Professional Development for Practitioners in Academia

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Jill Dickinson, Teri-Lisa Griffiths

   Pages 1-8

3. Pracademic Identities

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-9

      PDF

   2. ‘Don’t Take Your Briefcase’: Navigating a Career Change from Professional Practice to the Academic Role

      • Mary Kitchener

      Pages 11-24

   3. From Expert to Novice: A Lecturer’s Tale

      • Suzanne Hodgson

      Pages 25-38

   4. The Pracademic: Where Practice Meets Theory. The Value of Practitioner Experience when Teaching and Researching in a Higher Education Environment

      • Michelle Stirk

      Pages 39-51

   5. Imposter Syndrome and the Non-pracademics: A Joint Autoethnographic Account

      • Catherine Wilkinson, Samantha Wilkinson

      Pages 53-64

   6. Grappling with Pracademia in Education: Forms, Functions, and Futures

      • Paul Campbell, Trista Hollweck, Deborah M. Netolicky

      Pages 65-83

   7. ‘Finding Your People’: The Role of Networks in Pracademic Identity Construction

      • Helen Taylor

      Pages 85-97

4. Professional Development

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 99-99

      PDF

   2. Pracademics: Facilitating Smooth Transition from Industry to Academia

      • Funmi Obembe

      Pages 101-116

   3. The Value of Objects: How Artefacts Can Enrich Professional Reflection and Reflexivity

      • Jill Dickinson, Teri-Lisa Griffiths

      Pages 117-129

   4. From Practice to Theory: The Pracademic and the PhD

      • Caroline Hunter, Helen Carr

      Pages 131-145

   5. Resilient Networking and Collaboration – Solving the Puzzle: How to Balance Being a Practitioner and a Researcher

      • Jan Gurung

      Pages 147-163

   6. How Pracademics Can Help to Address the Rigour-Relevance Gap in Business and Management Schools

      • Steve Johnson, Mark Ellis

      Pages 165-178

5. Teaching Practice

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 179-179

      PDF

   2. The Value of Pracademics – Uniquely Placed to Enhance Student Employability

      • Sally Skea

      Pages 181-194

   3. Those Who Can, Do (and Teach): Developing Simulations to Bring Practitioners and Students Together

      • Nichola Cadet

      Pages 195-209

   4. Construction and Engineering Higher Education: The Role of Pracademics in Recoupling Classical Experiential Educational Norms

      • Alan M. Forster, Nick Pilcher, Mike Murray, Stuart Tennant, Nigel Craig, Laurent Galbrun

      Pages 211-227

   5. More than Mere Context: The Role of Former Practitioners in Surveying Education

      • Emily Walsh

      Pages 229-240

This multi-disciplinary collection addresses issues relating to current or former practitioners within the context of higher education. Drawing together a range of voices, the contributors explore contemporary issues organised around three core themes of pracademic identities, professional development, and teaching practice. Underpinned by theoretical frameworks, reporting empirical findings, and adopting a reflective lens, this critical examination draws on a range of experiences to provide a deeper understanding of the contribution of pracademics within the sector for stakeholders, including leaders, policy makers and professional bodies, and current and future pracademics. 

Dedicated to highlighting the potential of the pracademic contribution, this collection explores key topics including building networks, practice-informed teaching, consultancy, and collaborative research. Contributions investigate some of the practical barriers faced by pracademics making the transition into higher education, including imposter syndrome, cultural adjustment, and managing dual professional identities. The aim of this collection is to champion the benefits of a diverse academy for everyone involved.

• industry-ready
• practice-oriented disciplines
• learning to teach
• the pracademic as consultant
• recruitment trends for pracademics
• career transitions from practice into academia
• pracademic identities
• teaching practice
• career academics
• professional reflection
• teaching and researching in Higher Education
• non-pracademic teaching
• imposter syndrome
• pracademic identity construction
• transition from industry to academia
• professional educator development

• School of Law, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

  Jill Dickinson

• Department of Law and Criminology, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK

  Teri-Lisa Griffiths

Jill Dickinson is an Associate Professor in Law at the University of Leeds and Senior Fellow of Advance HE. A former Solicitor, Jill has around 25 years’ combined experience in teaching, research, and legal practice and her research around place-making, learning landscapes, and professional development has led to the development of communities of practice with organisations including Advance HE.

Teri-Lisa Griffiths is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Sheffield Hallam University. As a former careers adviser, Teri-Lisa is interested in how spaces for education and professional identity can influence career and development choices. As the Year Tutor and Employability Lead for Criminology, an awareness of how institutional and national policy initiatives impact on course delivery is influential in her work.