Current Challenges Facing the Academic Profession in Argentina: Tensions Between Teaching and Research.

MARQUINA ,MÓNICA; LEAL, MERCEDES

Teaching and Research in Contemporary Higher Education. Systems, activities and rewards.

Springer

Lugar: Dordrech; Año: 2013; p. 237 - 257

In the last twenty years the academic profession in Argentina has been placed under severe stress as a consequence of a higher education reform conducted by government under the light of neoliberal hegemonic thinking, that has put into question the conceptions about how knowledge of the highest level is produced and distributed. These changes tended to modify not only the general framework in which the academic profession develops, but also altered the material and symbolic conditions of academic work, resulting in the emergence of new styles of performance and professional development strategies. The chapter proposes an analysis of the tensions between teaching and research functions of the Argentine academics on the basis of the analysis of their perceptions regarding their employment relationship, the relationship with their disciplines of origin, the organization of academic work and their views on the activities performed. This analysis is based on the results of the survey "The Changing Academic Profession" administered to 826 teachers from different academic disciplines and fields of national universities in Argentina in 2008.