Developing professional identities: remaking the academic for corporate times

Abstract This article posits the view that a new curriculum is being applied to professional identity formation as we enter the new millennium. The changing nature of academics’ life and work is used as a case study in how new knowledge is being applied in ways that represent a radical departure from the sort of knowledge traditionally associated with formal institutions of learning. The authors use one academic manager's vision of excellence as an instance of the application of this new curriculum. They then broaden the focus to consider how this instance takes its place in a more widespread imperative to reshape work practices through the creation of enterprising cultures and enterprising individuals, within universities and outside them. The analysis concludes by returning to consider the tactics being used to re/form the Australian academic as an ‘excellent’ teacher.