazine for Australian Casual and Sessional Staff 10, no. 2 (2017).
2.
Arne L. Kalleberg, “Flexible Firms and Labor Market Segmentation: Effects of Workplace Restructuring on Jobs and Workers,” Work and Occupations: An International Sociological Journal 30, no. 2 (2003).
3.
Frank Larkins, “Academic Staffing Trends: At What Cost to Teaching and Learning Excellence?,” LH Martin Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Management., http://www.lhmartininstitute.edu.au/insights-blog/2011/10/65-academic-staf
4.
Paul Kniest, “Australian Universities’ Casual Approach to Employment,” Connect: The Magazine for Australian Casual and Sessional Staff 10, no. 2 (2017).
5.
Kaye Broadbent, Carolyn Troup, and Glenda Strachan, “Research Staff in Australian Universities: Is There a Career Path?,” Labour and Industry: A journal of the social and economic relations of work 23, no. 3 (2013).
6.
Simon Warren, “Struggling for Visibility in Higher Education: Caught between Neoliberalism ‘out There’ and ‘in Here’ – an Autoethnographic Account,” Journal of Education Policy 32, no. 2 (2017). 3
7.
C.R. Ronai, “Sketching with Derrida: An Ethnography of a Researcher/Erotic Dancer,” Qualitative Inquiry 4, no. 3 (1998).
8.
C. Ellis, “Telling Secrets, Revealing Lives: Relational Ethics in Research with Intimate Others,” Qualitative Inquiry 13, no. 1 (2007).
9.
Graham Francis Badley, “Composing Academic Identities: Stories That Matter?,” Qualitative Inquiry 22, no. 5 (2016); Deborah Churchman and Sharron King, “Academic Practice in Transition: Hidden Stories of Academic Identities,” Teaching in Higher Education 14, no. 5 (2009).
10.
Sheldon Stryker and Peter Burke, “The Past, Present, and Future of an Identity Theory,” Social Psychology Quarterly 63, no. 4 (2000).
11.
Badley, “Composing Academic Identities: Stories That Matter?”. 377.
12.
Oili-Helena Ylijoki and Jani Ursin, “The Construction of Academic Identity in the Changes of Finnish Higher Education,” Studies in Higher Education 38, no. 8 (2013).
13.
Neil Mclean and Linda Price, “The Mechanics of Identity Formation,” in Identity Work in the Contemporary University Exploring an Uneasy Profession, ed. Jan Smith, et al. (Rotterdam: SensePublishers, 2016).
14.
Anthony Papa and Nicole Lancaster, “Identity Continuity and Loss after Death, Divorce, and Job Loss,” Self and Identity 51, no. 1 (2015).
15.
Emma-Louise Aveling, Alex Gillespie, and Flora Cornish, “A Qualitative Method for Analysing Multivoicedness,” Qualitative Research 15, no. 6 (2015).
16.
Marvi Remmik et al., “Early-Career Academics’ Learning in Academic Communities,” International Journal for Academic Development 16, no. 3 (2011).
17.
Badley, “Composing Academic Identities: Stories That Matter?”
18.
M. Neary and Joss Winn, “Beyond Public and Private: A Framework for Co-Operative Higher Education,” https://olh.openlibhums.org/articles/10.16995/olh.195/
19.
S. J. Flecknoe et al., “Redefining Academic Identity in an Evolving Higher Education Landscape,” Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice 14, no. 2 (2017).
20.
Philip G. Altbach, Liz Reisberg, and Laura E. Rumbley, “Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution,” http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001832/183219e.pdf
21.
John S. Levin and Genevieve G. Shaker, “The Hybrid and Dualistic Identity of Full-Time Non-Tenure-Track Faculty,” American Behavioral Scientist 55, no. 11 (2011). 476.
22.
Larkins, “Academic Staffing Trends: At What Cost to Teaching and Learning Excellence?”
23.
Kniest, “Australian Universities’ Casual Approach to Employment.”
24.
Australian Council of Trade Unions, “Lives on Hold: Unlocking the Potential of Australia’s Workforce,” Australian Council of Trade Unions, https://www.actu.org.au/media/609158/lives-on-hold-final.pdf
25.
Levin and Shaker, “The Hybrid and Dualistic Identity of Full-Time Non-Tenure-Track Faculty”. 1462
26.
Broadbent, Troup, and Strachan, “Research Staff in Australian Universities: Is There a Career Path?”; Robyn May, “Casualisation; Here to Stay? The Modern University and Its Divided Workforce,” http://www.nteu.org.au/library/view/id/1321
27.
Kalleberg, “Flexible Firms and Labor Market Segmentation: Effects of Workplace Restructuring on Jobs and Workers”.
28.
“Flexible Firms and Labor Market Segmentation: Effects of Workplace Restructuring on Jobs and Workers”. 158.
29.
J. Allen and N. Henry, “Ulrich Beck’s Risk Society at Work: Labour and Employment in the Contract Service Industries,” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 22, no. 2 (1987). 184.
30.
Levin and Shaker, “The Hybrid and Dualistic Identity of Full-Time Non-Tenure-Track Faculty”. 1480.
31.
“The Hybrid and Dualistic Identity of Full-Time Non-Tenure-Track Faculty”. 1479.
32.
“The Hybrid and Dualistic Identity of Full-Time Non-Tenure-Track Faculty”.
33.
Papa and Lancaster, “Identity Continuity and Loss after Death, Divorce, and Job Loss”. 48.
34.
Levin and Shaker, “The Hybrid and Dualistic Identity of Full-Time Non-Tenure-Track Faculty”. 1480
35.
Badley, “Composing Academic Identities: Stories That Matter?”. 377.
36.
Levin and Shaker, “The Hybrid and Dualistic Identity of Full-Time Non-Tenure-Track Faculty”.
37.
Badley, “Composing Academic Identities: Stories That Matter?”; elke emerald and Lorelei Carpenter, “The Scholar Retires: An Embodied Identity Journey,” Qualitative Inquiry 20, no. 10 (2014); Laurel Richardson, After a Fall: A Sociomedical Sojourn, After a Fall (Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2013).
38.
After a Fall: A Sociomedical Sojourn. 1134.
39.
After a Fall: A Sociomedical Sojourn. 9–10.
40.
Badley, “Composing Academic Identities: Stories That Matter?”
41.
“Composing Academic Identities: Stories That Matter?”; emerald and Carpenter, “The Scholar Retires: An Embodied Identity Journey”; Richardson, After a Fall: A Sociomedical Sojourn.
42.
Papa and Lancaster, “Identity Continuity and Loss after Death, Divorce, and Job Loss”.
43.
Badley, “Composing Academic Identities: Stories That Matter?”. 381.
44.
emerald and Carpenter, “The Scholar Retires: An Embodied Identity Journey”.
45.
Laurel Richardson, “My Left Hand: Socialization and the Interrupted Life,” Qualitative Inquiry 6, no. 4 (2000). 467.
46.
Badley, “Composing Academic Identities: Stories That Matter?”; Richardson, “My Left Hand: Socialization and the Interrupted Life”.
47.
A. Papa and Nicole Lancaster, “Identity Continuity and Loss after Death, Divorce, and Job Loss,” Self and Identity 15, no. 1 (2016).
48.
McKee-Ryan, Frances M., Zhaoli Song, Connie R. Wanberg and Angelo J. Kinicki, “Psychological and Physical Well-Being During Unemployment: A Meta-Analytic Study,” Journal of Applied Psychology 90, no. 1 (2005), 53–76.
49.
Badley, “Composing Academic Identities: Stories That Matter?”. 382.
50.
Sue Clegg, “Academic Identities under Threat?,” British Educational Research Journal 34, no. 3 (2008); Bronwyn Davies, “Introduction: Poststructuralist Lines of Flight in Australia,” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 17, no. 1 (2004).
51.
Badley, “Composing Academic Identities: Stories That Matter?”. 378.
52.
Gideon Calder, Rorty and Redescription (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003).
53.
Badley, “Composing Academic Identities: Stories That Matter?”; Clegg, “Academic Identities under Threat?”
54.
emerald and Carpenter, “The Scholar Retires: An Embodied Identity Journey”. 1146.
55.
Arthur P. Bochner, “Narrative and the Divided Self,” Qualitative Inquiry 3, no. 4 (1997). 430.
56.
Badley, “Composing Academic Identities: Stories That Matter?”. 379.
57.
Kathy Charmaz, “Identity Dilemmas of Chronically Ill Men,” The Sociological Quarterly 35, no. 2 (1994). 278.
58.
Papa and Lancaster, “Identity Continuity and Loss after Death, Divorce, and Job Loss”. 49
59.
Laurel Richardson, “Getting Personal: Writing-Stories,” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 14, no. 1 (2001). 34
60.
Karen Brodkin, “Remember When Writing Was Fun? Why Academics Should Go on a Low Syllable, Active Voice Diet,” in Anthropology Off the Shelf: Anthropologists on Writing, ed. Alisse Waterston and Maria D. Vesperi (Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009).
61.
Kathryn Haynes, “A Therapeutic Journey?,” Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal 1, no. 3 (2006). 216.
62.
“A Therapeutic Journey?”. 218.
63.
Bochner, “Narrative and the Divided Self”. 434.
64.
Diana Raab, “Transpersonal Approaches to Autoethnographic Research and Writing,” The Qualitative Report 18, no. 21 (2013).
65.
Badley, “Composing Academic Identities: Stories That Matter?”. 382.
66.
“Composing Academic Identities: Stories That Matter?”. 383.
67.
Ruth Behar, “Believing in Anthropology as Literature,” in Anthropology Off the Shelf: Anthropologists on Writing, ed. Alisse Waterston and Maria D. Vesperi (West Sussex UK: Wiley- Blackwell, 2009). 112.
68.
J.D. Dewsbury, “Inscribing Thoughts: The Animation of an Adventure,” Cultural Geographies in Practice 21, no. 1 (2014).

Bibliography

Allen, J., and N. Henry. “Ulrich Beck’s Risk Society at Work: Labour and Employment in the Contract Service Industries.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 22, no. 2 (1987): 180–196.
Google Scholar
Altbach, Philip G., Liz Reisberg, and Laura E. Rumbley. “Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution”, accessed http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001832/183219e.pdf.
Australian Council of Trade Unions. “Lives on Hold: Unlocking the Potential of Australia’s Workforce”, accessed Australian Council of Trade Unions, https://www.actu.org.au/media/609158/lives-on-hold-final.pdf.
Aveling, Emma-Louise, Alex Gillespie, and Flora Cornish. “A Qualitative Method for Analysing Multivoicedness.” Qualitative Research 15, no. 6 (2015): 670–687. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794114557991.
Article Google Scholar
Badley, Graham Francis. “Composing Academic Identities: Stories That Matter?” Qualitative Inquiry 22, no. 5 (2016): 377–385. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800415615845.
Article Google Scholar
Behar, Ruth. “Believing in Anthropology as Literature.” In Anthropology Off the Shelf: Anthropologists on Writing, edited by Alisse Waterston and Maria D. Vesperi, 106–116. West Sussex UK: Wiley- Blackwell, 2009.
Chapter Google Scholar
Bochner, Arthur P. “Narrative and the Divided Self.” Qualitative Inquiry 3, no. 4 (1997): 418–438. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/107780049700300404.
Article Google Scholar
Broadbent, Kaye, Carolyn Troup, and Glenda Strachan. “Research Staff in Australian Universities: Is There a Career Path?” Labour and Industry: A journal of the social and economic relations of work 23, no. 3 (2013): 276–295. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2013.839082.
Article Google Scholar
Brodkin, Karen. “Remember When Writing Was Fun? Why Academics Should Go on a Low Syllable, Active Voice Diet.” In Anthropology Off the Shelf: Anthropologists on Writing, edited by Alisse Waterston and Maria D. Vesperi, 21–34. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
Google Scholar
Calder, Gideon. Rorty and Redescription. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003.
Google Scholar
Charmaz, Kathy. “Identity Dilemmas of Chronically Ill Men.” The Sociological Quarterly 35, no. 2 (1994): 269–288. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1994.tb00410.x.
Article Google Scholar
Churchman, Deborah, and Sharron King. “Academic Practice in Transition: Hidden Stories of Academic Identities.” Teaching in Higher Education 14, no. 5 (2009): 507–516. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/13562510903186675.
Article Google Scholar
Clegg, Sue. “Academic Identities under Threat?” British Educational Research Journal 34, no. 3 (2008): 329–345. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920701532269.
Article Google Scholar
Davies, Bronwyn. “Introduction: Poststructuralist Lines of Flight in Australia.” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 17, no. 1 (2004): 1–9.
Article Google Scholar
Dewsbury, J.D. “Inscribing Thoughts: The Animation of an Adventure.” Cultural Geographies in Practice 21, no. 1 (2014): 147–152.
Article Google Scholar
Ellis, C. “Telling Secrets, Revealing Lives: Relational Ethics in Research with Intimate Others.” Qualitative Inquiry 13, no. 1 (2007): 3–29.
Article Google Scholar
emerald, elke, and Lorelei Carpenter. “The Scholar Retires: An Embodied Identity Journey.” Qualitative Inquiry 20, no. 10 (2014): 1141–1147. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800414545232.
Article Google Scholar
Flecknoe, S. J., J. K. Choate, E. A. Davis, Y. M. Hodgson, and P. A. Johanesen. “Redefining Academic Identity in an Evolving Higher Education Landscape.” Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice 14, no. 2 (2017): 1–18.
Google Scholar
Haynes, Kathryn. “A Therapeutic Journey?” Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal 1, no. 3 (2006): 204–221. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/17465640610718798.
Article Google Scholar
Kalleberg, Arne L. “Flexible Firms and Labor Market Segmentation: Effects of Workplace Restructuring on Jobs and Workers.” Work and Occupations: An International Sociological Journal 30, no. 2 (2003): 154–175. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888403251683.
Article Google Scholar
Kniest, Paul. “Australian Universities’ Casual Approach to Employment.” Connect: The Magazine for Australian Casual and Sessional Staff 10, no. 2 (2017): 20–21.
Google Scholar
Larkins, Frank. “Academic Staffing Trends: At What Cost to Teaching and Learning Excellence?”, accessed September 15, 2017, LH Martin Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Management., http://www.lhmartininstitute.edu.au/insights-blog/2011/10/65-academic-staf.
Levin, John S., and Genevieve G. Shaker. “The Hybrid and Dualistic Identity of Full-Time Non-Tenure-Track Faculty.” American Behavioral Scientist 55, no. 11 (2011): 1461–1484. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764211409382.
Article Google Scholar
May, Robyn. “Casualisation; Here to Stay? The Modern University and Its Divided Workforce”, accessed September 15, 2017, http://www.nteu.org.au/library/view/id/1321.
McKee-Ryan, Frances M., Zhaoli Song, Connie R. Wanberg, and Angelo J. Kinicki. “Psychological and Physical Well-Being During Unemployment: A Meta-Analytic Study.” Journal of Applied Psychology 90, no. 1 (2005), 53–76.
Article Google Scholar
Mclean, Neil, and Linda Price. “The Mechanics of Identity Formation.” In Identity Work in the Contemporary University Exploring an Uneasy Profession, edited by Jan Smith, Julie Rattra, Tai Peseta and Daphne Loads, 45–57. Rotterdam: SensePublishers, 2016.
Chapter Google Scholar
Neary, M., and Joss Winn. “Beyond Public and Private: A Framework for Co-Operative Higher Education”, accessed https://olh.openlibhums.org/articles/10.16995/olh.195/.
Papa, A., and Nicole Lancaster. “Identity Continuity and Loss after Death, Divorce, and Job Loss.” Self and Identity 15, no. 1 (2016): 47–61.
Article Google Scholar
Papa, Anthony, and Nicole Lancaster. “Identity Continuity and Loss after Death, Divorce, and Job Loss.” Self and Identity 51, no. 1 (2015): 1–15. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2015.1079551.
Article Google Scholar
Raab, Diana. “Transpersonal Approaches to Autoethnographic Research and Writing.” The Qualitative Report 18, no. 21 (2013): 1–19.
Google Scholar
Remmik, Marvi, Mari Karm, Anu Haamer, and Liina Lepp. “Early-Career Academics’ Learning in Academic Communities.” International Journal for Academic Development 16, no. 3 (2011): 187–199. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2011.596702.
Article Google Scholar
Richardson, Laurel. After a Fall: A Sociomedical Sojourn. After a Fall. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2013.
Google Scholar
———. “Getting Personal: Writing-Stories.” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 14, no. 1 (2001): 33–38. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/09518390010007647.
Article Google Scholar
———. “My Left Hand: Socialization and the Interrupted Life.” Qualitative Inquiry 6, no. 4 (2000): 467–473. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/107780040000600403.
Article Google Scholar
Ronai, C.R. “Sketching with Derrida: An Ethnography of a Researcher/Erotic Dancer.” Qualitative Inquiry 4, no. 3 (1998).
Article Google Scholar
Stryker, Sheldon, and Peter Burke. “The Past, Present, and Future of an Identity Theory.” Social Psychology Quarterly 63, no. 4 (2000): 284. doi:https://doi.org/10.2307/2695840.
Article Google Scholar
Warren, Simon. “Struggling for Visibility in Higher Education: Caught between Neoliberalism ‘out There’ and ‘in Here’ – an Autoethnographic Account.” Journal of Education Policy 32, no. 2 (2017): 127–140.
Article Google Scholar
Ylijoki, Oili-Helena, and Jani Ursin. “The Construction of Academic Identity in the Changes of Finnish Higher Education.” Studies in Higher Education 38, no. 8 (2013): 1135–1149. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2013.833036.
Article Google Scholar

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Faculty of Education and Arts, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Joanne Yoo

Authors

Joanne Yoo
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joanne Yoo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

School of Education, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, QLD, Australia
Catherine Manathunga
School of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Dorothy Bottrell

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Yoo, J. (2019). Creating a Positive Casual Academic Identity Through Change and Loss. In: Manathunga, C., Bottrell, D. (eds) Resisting Neoliberalism in Higher Education Volume II. Palgrave Critical University Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95834-7_5

Download citation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95834-7_5
Published: 19 December 2018
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-95833-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-95834-7
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics