Careers Of Early- And Mid-Career Academics

Even if higher education institutions (HEIs) have been subject to important changes in the last few decades, it is undeniable that today, as in the emergence of the modern higher education (HE) systems enhanced by the Humboldtian revolution, producing and disseminating knowledge is one of their main missions (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff 2000; Olssen & Peters 2005; Santiago et al. 2008). However, what is considered scientific knowledge is still the subject of epistemological and ontological discussion. There has been a discernible shift from the positivist perspective that maintains it is possible to obtain objective and true knowledge by using scientific methods to more recent discussion about the possible existence of a reality that is external to the individual (Alvesson & Sköldberg 2003; Foucault 2002). These newer approaches question the important relationship between the production of knowledge and notions of power and control, and feminist writers have strongly contributed to this debate (Hekman 1992; Alvesson & Sköldberg 2003; O’Connor 2012). Studies of women in science reveal how the role of women in science and HE has been neglected, mainly because science and HE reproduce the dominant stereotypes in society (Rose 1994; Oakley 1997; Schiebinger 1999). Similarly, Steedman (1991) argues that knowledge cannot be separated from the knower, while Sousa Santos asserts that knowledge is ‘selfknowledge’, in the sense that the object is part of the subject (2003). Consequently, a reflective/reflexive approach to research has been emerging in social sciences. As Alvesson and Sköldberg assert: ‘reflection means interpreting one’s own interpretation, looking at one’s own perspectives from other perspectives, and turning a self-critical eye onto