"Marginal Academics": A Study On The Academic Career Identity Of Postdoctoral Faculty Members In Universitie

Academic professional identity is a dynamic psychological change process of teachers’ postdoctoral cognition,emotion,will and behavioral tendency,and it is also the recognition of teachers’ postdoctoral individuals on the nature,content and value of academic profession.As an important factor that affects the personal quality of postdoctoral teachers and the construction of the teaching staff,it directly affects the enthusiasm of postdoctoral teachers and the quality of education in colleges and universities.The improvement of academic professional identity is conducive to stimulating teachers’ enthusiasm for post-doctoral work,improving teachers’ post-doctoral work efficiency,stabilizing teachers’ post-doctoral work emotion,and facilitating the orderly and steady development of college education.Based on the theory of social identity,this study studied the status quo and influencing factors of postdoctoral academic professional identity of teachers in Shanghai S University.Using qualitative research methods,the author compiled an interview outline of postdoctoral academic professional identity of teachers in Shanghai S University,selected some postdoctoral teachers in Shanghai S University as the research objects of this paper,and conducted in-depth interviews with them.On the basis of collecting and sorting out a large number of first-hand materials,we analyzed and coded them to find "core concepts",present their current status of academic professional identity in the way of generic analysis,and identify the factors that affect teachers’ postdoctoral academic professional identity.The main research conclusions are as follows:First,on the analysis of the status quo of teachers’ postdoctoral academic career identity,from the interview results,teachers’ postdoctoral academic career identity is not very ideal,and the status quo of academic career willingness and academic enthusiasm is not optimistic.Academic professional identity can be divided into four dimensions: academic professional cognition,academic professional emotion,academic professional will,and academic professional behavior.On the dimension of academic career cognition,teachers’ postdoctoral academic career cognition is vague,academic career cognition is faced with dual role conflict,role mixing and inaccurate positioning.In the dimension of academic career emotion,teachers’ postdoctoral academic career emotion is weak,academic career sense of belonging is low,and emotional sense of belonging and attitude commitment are not reflected in individuals.In the dimension of academic career will,teachers’ postdoctoral academic career will is not firm,teachers’ postdoctoral academic self-efficacy has declined,academic interest and enthusiasm have cooled.In the dimension of academic professional behavior,teachers’ postdoctoral academic professional behavior is negative,academic professional motivation wavers,and academic participation and performance stagnate.Secondly,on the analysis of the factors that affect the status quo of teachers’ postdoctoral academic career identity,the coding analysis of the interview data shows that the factors that affect teachers’ postdoctoral academic career identity are divided into three major aspects: "role subject","organizational support" and "cultural community".On the role subject level,teachers’ postdoctoral academic career identity is highly related to the internal self,external self,and internal and external adjustment.On the level of organizational support,important others,organizational relations and academic environment have an important impact on the level of academic professional identity of postdoctoral teachers.At the cultural community level,the academic professional identity of postdoctoral teachers is related to material culture,institutional culture and spiritual culture.Thirdly,as for suggestions on strengthening teachers’ postdoctoral academic professional identity,the study finally focused on three aspects of "self-identity","community identity" and "others identity",and proposed ways to enhance teachers’ postdoctoral academic professional identity.On the level of self-identity,postdoctoral teachers should actively adjust themselves and deepen their role cognition;On the level of community identity,colleges and universities should improve their organizational support system and build a strong backing against academic job burnout;On the level of other identity,government departments should improve material conditions,improve the level of teacher postdoctoral compensation and welfare,and improve the institutional guarantee for teacher postdoctoral work.