engleski

'I mean, that amount of work would consume me at one point': The narrative of the life history of young researchers during the professional socialization into the teaching and research profession in the Croatian higher education system

In this chapter, the authors use narrative research as the research method in order to explore the life histories of female junior researchers about the professional socialisation into the academic profession within the Croatian higher education system, attempting to understand what the experiences of female junior researchers, explored through the life histories about professional socialisation, reveal about the Croatian higher education system, what can be learned from those experiences, and what could facilitate the future enhancement of the professional socialisation into the academic profession within the Croatian higher education system. Following the analysis of 11 female junior researchers’ narratives, conducted through the combination of what is known as the Mishler- Labov structural method of narrative analysis, the authors identified and described three basic types of experience related to teaching: (1) the experience of support, a positive environment, and the self-confident professional development ; (2) the experience of the lack of support, a positive environment, and the professional development with a happy ending ; and (3) the experience of the lack of support, a negative environment, and the continued struggle for the personal professional development. Furthermore, they identified and described three types of experience in the researcher development: (1) the experience of the stimulating research environment and involvement in the projects with a productive development ; (2) the experience of the non-stimulating research environment, absence of the involvement in projects accompanied by individual struggle and productive development ; and (3) the experience of the non-stimulating research environment, absence of the involvement in projects, and the weak unproductive development.

professional life history, junior female researchers, teaching competencies, research competencies

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