Joanne Caldwell

Joanne Caldwell

ESRI postgraduate researcher

Perceptions of Identity in Higher Education: Professional Services and Academic Staff (Ed Doc)

Background and aims

My EdD research centres around the relationship between professional services and academic staff. I originally focused on professional identity but it became clear that there is so much more to the relationship on both sides that I have widened my analysis to attempt to understand not just identity, but the historical notion of the divide between the two, the nomenclature used to describe professional services and how each party understands the other’s role.

This is a qualitative study and I have situated it within Holland et al’s Figured Worlds (1998). This enables me to use this lens to see how identity and language situates staff within specific spheres and how they can (or cannot) move between the two spaces.

As a member of professional services staff who is working with research and moving into an academic space, I am straddling the two as a third space professional and my research also allows me to reflect on my agency within both Figured Worlds.

publications

25th Anniversary article: looking back on Perspectives and looking forward Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education, Volume 25, 2021 - Issue 4.

Is it worth it? Reflections on the first two years of a professional doctorate Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education, Volume 23, 2019 - Issue 2-3.

Invisible imposter: identity in institutions – Katie Akerman (2020) (article review). Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education, Volume 24, 2020 - Issue 4.

The Importance of Relationships Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education, Editorial, Volume 25, 2021 - Issue 2.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

  • Challenges in Researching as a Third Space Professional Manchester Metropolitan University, Postgraduate Conference; Leaping into the Liminal, Online (June 2021)

  • Challenges in Researching as a Third Space Professional The University of Warwick, Postgraduate Conference on Frontiers of Education and Activism, Online (April 2021)

  • University Challenge:​ Is our Professional Identity impacted when working with academic colleagues? Association of University Administrators, Annual Conference, Online (March 2021)

  • Challenges in Researching as a Third Space Professional Lingnan University, Hong Kong, Postgraduate Conference on Interdisciplinary Learning, Online (March 2021)

  • University Challenge:​ Is our Professional Identity affected when working with academic colleagues? Association of University Administrators, North West Conference, Edge Hill (January 2020)

  • The Professionalization of the University Administrator in the UK: Keynote Address, Higher Education Faculty Administrators Forum, Annual Conference, Johannesburg (May 2017)

Contact Joanne

Email:  Joanne.caldwell@stu.mmu.ac.uk

Other links: