Kadın Akademisyenlerin Kariyer Kimliği İnşası: Araştırma Yapmak İsteyen Anne Öğretim Üyesi
Hatice Merve Bircan, Nihat ErdoğmuşTürkiye’de kadın akademisyen sayısının artmasıyla birlikte bu konuda yapılan araştırmaların sayısının da arttığı görülmektedir. Bununla birlikte kadın akademisyenlerin kariyer (mesleki) kimliklerinin nasıl oluştuğuna dair literatürde çalışma eksikliği dikkat çekmektedir. Bu bağlamda araştırmanın amacı, kadın akademisyenlerin kariyer kimliklerini inşa sürecini araştırmaktır. Nitel bir araştırma olarak ve fenomenolojik desenle tasarlanan araştırmaya, sağlık bilimleri, fen (teknik) bilimleri, idari bilimler ve sosyal bilimler olmak üzere temel akademik alanlardan profesör, doçent ve yardımcı doçent unvanlarında toplam 19 kadın akademisyen dahil edilmiştir. Araştırmada yarı yapılandırılmış mülakatlar ile veri toplanmış ve içerik analizi yapılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda kadın akademisyenlerin aileleri ve eşlerinden destek gördükleri, kendilerini çalışkan olarak tanımladıkları, akademisyenlik için belli rol modellere sahip oldukları, istedikleri alanda çalıştıkları, doktora dönemi ve medeni durum değişikliğinin kariyerlerinde önemli dönüm noktaları olduğu ve yayın yapmanın önemli bir başarı kriteri olarak görüldüğü bulguları elde edilmiştir. Kariyer kimliklerinin temeli olarak kariyer evrelerindeki roller ağırlıklı olarak “öğretim üyesi”, “anne” ve “araştırmacı” şeklinde tanımlanmıştır. Çoklu role sahip olmanın rolleri dengeleme problemlerine sebep olduğu bulunmuştur.
Constructing the Career Identity of Female Academicians: Mother Academician with Research Intention
Hatice Merve Bircan, Nihat ErdoğmuşThe number of female academicians and research about them has increased in Turkey. Attention is drawn to the gap in the literature on how female academicians in Turkey construct their career (professional) identities. In this context, the purpose of this study is to research the process which female academicians follow in constructing their career identities. The study, which comes under the category of qualitative research using phenomenological design, includes a total of 19 female academicians with the title of professor, associate professor, or assistant professor from the main academic fields of health sciences, technical sciences, administrative sciences, and social sciences. The interviews were conducted using semi-structured forms in accordance with a previously prepared protocol, and content analysis was applied to the data. The study obtained the findings that female academicians receive support from their families and spouse, define themselves as hard working, have specific role models for being an academician, work in their desired field, saw turning points in their lives at times of change in their doctoral period and marital status , and regard being published is an important criterion of success. As the basis of their career identities, the roles of their career stages have mainly been identified as “faculty member,” “mother,” and “researcher.” Having multiple roles was seen to cause problems with balancing roles.
These days, the tendency to shape one’s career in line with one’s own desires is increasing as people direct their own careers and oversee their own values. From this perspective, individuals need to have a multi-faceted career attitude and be effective at managing their own careers. Individuals who tend toward multi-faceted careers encounter positive psychological outcomes such as job and life satisfaction, personal development, and well-being. These multi-faceted careers are composed of the various experiences an individual has, such as education, vocational training, working in various organizations, and changes in professional field. Individuals simultaneously construct their career identity in the process of their career. Career construction theory takes into account which qualities individuals possess, how they adapt to the transitions and changes caused by personal and environmental conditions throughout their life, and why they behave and advance in accordance with a specific path.
Career identity construction is definable by combining the questions “What is the meaning of work for me and my life?” and “What do I want to explain to others through my work?” that people ask themselves. Having knowledge about one’s self or about the working world and working life is not enough. One needs to actively and creatively make sense of this information. One of the ways an individual gets information about him/herself is by using the narrative approach. The narrative approach provides stories about the profession, ideas for transition points and the expected future, and information about identity development. This approach is a useful way of understanding turning points in one’s career and how identities change over time.
After conducting a comprehensive literature review, no study was seen to exist on the construction process of female academicians’ career identity. In this context, the current study contributes to the literature by addressing the construction processes of the career identity of female academicians and the factors affecting these processes. The main question this study seeks to answer is “How do female academicians construct their career identities?” The sub-questions of the research are:
1. How do female academicians’ career processes develop?
2. What affects female academicians’ career processes?
3. What meaning does ‘profession’ entail for female academicians?
4. What do female academicians want to explain to others through their profession?
Methodology The research was conducted using the qualitative research method, with the phenomenological pattern being preferred in the study. The 19 female academicians who form the study group are composed of individuals who have a wealth of knowledge and experience related to the phenomenon being researched. Of the participants, eight are doctoral faculty members, eight are associate professors, and three are professors. The study group of the research contains female academicians working at five state universities and 14 foundation universities in Istanbul province in the fields of liberal arts, administrative sciences, health sciences, and engineering sciences. The study uses the semi-structured interview method as the data collection technique. Content analysis was used for analyzing the data. As suggested by Moustakas (1994), all expressions in the data analysis are coded items as “fixed expressions” and “semantic units”. A total of 142 fixed expressions were detected, and these were translated into semantic units. Next, the expressions listed as the main components of experience were separated into themes by clustering them according to semantic proximity. Ten themes that shape the career construction process emerged as a result of this function.
Findings and Discussion
This research addresses the career construction process of female academicians. In the study, the following themes are seen to be impactful in the process of female academicians’ career identity construction: the impact of family and social environment, career choice, career stages and roles, turning points in the career, definition of the basic role, career success, support in the career process, career problems experienced because of being a woman, and future plans. The study draws attention to the facts that female academicians have a career construction process, and that the narrative technique can be used in understanding this process. Female academicians are seen to basically define themselves using the identities of faculty member, mother, and researcher together, although this varies at different stages of the career. Several facts are worthy of note, namely, that defining the identity achieved through these three roles causes problems in balancing the roles, that female academicians attempt to find solutions such as making self-sacrifices in these problematic stages and delaying certain roles, and that the support they receive from those around them makes this process a little easier. The doctoral period and changes in marital status are important transformations that impact career processes. Female academicians’ career construction process can be defined as the formation of the identity of “the mother faculty member who wants to perform research.”
Meeting with the academicians in the research process and making appointments convenient to their work hours was difficult in the current study. This situation caused some limitations in the research. Future research could involve more detailed studies by separately handling the themes that emerged from this research. Another subject for study could be comparatively studying career identity construction processes with female academicians from different regions and cultures at national and international levels.
