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The Rise of „Blended‟ Professionals:
Implications for Individuals and
Institutions
Standing Conference on Academic Practice –
7 July 2011
Dr Celia Whitchurch
Lecturer
Institute of Education
University of London
Centre for Higher
Education Studies
2
Leadership Foundation for
Higher Education Studies
•Professional Managers in UK Higher Education: Preparing for Complex Futures(2005-2007)
(www.lfhe.ac.uk/publications/research.htm
•Optimising the Potential of ‘Third Space’ Professionals in UK Higher Education(January-December 2009)
(www.lfhe.ac.uk/research/smallprojects/
ioefinalreport.doc)
3
Contexts II
•Increasingly diverse workforce:
–Movement in and out of higher education
–Teaching/research in eg practice settings
–Partnership working (internal and external)
–Blurring of boundaries
•New cadres of staff:
–Professional staff with academic credentials
–Academic staff with interests in projects such as widening participation and new modes of learning
4
The Emergence of Third
Space
The Student Transitions
Project
eg Life and welfare
Widening participation
Employability and
careers
The Partnership Project
eg Regional/community
development
Business/industry
liaison
Knowledge exchange
The Professional
Development Project
eg Academic practice
Professional practice
Project management
Leadership/management
development
Examples of Institutional Projects
in Third SpaceProfessional Staff Academic Staff
Generalist
functions
(eg registry,
department/
school
management)
Specialist
functions
(eg finance,
human
resources)
„Niche‟ functions
(eg quality,
research
management
Pastoral
support
Teaching/
curriculum
development for
non-traditional
students
Links with local
education
providers
Mixed teams
“The Higher Education
Professional”
„Perimeter‟
roles eg
„Perimeter‟
roles eg
Teaching
Research
Outreach/study
skills
Access/equity/
disability
Community/
regional
partnership
„Third leg‟ eg
public service,
enterprise
Adapted from Whitchurch (2008)
5
Case Material
•Nine institutions; 70 respondents; UK, US, Australia
•Sub-set of 42 respondents in roles with significant academic elements (teaching, tutoring, programme design, applied research)
•Also with doctorates, publications, and/or experience of teaching/research in tertiary sector
•Backgrounds in eg continuing education, teacher education, English as Second Language, academic literacy, policy research, scientific research/practice
6
Job description – Learning
Partnerships Manager (UK)
•Blended roles exemplified by job
description for Learning Partnerships
Manager, requiring: “…academic
credibility to ensure that innovative and
complex operations are delivered with
high standards and quality… [and]
experience of generating external income
and involvement in project management”
7
Examples of „blended‟ activity
•Teaching and learning eg tutoring, programme design/documentation, study skills/academic literacy
•Community partnership eg employer engagement, workplace learning, outreach sessions
•Web-based learning eg online programme design/
development/adaptation, web-based discussion fora
•Research enterprise eg preparation of bids, knowledge transfer, spin out, bespoke programmes for industry
•Institutional research into eg student recruitment & outcomes, benchmarking, educational practice
8
Preference for more project-
oriented roles
•People who could have gone „either way‟…
•Positive choice/intentionality arising from eg:
•Ideological commitment to eg widening
participation
•Subject discipline no longer interesting/too isolating
•Preferred team working
•Research inactive or preferred Mode 2 orientation
•Pragmatic eg role offered route into higher
education, career development, funding
opportunities; or needed job in specific location
9
Extension of academic
identities
Community networks
Teaching and learning networks
Academic
Activity
Project
Portfolios
eg
Project
Portfolios
eg
Widening
participation
Teaching
Web-based
learning
Mode 2
Policy
research
Research
Mode 2
Institutional
research
Community
partnership
Third leg Disciplinary
networks
Business
partnership
10
„Blended‟ spaces
•Ambiguous conditions:
–“Sometimes an academic unit, sometimes an office” (learning partnerships manager)
–Turning this to advantage…
–Working with given structures for practical purposes, but also critiquing them
•Safe space in which to be creative/experiment
but also
•Lack of organisational checks and balances
•Sense of struggle, challenge and tension
11
„Blended‟ knowledges
•Applied knowledge: eg student trends/outcomes
•Contextual/cross-boundary knowledge: “It‟s not
enough just to… be an accountant… or to manage
staff... in order to be effective within a university you
need to understand the context.” (faculty manager)
•Transforming „information‟ into „knowledge‟:“My role
is… to try to interpret data. Timing, politics, the
media you use, the way you communicate it, is
probably even more important than the actual
findings of an analysis” (institutional researcher)
• Higher education as an academic field…
12
„Blended‟ relationships
•„Partnership‟ rather than „management‟
•Lateral team working among senior/junior staff
•Less division between „managers‟ and „managed‟
•Key responsibilities eg leading a project at earlier stage of careers
•“if you get the relationships right everything else falls into place” (educational technologist)
•Importance of „weak ties‟/networks (Granovetter 1974)
13
Legitimacies I
•Credibility likely to be built on a personal basis,
and to be based on social/professional capital:
–“There‟s no authority that you come with”
(planning manager)
–“It‟s what you are, not what you represent”
(learning partnerships manager)
–“… I‟ve had to create my own role, find my
own ways into systems and force my way into
meetings, rather than wait for someone to ask
me to contribute” (educational technologist)
14
Legitimacies II
•Ability to participate in disinterested debate:
–“learning to divorce argument from people” (teaching and learning manager)
•Appreciating likely responses:
–Different academic/professional work “rhythms”
–Applied, Mode 2 activity as “trade” or “dirty” work…
–Attitude of academic staff that “If you solve a problem for us, we‟ll come back and work with you again” (teaching and learning manager)
15
Languages
•“you‟ve got two different groups of people often talking
two different languages” (educational technologist)
•Multi-lingual, understanding and interpreting between
eg educational, socio-economic, market discourses
•Using acceptable language: “I call it management
development, but what I say and what they say are two
very different things” (staff developer)
•Avoiding unacceptable language („customers‟, „prices‟)
•Developing new language around eg partnership,
creativity, project work, teamwork, networking,
institutional R & D
16
The „internal project
consultant‟ I•Employed on multiple, fractional contracts/ran own business
•Located between academic department, educational technology unit, central administration
•Involved in teaching, programme development and delivery, organisational restructuring
•Contracts arose through contacts/networks:
“most areas try to retain you when they know that you can actually do the job within the parameters…”
•Because of „casual‟ status not always linked into internal communications
17
The „internal project
consultant‟ II
•“I‟ve never been on a career path as such… [I
see myself as] achieving work for the university
that benefits academics and students… and
showing academics and administrators that they
can think kindly of each other and work together”.
•“[In the university] there are no positions that
allow you to teach and project manage in one
role… in the business world there is a great deal
more freedom in creating positions that suit the
needs of the organisation”.
18
Implications for individuals I
•New roles arising from contemporary environments co-
exist with traditional academic roles (formal research
training programmes offer generic skills…)
•Possibilities for staff with blended backgrounds to:
– make a career of academically oriented project work
– move in and out of project work but stay in higher
education
– revert to mainstream academia
– make a career in another sector eg policy/funding
agencies, business/industry, NGOs or third sector
19
Implications for individuals II
– “I‟ve always tried to take the next step in another area,
so that it moves you forward” (teaching and learning
manager)
– But “I‟m not sure what type of professional I am any
more” (student services manager)
Lack of structure/checks and balances
Inappropriate reporting lines…
Risks of getting out of mainstream/how to get
mainstream experience eg managing budgets/staff
Status of boundary work eg for promotion
Appropriate career/professional development
20
Implications for institutions
–Relationship with mainstream activity
–Encouraging project work while maintaining oversight
–Preventing projects developing a life of their own or being too dependent on one individual (succession planning)
–Accommodating flexible/portfolio work styles
–Appropriate mix of identities
–Appropriate employment packages/rewards and incentives
21
Possible responses
• Recognition in workload models/promotion criteria of eg community and partnership activity; developing new funding opportunities
• Support of senior person/mentoring/coaching
• Development opportunities via eg secondments, internal consultancy, work-based research opportunities, attachment to eg higher education unit
• Flexible career pathways
• Responsibilities on individuals as well as institutions…
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