Pains and gains of working in Chinese universities: an academic returnee's journey

Over the past decade, an increasing number of overseas Chinese PhD graduates have returned to China to develop their career. For these academic returnees, one of the challenges is to (re)construct an academic identity in a familiar context that is also strange because they have been absent for a few...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inHigher education research and development Vol. 38; no. 4; pp. 661 - 673
Main Author Ai, Bin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Routledge 07.06.2019
Subjects
academic assessment policies
academic identity construction
Academic returnees
Autobiographies
Chinese universities
College Faculty
Faculty Publishing
Foreign Countries
in-between spaces
Overseas Employment
Professional Identity
Recognition (Achievement)
Reentry Workers
Teacher Employment
Teaching Experience
Universities
China
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Over the past decade, an increasing number of overseas Chinese PhD graduates have returned to China to develop their career. For these academic returnees, one of the challenges is to (re)construct an academic identity in a familiar context that is also strange because they have been absent for a few years. In this autobiographical paper, the researcher describes and reflects upon the pains and gains experienced when re-entering and working in Chinese universities as a PhD returnee, revealing the process of his academic identity (re)construction when adjusting to different academic assessment policies. This writing offers an individual perspective on the challenges to returnees' academic identity (re)construction and argues for the need to set up in-between spaces for inter/cross-disciplinary academic discourse between returnees and local scholars at Chinese universities. This paper aims to contribute to pedagogic debate on the development of more open research practices in Chinese universities.
ISSN:0729-4360
1469-8366
DOI:10.1080/07294360.2019.1590320