This paper investigates how early career academics interpret and respond to institutional demands structured by projectification. Developing a 'frame analytic' approach, it explores projectification as a process constituted at the level of meaning-making. Building on 35 in-depth interviews with fixed-term scholars in political science and history,…

Purpose: While current research is reporting on a crisis in school leadership aspirations and appointments, this research sheds light on the mediating factors that school middle leaders (MLs) attribute to their appointment as a leader and their aspirations to senior leadership positions. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative data from a larger,…

Reemployment of middle-aged and older adults is important and meaningful in helping them successfully transition and adapt to late adulthood. This study explored the lifelong learning experiences of successfully re-employed middle-aged and older adults in Taiwan. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 middle-aged and older…

This sociological study examines the declining status of teachers through theoretical frameworks and empirical analysis of seventeen graduate-level educators. Employing a multidimensional approach, it assesses the comparative professional standing, career motivations, systemic challenges, and policy impacts. Findings identify interconnected…

How do we style ourselves and others as scholars in the field of critical education? What parts of ourselves and others do we regard as salient (or not) in our accounts? And what are the forces that underlie such decisions? In this article, I submit that secularisation is a persistent epistemic and ontological condition that shapes the study of…

In response to a workforce crisis, Australia's early childhood education and care workforce strategy for the next decade, "Shaping our Future," was released in September 2021. This strategy was developed through a three-stage, 'top-down' process in which open consultation on pre-defined strategies was the final stage. Analysing data from…

While interdisciplinarity has been promoted in universities for decades, research suggests that untenured faculty struggle to receive recognition for their interdisciplinary research. Informed by the microfoundations of institutional theory and discursive legitimation, we examine how members of academic departments participate in the legitimation…

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain, have significantly progressed in higher education reform programmes. However, challenges remain, such as a lack of uniformity in assessment, different norms for degree recognition, a shortage of regionally relevant…

Owing to the unprecedented challenges brought about by the global pandemic and neoliberal reforms, it is critical for school leaders to help teachers navigate through chaos and stay emotionally healthy. From a sample of 449 primary and secondary school teachers in mainland China, we constructed a multi-mediator model to explore the direct effect…

This article provides a conceptual discussion of 'ownership' in various forms of participatory research. The discussion is grounded in our experiences from three research projects in science education. We seek to understand how and why ownership may be distributed between teachers and researchers at different stages in the research process.…

I discuss my engagement with three professional recognition and development opportunities for academic developers: Senior Fellowship of HEA, HERDSA Fellowship, and SEDA Fellowship. I found that the portfolios for these fellowships complement one another well, and together present a valuable reflection on all aspects of the academic development…

Patricia J. Smith's argument for professionalism based on Caplow's outdated model is inappropriate for honors administration. The steps outlined are misleading, and the use of the perennially controversial Basic Characteristics as a prescription for professionalizing honors is historically inaccurate and has no place in framing the future of…

Patricia J. Smith's essay on the professionalization of honors advances several original and provocative arguments that deserve serious consideration. Although Smith makes a plausible case that honors has fulfilled at least three of Theodore Caplow's four stages of professionalization, a closer reading of this text reveals that the developments…

This essay responds to an argument for certification based on a particular sociological theory of professionalization. The case for certification rests on the supposition that honors has evolved from a nascent educational movement focused on distinct teaching and learning approaches for high-ability students to one that is now ready to…

This article introduces Hybrid Professional Becoming as a critical approach in English language teaching, challenging the native English-speaking teachers and non-native English-speaking teachers (NEST-NNEST) binary. Grounded in postcolonial theory and a comprehensive literature review, the approach weaves together critical reflection, desire,…