Transitioning to Tertiary

This collaborative autoethnography examines the shifting identities of the authors who were previously high school teachers and who transitioned to tertiary teaching. Through journaling and transcribed discussions, they unearthed deep-seated conflicts with their identity as teachers and their developing identity as academics. The authors’ analysis revealed conflicts between their values as school teachers and neoliberal university values, and the guilt associated with having to align more with university demands. The collaborative autoethnography process revealed it takes considerable work and effort to shift identities and that it can be uncomfortable to claim newfound agency and adjust to university expectations. The authors’ aim in sharing their findings is to make others aware of the impact such a transition can have on identity and to recommend autoethnography as a useful approach to negotiate the identified facets of the process

Tertiary care · Education Systems and Policy · Higher Education Learning Practices · Medicine · Internal Medicine