The 62 Club: reflections on late career in Comparative and International Education

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Description of Session
For early career (EC) colleagues in Comparative and International Education (CIE), there has been considerable energy invested in providing support as they are inducted into the field. This is an essential role for CIES and related academic societies, and the CIES conference has multiple spaces for EC participants to network, to ask questions, to be mentored, and to learn to participate fruitfully in the conference and present their work to a diverse but interested audience. Simultaneously there is a need to recognize a shift in demographics toward late career academics, which is well documented across much of the globe (Greller & Simpson 1999; Wang et al 2012). This shift has raised not only concerns about the well-being of individual faculty members and their healthy transitions to retirement but also awareness of the need for institutions to consider the health of their faculty and human resources planning. However, for institutions and academic organizations like CIES it might also mean considering issues around education, leadership, research, and innovation. Yet, there is relatively little on offer addressing these issues and this growing group of CIE colleagues.

In studying academic career development Zacher et al. (2019) made use of social cognitive career theory together with life-space theory in their review article of studies. The results of their work were categorized into five thematic clusters: (a) individual characteristics, (b) contextual factors, (c) active regulation of behaviour, (d) career stages, and (e) work and nonwork roles. Their results found gendered differences over the career lifecourse. Zacher et al. (2019) also note that later career stages and the work-nonwork interface have been neglected in the literature on academic career development. It is to this neglected area we wish to contribute with this symposium. Roles and priorities change for many people at this later stage, but there are many different ways of navigating those roles, setting those priorities, and, ultimately and eventually, exiting the field. The process is bound up in larger questions of identity, legacy, and opportunity. As at all career stages, personal relationships and aspirations beyond the workplace feature in decision-making, but the nature of those relationships and aspirations also appear in a new light.

These demographic shifts, and the choices made by individual members of the CIE community, also have major implications for the field as a whole. On the one hand, senior members can play important roles in mentoring, and in setting current developments in historical perspective with the benefit of experience. On the other hand, they can also, potentially, restrict spaces for career progression for others. These would be true for any field; the intercultural nature of work in CIE brings specific issues to bear, including differences in how age and experience are valued across cultural contexts.

The three panel members were all born in 1962 and will be 62 at the time of CIES 2025. For this panel discussion, each will reflect on the decisions they are facing and what personal, institutional and CIE-specific factors are shaping their priorities.

The panel is designed to stimulate discussion and debate. It will be of interest to later career colleagues in similar situations, and to people who have already faced these questions and chosen a trajectory. It will also be relevant to EC participants who want to take a long view on their careers. Additionally, we are keen to hear from EC colleagues about what they would want from their more experienced contemporaries.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chair

• Francine Menashy, OISE, University of Toronto

Discussants

• Halla B Holmarsdottir, Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet)

• Karen Mundy, University of Toronto

• Michele Schweisfurth, University of Glasgow