Competitive Accountability and the Dispossession of Academic Identity: Haunted by an Impact Phantom

Autor/inn/en	Watermeyer, Richard; Tomlinson, Michael
Titel	Competitive Accountability and the Dispossession of Academic Identity: Haunted by an Impact Phantom
Quelle	In: Educational Philosophy and Theory, 54 (2022) 1, S.92-103 (12 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Tomlinson, Michael)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0013-1857
DOI	10.1080/00131857.2021.1880388
Schlagwörter	Competition; Accountability; Universities; Research; Researchers; College Faculty; Self Concept; Performance Based Assessment; Professional Identity; Financial Support; Institutional Characteristics; Higher Education; Foreign Countries; Research Administration; Educational Theories; United Kingdom + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Wettkampf; Verantwortung; University; Universität; Forschung; Researcher; Forscher; Fakultät; Selbstkonzept; Leistungsermittlung; Finanzielle Förderung; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Ausland; Forschungsadministration; Educational theory; Theory of education; Bildungstheorie; Großbritannien
Abstract	This article discusses the intensification of research performance demands in UK universities in relation to the complex terrain of academic identity formation. It considers whether a demand for academic researchers to produce and evidence economic and societal impact -- in the rewards game of the UK's performance-based research funding system, the Research Excellence Framework (REF) -- influences their self-concept as 'engaged researchers'. While a designation of being REF impactful may be considered constitutive to a researcher's sense of self-worth and advantageous to their professional and institutional profile, a consultation of researchers included within REF2014 impact case studies challenges these assumptions. Instead, respondents are found to complain of identity dispossession and exploitation by their universities where their public contributions are appropriated for positional gain. Their testimony confirms the prevalence of a culture of 'competitive accountability' across UK universities which is with a systemic insatiability for 'scholarly distinction', causing the privileging of appearance in rationalisations of publicly funded research. Using the theoretical insights of Guy Debord and Erving Goffman it is argued that REF impact elucidates the UK higher education sector as a 'society of the Spectacle' that subjugates 'authentic' versions of the academic Self. However, REF-impact is also seen to provide an opportunity for cultural detournément and a means to elicit and concurrently invert 'simulations' of research praxis', thus enabling the assertion or 'front-staging' of perceived and idealised academic identities. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01