Defining and Exploring Pracademia: Identity, Community, and Engagement

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to define pracademia and conceptualise it in relation to educational contexts. This paper contributes to and stimulates a continuing and evolving conversation around pracademia and its relevance, role and possibilities. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is a c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Professional Capital and Community 2022-01, Vol.7 (1), p.6-25
Main Authors: Hollweck, Trista, Netolicky, Deborah M, Campbell, Paul
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Collaboration
Communities of Practice
Cooperation
Education
Educational Change
Educational leadership
Educational Research
Figurative Language
Higher Education
Professional development
Professional Identity
School Effectiveness
Schools
Teachers
Theory Practice Relationship
Writing
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Summary:Purpose: The aim of this paper is to define pracademia and conceptualise it in relation to educational contexts. This paper contributes to and stimulates a continuing and evolving conversation around pracademia and its relevance, role and possibilities. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is a conceptual exploration. It draws upon existing and emerging pieces of literature, the use of metaphor as a meaning-making tool, and the positionalities of the authors, to develop the concept of pracademia. Findings: The authors posit that pracademics who simultaneously straddle the worlds of practice, policy, and academia embody new possibilities as boundary spanners in the field of education for knowledge mobilization, networks, community membership, and responding to systemic challenges. However, being a pracademic requires the constant reconciling of the demands of multi-membership and ultimately, pracademics must establish sufficient legitimacy to be respected in two or more currently distinct worlds. Practical implications: This paper has implications for knowledge mobilization, networks, boundary spanners, leadership, professional learning, and connecting practice, policy, and research. While the authors are in the field of education, this exploration of pracademia is relevant not only to the field of education but also to other fields in which there is a clear need to connect practice/policy with scholarship. Originality/value: This paper provides a new definition of pracademia and argues that pracademia identifies an important yet relatively unknown space with many possibilities in the field of education.
ISSN:2056-9548
2056-9556
DOI:10.1108/JPCC-05-2021-0026