Engendering critical academic development

This chapter reckons with the complexities of the barriers academic women face in times of flux, division, competition and conflict. We begin by situating our concerns within a critique of the limitations and problematics of mainstream approaches to the development of academics. Against this, we offer a vision of Critical Academic Development, to serve the purposes of enabling transformative ethical leadership. Drawing from a critical review of published texts, we highlight the ways in which to orient such development, cognisant of (i) the fraught conditions for academic practice and (ii) the many unidentified risks, which impact on women academics’(iii) academic careers; (iv) teaching; (v) research; (vi) broader academic practices, and (vii) their agency to engender change. What this critical review reveals about engendering change for ethical leadership of women academics is then discussed, with consideration of the implications for such models as HERS-EA.