Abstract
This chapter explores the informal learning dimensions of ‘learning to become an academic’. I explore in detail the process of becoming a scholar with particular emphasis given to the supervisory relationship as a process of apprenticeship and learning community. My Ph.D. focussed on the informal and social learning practices of two groups of activists, so this paper also covers the journey of the research, the methodology and the methods chosen for the research. I outline the early corporeal learning experiences that constituted my own educational experience as a young woman growing up working class, who turned to ideas and theory for a language of resistance to educational discourses about class. This paper has a particular focus on the role of ‘identity’ formation in learning to become an academic. I outline the processes of apprenticeship through supervision and the role of a learning community in the Ph.D., as key in developing ‘mastery’ or a ‘feel for the game’ of academia.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Adorno TW. The Authoritarian personality. New York: Norton; 1969.
Armstrong P, Miller N. Whatever happened to social purpose? Adult educators’ stories of political commitment and change. International Journey of Lifelong Education. 2006;25(3):291–305.
Beckett D, Hager P. Life, work, and learning; practice and postmodernity. New York: Routledge, London; 2002.
Boud D, Garrick J. Understanding Learning at Work. London: Routledge; 1999.
Bourdieu P. The weight of the world; social suffering in contemporary society. Oxford: Polity; 1999.
Branagan M, Boughton B. How do you learn to change the world? Learning and Teaching in Australian Protest Movements. Australian Journal of Adult Learning. 2003;43(3):346–60.
Brookfield S. The Power of Critical Theory for Adult Learning and Teaching. United Kingdom: Open University Press; 2005.
Darder A, Baltadano M, Torres R, editors. The Critical Pedagogy Reader. Falmer London: Routledge; 2003.
Denzin NK, Lincoln YS. The Discipline and Practice of Qualitative Research. In N.K. Denzin & Y.S. Lincoln (Eds.) Handbook of Qualitative Research. 2nd ed. USA: Sage publishers; 2000.
Dewey J. Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. New York: The Macmillan Company; 1930.
Dewey J. How We Think. Boston: Heath; 1937.
Engestrom, Y. (2007). Activity Theory and Workplace Learning. Journal of Workplace Learning, Issue 6, Emerald Group Publishing, Bradford.
Eraut M. Non-formal Learning and tacit knowledge in professional work. British Journal of Educational Psychology. 2000;70:113–136.
Foucault, M. (1980). Truth and Power. In Power Knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972-1977, Pantheon Books, New York.
Foucault M. Truth. Power, Self: An interview with Michel Foucault. University of Massachusetts Press; 1988.
Foucault, M. (1983). The Subject and Power. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
Freire P. Pedagogy of the oppressed. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin; 1972.
Freire P. Education for critical consciousness. London: Sheed and Ward; 1974.
Freire, P. & Freire, P. (2005). Education for critical consciousness. Continuum, New York; London.
Freire, P. & Shor, I. (1987). A pedagogy for liberation: dialogues on transforming education. Bergin & Garvey, Macmillan, Southhadley, Mass. Basingstoke.
Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections From the Prison Notebooks. New York, International publishers.
Haabermas, J. (1984). The Theory of Communicative Action: Reason and Rationalization of Society, vol. 1. Beacon Press Boston.
Hodges, C. (2000). The Falling Scholar - Essays from the outside. Ph.D. thesis, University of British Columbia.
Hodkinson P, Hodkinson H, Evans K, Kersh N, Fuller A, Unwin L, Senker P. The significance of individual biography in workplace learning. Studies in the Education of Adults. 2004;36(1):6–24.
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching in Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routledge, New York.
hooks, b. (2003). Teaching Community - A Pedagogy of hope. Routledge, New York.
Horkheimer M. Eclipse of reason. New York: Seabury; 1974.
Johnson R. Really Useful Knowledge, 1790-1850: Memories for education in the 1980s. In: Lovett T, editor. Radical approaches to Adult Education. London: Routledge; 1988.
Kincheloe, J. & Mclaren, P. (2000). Rethinking Critical Theory and Qualitative Research. In N.K. Denzin & Y.S. Lincoln (Eds.) Handbook of Qualitative Research (2nd ed.). Sage Publications, New York.
Lave J. Situated Learning in Communities of Practice. In: Resnick L, Levine J, Teasley S, editors. Perspectives on Socially Shared Cognition. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association; 1991. p. 63–82.
Lave J, Wenger E. Situated learning, legitimate peripheral participation. USA: Cambridge University Press; 1991.
Lave J. Teaching as learning in practice. Mind, Culture, and Activity. 1996;3(3):149–64.
Marcuse H. One Dimensional Man. Boston: Beacon; 1964.
O’Loughlin, M. (2006). Embodiment and Education. Springer on line service, http://0-dx.doi.org.library.vu.edu.au10.1007/1-4020-4588-3/ http://w2.vu.edu.au/library/EBookSearch/files/Springer_E-Books Online.pdf
Ollis T. ‘The accidental activist’: learning, embodiment and action. Australian Journal of Adult Learning. 2008;48(2):316–35.
Ollis T. Learning in Social Action: The informal and social learning dimensions of circumstantial and lifelong activists. Australian Journal of Adult Learning. 2011;51(2):248–68.
Ollis, T. (2012, forthcoming). A Critical Pedagogy of Embodied Education: Learning to Become an Actvist. Postcolonial Studies in Education, Palgrave, New York.
Soloman, N. (2003). Changing pedagogy: the new learner-worker. The Australian Centre for Organisational, Vocational and Adult Learning, University of Technology, Sydney.
Stake R. The Art of Case Study Research. Victoria: Sage Publications Inc; 1995.
Stake R. Case Studies. In: Denzin NK, Lincoln YS, editors. Strategies of Qualitative Inquiry. 2nd ed.: Sage Publications Inc. California; 2003.
Stake R. Multiple Case Study Analysis. New York: The Guilford Press; 2006.
Wenger E. Communities of Practice. Learning, Meaning and Identity: Learning in doing, social, cognitive and computational perspectives. Cambridge University Press, United States; 1998.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Sense Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ollis, T. (2012). Learning to Become an Academic. In: Ryan, M. (eds) Reflections on Learning, Life and Work. SensePublishers, Rotterdam. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-025-5_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-025-5_20
Publisher Name: SensePublishers, Rotterdam
Online ISBN: 978-94-6209-025-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)