How should academic institutions support pracademic work?

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Discussion

Abstract

This roundtable explores the institutional context of the ‘pracademic’, defined as individuals with academic positions who self-commit to active involvement in practice, making them a distinct and valuable type of change agent (Fowler et al, forthcoming; Posner 2009).
Universities are increasingly prioritising civic engagement and real-world impact, heightening attention on pracademics who bridge academic research, teaching and development-related practice. Yet institutional barriers often hinder pracademics from achieving external impact (Gourlay 2011; Wilson 2015; Dickinson, Fowler and Griffiths 2020; Eacott 2022; Hollweck, Netolicky and Campbell 2022). This roundtable will explore organisational conditions that best empower pracademics to fulfil this bridging role through engaged scholarship.
The roundtable will highlight the wide variation in how universities recognise, incentivise and reward publicly-engaged teaching and research. Participants will discuss support structures, policies and organisational cultures that facilitate pracademics in conducting reciprocal, third sector-partnered work that generates tangible public benefits. The discussion will encompass the support structures, academic policies and organisational cultures within universities which help or hinder pracademic work, including issues of tenure and promotion. From these insights, presenters will discuss recommended reforms to better support pracademic career paths, capacities and impact. Recommendations will span policy, practice and culture changes; in short, concrete actions institutions can take to unleash the potential of pracademics as agents of social change.
The roundtable contains a geographically diverse selection of participants from different career stages and institutional and professional backgrounds. Drawing from her experience as Associate Dean for Research, Angela Crack (University of Portsmouth, UK) will discuss how research assessment exercises can support pracademic work, if carefully designed. Alexsandra Belina (University of Warsaw, Poland) will consider the gendered dimension of pracademia, and reflect on her feminist-informed research on the institutionalised norms and expectations faced by women pracademics. Faina Diola’s (University of the Phillipines-Diliman) reflections are informed by decades of research at the intersection of development, development communication and public service, including volunteer and professional work on civil society development. Jonathan Makuwira (Malawi University of Science and Technology, Malawi) provides a critical perspective, noting that the discourse on pracademics tends to be silent on the wider role of the university in advancing social change. Ana Luísa Silva (University of Lisbon, Portugal) provides insights on the institutional conditions that enabled the establishment of a research-to-action initiative called Oficina Global, but also those that hindered its evolution. María del Carmen Zenk (Universidad Casa Grande, Ecuador) will draw on her research into social programs linked to citizen management of five universities in Ecuador to offer observations on the institutional conditions that favour the achievement of social innovation goals. All participants are working together on a forthcoming special issue of Development in Practice on pracademics as change agents.
This interactive, solutions-oriented roundtable will synthesise empirical insights into how organisational conditions—policies, structures, and cultures—can empower pracademics to achieve meaningful impact in the third sector. Attendees will be encouraged to share their own perspectives on enabling pracademic practice.

References

Dickinson, J., A. Fowler and T.L. Griffiths (2020). Pracademics? Exploring transitions and professional identities in higher education. Studies in Higher Education 47:2, 290-304.
Eacott, S. (2022). Pracademia: an answer but not the answer to an enduring question. Journal of Professional Capital and Community 7:1, 57-70.
Empson, L. (2013). My Affair With the “Other” Identity Journeys Across the Research-Practice Divide. Journal of Management Inquiry 22:2, 229-248.
Gourlay, L. (2011). ‘I’d Landed on the Moon’: A New Lecturer Leaves the Academy. Teaching in Higher Education 16:5, 593-603.
Hollweck, T., D.M: Netolicky and P. Campbell (2022). Defining and exploring pracademia: identity, community, and engagement. Journal of Professional Capital and Community 7:1, 6-25.
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Suárez-Cao, J. (2022) Blessing in Disguise? How the Gendered Division of Labor in Political Science Helped Achieved Gender Parity in the Chilean Constitutional Assembly. Politics & Gender 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X22000526
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Sub Unit

• Other Third Sector related topics

Discussants

• Aleksandra Katarzyna Belina, University of Warsaw

• Maria del Carmen Zenck, Universidad Casa Grande

• Maria Faina Lucero Diola, University of the Philippines

• Jonathan Makuwira, Malawi University of Science and Technology

• Ana Luísa Silva, CEsA, ISEG, University of Lisbon

• Angela Crack, University of Portsmouth