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that challenge underlying assumptions about identity. Such an incremental reworking of one’s identity points to the agency of the subjects (in this case, EAP practitioners) in bringing this about, thereby pointing to the inapplicability of the Cinderella analogy. If the above analogies are somewhat unsatisfactory, one might turn for inspiration to Jean-Paul Sartre’s (1956) parable of a waiter in his seminal essay Being and nothingness: An essay on phenomenological ontology. While, on the surface of it, it may appear counter-intuitive to choose yet another analogy which casts us into a seemingly pragmatic service role, Sartre’s waiter is different in one important respect. Initially, this waiter was so defined by his role as a waiter that he was unable to imagine enacting his role any differently from his perception of the norm, and nor was he able to imagine ever being anything other than a waiter. He thus equated himself with this pre-defined role through seeing himself as an object, as though through the gaze of others. Sartre problematises this mindset, arguing that a human being can never be reduced to an essence and that, on the contrary, we are agentic subjects with the capacity to create ourselves through our choices and actions. Had Sartre’s waiter been aware that he possessed this capacity, he might have approached his role very differently, on the understanding that he is not defined by his current role, and that, equally, no role is fully pre-defined. Let us refer to this hypothetical person as the enlightened waiter.


ENLIGHTENED WAITER AS TRANSFORMATIVE PRACTITIONER


The contrast between the conjectured mindset and actions of the waiter before


Aleks Palanac


and after his enlightenment is echoed in the work of Whitchurch (2008) in her depictions of the ‘bounded’ and the ‘unbounded’ professional. The context of her discussion is that, in the HE sector, there is an increasing blurring of institutional roles which leads to the creation of new forms of institutional space, which she refers to as the ‘third space between professional and academic domains’ (ibid., p. 3); however, she says that individuals have a degree of agency in how they choose to work in this hypothetical space. Some individuals function as ‘bounded’ professionals, enacting a normative role comprised of essential elements ‘taken on’ through shared practices (Taylor, 2008, p. 29, in Whitchurch, 2008) and, it may be added, perceived expectations. In contrast, others are ‘unbounded’ or ‘transformative’ in their approach, tending to disregard formal job- role boundaries to focus on broadly-based projects and institutional development. Just as Whitchurch (2008) emphasises that those in the ambiguous borderlands may have freedom to re-define the scope of their roles, other commentators (e.g., Ding & Bruce, 2017, p. 207; MacDonald, 2016; Benesch, 2001, p. 130) identify similar advantages to occupying a peripheral position, proposing that, in re-defining one’s role, one also has an opportunity to define one’s purpose and values. What might such a re-definition of one’s roles, purposes and values look like in a neo-liberal university? Drawing on the Structural- Functional model of professionalism, MacDonald (2016) suggests that we might opt to re-evaluate our roles based not so much on institutional stipulations as on a ‘commitment to altruistic service’ (citing Runte and Taylor, 1995). Benesch (2001, p. 130) takes this line of thought further,


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