Abstract
The current Spanish higher education landscape (characterized by evaluations, overcrowding of classrooms, commitment to internationalization) has social, employment, and health repercussions for Early Career Academics (ECAs). However, this group of academics is often described as passive subjects when it comes to challenging the current situation in higher education. In this study, we sought to understand the attitudes of resistance and criticism in ECAs by analyzing the activity (through NodeXL) and content (through Nvivo12) of the Twitter accounts of two Spanish ECA associations. Twitter (now X) was selected since social media has emerged as a new form of social empowerment and democratization. It is concluded that there are attitudes of resistance among the accounts analyzed. However, for ECAs, criticism of the evaluation system and emphasis on scientific production is relegated to the background, with criticism of their working conditions taking priority. Finally, we highlight the significant and impactful role of associations in social and political struggles.
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Notes
For more information about NodeXL, please see Hansen et al. (2011)
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Funding
The author(s) declare receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and publication of this article. This work was supported by the State Research Agency, Spanish Ministry of Science, and Innovation, through the project “The influence of neoliberalism on academic identities and the level of professional satisfaction” -NEOACADEMIC-(PID2019- 105631GA-I00/SRA (State Research Agency)/ 10.13039/501100011033). The work of Javier Mula-Falcón was supported by the Ministry of Universities (Spain) through the University Teacher Training Grants Programme (FPU19/00942) and the mobility grants for short stays in other centers for beneficiaries of the University Teacher Training Sub-programme (EST22/00394). The work of Sofia Viseu was supported by National Funds through FCT-Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., under the scope of UIDEF - Unidade de Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Educação e Formação, UIDB/04107/2020 (10.54499/UIDB/04107/2020). Finally, the work of Rui da Silva was supported by the Portuguese Government, through the Foundation for Science and Technology, IP (FCT) (CEECIND/01263/2017).
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Mula-Falcón, J., Viseu, S. & da Silva, R. Early Career Academic’s Associations: A Study of Resistance and Empowerment on Social Media. High Educ Policy (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-024-00353-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-024-00353-4