‘You're not able to breathe’: conceptualizing the intersectionality of early career, gender and crisis

Abstract

Drawing on data from nine focus groups in four countries, I argue for the need to develop a research agenda around the intersectionality of early career, gender and crisis. I first give a brief explanation of the background, methodology and limitations of the study. Second, I lay out some key conceptualizations and their own limitations and then trace some important theoretical intersections that will frame the discussion. Third, to bring this intersectionality to life, I employ participant examples from the focus groups. In the first section of the analysis of the participant responses, I examine how crisis affects the identities of early-career academics. In the second section of the analysis, I connect these questions of identities with early-career academics' relationship with higher education (HE) pedagogies, most likely well known by the reader as a marginalized aspect of academics' work in HE institutions. Finally, I conclude with some responses to these dilemmas.

Keywords:

• gender
• early career
• crisis
• identity
• pedagogy

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge an intellectual debt in this paper to Prof. Penny Jane Burke and Prof. Gill Crozier. Their work has influenced my thinking profoundly.

Funding

This work was supported by the US–UK Fulbright Commission and the Paulo Freire Institute-UK, Centre for Educational Research in Equalities, Policy and Pedagogy, Roehampton University.

Additional information

Funding

Funding: This work was supported by the US–UK Fulbright Commission and the Paulo Freire Institute-UK, Centre for Educational Research in Equalities, Policy and Pedagogy, Roehampton University.