Research mentoring on the edge : early career researchers and academic fringe-dwelling

Discourses of research leadership define not only what quality research leadership can and should be, but also identify those who speak and act with authority. Similarly, these discourses construct particular professional identities and idealised ‘ways of being’. They provide possibilities for research leaders as well as those categorised as 'Early Career Researchers' (ECRs) to create alternative identities and representations of themselves. This study reports the views of 32 academics across 16 Australian universities in four States about research mentoring and leadership for ECRs. The primary interest was to explore how research leadership is conceptualised, implemented and negotiated in the disciplinary fields of business, nursing and education. Whilst a number of ECRs viewed formal research mentoring as taking a ‘tick the box’ approach that they believed of limited value, a number of research leaders had different views. Most senior research leaders viewed the systemic provision of assistance their universities offered in a positive light. The dissonance in views centred on the subject positioning of academics in research. The dissatisfaction expressed by ECRs, a number of whom positioned themselves as fringe-dwellers ‘on the edge’ of their institutional research culture, raises questions about research sustainability and succession planning in Australian tertiary
institutions.

Learning in both worlds : academic journalism as a research outcome

Works of journalism by journalism academics can be valuable outcomes of research without making the claim that they are scholarly works per se. In the discussion of the feature article Learning in both worlds that follows, I make a case for the importance of writing and publishing this piece of journalism as an outcome of my research on the interplay of news media and bilingual education policy in Australia’s Northern Territory 1988-2008. I also advocate the ‘experimental’ possibilities such works of journalism offer for ‘testing’ research findings, concepts and theories.

Monkey in a cage : the complicated loyalties of mid-level academic women working in higher education

Loyalty raises a dilemma for women’s career progression and leadership because it signals confidence in the organisation, despite the ongoing constraints that organisations present for women and their leadership aspirations. The research investigates women’s loyalty in the context of higher education. Focussing on a select group of mid-level female academics, the paper will argue against a common sense understanding of loyalty as an expression of female care. A critical reconsideration of loyalty as care is made possible by analysing the ‘utility of loyalty’ and how it becomes a legitimate organising principle that operationalises institutional and personal objectives. How women enact loyalty draws on agency theory to explain and analyse the way loyalty is appropriated by women. The results show contradictory actions around loyalty, however, these can be clarified by agency theory to demystify loyalty and critically analyse how specific work actions and practices shape explain seemingly contradictory and emotive responses. The complications around women and loyalty are expressions of a substantive rationality through which mid-level female academics respond to the uneven opportunities, limitations and constraints that influence their work, profession and relationships.

Information technology competencies for Malaysian accountants – an academic's perspective

An increase in the pace of technological change has revolutionised the way accountants perform their jobs. In response to this challenge, the identification of a new comprehensive set of information technology competencies combined with information technology skills and other skills (namely, soft skills) are necessary. This study uses mixed methods to identify which information technology skills and competencies are required for accountants from the perspective of academics in Malaysia. Findings indicate that spreadsheets, word processing and accounting software were ranked as much-needed skills to be acquired by accountants while communication skills were ranked as the most required skills, and delegation skills as the least required. Although academics have an important role to determine accountants’ information technology skills and competencies, they are still unfamiliar with the exact soft skills that should be blended in utilising information technology.

In what ways does policy on academic integrity, copyright and privacy need to respond in order to accommodate assessment with Web 2.0 tools?

Increasingly social web technologies, such as blogging and micro-blogging, audio and video podcasting, photo/video, social bookmarking, social networking, wiki writing or virtual worlds are being used as forms of authoring or content creation to support students’ learning in higher education. As Web 2.0 teaching practice is characterised by open access to information and collaborative networks there are both familiar and novel challenges for policy-makers in higher education institutions. The Government 2.0 Taskforce heralded legislative and practice changes necessary because of Web 2.0. We reflect on the qualitative feedback received from innovative higher education practitioners using Web 2.0 to assess student work. This indicates a need for information policy review to accommodate the cultural shift towards information exchange and communication across traditional institutional boundaries. Issues involved when implementing Web 2.0 assessments are identified to highlight requisite areas for policy improvement in higher education, in particular for academic integrity, copyright and privacy policies

Locating frames of reference for information systems : a position paper

Frame analysis has been applied in Information Systems (IS) research to generate understanding of such issues as organisational change and IS implementation. Frames are the unconscious interpretive schemas that people, or groups of people, use to interpret their surroundings, determine what is important, and guide their actions. While framing has been used as a theoretical lens in IS research into organisations, there has been no analysis to date of how frames may play a role in the IS field itself. This paper argues that is relevant and insightful to examine the IS discourse from a framing perspective. In order to demonstrate the potential value of such an approach, a subset of a collection of articles from six journals in the senior scholars’ basket of journals was analysed in an exploratory attempt to locate the frames of reference that predominate in the IS discourse. Three levels of framing were identified and a provisional schema is proposed. We suggest that further investigation of the schema, the frames and their application will provide opportunity for critical reflection on the nature of Information Systems as an academic discipline. Such critical self-examination may even foster purposive frame breaking, in support of recent calls for transformation in the IS field.

Development of a tool for evaluation of academic library spaces (TEALS) (0242)

The paper provides a brief description of the tool for evaluating the quality and utilisation of academic library spaces (TEALS). Supported by Deakin University Library, TEALS has been developed out of a research project in the School of Architecture and Building, Deakin University, Geelong Waterfront Campus. The tool is intended to establish the setting for evaluation of physical spaces at different phases of development of new academic library spaces and refurbishment of existing ones as well as throughout the life of buildings. The methodological framework of the tool consists of four key elements; establishing Criteria of Quality (CoQ), determining Quality Indicators, evaluating library spaces against QIs and interpreting results for future improvements. The characteristics that distinguish TEALS from existing evaluation models include adopting an approach that focus on people (students, faculty and library staff), acting as a “reflective” and “empowering” tool and being user-friendly, quick and easy to use.

BE (Hons) final year project assessment - leaving out the subjectiveness

Final year projects for BE(Hons) programmes are the linkage between the academic and the industrial domains. Projects are often judged by respective employers as the measure by which students are considered and are also closely surveyed by professional bodies when accreditation is sought. In some instances, final year projects can lead to publications in conferences and journals and also allow students to continue their academic study into research degrees. However, the assessment of both the final thesis and the process of conducting the project are often subjective and open to challenge. This paper discusses a comprehensive strategy for removing some of the inconsistencies and proposes a transparent and robust assessment model which can be applied in similar areas elsewhere. This approach has been developed at the School of Engineering at AUT University in Auckland.

Feminist geography 30 years on : they came, they saw but did they conquer?

Feminist geography emerged in Australia in the 1980s, spurred on by the local Women’s Liberation Movement and inspired by the academic activism emanating from England, Canada and the United States. Producing critical evaluations of male-dominated geography departments, curriculum and journals, feminist geographers proceeded to stake claims in each of these spheres while also substantially revising the content of geographical research. There were significant interventions into urban, social, cultural and economic geography, in environmental discourses as well as into the gendered research process. Having arrived, identified and addressed these issues, the discipline was critiqued and transformed over the 1980s and 1990s. Crucial to the strength of this critique were key individuals, the Gender and Geography Group within the Institute of Australian Geographers and the role played by journals such as Geographical Research and the Australian Geographer in providing spaces for feminist work. However, as the new century dawned, the agenda changed and the anger and urgency dissipated as the broader and university contexts altered. It was a period of consolidation, as feminist insights and approaches were focused on key subject areas – such as the home, identity and sexuality – and became more mainstream. But is this work and the presence of women in the academy an indication of success or of co-option? This paper will trace these various shifts – from the arrival to the mainstreaming of feminist geography - and analyse what might be read as a retreat from feminist politics and practice within the discipline in Australia. I will conclude by re-stating the case to advance a new feminist agenda in the face of continuing gender inequality within the academy, in Australia and across the globe.

(Un)ethical practices and ethical dilemmas in universities : academic leaders’ perceptions

In this paper we report on the qualitative component of a study that explored middle-level academic leaders’ experiences of (un)ethical practices and ethical dilemmas in their daily work. An electronic survey was distributed to academic leaders from universities across three Australian states. There are three major findings in this study. First, the messy context of universities is providing a fertile ground for ethical dilemmas to flourish. Second, the two main categories of unethical practices identified by participants were academic dishonesty and inappropriate behaviour towards staff and students. Third, the ethical dilemmas that emerged focused on the academic leaders’ strong sense of professional ethics that were in conflict with an ethic of care, supervisors’ directives, and the rules and policies of the organisation.

The structure of academic prose : intercultural and interdisciplinry dimensions

In the contemporary world of increasing internationalisation of scholarship the ability to communicate in the “lingua franca” of global research communities and familiarity with relevant academic genres is crucial to attaining research visibility in the academy. Native English language competency does not guarantee the possession of knowledge and skills about how to manipulate the language structure of academic genres to produce the kind of scholarly prose acceptable in the community of readers. This task is even more challenging to Non-NESB academic writers, mainly because the purpose of academic writing is both informative and rhetorical, and the information packaging strategies are likely to be discipline and culture bound.
Communication in professional academic culture is carried out and codified by selected genre categories which function as the media for scholarly discussions. This presentation focuses on the structure of a research paper, the most widely established form of presenting academic research. With an increasing internationalisation of scholarship, the schema of a research paper faces two potentially conflicting sets of forces. At one end are the forces of established conventions of the rhetorical pattern of research papers which are modelled on the structure of an “Anglo” research paper. On the other are the forces of norms for text construction of the author’s culture of socialization.

I discuss analytical approaches to the examination of the relational organisation of this genre exploring both intercultural and interdisciplinary dimensions. I examine paratactic and hypotactic configurations of the structure of research paper, providing examples of relational strategies utilised by native and no-native English speaker writers representing Anglo and non-Anglo discourse communities.