Essay: Academic parenting: work–family conflict and strategies across child age, disciplines and career level

TAJUK : Academic parenting: work–family conflict and strategies across child age, disciplines and career level
OBJEKTIF-AIMS/RESEACH QUESTION/PURPOSE STUDY
The research underpinning this article explores the impacts that parenting and primary caring responsibilities have upon academic careers. It takes an innovative approach by exploring three under-researched aspects of this issue: the longitudinal impacts that extend past the years immediately following the birth or adoption of a child; the differences and similarities that occur as a result of primary carer parenting across academic disciplines; and the impacts that primary carer parenting has upon the careers of those who are employed in senior academic levels.
LITERE REVIEW-BAHGIAN INTRODUCTION
A second key gap that this study examines is the dearth in research pertaining to the impact that parenting has upon those in different disciplines. A third key research gap relates to the impacts of parenting on academics at different career levels. This article helps fill these gaps by taking a qualitative approach to understanding the differential impacts of parenting upon academic careers.
METHOD- QUALITATIVE/QUANTITATIF/SAMPLEING RESPONDEN
The project was funded by a University of Tasmania Career Development Initiative. The project team comprised one staff member from each of the faculties and institutes across the University of Tasmania, each of whom had returned from a period of parental leave and/or held a reduced fractional appointment. The project was sensitive in that there was the potential that participants would be recounting experiences which related to their performance management and conversations with their peers and managers. Participants would potentially be discussing their children, experiences of parenting, mental health and stressful experiences. These sensitivities militated in favour of conducting the research via confidential one-on-one interviews with participants. Focus group discussions were recorded, then transcribed and analysed using NVIVO 10 software. Consequently, the themes discussed below were derived from the data analysis (Patton 2002Patton, M. 2002. Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. London: Sage.), and were later compared with published work.
RESULT
Parenting children at different ages. The transition to motherhood was difficult and stressful. Some felt that care not was an easy nor suitable option, depending on the child’s physical health and mental needs. Some academics felt significant pressure to travel, and this created issues around caregiving. Indeed, it changes and may even increase, indicating a need for recognition and flexibility around this in the academic environment. The disciplinary differences clearly indicate that a one-size-fits-all approach to managing performance and advising academics on parental leave issues is not appropriate and that the disciplinary context must be taken into account. Given the increased use of performance metrics that are calibrated to seniority, these results suggest that significant institutional challenges face senior academics who are primary caregivers. Minimising career interruptions and maintaining visibility.Interestingly, tendency to work during parental leave was often supported by participants’ managers and was prevalent not only in the sciences, where group research teams, co-authorship and the existence of fixed terms contracts are increasingly prevalent, but also in the humanities, arts and social sciences. Career ‘parking’-Our research indicated that this was a strategy that appeared prevalent in all disciplines. The focus groups revealed that for those in higher level positions, boundaries became far more difficult to maintain. This behaviour was evident amongst academics in different disciplines, with differing ages of children and at different career levels. Consequently, in managing the process of family planning, pregnancy, childbirth, parental leave and parenting, line management and leadership emerged as being of critical importance.
SUGGESTIONS
This study is based on only one institution. Further research is needed to ascertain the extent of the occurrence of this issue across the tertiary sector. There is also scope for further research to assess whether these results can be generalised to other professionals in higher education sector, or researchers in other sectors.