The Malta experience of being a university academic : a thematic narrative

Abstract

This paper shares the research results of an explorative study investigating university lectureship experience in a Malta university context. The study aimed to obtain a holistic description of the university academic experience. The qualitative research findings, based on a thematic analysis of 10 individual interview transcripts, describe the experience of being a university academic as a journey of time passages in space and time. The journey is characterised by the strong theme of teaching along with the two other primary themes, labelled identity and un/belonging. Identity feeds on, but not only on, teaching and the sense of un/belonging. Profession/Practice and Research/Publication are two other themes that, in this study, emerge as feeding the primary themes. These research findings unsettle the privilege portrayals of tenure-track university lectureships. They confirm the emphasis on teaching in this local context and increased administration obligations. Distinctively, they expose another identity dimension in addition to the teacher and researcher attributions highlighted in the mainstream literature. These findings suggest that academics need to be supported for keeping alive differentiated identity dimensions, which are not in opposition to each other but are in competition for time. While the limitations of the study are acknowledged, several recommendations deriving from the research findings are shared.