Values, Concerns and Identity in Academic Development

ICED, Stockholm, 2014

Brenda LeibowitzJames Garraway

Jean Farmer

' .... there was a great silence about our political situations and struggles ... yet they are deeply part of the relations that constitute us as persons, teachers and researchers. At the same time they constitute the world as the historical process of which our endeavours, and we ourselves, happen to be part'. (Lave, 2012: 158)

Research Design

Three of us wrote our stories according to three periods:

1970 - 80s apartheid; youthPost 1994 democracy; ngo/early professional2010 neo-liberalism/late professional

Priscilla, Marcus and Joan

Themes emerged, based on conceptual framework

Conceptual Framework

Interplay of structure, culture and agency Reflexivity mediates agency and structureSignificance of concerns and commitments(Margaret Archer)Iterations, spirallingMultiple determination(Dave Elder-Vass)TrajectoriesStances(Ole Dreier)

Emerging Themes

• Reflexivity• Sense of self• Role of participation• Constraints and enablements

We bring our past along into the present either

consciously or subconsciously, unwillingly or

willingly.

Closing• All that the stories do is to explicate how

having been in the struggle may make the values base and make clearer the set of assumptions we work with in AD.

• The implication of this is that it may be beneficial for academic developers to undertake introspective and retrospective journeys, especially if they are in a position to reflect on these in the company of others.