ERIC Number: EJ1380785
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1360-080X
EISSN: EISSN-1469-9508
No Other Choices but Involution: Understanding Chinese Young Academics in the Tenure Track System
Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, v45 n1 p53-67 2023
Based on an analysis of policy documents, questionnaires and interviews, the paper discusses the experiences of Chinese young academics on tenure-track contracts. Findings suggest that young academics perceive tenure as a managerial solution to governance reform. Meanwhile, a population-resource imbalance and the uncertainty in career progression interactively and collectively create an involuted culture where overwork is normalised for self-adaptation. While young academics are experiencing insecurity and anxiety, the study found that they adopt a wide range of strategies to actively adapt into the context. Drawing on the competitive nature, the tenure system is interpreted as both a managerial approach and a training mechanism. This competitiveness and its related precariousness seem to remain, however, uncharted in social perception. An analysis of these issues illuminates tensions and conflicts in the implementation of the tenure-track system in the Chinese context, which have important implications for future managerial policies and practices.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, College Faculty, Tenure, Competition, Faculty Promotion, Policy Analysis, Teacher Attitudes, Contracts, Governance, Career Development, College Administration, Neoliberalism, Efficiency, Productivity, Faculty Recruitment
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: China
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A