The Academic Profession in Argentina: a fragmented profession in the periphery

MARQUINA ,MÓNICA

Buenos Aires

Congreso; Congreso Mundial de Educación Comparada; 2013

World Council of Comparative Education

The purpose of this presentation is to analyze the fragmentation of the academic profession in Argentina. Just as in industrialized countries the academic profession is mostly part of a global academic community, in Argentina there is a group of scholars connected with international standards that has a considerable distance from the rest of academics in terms of working conditions, productivity and perceptions of their profession, distance that is significantly lower in industrialized countries. As Altbach points out (2004) the academic profession in emerging countries like Argentina is a profession in the periphery. Patterns of academic work in industrialised countries set the standards worldwide, and academic systems of our countries are influenced from the north. Thus emerging countries´ scholars are dependent on the main centres of knowledge and scientific networks worldwide, with great inequality regarding resources and infrastructure. In this context, developing countries are at the bottom of a global system of unequal academic relationships (Altbach, 1998, 2004). The paper uses data from CAP survey, from a multilevel analysis that identified a group of scholars considered "elite", since they share certain characteristics, and ?the rest?. These groups are compared in some aspects such as internationalization, vision change, satisfaction, affiliation, institutional influence.