Abstract

SANTOS, Carolina Costa; PEREIRA, Fátima  and  LOPES, Amélia. Effects of work intensification in higher education: from work areas fragmentation to the nexus between teaching, research, leadership and knowledge exchange. Rev. Port. de Educação [online]. 2016, vol.29, n.1, pp.295-321. ISSN 0871-9187.  https://doi.org/10.21814/rpe.6820.

Contemporary higher education is characterized by continuing alterations, as the educational system tends to follow economic, political and social changes in Portugal. In consequence, external factors reconfigure universities concerns, structures and goals. These changes have a considerable impact on academic work while higher education teachers have to respond to new tasks. Therefore, academic identity may be reconstructed. This study aims at understanding the academic identity related with the four areas of academic work - teaching, research, leadership activities and knowledge exchange - in the current changing higher education context. Focus group and biographical narratives were conducted as methodological strategies. The participants were academics of a Department of Education in a Portuguese public university. Results highlight work intensification as a defining feature of academic identity. Through data analysis, it is also possible to identify the desire of articulating the four areas of academic work in order to break up with the work fragmentation.

Keywords : Academic identity; Higher education changes; Academic work intensification; Professional identity (re)construction.

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