Learning to play the game: exploring the experiences of early career academics in negotiating their belonging at a South African university.
Authors:   , Majozi Nkululeko Vusumuzi ift. 
Published: April 2024

This research study contributes to the increasing body of knowledge that explores the experiences of early career academics working in and around institutions of higher learning in South Africa. Using a qualitative approach, academics new to the academic landscape recounted and shared their academic experiences in relation to their professional transition, and how they negotiated their belonging within the institution of higher learning where they are employed. An interpretive case study, focusing on eight sampled early career academics as participants from the University of KwaZulu Natal, Edgewood campus, was used to capture their experiences. The early career academics who were purposively sampled reflected on, and shared their experiences. These were theorized and broken down into five main themes, namely; academic development, publications and funding, academic responsibility and community engagement, prioritizing student-centred teaching and learning, and the visibility of line managers and supervisors. Through the semi-structured interviews, participants provided detailed and valuable responses about their lived experiences of what transitioning into academia feels like for an early career academic in a South African institution of higher learning. This data generation method was seen as an appropriate tool to use to generate data that that offers unique insights in this study. This study revealed that the experiences by early career academics as they transitioned into higher education were multi-faceted. Early career academics appeared overwhelmed, tired, frustrated and even angry at the occupational conditions that are intensified by their professional world of work. Furthermore, it revealed that the difficulties that these academics were often exposed to resulted in their early departure from academia, with no intention of returning. This left the institutions in dire situations when they left. This study therefore, recommends that more scholarly work focusing on the experiences of ECAs when transitioning into higher education be done. Whilst a great deal of recommendations to mitigate some of these negative experiences have been explored in this body of work, neglecting the need for further research into this phenomenon can have a long term adverse impact on the development of new academics, and that of the higher education sector at large. Further exploring and understanding how early academics negotiate their belonging when transitioning into the academic landscape will enable institutions of higher learning to device new initiatives and modem programmes to lessen the pressure and negative experiences. Moreover, while there was some form of support extended in these institutions through formal and informal mentorship opportunities from supervisors and fellow colleagues, this study further recommends formalising and institutionalising such programmes for the development of ECAs within the system, their well-being and the survival of the academic profession.