Reconstructing Identities in Higher Education by Whitchurch Celia;

Author:Whitchurch, Celia;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1075438
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

Thus, although the opportunity to exercise agency and autonomy were aspects of Third Space that attracted individuals, these relative freedoms, alongside the lack of a clear place that conferred a sense of belonging, could also represent a ‘dark side’, involving ‘the inter-animation of different voices’, of which ‘struggle, conflict and difference’ are an essential part (Pryor and Crossouard, 2008: 1–2).

There was therefore an edginess in some of the narratives, which reflected a sense of both frustration and isolation. For the most part, this was clearly related either to organisational issues, such as access to decision-making fora, the authority to make decisions and institutional timescales; or to the micro-political arena within which an individual was required to operate, as in the case of the following respondent who felt that ‘[we are] very much in individual silos and isolated’ (institutional researcher 3, state institution, US). Frustration was particularly apparent in the narratives of individuals who had come into higher education from another sector, whose expertise had been bought in for a specific purpose, but who then found resistances within their local environment:

I don't understand their [academic colleagues'] motivations. There are relationships that they've cultivated in secret … I think penetrating that boundary between the administrative staff and academic faculty is very, very hard, and it requires a huge investment of time and energy, and you have to really present yourself well. You have to build trust; you have to have some successes that you can bank on.

(development manager, state university, US)

Isolation tended to be expressed in terms of a lack of social capital and as needing more contact with what one respondent referred to as ‘like-minded people’, although it could involve not having sufficient leverage, for instance in relation to resources:

I've been very disempowered coming here. I came from an organisation where I was managing a range of staff. I had a yearly budget of over £300k. When I arrived here, I found out that I was managing no staff, and my budget was around £8k per year. I'm not allowed to sign for my own budget. I'm not even allowed to see the budget.

(equity manager, post-1992 institution 1, UK)

This reflects the sense of both positional and geographic isolation in the findings of Hudson's study of widening participation professionals (Hudson, 2009: 9–10). Nevertheless, such frustrations were generally couched in terms of challenges to be addressed. Thus, some respondents compensated for internal isolation, and a sense of not being linked into formal structures, by building and drawing on external networks, for instance:

I [work] with other institutional researchers, academics and scholars at other institutions, on things that I'm interested in like diversity, access, economic development, the emerging knowledge economy … because I … can't do it through official channels, I have to create my own private research effort.

(institutional researcher 3, state institution, US)

There may also be a negative side to Third Space working if, for instance, internal networks lack transparency, and develop into cliques of individuals, entry to which is by invitation only. Such

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