“Always on call” : The Impact of Faculty Service on the Integration of Academic Returnees into Their Homeland Academic Community - Tales of Course Coordinators in China

The study presented here is an attempt to understand the multiplicity of ways faculty service impacts the integration of academic returnees back into their home academic milieu based on the faculty service framework provided by academic ecology. Based on in-depth narratives from seven-course coordinators in Double-First universities in China, the research reveals a range of coordinators’ attitudes and reactions to faculty service. Returnee scholar's coordination difficulties and negative potential impact incurred at the individual level were related to faculty service as a third duty of the third duty, as compared to research and teaching. Faculty service can be seen as a conduit to the kinds of positive interactions that are more likely to lead to beneficial external dynamics, both at the institutional and community levels. The level of willingness of returnee scholars to adapt mediated at the same time the integration process. This study provides a more sophisticated understanding of the integration process by illuminating the dual-edged sword of faculty service, thereby providing a more sophisticated understanding of the academics of academic ecology in higher education.