Qualifications
MA in TESOL Studies, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
BA in English, Sichuan International Studies University, Chongqing, CN
About Pingjing
I have five years of teaching experience in higher education. As a lecturer and teacher educator in an independent college in China, I have taught and supervised courses on EAP, Curriculum Design, and Teaching Practicum. I also served as a tutor at a language centre in a Chinese university, and a research assistant at a university in the United Kingdom. These academic roles afford me diverse and valuable perspectives on initial teacher education and teacher professional development, and opportunities to reflect on my own experience of becoming a teaching-oriented academic.
My current research interest is motivated by this reflection, which revolves around early career academics’ experience and their professional development. Specifically, my research project aims to investigate how early career academics experience institutional-wide induction programme and how such programme impacts on their academic identity. As a lifelong teacher, who is committed to public service, I am also interested in initial teacher education and teacher professional learning and development.
Research title
Enhancing early career academics’ construction of academic identity through institutional-wide induction programmes.
Research summary
Research into early career academics (ECAs) suggests that their first years of academic appointment are full of reality shocks, which could have substantial negative impact on their well-being and careers. The existing literature often positions ECAs as in need of support and guidance at large. This study focuses on institutional-wide induction programmes as a specific form of providing such support and guidance, which aims to facilitate ECAs' entry to the organisation, equip them with necessary competencies, and ultimately build up their academic identity. However, current literature tends to examine ECAs’ satisfaction of induction programmes; little is known about the effectiveness of these induction programmes in terms of ECAs’ professional development and academic identity construction. Academic identity is the dynamic reflexive narratives of 'who I be as an academic', which organise the thinking, being and acting as academics. As ECAs experience induction programmes and academic life, they will form, repair, maintain, strengthen, or revise their academic identity through the negotiation of personal and social meanings. An exploration of ECAs’ academic identity development unravels their lived experiences as academics, and how induction programmes contribute to this professional academic identity development.
Research interests
- Early career academic experiences
- Academic development theory and practice
- Academic identity
- Initial teacher education
- Teacher professional learning and development
Honours
- Best Presentation, HEDC Post Graduate Symposium, 2023
- Excellence in Service, Sichuan University Jinjiang College, 2020
Supervisors
- Dr Navé Wald
- Professor Ben Daniel