This is a reflective post on the concept of balance (wellbeing and productivity) introduced in ACADPRAC 702: Academic Citizenship (PGCert Academic Practice).

“…for students it would be better to be clear about the purpose of what they are studying and identifying the high-priority areas rather than simply reading more or reorganising their notes” (p244). Who would dare tell this to their students? Aren’t we in the process of churning out mass graduates to keep our revenue lines healthy?

Kearns & Gardiner (2007)

Is it time well spent? The relationship between time management behaviours, perceived effectiveness and work related morale and distress in a university context (Kearns & Gardiner, 2007)
I really liked this paper and have already started thinking about how I can get onto my PhD without further procrastination! Procrastination is considered a “bad habit” (p236). The standout value of this paper was the fact that they had given student life some consideration and balanced the view on workloads by comparing students and teachers alike. “Today’s students will tell you that, with demands of lectures, study… there is barely any time for life” (p236). However, what intrigued me most was the behaviour that they prioritised most ‘having a clear purpose in your career’. I am sure, early career academics would agree with me that in the early days, irrespective of the focus and sense of purpose one has, it comes down to sink or swim and time management becomes an unknown issue. I also thought that being organised was an all-encompassing behaviour rather than something at the bottom of the pyramid. For example, for me planning and prioritising is part of being organised.

Monitoring Work Patterns and Daily Activities  (Forgasz & Leder, 2006)
This paper is quite thought provoking. It is an interesting mix of the obvious e.g. increased workloads due to the challenges posed by “transformations of higher education” (p1) and the not so obvious e.g. contentious descriptions of academic tasks. In particular, numbers 1, 5 and 6 on the Kreber categories were the ones that stood out most for me. While the paper by Kearns & Gardiner talks about avoiding distractions at work, Frogasz & Leder support the ‘informal conversations with colleagues’ i.e. the corridor conversation as an important academic task! As a female academic, it was uncomfortable to face the reality of the results, in that, stereotypes do exist with more males engaging in publicity and profiling while females attend to more nurturing aspects e.g. giving more time and support to the students. Should one be considered a priority over the other? Considering the ethics of academic practice, perhaps we do have a sense of responsibility to encourage and support our students through their challenges at university. I do agree, however, that academics at different levels of appointment engage in the same range of activities but in differing proportions. I did not get the reason for them monitoring academics outside of work hours and over weekends-it seems like they had an expectation that they all worked on ‘work-related’ tasks outside of work hours. I see this as a form of bias.

References  

Kearns, H. & Gardiner, M. (2007). Is it time well spent? The relationship between time management behaviours, perceived effectiveness and work related morale and distress in a university context. Higher Education Research & Development, 26(2): 6235-247.
Kreber, C. (2000) How university teaching award winners conceptualise academic work: Some further thoughts on the meaning of scholarship,Teaching in Higher Education, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 61–74. https://doi.org/10.1080%2F135625100114966
Forgasz, H. J. & Leder, G. C. (2006). Academic Life: Monitoring Work Patterns and Daily Activities. The Australian Educational Researcher, 33(1): 1-22. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03246278