preprints.org > social sciences > education > doi: 10.20944/preprints202403.0339.v1

Preprint Case Report Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Version 1 : Received: 20 February 2024 / Approved: 6 March 2024 / Online: 6 March 2024 (10:57:25 CET)

This paper shares research results of an explorative study investigating a Malta context university lectureship experience. The qualitative research findings, based on thematic analysis of 10 interview transcripts, describe the experience of being a university academic as an ever-changing journey of time passages in space and time. The journey is characterised by the strong theme of teaching along with the two other primary themes labelled identity and un/belonging. Identity feeds on teaching and the sense of un/belonging, but not only. Profession/Practice and Research/Publication are two other themes that in this study emerge as feeding the primary themes. These research findings unsettle privilege portrayals of tenure track university lectureship. They confirm the emphasis on teaching in this local context and increased administration obligations. Distinctively, they expose another identity dimension additional to the teacher and researcher attributions highlighted in mainstream literature. These findings suggest that university academics need to be supported for keeping alive differentiated identity dimensions which are not in opposition to each other yet in competition for time. While the limitations of the study are acknowledged, several recommendations deriving from this study for the local context are shared.

university lectureship; academic experience; Higher Education; Malta context

Social Sciences, Education

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