Lynn McAlpine & Cheryl Amundsen 
Identity-Trajectories of Early Career Researchers 
Unpacking the Post-PhD Experience

The book asks how we can make sense of career paths for Ph D graduates, something that has rarely been systematically studied. It offers a coherent synthesis of the empirically-based insights that arose from the experiences of 48 early career researchers, who were participants in a 10-year qualitative longitudinal research program. The book has the power to inform other researchers’ conceptual and methodological approaches to the study of post-Ph D career trajectories. 






The authors draw on the conceptual lens of ‘identity-trajectory’, which emerged from their research program, to examine the decision-making processes underpinning the careers of Ph D graduates, whether contingent researchers and teachers, assistant professors within the academy or professionals elsewhere. The book highlights the role of personal agency in negotiating academic and non-academic work and careers within broader personal lives. It will be compelling reading for researchers and
students working in the areas of Education and Sociology, particularly those with an interest in examining career development and decision-making.

Table of Content

PART I. INTRODUCTION.- Chapter 1. Overview.- Chapter 2. The Global Context.- PART II. CONCEPTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO UNDERSTANDING IDENTITY.- Chapter 3. Identity-Trajectory.- Chapter 4. Structure and Agency Revisited.- PART III. EMPIRICALLY-BASED INSIGHTS INTO ACADEMIC AND NON-ACADEMIC WORK.- Chapter 5. Post-Ph D Researchers: What’s in the Cards?.- Chapter 6. Choosing to Invest in a Teaching-Only Position.- Chapter 7. Research-Teaching Academics: The Road to Stability.- Chapter 8. Electing an Alternate Future: Professionals, Research Professionals and Academic Professionals.- PART IV. METHODOLOGICAL CREATIVITY AND TRANSPARENCY.- Chapter 9. Our Experience of Narrative.- Chapter 10. Ways of Capturing and Representing Experience.- Chapter 11. Ways of Displaying and Analysing Stories.

About the author

Lynn Mc Alpine is Professor Emerita of Higher Education Development at the University of Oxford, UK, and Professor Emerita at Mc Gill University, Canada. Her research has consistently examined how individuals engage in and learn from the work they are doing, with the goal of providing pedagogical as well as research insights.   

 


Cheryl Amundsen is Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University, Canada, and Director of the Institute for the Study of Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines. Her previous and ongoing research has focused on how academics make instructional decisions based on disciplinary knowledge and the use of inquiry as a method of professional development in teaching.