Becoming an Academic: Professional Identity on the Road to Tenure

Abstract

This paper. presented in first person narrative, looks at the tensions that exist when professional identity in higher education is constructed with and against teaching identity. Using a post-structuralist perspective and an auto-ethnographic approach, the author explores her own experience of seeking to successfully secure tenure. An analysis of the author's written self-representations destined for hiring and evaluation committees is followed by an analysis of spontaneous writing that emerged through the research process. A juxtaposition of the analyses reveals the tensions that exist when academic work follows a previous career. The paper provides insight into the formation of professional identity of one new academic appointee and draws attention to the need to better understand professional identity in higher education.