Behind the digital curtain: a study of academic identities, liminalities and labour market adaptations for the ‘Uber-isation’ of HE

Abstract

Behind the Digital Curtain: a study of academic identities, liminalities and labour market adaptations for the "Uber-isation" of HE This paper explores sensemaking narratives from teaching academics undertaking identity work in the context of a rapidly expanding digital education sphere. It considers the implications for emotional labour and status of digitised higher education teaching academics from the imposition of a rejuvenated New Public Management. We discuss possible tainting from fractured and short-term contractual arrangements alongside growth in managerialism, metrics and accountability.This study combines photographic ethnography and interviews to gain insight into uncertainties, anxieties, identity legitimations and participant responses to imposed changes within digitally evolving workspaces. The paper explores teaching cultures within two higher education institutions, on different points of a digital continuum, finding discourses of alienation, liminality and validation.Resultant 'sticky' or resistant behaviours in rapid adaptations to digital teaching life were heard as we aimed to understand what it means to teach in a digitised, neoliberal context.

Exploring academics’ identities in today’s universities: a systematic review

“…Firstly, the general objective of most of the studies is to analyse the influence of new management demands (evaluations and metrics) on the processes of constructing and developing professional academic identities (Gaus and Hall, 2015;Guzm an-Valenzuela and Barnett, 2013;Guzm an-Valenzuela and Martínez, 2016;Huang and Guo, 2019;Huang, Pang, Yu, 2016;Jiménez, 2019;McCune, 2019;Saura and Bolívar, 2019;Shams, 2019;Tülübass and Göktürk, 2020;Ylijoki and Ursin, 2013). However, although the main element examined is the influence of metrics and evaluations on the QAE 30,1 performance of academics, some studies also aimed to analyse other political technologies such as the rapid digitalisation of higher education (Collins et al, 2020;Saura and Bolívar, 2019).…”

Illuminating the transitional habitus of the early career health science professional as postgraduate supervisor

“…These emotions erode the confidence of the postgraduate supervisor, and the practice of supervision becomes bewildering and daunting. Collins, Glover and Myers ( 2020 ) confirmed the effects of academic work’s emotional labour, especially the uncertainties, anxieties and identity legitimations within the forced changes, especially digitally evolving workspaces. The challenges are more pronounced for early career supervisors as they struggle to balance other academic responsibilities, such as teaching and research (Naidoo & Mthembu 2015 ).…”

Conceptualizing capitalist transformations: Marx’s relevance for higher education research

“…Secondly, we can point to a group of articles critically analysing the concepts of academic identity, one of the main topics in HER (Tight 2014(Tight , 2015. On the one hand, starting from Marx's political economy and his negative critique of labour (Neary & Winn 2017;Collins, Glover & Myers 2020), on the other hand, from moral political economy and more humanist perspectives (Sutton 2014;. Thirdly, Marx's theory is used as a reference point in reflection on the transformation of the sphere of education, its commodification and the accompanying discourses of excellence (Saunders & Blanco Ramirez 2017), in developing critical methods of educating students (Fox & O'Maley 2017), or as one from positions in discussions about neoliberalism in higher education (Grealy & Laurie 2017).…”