Professional versus academic values: cultural ambivalence in university professional school in Australia

University staff who teach and research in professional schools inhabit an ambivalent cultural world. Their dual mandate requires commitment to traditional academic norms and scholarship through the disciplines on the one hand, and commitment to the transmission of distinctly vocational skills and attitudes on the other. Tensions created by these two intersecting roles both within professional schools and between professional school staff and their colleagues in non-professional fields, and the implications of these for the functioning of a university are explored. Findings suggest that university leaders who understand more fully the bases of tension between the two and develop strategies to minimise symbolic separation, are more likely to ensure the survival and growth of both the academic-scholarly and practice-oriented cultures.