The journey of knowing of academic managers: a knowing-in-practice perspective in a Brazilian community university

The knowing-in-practice notion considers the entanglement between knowing and doing. Taking into consideration the role and path of the academic manager in higher education, this study aims to comprehend the journey of knowing of academic managers in the light of knowing-in-practice notion. A praxiography was developed in a community university located in southern Brazil, through 47 semi-structured interviews, 288 h of participant observation, and 16 documents. The journey of knowing is accomplished as academic managers deal with previous experiences with management and present their first connections with management (seeds of knowing). They evolve as managers through comprehension conditions, decision making and problem solving, depending on interpersonal relationships, power issues and sociomateriality (blossoming of knowing). Lastly, they withdraw from management (back to the soil), in which succession issues, the resumption of academic activities and future management reconnections are considered. Such stages interact with the nature of the manager and professor roles.