Pracademic

A pracademic is someone who is both an academic and an active practitioner in their subject area.

The term has a history of at least 30 years, but its first coining is unclear. The earliest reference may have been identified by a subscriber to Worldwide Words^[1] as being 1973.

In his 2001 Article 'The Life and Times of Pracademics', Paul L Posner ^[2] discusses the term pracademic. Since Posner's article many academics have used the term in journals and elsewhere.^[3] In 2001 Maria R Volpe and David Chandler in their paper in Negotiation Journal ^[4] describe the bridging role as that of the 'Pracademic'. Again in 2001 Willard T. Price uses the term in the same context of academic and practicing professional in Public Works.^[5] George L Hanbury builds on the term in his paper on the ethics of honor by describing himself as a Pracademic and observing his subject from this stand point.^[6]

Although the core bridging concept appears to be the main theme several other usages have emerged. The idea of the Pracademic being a type of teaching style for Entrepreneurs has appeared in several places. A pracademic degree ^[7] for instance describes the case of a new degree in the UK that is taught by practitioners to students who want to be entrepreneurs. However this use of the term remains close to the main definition of bridging the academic and practical professional world. Additionally many academics now describe themselves as Pracademics on their web sites and this use of the term aligns well with definition set out here. There may be other uses of the term.

The term was first used in relation to the UK resilience community at the inaugural conference of the Institute of Civil Protection and Emergency Management (April 2009).^[8] Peter Simpson from the London Fire Brigade, who undertook a Master’s programme at Leicester University as a mature student, described people like himself and others in the resilience community as ‘pracademics’ and showed delegates the ‘Pracademic Curve’, which clearly illustrated the inter-relationship between the practitioner and academic communities, particularly as it affects those who go into academia having already embarked on a career as a practitioner.

In 2008, the term was introduced in the Criminal Justice education arena, with a paper and presentation entitled The Pracademic and Academic in Criminal Justice Education at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences by Stephen A. Morreale of Worcester State University and James E. McCabe of Sacred Heart University. The paper focuses on the benefit of blending faculty that represent both the academic and pracademic perspectives, for the benefit of both the academic department and Criminal Justice students.

Many designers also have started taking interest in this term lately in their theories, research as well as practice. In 2008, Ahmedabad based architectural firm has named their office as studio prAcademics. Studio is led by Tejas Kathiriya providing architecture, interior design and urban design services. They are involved in merging the design theories with professional practice and vice versa.

In 2013, the term was introduced to the field of teacher education as well. Writing about teacher education practices in general, and teacher education in the Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in particular, Jain ^[9] theorized about the relevance of the term to the lives of those who work on the intersections of practice and research. Jain used the term 'pracademic' to (re)imagine her professional identity as that comprising a coherent, albeit hybridized, unity--that of a practitioner as well as an academic.

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