Search results for "Academic work"
showing 10 items of 12 documents
Sovraccarico e rischi da dipendenza da lavoro negli accademici italiani: un'indagine conoscitiva
2018
Negli ultimi anni in Italia si è assistito ad un cambiamento nel lavoro del docente universitario, che ha spinto ad aumentare la quota di tempo da dedicare alle diverse attività (molte delle quali inattese all'atto della assunzione) e che ha prodotto una sorta di giustificazione "culturale" di comportamenti che possono essere configurabili a margine del rischio workaholism. Esiste una ampia letteratura relativa al peso del sovraccarico lavorativo dei lavoratori del sistema dell'educazione, ed in particolare connessi al peso delle attività d'aula ed all'aumento del lavoro burocratico; le ricerche che si sono occupate della "higher education" hanno però perlopiù connesso il sovraccarico lavor…
History as an explicative recourse and codifying aid in current academic works
2011
This paper analyzes the widespread presence of history and diachronic linguistics in the labour of codification recently carried out by Real Academia Española and Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española in their new books Nueva gramática de la lengua española and Ortografía de la lengua española. These works draw on a wide-ranging and reliable corpus of examples from previous historical periods.
Supporting and constraining factors in the development of university teaching experienced by teachers
2017
Higher education calls for reform, but deeper knowledge about the prerequisites for teaching development and pedagogical change is missing. In this study, 51 university teachers’ experiences of supportive or constraining factors in teaching development were investigated in the context of Finland’s multidisciplinary network. The findings reveal that the supportive factors in teaching development arise from the nature of the development itself, i.e. from the teachers’ opportunities to act as active agents in an authentic development process. Furthermore, the circumstances of the development also play essential roles (both constraining and supportive) in teaching development. Such support, at …
Academic Workload, Well-Being and Workaholism in Italian Universities
2017
As suggested by Romainville (1996), universities are the only organizations focussed on dual core functions of knowledge creation and knowledge transmission through the processes of research and teaching. University academic staff do complex work in an increasingly demanding environment, so the workaholism risk seems to be higher than in other professions. Although this type of work behavior seems to be culturally approved by the academic community, it constitutes an element of risk for the health and well being of those who have chosen this type of profession on the basis of different expectations, especially in pace, amount, and independence at work. A very interesting line of research (w…
Academic Workload: quando il prof va in sovraccarico
2016
La valutazione dello stress lavoro-correlato consiste probabilmente in una delle migliori occasioni per favorire lo sviluppo delle organizzazioni in direzione di un migliore riequilibrio tra gli obiettivi delle stesse e i bisogni di benessere dei lavoratori che le abitano. In Italia questa occasione di sviluppo, dalla attuazione del D.lgs. 81 del 2008, in effetti stenta un po' a prendere forma, soprattutto a causa di una certa ritrosia, da parte delle organizzazioni lavorative, a voler affrontare i cosiddetti rischi psicosociali che una valutazione approfondita consentirebbe di far emergere con chiarezza. Sono molti gli accademici che negli ultimi anni hanno prestato il loro contributo scie…
The Best Science, The Best Science in Finnish – and English – or The Best Finnish Scientists?
2013
Cet article traite d’une « vérité inconfortable » (un mythe), à propos de la mise en place d’une politique ainsi que des pratiques équitables en matière de gestion du personnel, dans le système éducatif supérieur d’un pays admiré pour l’égalité sociale qui le caractérise. L’étude présente une enquête participative des auteurs, qui se fonde sur leurs expériences collectives et leurs perceptions de l’intérieur d’un système qui est en train de changer rapidement. Les auteurs révèlent un certain nombre d’affirmations et de mécanismes qui ont mené à un abandon du débat sur l’égalité dans les discussions portant sur politiques éducatives. L’ironie de cette situation est que le « miracle finlandai…
The changing relationship between the academic profession and universities in Finnish higher education
2019
This doctoral dissertation describes how the relationship between the academic profession and universities has changed, and how the global trends, particularly New Public Management (NPM), managerialism and academic capitalism, as well as other societal expectations have influenced it in Finnish higher education. Prior studies show that these global trends have had various effects on academic profession. Additionally, they have driven universities to develop as an organisation. NPM and managerialism emphasise hierarchical management structures, control, performance evaluations, and efficiency, which are commonly incompatible with professional values and practices; collegial decision-making,…
Emotionally loaded identity and agency in Finnish academic work
2020
This narrative study investigated identity, agency and emotions, amongst an under-researched academic group – those without PhDs with primary responsibility for teaching, who are also expected to do research. In this interview-based paper, we examine the experience of such Finnish academics in a research-intensive university. Thematic and then narrative approaches were employed. The findings demonstrated five narratives which indicated both balanced and tensioned relations as regards academic identity, with variable perceptions of agency and emotions embedded. The study contributes in two ways: first, it adds to the little that is known of the experiences of the aforementioned under-researc…
Not All Academics Are Alike: First Validation of the Academics' Quality of Life at Work Scale (AQoLW)
2018
Background: Relating to the macro-level changes and the increasing complexity of the academic system, a growing number of studies began to investigate the perceived working context impact on well-being and job satisfaction of academics. A unique duality characterizes this context: academics cannot be longer defined as stress-free, but at the same time they are still satisfied and engaged in their work. There is a need to evaluate the academic environment not only in terms of stressor and strain, but also in terms of which experiences are sources of fulfillment. The study aimed to explore psychometric properties of a new instrument (AQoLW) for assessing context-specific features of the acade…
Multidisciplinary peer-mentoring groups facilitating change?
2020
This article discusses the potential of multidisciplinary peer-mentoring groups to facilitate individual and institutional change. To do this, we view peer mentoring as a form of critical education praxis (Mahon et al. 2019), the purpose of which is to create a space for reflexive thinking and asking critical questions. The data were collected by interviewing all thirteen participants – doctoral students and more established scholars – of a multidisciplinary peer-mentoring pilot project. The results show a variety of both individual changes and desired changes within the university, which were brought into view as a result of the sharing of experiences, views and ideas in an open, confident…