Community-led approaches to the academic development of pracademics in universities: evidence from Ghana

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how pracademics who teach at different universities in Ghana contribute to shaping their academic development. In this study, a pracademic refers to an industry practitioner who is employed by a university as a part-time academic to teach academic courses and support the knowledge and skills development of learners. Using a dialogical narrative approach, data were gathered from 14 pracademics who teach academic courses at different universities in Ghana. The findings revealed that the academic development of pracademics is linked to their unique professional identity, the social networks that support their personal and professional growth, and the complex professional community in which they operate. The narratives of the participants revealed that the network of pracademics serves to promote their common interests, which include needs (social, job-related, and resources), expectations, access to opportunities, and their ability to promote academic disciplines. Additionally, pracademics are likely to be highly motivated to join informal networks within a broad context – pracademia, when they know that issues concerning their job security and professional development in the areas of teaching, research, and engaged scholarship will be prioritised by the management of universities.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic development
• pracademics
• higher education
• professional community
• collaboration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yaw Owusu-Agyeman

Yaw Owusu-Agyeman is a Senior lecturer at the Department of Adult Education and Human Resource Studies, University of Ghana. Prior to joining the University of Ghana, Yaw served as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Directorate for Institutional Research and Academic Planning, University of the Free State, South Africa. Yaw is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), UK.

Gertrude Amoakohene

Gertrude Amoakohene is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Accounting, Banking and Finance. She earned her PhD in Business Administration at CASS Institute of Management, France. She also earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with distinction at University of Leicester, and a Master’s Degree in Finance, from Oxford Brookes University, all in the UK.