Academic Self-Realization of Researchers in Higher Education: Phenomenological Research-Based Evidence

Abstract

In the dynamic context of higher education, the academic self-realization of a researcher is significant not only for the growth of the dedicated researcher but also for the well-being of the entire academic community. The purpose of this study was to reveal the academic self-realization experience of researchers in higher education and answer the research question: “What does academic self-realization mean for the researcher in higher education?” This study used a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach, which allowed researchers to delve into the academic self-realization experience of researchers in higher education. The study was conducted from November 2022 to December 2023 and represents the social sciences and the science of education. Individuals who have obtained a PhD, work as lecturers and/or researchers in Lithuanian universities, participate in the training of doctoral students, and who obtained bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degrees in more than one field of science took part in this study. This means that these researchers represent scientific multidisciplinarity. The research participants were from Lithuania and the United Kingdom. A total sample of seventeen researchers participated in the study. This article presents results from semi-structured interviews with six researchers, where the theme of “academic self-realization” emerged. The study results showed that the academic self-realization of the researcher in higher education is a process through which the researcher finds, develops, and represents personal interests and talents in the university’s academic community, thereby contributing to the personal, scientific, and academic development of this community. The conducted research reveals the complexity of the academic self-realization of researchers, which includes a significant integration of academic and personal components.

1. Introduction

The desire for meaning inscribed in the human being permeates every area of a person’s life. The search for meaning is in the areas of personal and academic life [1]. The abilities and talents of a person harnessed in the work arena ensure not only financial benefits, but also lead a person to meaningful self-realization. The term “self-realization”, introduced by Carl G. Jung (1875–1961), was later adopted and deeply analyzed by representatives of humanistic psychology [2,3]. Self-realization is aimed at a person’s self-actualization and includes a person’s autonomy to act, their subjectively experienced and experienced freedom, self-efficacy, respect for the self and others, the realization of creative abilities, and self-development [4]. Self-realization on the academic path gives a person the opportunity to know her or his strengths and weaknesses in order to achieve academic growth and continuous learning, thanks to which personal meaning is experienced.

In recent years, the topic of self-realization at work has been given a lot of attention [5,6,7,8] in the analysis of research in the psychological sciences, but self-realization is no less important in the science of education. Educational research conducted on teachers’ [9,10,11] and students’ self-realization [12,13,14] testifies to the relevance of this topic, but the topic of the academic self-realization of researchers in higher education remains a poorly researched phenomenon.

In this article, the focus is on the academic self-realization of the researcher in higher education. In the literature, the notion of “academic self-realization” is used less frequently than the notion of “academic self-actualization”. These notions are not the same. Self-realization means fulfillment by oneself of the possibilities of one’s character or personality [15]. Self-actualization is defined as the tendency for someone to become actualized into their full potential. This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more of what one is or to become everything that one is capable of becoming [16]. So, “academic self-realization” means stepping up and accepting responsibility. By owning their academic lives, researchers pave a path of freedom, enabling self-expression, autonomy, and success. It is about filtering and managing thoughts, strengthening self-confidence, and improving creativity [17].

A researcher working in higher education has a number of scientific, pedagogical, and administrative obligations in the course of fulfilling their academic duties [18]. Research conducted by a researcher, projects carried out, scientific articles, monographs, and other scientific texts written testify to the available expertise and competence. A researcher’s quest to know her or himself and understand the field of research goes beyond the limits of measurable, evaluable, and obvious scientific academic achievements (e.g., the number of publications, winning projects, supervised student theses, reports, awards, etc.) [19]. A dynamic process of academic self-realization lies in the scientific activities of a researcher, during which authentic scientific growth is experienced [20,21,22,23,24], creating meaning based on academic values [25,26,27,28,29] and existing as members of the academic university community [25] and the national and international scientific community [30].

Researchers in this article are considered to be individuals who have a PhD, work at universities, and who devote themselves to doing research. Those who took part in this study have obtained a PhD, work as lecturers and/or researchers in Lithuanian universities, participate in the training of doctoral students, and have obtained bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degrees in more than one field of science.

In the dynamic context of modern higher education, more and more attention is paid to the performativity of researchers [31,32], which leads to increasing workloads [33,34]. Growing demands on researchers [35] and balancing between different roles [36] have become a challenge to the academic well-being of researchers [37]. Therefore, in this context, the academic self-realization of a researcher in higher education becomes a relevant and significant topic about which there is a lack of research. A researcher’s academic self-realization in higher education is not only an individual researcher’s aspiration to realize her or his personal potential but also a process that is related to institutional structures of higher education and academic standards [38]. A detailed analysis of scientific literature on an international scale revealed that the phenomenon of academic self-realization of a researcher as an autonomous concept is not analyzed in the social sciences, and it is not examined in education science. Therefore, phenomenological methodology was used.

As a result, phenomenological methodology was chosen for this study, which provides an opportunity to reveal and understand the personal perspective of researchers on academic self-realization in higher education experienced in their daily lives.

Phenomenological methodology allows for structured disclosure of human experience and description of what and how it was experienced [39]. A phenomenological approach to the academic self-realization of researchers reveals their academic experiences, which are meaningful to researchers in higher education [40]. The research question in this study was: “What does academic self-realization mean for a researcher in higher education?”

The aim of this study was to reveal the academic self-realization experiences of researchers in higher education. The findings presented in this paper are part of a PhD study which was completed between November 2022 and December 2023.

Analyzing the research data, it became clear that the academic self-realization of the researcher in higher education is a process through which the researcher discovers, nurtures, and expresses her or his individuality, personal interests, and talents in the academic community, thereby contributing to the personal, scientific, and academic growth of the researchers’ university community and beyond.

2. Literature Review

Self-realization can be described as the complete realization of one’s potential, as manifested in peak experiences that involve the full development of one’s abilities and appreciation for life [41]. The concept of self-realization is actualized in the works of C. G. Jung, A. Maslow, and C. Rogers, and it provides basic concepts that help us to better understand the individual evolutionary path in different contexts.

“Self-realization” for Jung was about individuation as a tendency of the evolution of personality towards a coherent and integrated ensemble. Self-realization is a process based on the idea of accumulation and lifelong personality development, and Jung believed that even a very old person could have surprising and useful insights if she or he were willing to look deep inside [42]. According to Maslow [41], the person must be aware and have the will to become a fully actualized being, which means to experience self-realization. It refers to the desire for self-fulfillment, namely the tendency to become everything that someone is capable of becoming [2]. For Rogers [43], the tendency toward self-realization is the whole process through which the individual achieves her or his potential to become a fully functioning person. Rogers has associated the process of self-realization with the stimulation of functioning: self-realization with openness to a variety of experiences; participation in every moment in personal life by living to the fullest and experiencing life without preconceptions; and giving confidence to the individual’s own body, to what she or he feels and perceives by trusting the freedom of decision and creativity.

In this article, the research focus is not on “self-realization” as a psychological concept. Attention is paid to “academic self-realization”, which is associated with the researcher’s academically engaged life in higher education, being part of the university’s academic community. Therefore, it is worth touching on the meaning of the term “academic”.

An academic is a member of a university or college who teaches or does research [44]. “Academic” means pertaining to areas of study that are not primarily vocational or applied, such as the humanities or pure mathematics; acquired by formal education, especially at a college or university; and conforming to set rules, standards, or traditions [45]. It also means relating to schools, colleges, or universities or connected with studying and thinking, not with practical skills: academic subjects/qualifications/books, an academic institution, or academic standards [46]. It could be summarized that dictionaries represent the semantic meaning of the notion of “academic” with a focus on institutions, teaching, researching, rules, standards, traditions, and formal education. This means that given a researcher’s education and intellectual skills and their belonging to the academic community of the institution, compliance with rules and standards are important aspects. The literature review showed that the concept of “being an academic” is a limited approach and includes different contexts: institutional and disciplinary type [47,48], career stage [49,50], and gender [51].

When combining the concepts of “self-realization” and “academic” and constructing the complex concept of “academic self-realization”, the scientific literature does not provide theories to explain such a notion. However, a review of scientific sources allows us to form a general picture of the concept of “academic self-realization”.

Academic self-realization of a researcher in higher education is aimed at the self-actualization and self-expression of an individual, connected to the academic community of the university, and is experienced through self-building of scientific reputation in the academic community [20,22,23], multifaceted growth [24], the creation of meaning through scientific activity [25], personal self-expression in academic activities [52,53,54], continuous reflection of personal scientific path [55], presence in inclusive environments [56,57], authentic academic influence [58,59,60], intellectual freedom to create and think [61], intellectual contribution to science [62,63], personal growth in multidisciplinary environments [56,64,65], value integrity [26,27,28], and being a member of the university community [29].

The academic self-realization of a researcher in higher education is also associated with the self-creation of an academic reputation. A researcher’s academic reputation is supported by formal and informal forms of communication [20]. When a researcher communicates with fellow researchers, students, and doctoral students, her or his scientific reputation is formed through scientific output, such as publications or conducted or ongoing scientific research [22]. Also, a scientific reputation is created when a researcher makes a personal contribution to the development [23] and cultivation of the academic community in higher education and beyond [21,52].

A researcher’s academic self-realization in higher education means multidirectional growth in academic activities through which meaning is created. It is claimed that the multidirectional growth of a researcher manifests itself as a rhizomatic becoming, in which a personalized relationship with scientific activities is created [24]. The meaning created by a researcher during academic activities is perceived as a tension between pleasure (e.g., communication with students, teaching, financial well-being, being able to flexibly plan one’s work schedule) and formalized burdens (e.g., bureaucracy, heavy workload, labor relations problems) [25].

A researcher’s academic self-realization in higher education manifests itself in a person’s self-expression through academic activities. Being a confident, recognizable, productive, and sophisticated researcher [53] provides an opportunity to express oneself as an authentic researcher and a unique personality in academic activities [54]. This self-expression takes place in the specific scientific and pedagogical activities of the researcher, which encourage continuous reflection on the personal scientific path. The received constructive feedback becomes the basis for reflection on the researcher’s academic activities [55].

A researcher’s academic self-realization in higher education takes place in inclusive environments and through authentic academic influence. Being in inclusive environments, the researcher develops her or his competencies [56] and shares her or his knowledge and experiences with other people [57]. A researcher’s authentic academic influence is understood through the citation of scientific publications and the recognition of scientific expertise in the academic space [58,60] on a national or international scale.

The academic self-realization of a researcher in higher education requires intellectual freedom to create and think. Academic freedom and autonomy in higher education are understood as values [62] from which the researcher’s intellectual freedom [38,66] arises and manifests itself when research is conducted and its results are shared with others [63]. Her or his intellectual contribution is created from the researcher’s independent and authentic activity in higher education.

Intellectual freedom and academic freedom are related but distinct concepts. Intellectual freedom as an academic practice includes conditions that protect the freedom of access to information and ideas, no matter how controversial, so that scholars may freely teach and students may freely learn; the freedom to choose the spaces for research; the freedom to read; and the freedom of creative expression [67]. In accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, intellectual freedom is defined as encompassing the essential principles of freedom of thought, inquiry, and expression [68]; so then academic freedom can be defined as an application of intellectual freedom in the university setting [69].

Academic freedom means the atmosphere of free inquiry and discussion necessary to find and teach “truth” as the faculty member (researcher/scholar) sees it. It is the freedom to research any topic and to report one’s findings without fear of retribution [70]. It is a freedom of inquiry in research, freedom of teaching within the university or college, and freedom of extra-mural utterance and action [71], the free exchange of ideas, and the development of an institutional culture that tolerates those who hold diverse views [69]. Academic freedom is usually guaranteed not on the basis of constitutional rights but rather as the result of contractual agreements.

The free exchange of ideas and the holding of diverse views might suggest a connection between academic freedom and freedom of speech [72]. Therefore, intellectual freedom and academic freedom share common roots, but they differ in some significant ways [69]. All persons are entitled to intellectual freedom, but researchers are entitled to academic freedom. Intellectual freedom does not presume the responsibility of competence, but academic freedom does. Intellectual freedom is not bound to any specific institution, like a university, but academic freedom is [73].

The intellectual freedom of the researcher manifests itself as a part of academic freedom, which opens up as autonomy, through which freedom of belief, expression, and debate are guaranteed [59]. Academic freedom ensures the researcher’s freedom of speech, which is an essential element of intellectual freedom. A researcher working at a university is free to share her or his thoughts and insights during lectures, and while conducting research, he or she is free to share her or his research findings with other researchers, students, and the public.

Scientific creativity, which includes the characteristics of the researcher’s personality, life events, academic experience, broad interest, and openness to the unexpected, helps to create an authentic intellectual contribution of the researcher’s intellectual freedom, which provides meaning and contributes to the academic self-realization of the researcher in higher education [63].

A researcher’s academic self-realization in higher education is reflected in multidisciplinary growth. This growth is related to the scientific discipline represented and employed [64,65], but in a multidisciplinary environment, one discipline is not enough to solve complex societal problems [56]. In a multidisciplinary environment, the researcher contributes with her or his insights and expertise to the creation of a cooperative academic relationship, in which expert experience and knowledge are shared.

A researcher’s academic self-realization in higher education manifests itself through the researcher’s value firmness. According to the researcher, the value strength is manifested in the relationship between the researcher and her or his research participants, where there is an educational interaction based on respect [26]. The value strength of a researcher is evidenced when scientific research is carried out responsibly and carefully [27]. The researcher’s internalized values in the context of science are revealed when decisions about research and projects are made, when methodological choices are considered, and when research-based evidence is sufficient to support scientific claims [28]. A researcher’s academic self-realization based on high morals and value firmness shows the individual’s commitment and honesty to science and the entire higher-education community. Being a member of a specific university community is a context in which a researcher forms her or his academic identity and experiences academic self-realization [29] through research and pedagogical activities. Academic self-realization as a researcher involves a holistic process of achieving personal scientific potential and academic fulfillment. This process involves the building of a scientific reputation through formal and informal interactions within the academic community and a multidirectional growth characterized by rhizomatic becoming [74]. It is the construction of meaning in the tension between the joys and burdens of academic life [75]. This includes personal self-expression, constant reflection on the academic journey, and being present in environments that engage the researcher [76]. Researchers enjoy authentic academic impact, intellectual freedom, and interdisciplinary growth while maintaining a sense and meaning of institutional University Values [77]. In experiencing this, researchers contribute to the development and nurturing of science through their intellectual contribution to the university as academia. Being a part of the university’s academic community provides opportunities for researchers to experience academic self-realization.

3. Methodology

3.1. Design

A qualitative research design was chosen to reveal what academic self-realization in higher education means for researchers. A qualitative research design allows for an in-depth exploration of participants’ perspectives and lived experiences, which is particularly significant in capturing the richness and depth of their narratives [78]. A phenomenological qualitative research methodology was chosen because it enables the researchers to go deeper into the essence of lived experience and to see the structures within it. The main aim of phenomenology is to go beyond superficial interpretations, thus delving into the depth of consciousness itself. Unlike other qualitative methodologies, which may focus on generalization or theory building, phenomenological research aims to capture the unique and complex details of individual experience [79,80]. Phenomenology recognizes the importance of the role of the researcher, and reflexivity is therefore encouraged, which is crucial in the research process and interpretations. The process of phenomenological reduction allows the researcher to rethink her or his assumptions, beliefs, and personal experiences, which may influence the understanding of the phenomenon under study [81]. Through reduction, the researcher refrains from preconceived notions about the phenomenon under study, thus perceiving the phenomenon as it is. A qualitative phenomenological research design enables the researcher to understand the human experience holistically.

As a research methodology, phenomenology is uniquely positioned to help researchers in higher education learn from the experiences of colleague researchers. Phenomenological research is particularly effective at bringing to the fore the experiences and perceptions of researchers from their own perspectives and, therefore, at challenging structural or normative assumptions. Phenomenological research helps to understand what it is like for researchers to experience academic identity in higher education. By describing the stories of researchers who actually lived through a particular experience and their perceptions of it, our research cuts to the heart of what it was truly like.

In this study, academic self-realization was identified as one of the themes in the analysis of the research data based on Lindseth’s and Norberg’s [82] phenomenological-hermeneutical method for researching lived experiences. The application of the phenomenological-hermeneutic method to the study of lived experience is inspired by the theory of interpretation presented by Paul Ricoeur’s (1913–2005) [83,84,85] interpretive framework for the analysis of interview texts. The stories told by research participants give meaning to specific events as well as to history as a whole [82,85]. Making the past events of the research participants present allows for a full understanding of their lived experiences and a new perspective on the lived world. The phenomenological methodology in this study was chosen because it allows the researchers to grasp the meaning that is embodied in the research participants themselves [86].

Phenomenological research helped the researchers to understand what it is like to experience a specific situation or life event in regard to the academic self-realization of a researcher in higher education. The stories of researchers who actually lived through a particular experience and their perceptions of it provided possibilities for researchers to grasp the essence of what it was truly like [37]. This method was meaningful in this study because there are not many theoretical justifications and empirical studies on the academic self-realization of researchers. If there are such studies, they are only fragmented, examining aspects related to “self-realization” but not the phenomenon of “academic self-realization” itself through the lived experiences of researchers. This article presents a part of the research on the academic identity of a researcher with a multidisciplinary education in higher education.

The study was conducted from November 2022 to December 2023 and represents the social sciences and the science of education.

3.2. Sample

Purposive sampling was used for the qualitative phenomenological study. Purposive sampling is a strategy used in qualitative research to identify and select research participants who have specific experience of the phenomenon of interest [87]. Similarly, in phenomenological research, purposive sampling has enabled the researcher to find research participants who share a common experience but have authentic characteristics and individual lived experiences [88]. The choice of purposive sampling led to the selection of the study participants according to criteria that defined that the study would include only university researchers with at least 10 years of work experience, as well as only university researchers who have changed their field of study (e.g., have studied in the natural sciences and the social sciences) at least once in their research and academic careers.

Convenience and snowball sampling were also used to facilitate the search for research participants. Convenience sampling is carried out by finding nearby, easily accessible study participants who meet the required criteria [89]. Convenience sampling allowed us to start the study from the proximate environment and then broaden the search for study participants through snowball sampling. Snowball sampling allows the researcher to reach potential study participants through those individuals already participating in the research [90]. These types of sampling in qualitative research enable the researcher to reach a wide range of research participants whose shared experiences added to and expanded the phenomenon under study.

Individuals who have obtained a PhD, work as lecturers and/or researchers in Lithuanian universities, participate in the training of doctoral students, and who have obtained bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degrees in more than one field of science took part in this study. This means that these researchers represent scientific multidisciplinarity. The research participants were from Lithuania and the United Kingdom, working at Lithuanian universities. A total sample of seventeen researchers participated in the study.

This article presents results from semi-structured interviews with six researchers. In these interviews, the theme of “academic self-realization” emerged. Characteristics of these six research participants are presented in

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of the six research participants.

Research Participant	Gender	Work Experience	Represented Scientific Fields	Country of Origin
RP2	Male	24 years	Medicine and health sciences, medicine Social sciences, sociology	Lithuania
RP4	Male	24 years	Natural sciences, biology Social sciences, education	Lithuania
RP10	Female	28 years	Natural sciences, mathematics Humanities, philosophy	Lithuania
RP15	Male	25 years	Humanities, philosophy Social sciences, sociology	United Kingdom
RP16	Female	26 years	Social sciences, education Social sciences, political sciences	Lithuania
RP17	Male	30 years	Medicine and health sciences, nursing Social sciences, social work	United Kingdom

.

3.3. Data Collection

Semi-structured phenomenological interviews were conducted in this study. The semi-structured interview is a widely used technique in the social sciences in which research participants answer open-ended questions that have been pre-designed and prepared by the researcher [91]. A phenomenological-hermeneutic approach distinguishes the interview as a particular means of understanding the richness of a phenomenon and a way through which a conversation about the meanings of individuals’ experiences is developed [92]. During the interviews, the researcher asked eight questions to those who agreed to participate in the research:

• What do you do at the university? Please share your experiences.
• What does it mean to you to be a researcher?
• It is said that academic-research activities are a kind of service. What do you think? Why? Please share your experiences.
• Does academic freedom contribute to research identity? Why? Please share your experiences.
• How and in what ways does your educational background contribute to your research identity? Please share your experiences.
• How and in what ways has your academic career contributed to strengthening or weakening your academic identity? Please share your experiences.

In collecting research data, the researcher asks questions in order to obtain narratives of the lived experiences of the research participants [93,94]. For this reason, the participants were free to put into words their experiences that became significant in revealing the phenomenon under study. In order for the experiences and narratives of the research participants to be perceived without the researcher’s biases, there is a significant phenomenological reduction, also known as bracketing, which allows the essence of the lived experience to be glimpsed [94].

The study respected the principle of impartiality. This was not an insider’s research. The research participants were not colleagues in other studies or co-authors of other scientific publications. All participants were unknown to the researchers.

Each participant in the study was given the opportunity to freely choose the way in which they would meet for the interview. All but two of the researchers in the study expressed their willingness to be interviewed remotely. Suitable times and suitable university locations were arranged with the two female researchers who expressed a willingness to be interviewed in person, where it was possible to conduct the interviews freely. The duration of the interviews varied between a minimum of 43 min and a maximum of 65 min. All interviews were recorded and immediately transcribed, which means that before the next interview, the researcher was engaged in the transcription of the previous interview recordings. All interviews were transcribed manually, noting the emotions and pauses of the participants during the interviews. According to Tang [95], manual transcription is better because it ensures the utmost diligence and attention to detail in conveying conversations accurately, honoring individuals’ truths, and generating reliable evidence from raw data.

3.4. Data Analysis

The aim of phenomenological research is to uncover, detail, and structure the lived experience of research participants [96]. In order to analyze and describe the research participants’ experiences of their academic self-realization in higher education, Lindseth and Norberg’s [82] phenomenological hermeneutic research approach was adopted. The data analysis phase consisted of four methodological steps [82]:

• Naïve reading. The first step is familiarizing oneself with the interview text, so it is read several times in order to grasp the overall meaning. In order to grasp the overall meaning of the text, the researcher reads the transcript of the interview until she or he is open to what the participants have said about their lived experiences. In the process of naïve reading, the researcher has to let go of all preconceptions that would prevent the opening up of the personal life experiences as told by the participants. Naïve reading seeks to move the researcher from a naturalistic to a phenomenological perspective in the process of thinking about and looking at the text.
• Structural analysis. For the researcher’s structural analysis, the full text of the transcribed interview is broken down into units of meaning. A meaning unit can be a part of a sentence, a sentence, several sentences, a paragraph, or a text portion of any length in which the interviewee conveys only one meaning. In repeated readings, the meaning of each meaning unit is expressed as concisely as possible in everyday words. The similarities and differences between the extracted units of meaning are reflected upon during the rereading. For this reason, further grouping and, if necessary, abstraction are carried out, thus formulating sub-themes and themes which are the essential meanings of the lived experiences of the participants.
• Comprehensive understanding. At this stage, the main themes are summarized and reconsidered in light of the research questions, the research object, and the research context. The researcher then begins to search for literature on the essence of life experience that helps to revise, rethink, expand, and deepen the understanding of the text. The researcher does not adopt a literary perspective on the interview text but tries to see the interview text in the light of the literature and, conversely, to see literature in the light of the interview text. The researcher’s entire attention is directed and focused on the lived experiences of the research participants in the lived world.
• Formulation of the research results in a phenomenological hermeneutic way. The results are formulated in everyday language, as close as possible to life experience. This formulation of the results is based on the lived experience that individuals communicate to each other in everyday language. In narrative speech, certain poetic expressions or phrases emerge that reveal not only a mood but also possible ways of being in the world. For this reason, results can be revealed through poetic expressions, metaphors, or figures of speech.

3.5. Ethics

Institutional review board approval is required to ensure the safe, ethical, and standardized conduct of research with human subjects [97,98]. For this reason, the Ethics Committee of the Institute of Educational Research, Vytautas Magnus University, Academy of Education, was approached to review the study and grant permission for it to be conducted (27 September 2022, Protocol No. 15).

The research results presented in this article are part of a full-scale PhD study. Two researchers (the authors of this article) participated in the entire research process, whose roles were as follows:

☐

Researcher 1—conducting and systematizing the literature review; data collecting and transcribing qualitative data; presenting and interpreting empirical qualitative results.

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Researcher 2—structuring and abstracting the literature review data; supervising the analysis of empirical qualitative results; refining the interpretation of qualitative results.

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Both researchers—forming research design; selecting and refining the research methodology for the study; performing data analysis; refining the content and structure of phenomenological topics.

The ethical principles of respect for research participants, informed consent, confidentiality and anonymity, researcher integrity, and moral responsibility, which are characteristic of qualitative research [99,100,101,102,103], have been invoked in conducting the phenomenological research.

The relationship with the participants in this study was respectful, open, and cooperative. Researchers have a duty to respect informed consent in relation to research participants [104]. To ensure the ethics of the study, the principle of informed consent was followed, in which participants were given clear and understandable information about the study and the meaning of their voluntary consent to participate in the study. The researchers aimed to provide all the information about the study, its process, and data storage that was relevant to the research participants. Research participants were informed that they could withdraw from the study at any time and that such a decision would be respected and would not have any negative consequences in the future. The researchers gave the participants the opportunity to ask questions and receive clear and concrete answers. This principle ensured that the participants were completely free to take part in the research without any pressure.

Confidentiality and privacy have been respected in this study. Adherence to the principles of confidentiality and privacy ensures the privacy and identity of the participants in the study while also maintaining the integrity and credibility of the research process [104,105]. This ethical principle provided an environment in which research participants could freely share their personal experiences and opinions and feel safe. Confidentiality in qualitative research obliges the researchers to protect all research participants’ information that could reveal their identity [103]. It was the responsibility of the researchers to ensure that all personal data of the research participants, including their names, other persons mentioned during the interviews, or other identifiable information, were not accessible to anyone outside the research. In order to maintain confidentiality, an abbreviation was devised for each study participant (e.g., Research Participant 4—RP4). During the interview process, the research participants’ narratives were taken as their authentic lived experience, and the aim was to ensure maximum confidentiality and anonymity of the research participants.

The study followed the principle of beneficence to ensure the safety and welfare of the study participants [106]. In sharing their lived experiences, the participants also highlighted some sensitive moments that the researchers decided not to disclose in order not to harm the research participants. The aim was to ensure that the research carried out would not cause any harm to the research participants.

The study followed the principle of “fairness and honesty”, which emphasizes the importance of transparency and ethical behavior during the research process, which is integral to maintaining the trustworthiness of qualitative research [102,103,104,105]. The researchers worked in an impartial, objective, and ethically based manner, which means that any possible manipulation or distortion of the study data was avoided. The two researchers were in constant discussion and consultation during each part of the process: data collection, analysis, and description of results.

In qualitative research, the trustworthiness of the study is a significant aspect. The trustworthiness of this study was ensured based on the following criteria:

The credibility criterion refers to the extent to which the results of a qualitative study are reliable and trustworthy [106]. To ensure credibility, each stage of the research, including interviews and their analysis, is described in detail. The results are presented in a coherent narrative form to illustrate the experiences of academic self-realization as lived by the researchers.

The dependability criterion implies that other researchers working under similar conditions can follow all the procedures and processes of the study [106]. To meet this criterion, every aspect of the research process was meticulously managed and documented. Comprehensive and detailed explanations are provided on how the research data were collected and analyzed.

The transferability criterion is related to the applicability of qualitative research results in different contexts and settings [107]. Although qualitative research is tied to a specific context, the insights presented in this study enhance the understanding of academic self-realization experiences among researchers. The results of this study are meaningful and beneficial to scholars working in higher education.

The confirmability criterion focuses on the objectivity and impartiality of the research results [106]. To avoid any potential bias, the researchers illustrated the findings with quotes from participants, confirming that the results were derived from direct data collected during the study. The results were prepared through ongoing discussions and reflections among the researchers on the participants’ experiences. Such discussions and reflections ensured that the research findings were convincing and grounded in the lived world.

4. Findings

Analyzing the research data, it was determined that the researchers’ academic self-realization in higher education is revealed through 13 subthemes (see

Table 2. Subthemes within the theme of academic self-realization.

Subthemes	Theme
Self-creation of scientific reputation in the academic community
Multidirectional growth at the university
Making meaning through scientific work
Personal self-expression through academic activities
Continuous reflection on a personal scientific journey
Being in inclusive environments
Authentic academic influence	Academic self-realization
Intellectual freedom to create and think
Intellectual contribution to science

).

When a researcher begins her or his activity in higher education and aims to become established in the academic community, she or he comes to it with a certain research direction in which they have already accumulated a certain amount of experience. However, in order for such an establishment to be successful, it is significant to see the direction of one’s interests and research integrally with the members of the academic community. Through this, a self-creation of scientific reputation in the academic community happens:

I did not experience any particular stress in my career as a researcher. I was so lucky to be able to do what I was interested in. No one restrained me. Only after falling into the formed team every time I was able to offer something to others, in order to do what I wanted. And if you want to work in a team, you have to convince people that it is also somewhat important to them. If you convince, then you can work, but you have to give something to those people who work around you.

(RP4)

This means that the researcher’s academic self-realization is contextual. The ability to demonstrate the wider utility of one’s interests and research areas in the scholarly community enables an individual to develop their academic career and successfully integrate into university activities. By being able to demonstrate the benefits of personal areas of interest to others, the researcher encourages the development of new potential research and establishes collaborative relationships that become multidirectional growth at the university. This dynamic growth in the university would not be possible without academic freedom and the actualized academic identity of the researcher. The question of meaning awakens the awareness of the researcher and the authenticity of the designated person:

People realize themselves differently. Sometimes the same people are active in both communities and schools. You discover each one differently, how that person sees himself meaningfully in the university and he chose to be here because he feels that this is where he belongs. This is how he realizes himself. To me, this is the best example of how that academic freedom can manifest itself. None of us are the same and we are all different when we work here and each of us contributes something

(RP16)

With her or his activities and personal contribution, the researcher promotes the progress of higher education and experiences academic self-realization after finding her or his niche in it. Scientific activity requires a lot of energy, time, and effort; the freedom to create and the opportunity to share it, influence, and bringing about constructive change gives inner satisfaction. The creative beginning and deep desire to know in the academic identity of a researcher becomes the meaning-making through scientific work. Empirical research, writing, and publishing are expressions of meaning through which a researcher experiences inner satisfaction:

When you stop doing what gives you meaning in life, that is social death. Then you find yourself in God’s waiting room and begin your slow descent into biological death. So, I’m not sure if that will happen, but I still have a plan, which is more of the same research, writing books, writing articles, teaching. Autoethnography is becoming more and more mine and mine.

(RP15)

A researcher’s constant involvement and presence in scientific activities are an integral part of life, which becomes a certain way of life. Involvement in scientific activities is not only the development of a personal career but also the creation of a personal meaning in life. Through this activity, the researcher utilizes her or his personal talents, abilities, and expertise, and by sharing this with the academic community or society, they bring about a change. The personal self-expression of a researcher through academic activities brings external success, but at the same time, it gives the researcher internal satisfaction and meaning. Being a researcher becomes a form of expression of a person but does not define them as a whole:

Deep down, it doesn’t matter who we are—whether we are cooks, bakers, pilots or researchers, deep down, probably completely different things are important and they don’t really have academic characteristics. Scientific activity is a form of expression of deep human reality. There is a very good medieval saying. I think it was formed in late Antiquity, but it became established as such a motto when talking about human expression and it sounds like this: Forma suponit natura. The form presupposes, provides as a premise, nature, essence, certain. I would like to consider this hierarchy as a starting point for the answer. Nature is the essence and then the forms of expression of a person working in the academic activity of a researcher, in this form I do not consider essential, essential. A researcher is not an essence, a researcher is an expression, a form. The essence is a number of other things and, well, what is expressed as the academic activity of a researcher or teaching academic activity in a academic activity, it is an external expression of that inner core.

(RP10)

That is why a researcher, as a person, is much more than just a representative of an academic profession. The academic identity of the researcher merges with the personal identity of the individual, thus helping to realize the nature of the person. Research activity becomes a way to realize the desire to know, discover, and create, which is inherent in the nature of each individual. Meanwhile, the academic identity of a researcher is supplemented by the unique experiences, values, and beliefs of the individual. This means that the integrity of the researcher as a person and the researcher as a representative of the academic profession gives research activities a personal tone, from which comes a continuous reflection on a personal scientific journey:

I have a friend of mine, a classmate who was a famous runner. I only understood this from him, he explained it to me. I thought he was competing with others, he explained to me, that is not the case, that in reality every runner is only competing with himself. It is similar in science too, probably. Doing something like that, doing something you like, solving your own puzzles or those invented by others, if you like such things, if you don’t, it’s not for you. But here, too, it is too much to look for the answer “for you or not for you”, it doesn’t take long, you will soon understand. It’s like skydiving. You know how they say that if the first jump didn’t work, it’s not for you.

(RP4)

Reflecting on her or his experience, this researcher realizes that it is not always and not in all cases important to strive for what is externally considered success, but after discovering her or his personal potential, she or he should start realizing it. During the researcher’s personal self-reflection, it is important to set personal expectations and standards that promote inner growth and development. By paying attention to the reflection of personal experiences, the researcher becomes primarily transparent to her or himself. When a researcher realizes that it is not the compliance with surrounding expectations or external success indicators that is most significant but the improvement and cultivation of oneself as an expert in a specific field, then the researcher becomes a creator of personal success and value, thus realizing her or himself in higher education.

The activity of a researcher is not isolated from other persons working at the university. Through interaction processes, it becomes clear with whom one cooperates and works together, whose values coincide, and who cultivates and encourages one to become a better specialist in one’s field. For this reason, the academic socialization of the research community encourages being in inclusive environments where intellectual sharing and academic growth can take place. Reflecting on the experience, the research participant highlighted that “being a researcher is an opportunity to find yourself in environments that are interesting to you, they involve you. This is such a huge opportunity. It’s very possible to actually be in environments where you can draw on that knowledge. And then it’s a big responsibility to spread it to others” (RP2).

Participation in scientific conferences and expert groups or being a member of scientific clusters gives a researcher the opportunity to share her or his accumulated scientific and research experience, as well as to learn from them in interaction with colleagues. In this way, the researcher constantly updates her or his and others’ scientific knowledge and understanding. In these different interactions, authentic academic influence is exerted, from which two-way benefits arise—for both the researcher and the academic community:

Now it is difficult to imagine some individual researchers, but there are some, and they may require special attention and respect, but this is their own choice. If you want to work in a team, in such an academic world per se, don’t be a hermit–a weirdo, but look at what is interesting to everyone together. But first you need to look at what is interesting to you. I did not experience any contradictions around. And that was the most important thing for me. I guess it should be said that the most important thing for me was to do what I like to do. And the more influence you have, the better.

(RP4)

Having the opportunity to exert a scientific influence, a researcher thinks not only about the common good—the growth of the academic community—but also about the development and expansion of her or his own field of interest. The influence of a researcher in a university gives an opportunity to experience satisfaction with one’s activities and to realize even more deeply one’s commitment to higher education. A researcher’s self-realization through scientific influence provides an opportunity to create a long-term legacy of her or his scientific work, which testifies to the directionality of a person’s activity and its purposeful fulfillment.

A researcher’s self-realization in higher education is based on intellectual freedom to create and think, where a researcher can choose immersion in the world of ideas and live in it without external stimuli or other possible pressures:

There is much more freedom in the world of ideas than in the real world. If you are able to immerse yourself in what is a significant part of your work, then you will spend a lot of time in a world where you have a lot of freedom and much more freedom than in the everyday world. It’s nice and you get paid for it. Who wouldn’t want that ….

(RP4)

Being in the world of ideas is an opportunity not to restrict yourself and to freely search for new, creative approaches, which can later become real empirical research. In the world of ideas, a researcher is not limited by traditional approaches or dominant higher-education fashions, which censor the researcher’s creative pursuits in a peculiar way. Immersed in this activity, a researcher experiences a deep sense of self-realization, thanks to which a person’s academic identity and dedication to their activity are strengthened. The experienced intellectual freedom gives the researcher the opportunity to develop her or his scientific and creative potential, thus bringing an intellectual contribution to the science. A researcher’s intellectual contribution is not just mechanical work in which a person “bakes” publications, monographs, or other academic texts, but it is a specific researcher’s personalized relationship with the researched topic. The experienced joy of knowledge and the realization that one’s specific work contributes to the creation of new scientific knowledge give meaning to the activity of a researcher:

I loved books and reading and libraries. All those considerations of Jorge Luis Borges about the world as a library, or about the library as a world, are very interesting to me. They are very understandable and close to me. I loved books, I loved the process of reading and learning. It’s the same with science: that you not only like what you do, but you also start to like the daily academic routine. You came to the library, it smells like something … the smell of book dust. And then you have to write the thesis and at some point you start to understand that maybe here you too contribute to the academic world and are a person of letters. Even if it’s a small piece of work, maybe it’s graceful enough and maybe you’ve solved some kind of problem that no one else has not yet resolved. At some point, you feel that academic work is a pleasant process itself. Then everything happens by itself.

(RP4)

The achieved result is important in the activity of a researcher, but the research process, in which a person experiences that they are not only a researcher but also a creator, is no less significant. A researcher’s intellectual contribution can sometimes be small, but at the same time, it can have a valuable meaning in the world of science, representing a new approach or an approach that has not been explored before. A researcher accepts possible challenges or difficulties in her or his activities, but realizing their commitment to higher education, she or he does not stop striving for quality in the entire process of scientific creativity. Research has been carried out, whether the created scientific works are final products that crown the work of a person or not. The desire to know that is embedded in the researcher’s academic identity becomes a living and developing search process in which “the greatest thing is creativity and the joy you experience while creating. You look for something, you don’t find it for a long time, then you find it, you come up with something; if you don’t find it, then you spit and look elsewhere” (RP4). Experienced creative joy encourages the researcher to be in the position of a questioner and not stop searching. The researcher’s potential, awakened in the process of scientific creation, becomes an opportunity for personal self-realization and growth of academic identity, in which learning and improvement do not stop.

Personal growth through multidisciplinarity directs researchers not to close themselves only in the monadic direction of science but to look at studied phenomena from different perspectives. In the process of becoming a researcher, a significant place can be occupied by the available education in different fields, which opens up the possibility of seeing research within the boundaries of more than one discipline:

Upon entering the university, there was a system in place, according to which each degree was divided into two parts–the first and the second. I had a friend from school who was a couple of years older than me and he went there. He was a classics major, studying Latin and Greek before switching to a second major in social and political science. In those days, the university did not have the first part of social and political sciences, usually people who graduated from economics decided that they did not want economics, so they chose social and political sciences. And I thought that was great. I can go and study science for the first part and then switch to social and political science, which I did and had a dual experience.

(RP17)

When a researcher gets to know different disciplines, she or he becomes more open to the diversity of viewpoints and the possibility of conducting research in an integral manner. Solving complex problems with the help of approaches from different disciplines allows a researcher to act multidirectionally and expand the possibilities of self-realization. By managing different methodologies and being able to see their integrity, a researcher finds creative approaches to solving emerging problems. Although the academic identity of a researcher is cultivated and developed through the study of different disciplines, one discipline can be essential and leading in the identity of a person because it is more responsive to interpersonal attitudes, talents, or personal interests:

In science, I realized that my peers were much better naturalists than I was. There were very great mathematicians. I wasn’t really a mathematician. I knew that. I was quite interested in physics, but it wasn’t that compelling. I was a bit interested in psychology. I did some other things. But when I got into the social sciences, I thought it was amazing. Then I got a scholarship to study PhD in sociology. I went to an economics school, defended my doctoral thesis there, and then started teaching at sociology faculties. So I always had this foundation.

(RP17)

This means that a researcher, despite having a wide education, can consider one discipline the main one and others as complementary and auxiliary in the course of scientific research. On the other hand, the ability to understand and manage multiple disciplinary fields enables a researcher to engage in a more constructive dialogue with colleagues from other fields within the academic community, thereby creating opportunities for broader collaboration that fosters mutual growth.

In the activity of a researcher, the strength of a researcher’s values remains important and determines life choices and the forms by which academic identity is formed. The value strength of a researcher underpins a person’s loyalty to their dignified academic choices and the ethical pursuit of personal goals in higher education or outside of it:

I remember it was 1994, maybe I only noticed then that it was the year when the academic world in Lithuania lost many active people. Such active, curious people who want to do something. Not necessarily all of them would have become very important researchers, but those people went into completely different fields. They went into some sort of fledgling business at the time, because the academic world was unattractive in material terms. I used to see my older colleagues there, with their jackets in tatters, waiting in line at the place where they had to pay their salaries. The salaries of academic people at that time were so very ridiculously low and I looked at them and thought that their lives had changed from the point where an associate professor’s or a professor’s salary seemed quite decent, and now they have become very low. I thought that’s how society views those people, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less happy because of it.

(RP4)

A researcher who chooses to stay at the university even in the face of various challenges may appear strange and, in some sense, inadequate from the outside, but the intrinsic value firmness encourages the person to work and create in the chosen academic activity. A researcher’s personalized desire to work and act in higher education helps them find ways and opportunities to overcome emerging challenges. Being a part of the university community gives a researcher internal motivation to stay in higher education and make efforts to change difficult situations through cooperation. On her or his academic path, a researcher chooses the academic community that is close in value: “I defended my doctorate at another university, I can compare that, and I worked at that university for a while. Yes, it seems to me that I would not voluntarily change to any other Lithuanian university. And I hope that we will maintain that identity as a community” (RP16). The value strength and purposeful action of the university community give the researcher the courage to make unpopular decisions that strengthen the person’s authentic academic path and lead to full self-realization.

5. Discussion

Research results reveal that the researchers’ academic self-realization in higher education is related to the self-creation of a scientific reputation in the academic community, multidirectional growth at a university, making meaning through scientific work, personal self-expression through academic activities, continuous reflection on a personal scientific journey, being in an inclusive environment, authentic academic influence, intellectual freedom to create and think, and intellectual contributions to science.

A researcher’s academic self-realization in higher education is related to the creation of a scientific reputation. These results complement and extend Bourne and Barbour’s [23] ideas that in building an academic reputation, a researcher must demonstrate the meaning of her or his research to other fellow researchers. The benefit of the personal interests shown by the researcher to the academic community becomes not only a successful establishment at the university but also academic self-realization.

Academic self-realization occurs when the researcher makes a personal contribution to the development and nurturing of the academic community, in higher education and beyond. The results coincide with the research findings of Mateus and Acosta [21] and Remich et al. [52], which show that academic self-realization takes place through the creation and development of a scientific reputation within and outside the academic community. Academic self-development is achieved through the reputation that a researcher builds by contributing to the development and expansion of higher education.

Academic self-realization is experienced through multidirectional growth in the university, which requires academic freedom. Multidirectional growth of a researcher at the university can be perceived as a rhizome, but without the academic freedom experienced, this growth would not happen [24]. Academic freedom gives a researcher’s activity direction and purposefulness, which leads to a sense of meaning in academic activities. Irigaray et al. [25] agree that the meaning created by a researcher in higher education is perceived as a tension between pleasure and a formalized burden, and the scientific activity itself becomes a way of life for the researcher through which a person experiences academic self-realization. Then, the researcher’s involvement and presence in the process of scientific writing becomes a pleasurable and meaningful activity.

A person’s self-expression through academic activities is related to academic self-realization, but the main aspiration of a person is not to be a confident, recognizable, productive, and sophisticated researcher [53]. Being a researcher is only a form through which a person expresses her or himself and experiences the authenticity of her or his personality. This shows that a distinction is made between the person and the profession of a researcher. Experienced academic self-realization through scientific and pedagogical activities is rather a way in which a person experiences her or his own self-realization as a personality.

The academic self-realization of a researcher requires reflection on her or his personal path. The researcher’s personal reflection is related to the processes of academic growth and development, which lead to academic self-realization in higher education. The present study is in agreement with the Pedrosa-de-Jesus et al. [55] research results showing that a researcher’s personal self-reflection actualizes a person’s internal aspirations and desires, which promote internal growth and development. In the researcher’s journey of inner growth and development through personal self-reflection, growing self-confidence is experienced, which leads to academic self-realization. The academic self-realization of the researcher takes place in inclusive environments where authentic scientific influence is exerted. The results of this study match the results of Staley et al. [57], a study that examines how, in the presence of inclusive, interesting environments for the researcher, the intellectual exchange of the scientific community takes place. The results of the conducted study extend the ideas of Soheili et al. [58] and Kong et al. [60] by showing that although the citation or quotation of scientific publications and the recognition of scientific expertise are important in higher education, the pursuit of the common good is equally significant, creating a personal contribution to the academic community. Making an authentic impact in higher education on a national or international scale allows the researcher to experience academic self-realization.

A researcher’s academic self-realization and intellectual freedom are related. The conducted study expands the Žydžiūnaitė [38] study results, which state that intellectual freedom is close to being a researcher in the world of ideas, where a person is not limited by traditional approaches or certain rules. A researcher experiencing intellectual freedom is free to create and share it with the academic community. The results of the study showed that the scholar’s intellectual contribution is part of her or his academic self-realization. It coincides with the research results of Žydžiūnaitė [66] and Ruan [61], showing that a researcher with the freedom and ability to create authentically makes her or his intellectual contribution to the context of higher education through research and the dissemination of the results of their research. Such results and confirmations allow us to formulate the statement that a researcher’s academic self-realization is experienced when she or he can create added value in the national or international higher-education communities by performing their direct duties.

The academic self-realization of a researcher is related to personal growth in multidisciplinarity. The results of the study fit with the study results of Karlsson et al. [56], revealing that working as a researcher in multidisciplinary environments encourages the establishment of collaborative relationships where intellectual exchange takes place in solving complex issues. This shows that a researcher experiences academic self-realization in higher education by being able to share her or his expertise in a multidisciplinary collaborative relationship, learn from other researchers, and expand the boundaries of her or his perception.

The researcher’s value strength and being a member of the university community is related to her or his academic self-realization in higher education. The results of the study extend the ideas of Sirris [26] and Douglas [28] by highlighting that the researcher’s values and high moral standards are important in conducting research. Value firmness can be manifested in the face of challenges when balancing career choices and considering other options in higher education. The choice to stay and work in higher education shows the importance of academic work for a researcher, through which academic and personal self-realization is experienced. Being a member of the university community strengthens the academic identity of a researcher, thanks to which a person experiences academic self-realization [25].

The study had two limitations: 1. The conceptual exploration of academic self-realization presented in this paper represents a preliminary effort. There is considerable reliance on the term “self-actualization” within the literature review. However, empirical research indicates a significant gap in academic literature and empirical studies specifically addressing academic self-realization. Consequently, the literature review is somewhat constrained and primarily descriptive regarding the related concept of researchers’ academic self-realization. This underscores the necessity for further research in this area. 2. The study’s justification of academic self-realization among researchers based on their selection in different disciplines at various levels of study is intentional. As one of the pioneering studies emphasizing the significance of multidisciplinary education, this can be viewed as a strength due to its innovative approach. Nevertheless, it also represents a weakness, as the paucity of scientific sources poses challenges in substantiating the presented ideas.

6. Conclusions

A researcher’s academic self-realization in the dynamic context of higher education is significant not only for the individual researcher but also for the entire academic community. This study aimed to reveal the academic self-realization experience of researchers in higher education. A researcher’s academic self-realization in higher education is a way in which a researcher expresses her or his uniqueness, personal interests, and talents by contributing to personal, scientific, and community growth in an academic environment.

The conducted phenomenological study complements and expands the concepts of academic self-realization of a researcher in higher education. The study reveals that multidirectional growth of a researcher at the university is possible when academic freedom for scientific creativity is ensured. A personalized relationship with scientific activity becomes a unique way of life through which a researcher experiences academic self-realization and, at the same time, the fulfillment and realization of her or his personality. A researcher’s empirical research and pedagogical work in higher education are inseparable from their personal contribution to the common good. Being a co-creator of the common good is akin to a researcher’s personal meaning, thanks to which academic self-realization is experienced. This study reveals the complex process of a researcher’s academic self-realization in higher education, in which the integrity of academic and personal components is distinguished.

The results of this study reveal not only the importance of the academic self-realization of researchers but also the need to continue research on this topic. Further empirical research can be carried out by distinguishing the links between academic freedom and the creativity of researchers in the process of academic self-realization. Also, further research can examine the links between the academic self-realization of researchers and their working conditions, thereby promoting more sustainable functioning of universities and the well-being of academic communities of researchers.