Teaching-research conflict and self-reported strain in early academic careers: Selective role investment among postdoctoral teacher-researchers.

Teaching-research tensions among early-career academics are well documented, but less is known about how postdoctoral academics allocate limited time when teaching and research carry unequal career consequences. This qualitative study examined how 30 postdoctoral researchers with recurrent teaching responsibilities in Chinese higher education responded to publication-linked evaluation. Semi-structured interviews were supplemented by non-participant observations of eight participants and analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis and cross-case comparison. Participants described a mismatch between the time required for teaching and research and the greater perceived importance of publication for contract renewal and career progression. They responded through selective role investment, including protecting writing time, compressing teaching preparation, pursuing strategically visible research activities, seeking mentoring and peer support, and reconsidering academic careers. Participants perceived these responses as necessary for short-term career viability, although they were sometimes accompanied by fatigue, sleep disruption, ethical and intellectual discomfort, and concerns about teaching quality. Their form and perceived cost varied according to teaching load, institutional resources, disciplinary publishing conditions, mentorship, and workload autonomy. The findings conceptualize career adaptation as a patterned redistribution of time and attention under unequal career consequences rather than as an individual capacity to balance equally demanding roles.