I’m not sure if English needs another portmanteau. After brunch and spork all others fall a bit short. But the term pracademic struck a chord with me when Ruth Kane, University of Ottawa, shared the dissertation of Trista Hollweck (now also a faculty member at the same university) that explores what it is to be a pracademic. I thought to myself as I read it: That’s me! There’s nothing like finding out that you have like-minded colleagues out there.
Trista’s definition of a pracademic is not simply a person working in both K-12 education and at the university at the same time. It’s not just that someone works at two locations, of course, but that a person’s mindset situates one professionally in both worlds: “the ethereal world of academia as a scholar and the pragmatic world of practice” (Walker, 2010, p. 1). Another term that comes to mind is research practitioner.
Third culture kids operate in multiple cultures and therefore feel, sometimes, that they don’t really belong in any. So, too, with an educational pracademic. You understand academia and you get the practice of teaching – or do you? If you are like me, when you are with more mainstream academics, you are very aware that your own university ties (as an adjunct, in my case) are perceived differently by those you are with. In the conference program or in the byline of a publication, when I use my high school affiliation, I faintly hear in my mind the children’s song “One of these things is not like the other.” And yet when I’m with my colleagues in the high school, where I teach occasionally but tend to fill other roles related to professional development, I’m similarly not quite part of the group.
I’m a third culture academic instead, part of the tribe that Ruth and Trista introduced me to, the pracademics.
To an extent, all of us in education are pracademics. Trista uses the phrase identifying as a pracademic about herself, which seems particularly apt, as it recalls for me a more modern fluid identification of gender and the respect we strive to show for individual choice in finding one’s comfortable spot on that continuum. In this area of my professional life, I’m identifying as a pracademic, with a strong influence of both academia and practice making me who I am.
Below is my “ethereal world as a scholar,” the part of me playing university while I work as a practitioner of high school at Leysin American School (LAS). In a nutshell, the academia side of my life as a pracademic:
Supporting students
- teaching international teachers online with Moreland University;
- creating new courses for K-12 program as a consultant; and
- mentoring colleagues working on a dissertation, sometimes by being on a committee, but more often as an ad hoc reader because a colleague wants to share their work.
Supporting colleagues
- meeting with other Moreland faculty members to both give and receive help;
- reading blogs and papers, co-authoring, and helping LAS colleagues get published; and
- occasionally taking a class for a colleague or visiting a class as a guest.
Presenting and publishing
- presenting at conferences, often with colleagues who have previously spent time at LAS as visiting scholars;
- blogging about themes that arise at LAS, Moreland, and through the steady stream of ideas online;
- submitting articles and book chapters; and
- working as a peer reviewer.
Organizing professional ways to share work
- serving as director of LAS Educational Research, or research department at LAS;
- networking, both bringing others together and meeting new people through the recommendations of others – often with the assistance of LinkedIn;
- maintaining a website of the publications in our research center; and
- organizing a regional conference; and
- scheduling informal brown bag meetings, which we call Laser Focus talks.
Professional membership
- advisory activity, or a bit more, with ECIS, ISN, Outstanding Schools, and other groups.
That’s me, surrounding myself with a bit of university life here at my international boarding school. It’s probably you, too, in your personal intersection of academia and practice. It’s a great place to be, really, even when the footing is sometimes slippery.
Please reach out if your pracademic positioning leaves you looking for your tribe. I’d be happy to connect.
Reference
Walker, D.H. (2010). Being a Pracademic – Combining Reflective Practice with Scholarship.
Resources