Who is the academic? rethinking academic identity through a multilevel scoping review

Academic identity provides a critical lens for understanding how academics navigate transformations in higher education, yet the literature remains conceptually diverse, theoretically fragmented, and predominantly Anglophone. This scoping review synthesises conceptualisations, dimensions, determinants, contexts, consequences, and methodological approaches in academic identity research and identifies key gaps. Following PRISMA-SCR guidelines, we comparatively analysed 74 English-language studies (1998–2026) alongside 32 Persian- and Polish-language studies. Findings indicate a shift from essentialist and role-based conceptions towards understanding academic identity as dynamic, relational, and continuously negotiated. Academic identity emerges as a multilevel, contextually embedded phenomenon shaped by interactions among individual agency, institutional and disciplinary environments, and broader governance regimes. Comparison of Iranian and Polish studies further demonstrates how historically and politically specific higher education systems mediate identity formation. Building on these findings, we propose a Multilevel Academic Identity Ecology Framework integrating micro-, meso-, and macro-level processes to advance comparative and context-sensitive research on academic identity.