What do we know about academic culture? A review of the concept in the field of higher education studies

Abstract

Academic culture has a long tradition in higher education studies; nevertheless, only a few studies on this concept are available. This article aims to review the use of the concept of academic culture in higher education literature based on a bibliographic review, supported by bibliometric techniques, of studies on this topic in the last twenty years, paying special attention to state of the art in the Latin American context. The results show a growing use of the concept, which has not been yet linked to a clear definition that could conduce to the consolidation of a field of study of the cultural dimension of the sector. Specifically, there are four lines of research on academic culture: the impact of changes in the political economy on the traditional values of higher education institutions, the challenges of international exchange of students and academics, the recognition of implicit biases in the dominant academic culture, and the relationship between tacit regulations and organizational reform processes. This article also addresses how the fundamentally atheoretical character of academic culture studies mirrors the state of research in higher education, particularly in the Latin American context.