The second type of narrative found was less categorical in the sense of the new international identity ‘replacing’ the national or original one. Instead, it rather formed a significant contribution to the formation of the professional self. The resulting identity is therefore even more strongly hybrid, a combination or patchwork of the ‘native’ self and the new international identity. The combination of skills thus developed is usually perceived as completely meaningful and coherent. But there is also a stronger sense of belonging predominantly within the local/national academic community which is being considered as most relevant for one’s career.
These accounts of internationalisation in academic identity were usually generated by academics with significant experiences abroad, either a combination of several longer term research or study trips or usually an MA level degree undertaken abroad, but in most cases, followed by a doctoral study in the home system, sometimes at the same original institution as the first undergraduate degree.
For example, for Amelia, her local educational setting is of primary importance and experiences abroad are important but secondary. This is clear when she recalls her first research opportunity in the UK, as perhaps the only such opportunity to visit a university abroad and gather materials for her MA thesis:
I thought wow, maybe it is the only opportunity if I am going to write a diploma about the history of Britain and I was already interested in the history of Britain, because it was language and history, both perspectives united for me. And I thought that maybe it could be the only opportunity because I didn’t know exactly, so that is why I decided to participate. But it was a sort of competition, and I was selected among four students to go to Great Britain, to go to [UK city], and to prepare for the diploma paper. So, that was it and that was in 1993 and in 1994 so we went to [a UK] university. I found it fascinating, it was a very wonderful experience, you know it was my first trip abroad, and I found very many interesting things, sources, literature, on the person about whom I was writing my diploma. (Amelia)
Anastasia recalls several research opportunities in the UK and a semester of doctoral support (including coursework) at and international university in Europe as both of primary importance for her research skills and her overall confidence in the discipline (and her erudition in terms of relevant new readings):
It was a definite opportunity for a PhD student to go to England or to Germany, depending on their preferences, and to stay for a month or more to do your own research, not teaching, not lecturing, just meeting experts whom you are interested to meet and do your research in the libraries and archives and something like this. And it was very helpful.(Anastasia)
For Milena, her two years at the international university contributed to her subsequent decision to choose teaching and a permanent academic job over part-time lecturing and NGO work. She returned to the original department from which she had graduated:
So after I graduated initially I worked in the non-governmental sector in Bulgaria I worked for an NGO, a research type of NGO and I rather enjoyed it I got experience in actual research for five years. And I was partly teaching at that time but like only a couple of seminars or lectures, not as a permanent full time job. Then I decided to go back to studying myself so I went to [International University in Europe] for two years and after coming back to Bulgaria I basically made this choice. That was like a life choice that I do want to go back to academia and develop […]Yes, I came back in 2001 in late autumn and what I did now, since, is I’m actually teaching, doing seminars. (Milena)
What is interesting is that these international experiences are translated quite quickly into meaningful personal approaches in building a unique individual position in the home institution. Daria presents this approach very well in her story of how she used her understanding of the discipline in order to create a good personal position for herself as an expert able to help in creating a new type of education in her home country:
I was already involved in this process of reformation of higher education [working for a Western foundation], and I decided that I should go somewhere abroad and have a degree and then maybe I come back and I can do something about it. […]
And I think that my Western experience will give me a lot, especially my study in Scotland will give me lot, in terms of knowledge, and also maybe help me here because when I came back I had a slightly better position in the system because there were no experts form the West, and I knew literature and research theories and I was well aware in terms of what happens there. (Daria)
Significantly internationalized academics are often very aware of how each aspect of their work is a combination of influences derived from their varied academic locations, including the local and the Western. Jakub makes this clear in relation to his teaching practices:
I started teaching pre-US but if I am talking about post 2005 experience, the last three years I have this continuous teaching experience, this is pretty much a combination of three sources of experiences I got. Although I started my studies in Soviet times and then there was a terrible civil war period, still, I had some professors that could be model of contemporary and very modern professors, and I try to use this experience in my teaching too, and the [experience], from [an international university In Europe] and from the US. (Jakub)
Igor talks of a ‘synergy of influences’ consisting of organisation of summer schools in Ukraine and a fellowship in US during his doctoral training that made him the kind of academic he is:
Actually this was like the synergy of organisation of the summer schools, participation is the summer schools and American experience. I can’t say this is more influential or that, but this sequence or timeline they did that. (Igor, 6)
The significantly internationalised academics also feel more at home in the deeply transforming university contexts which allow them to be at home whilst practicing the skills they have developed abroad. This is exemplified well by Jakub’s narrative of his securing an academic teaching assistant job (junior lecturer who is simultaneously a doctoral student in the post-soviet denomination) following the completion of two Western MA degrees:
So these degrees allowed me to apply for the position, of assistant professor of political science, at [home university] when they started big changes and reforms basically they wanted to kick out old, soviet type of professors, whether it’s the right definition or not, not sure but, that was the idea, and get new ones mostly with Western training. So then I got enrolled in PhD program in political science that allowed me to keep this position of assistant professor, otherwise if you are not already a PhD or are not doing a PhD you cannot have this position. So that’s where I am now at this stage. (Jakub)
The significant difference between the narratives of profound internationalisation and those of significant internationalisation is that in the latter, at least one aspect of academic identity becomes rooted more in the local then in the international context. This is the case in particular with some of the research and publication strategies, where the academics recognise and follow the national standards and practices, whether or not they approve of them. This means that whilst they perceive themselves as strongly international, in publication terms they learn to accept the national rules of conduct. This concerns both publication venues and the type of publications that are considered research output which may be very different in nature from the international/Western (English language) publishing practices.
An aspect of practice that allows the significantly internationalised academics maintain a localised academic identity is their (predominantly) local or national orientation in research which usually allows them to develop a local network of academics in their field, resulting in local publications, conferences and collaborative projects. The local network may be of particular importance in peer reviewing the research output as well as in terms of developing or supporting one’s teaching.
Anastasia and Daria, provide narratives on developing their local network:
And now we are building our network within Russian academy, with my colleagues, and I think that everything will be OK, we just had a big opening conference in spring and we are preparing another conference and so on. [..] When I write for my network, we already have some knowledge about everything and I don’t waste paper on explaining this or that thing, I write exactly what I would like to develop in this particular paper. (Anastasia)
I have good cooperation with Kharkiv, because they have one of the best sociology departments there in Ukraine. […]And I think that this network that we built there is really very helpful for me and for my colleagues because I really can say that I have a network of colleagues in Ukraine and also each department [participant in the program] had some partner department abroad so some foreign institutions are also involved there. But it is very important because we share information, we share, exchange courses or ideas about courses and materials, and taking into account the problem of resources, it’s really very helpful. (Daria)
These narratives represent the most neutral or seamless integration of international aspects of career development into the project of building a coherent and situated academic identity. The division between this and the previous category is not absolute. Nevertheless, the majority of interviewees in the sample corresponded to this type of internationalisation in academic identity in the sense that they have maintained a sense of being essentially an academic from their home educational system.