Shifting Identities and Blurring Boundaries: The Emergence of Third Space Professionals in UK Higher Education

Table 2: Categories of professional identity

Characteristics of third space

As a result of blurring boundaries between activities, what might be described as
third space has emerged between professional and academic domains (see Figure 1).
On the left and right hand sides of the diagram respectively are professional and
academic staff, performing their traditional roles, professional staff in generalist,
specialist and ‘niche’ functions, and academic staff undertaking teaching, research
and ‘third-leg’ activity. Alongside these roles, ‘perimeter’ roles have grown up
around, for instance, in the case of professional staff, outreach and study skills, access
and equity, community and regional partnership; and in the case of academic staff,
pastoral support, curriculum development for non-traditional participants, and links
with local educational providers. Over time, these ‘perimeter’ roles have increasingly
converged in third space around broadly based projects such as student transitions,
community partnership and professional development. Bounded professionals,
voluntarily or involuntarily, tend to be clustered on the left hand side of the diagram,
within a well-defined organisational or functional location. If they cross into third
space, this is likely to be on the basis of clear temporal and spatial paramenters.
Likewise, mainstream academic staff, who are primarily concerned with teaching and
research, would be located predominantly at the right hand side of the diagram. Third
space betwee_s^On_k^u_il^t_l^rp_s^er^ao^chf^/e^ss^tus^di^yonal and academic domains, however, is colonised primarily
by unbounded and blended professionals, as well as by academic staff undertaking
project-oriented activities, and these groups actively expand and develop the space
between the two. By contrast, cross-boundary professionals move in and out on an
ongoing basi_d^As_i,^c_s^c_aa^e_b^sc_il^s_it_t^/_yi^ev^qe^uil^ty/ using the boundaries between third space and professional
and academic domains for superordinate purposes.

Figure 1: A Changing Higher Education Workforce Map: The Emergence of
Th^Cir^od^{m m}S^upⁿa^ityc^/e between Professional and Academic Domains
regional
partnership

Examples of institutional Projects ‘Perimeter’
in ‘Third’ Space            roles eg

Professional staff ‘Perimeter’                                                      Academic Staff

roles eg

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