Perceptions of Professional Development and Practice for Academics

There are alternative, practitioner led approaches §to professional development, which can be analysed §to form a new approach, more relevant to §practitioners in today s HE environment. This book §focuses on the practice of academics, and analyses §common strands that illustrate new §approaches to professional development. Three major §themes have emerged from the research; first, §academic isolationism, which is considered in terms §of benefits as a survival strategy and possible §social deficits. Secondly, individualism and §compliance is discussed in terms of the level of §autonomy academics have in managing their §development, and thirdly, the community of §professionals is analysed as a development process. §This book will benefit those HE practitioners who §continue their development in a pressured §work environment, HE managers who want to foster a §professional development culture, and HE policy §makers who wish to address these issues. The §findings will also be of benefit to HE institutions §and other organisations to consider a holistic §view of staff who might better be viewed as teacher §professional developers or meta-professionals .