Academic work and academic Identities : A Comparison between Four Disciplines
Résumé
The study of disciplines has a long tradition, but it has often mainly focused on scientific activities. With a few exceptions (Clark 1987; Bertrand 1993; Bertrand et al. 1994; Schimank 1995), the interplay between different tasks is ignored and when it is not, attention has generally focused on the teaching-research divide. In the research presented here, we decided to take a look at “academic work” in all its various dimensions, i.e. at all the activities faculty members are involved in: teaching, research, administrative tasks, consultancy, doctoral training, professional training etc. Four disciplines were explored for this purpose: history, business studies, biology, and physics.
The following main questions oriented our research (Becquet and Musselin 2004): What is the content of these activities for each discipline, and the variation among them or within each of them? How do academics feel about these various tasks? How do academics allocate their time and attention to each of these activities? How autonomous are they in making these kinds of decisions? (First paragraphs)