Egan, John

I am Associate Dean Learning and Teaching and Director of the Learning and Teaching Unit in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland. I lead aspects of our teaching and learning, develop strategy and policy, and enable innovation in our courses. While this is largely a service role, I also direct one postgrad elearning course, supervise postgraduate students, and conduct research.

Varies, but in a usual week I chair committees, conduct consultations, provide guidance on implementing policies, and lead a team of 15 direct and indirect reports.

Working in a university—particularly a professional faculty—means changing the world. We produce nurses, physicians, pharmacists, optometrists, epidemiologists and a broader range of health professionals. We also help current clinicians, health services staff, and others working in the sector to advance and refine their practice. So our impact is obvious.

I became an academic because I wanted to change the world. Doctors, nurses, health officials can all be agents of that change.

Aside from COVID19? AND COVID19? COVID19, which has massively disrupted our programmes, in particular our students’ clinical placements. A minor challenge is I’m not a clinician nor am I a biomedical scientist, so I need to be strategic about how I engage in discussions with those colleagues.

Despite COVID19 we have nonetheless still produced two cohorts of each professional programme in 2020 and 2021. How we got there was significantly related to some of the strategic recommendations I made about how we manage processes for policy exemptions.

I enrolled in the M Ed in Adult Education as I was working in a private post-secondary training institute and wanted to increase my wages. However, my passion has always been social justice, particularly in my queer communities. So when I encountered a lot of talk about social justice, I was…skeptically intrigued. Shortly thereafter I switched to the MA pathway.

My PhD studies were also non-traditional. I was keen to really deep dive into research, but was concerned about debt (having already accrued a lot doing my MA). But I managed to land external funding for three years, so everyone—me, the PhD admissions committee, my supervisors Shauna Butterwick and Jean Barman—was happy for me to enroll.

I realized shortly after graduation that the Educational Studies climate for students was remarkably good compared to other departments at UBC and in comparison to any other university at which I’ve worked. I constantly encounter students who find it unsafe to speak truth to power. Our profs both modelled this and encouraged this: so do I now.

Sort of? My mixed methods dissertation looked at the practices of HIV prevention workers whose clients include injection drug users in Vancouver. I know work in a health sciences faculty, but my research has moved away from HIV/sexual health/drug use towards scholarship of teaching and learning. But in methodological terms all my research work has grown from the training I got during my MA and PhD.

The community. Faculty and staff who were real, approachable, forthright, and great role models. A diverse range of student experiences.

None come to mind.

Am a heretical academic: I started my PhD when I was 35 years old, so I was not inclined to follow the golden rule of “go where the job is, any job, and be grateful for it.” I saw one colleague do that and it ended up miserably. I even *gasp* turned down a job when the vibe I got from the unit was very, very negative and snarky. I resigned another job because I needed to be closer to home because my Mum was unwell. So my career has had ups and downs. But I’ve tried to follow the maximum that the point of a interview is to get an offer, rather than a job: there is no obligation to accept it if your instinct tells you otherwise.

But aside from having a decent (non-exploitative) salary, I’ve pursued the work—and where I’ve found interesting and rewarding work, I have been content.

I have been employed every single day since graduating, though many of the jobs have been fixed term contracts. All were part of a coherent journey to me in terms of my career progression. But titles and wages themselves mean little to me, which is liberating.

I didn’t think I’d end up living in Aotearoa. Which has not been a bad thing at all!

Work, love, eat, sleep, repeat. The order varies on the day.

As a working class, queer person who lives with a couple of chronic health conditions/disabilities, I am “the exception that proves the rule” in a lot of the rooms I’m in. So I use that to an advantage when others seem to have a fetish for liberal meritocratic fantasies. I am in the room to change the room: not everyone with a similar positionality is comfortable in these spaces, so I feel an obligation to stay here.

Daily, in terms of our teaching, our professions, and our staff.

Wait 30 seconds before you say it.

Go for it.

Gravitate towards the intellectually curious rather than the credentialists.

During my PhD I delivered some skills building workshops at a global AIDS conference in South Africa, which was brilliant. I also saved my pennies and went to SCUTREA in London one year.

I did a SSHRC postdoc in Australia, which led to several jobs Down Under. Am now based on Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) Aotearoa (New Zealand).

Massively. In too many ways to describe here.

To get an interview (so less is sometimes more in a cover letter: make them want to talk to you to know more).

For any number of reasons, you should reject an offer (low wages, didn’t like the people, instinct)