CONCLUSIONES Y RECOMENDACIONES

The implication of the phenomenographic findings resulted in the outcome space (see Table 8). Within the outcome space are five conceptions of qualitatively different ways that lecturers in nursing experience identity. These five conceptions of identity are internally related and are illustrated by the Venn diagrams below (see Figure 9 - Figure 12). Figure 9 illustrates identity as a nurse, where this may be the novice leaving the healthcare provider as an expert in the field of nursing, or where a lecturer in nursing exclusively identifies as a nurse.

Figure 9 Identity as a novice lecturer in nursing entering the field of higher education

Novice lecturers in nursing initially expand their identity as a teacher (see Figure 10). As their experience and credibility develops, so does their identity as they progress to be an academic scholar (Figure 10).

Lecturers in nursing are involved in boundary crossing when in a tutorial context or when transferring between university and clinical practice to visit students and clinical mentors. The lecturers in nursing are seeking credibility from students and mentors that they still have the clinical competence and knowledge of nursing practice. They are also seeking credibility from students and colleagues that they are an effective teacher and academic scholar.

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Figure 10 Develops credibility as a teacher leading towards academic scholar identity and scholarship

In figure 11 the lecturer in nursing may have the opportunity to develop identity in a number of formations. In the diagram on the left, the lecturer in nursing has entered higher education as a nurse, developed knowledge and skills of being a teacher, progressed into becoming an academic scholar then chosen to engage as a researcher. The lecturer in nursing identifying as researcher is crossing boundaries into the research arena, seeking research funding and/or attending and presenting papers at conferences. They are seeking credibility by engaging with the research community. The diagram on the right is similar, but in this case the lecturers in nursing have developed to become an academic leader and have chosen or do not engage or identify themselves as a researcher. Here the lecturer in nursing is boundary crossing over to negotiate with stakeholders within the NHS and higher education sector seeking credibility from peers, colleagues and senior members of the university.

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Figure 11 Lecturers in nursing who have credible identities begin to engage in research or academic leadership

Figure 12 illustrates the lecturer in nursing navigating from novice through the five categories of description and demonstrating expanding awareness of conceptions. In this case a lecturer in nursing will have developed from being an academic scholar to an academic leader whilst also being active in research. The findings indicate that the nursing identity remains strong and core to the participants.

Figure 12 Some lecturers in nursing are credible in all five categories in the outcome space

This expanding awareness of conceptions of being a lecturer in nursing reflects a journey that has spanned two very distinct professions: nursing and higher education. Data analysis has

Susan Harness 158 discerned the qualitatively different understandings of the phenomena under investigation guided by the research question. During data analysis, the identification of qualitatively separate categories describing the ways in which participants experience a phenomenon have been established. These categories are arranged to reflect expanding awareness. Åkerlind (2008b) described the expansion of awareness between the categories as demonstrating an increase in sophistication in the experience of the phenomenon.

Temptingly, one could be seduced into separating the identity of lecturers in nursing into two categories of either being a nurse or a teacher. The literature reveals a long-standing debate of the tensions of assuming a dualistic identity (Adams, 2011; Stronach et al., 2002) and which camp lecturers in nursing should place a foot in (Andrew, 2012; Shreeve, 2010). In this case, phenomenographic data has emerged from this rich and grounded study that has exposed five distinct conceptions of being a lecturer in nursing from a wide variation of participants within England and Scotland. Crucially, these findings reveal that lecturers in nursing have described four distinctive identities other than nursing (Teacher, Academic Scholar, Researcher and Academic Leader). The implication here is that although lecturers in nursing overwhelmingly identify as being a nurse, the phenomenographic evidence within this study is that lecturers in nursing are progressing into and assuming other identities within higher education. These findings suggest that participants are becoming increasingly

comfortable and competent in assuming a different identity other than being a nurse. Despite the challenges of moving into higher education after a career in nursing, the emerging data confirms that participants are now beginning to find their feet and progress further to distinctive identities within non-nursing communities of practice.

5.7 Summary

The chapter has situated this study in the context of interpretivism, having a focus on the conceptions of being a lecturer in nursing. In adopting a phenomenographic approach, to the accounts from lecturers in nursing, the emerging data was constituted into categories of description. Excerpts and statements from the transcripts have been selected that are illustrative of each conception and have been presented to demonstrate substance and support to the five categories. As a result, the outcome space in the form of a diagrammatic

Susan Harness 159 representation of five distinct conceptions has revealed the variation of being a lecturer in nursing. A number of journeys through the expanding awareness of conceptions of being a lecturer in nursing have been illustrated using Venn diagrams.

Although phenomenographic findings from this study have revealed the variation of identities as experienced by lecturers in nursing, there is no evidence from this data to discover how these identities are negotiated. The following chapter will examine the data from the video- recording of the lecturer in nursing undertaking a tutorial with an individual student and the following video stimulated recall and reflection interview the lens of Pierre Bourdieu’s reflexive sociological theory of practice (Bourdieu, 1977).

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