Over time, how do post-Ph.D. scientists locate teaching and supervision within their academic practice?

Abstract

While building a strong research profile is usually seen as key for those seeking a traditional academic position, teaching is also understood as central to academic practice. Still, we know little of how post-Ph.D. researchers seeking academic posts locate teaching and supervision in their academic practice, nor how their views may shift as they are hired into such positions. Drawing on a framework of identity-trajectory narrative, this two-year study of seven Canadian post-Ph.D. scientists examines in-depth the shifting place of teaching within their academic practice. A positive view of the role of teaching in the post-Ph.D. position evolved to a more complex positioning as individuals became pre-tenure. The contributions of this study include a focus on early career scientists (much previous research examines social scientists); its rare longitudinal reach following individuals across roles; and its integration of teaching within other academic work.

Keywords:

• early career researchers
• longitudinal research
• teaching and supervision

Acknowledgements

This research has been supported in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Notes

1. Brookeye was one of the three who was in a postdoc in year one and a pre-tenure position in year two, so his experience demonstrates the shifts that occurred in taking on a new role.

2. It is not possible given the small sample size to comment on possible patterns related to gender-related practices or scholarly specialism, though we have some evidence of these in other analyses: scholarly specialism (McAlpine 2014) and gender-related practices (McAlpine and Turner 2012).