A rebel with intent, rising in scholarly circles (8)
I believe the answer is:
academia
'scholarly circles' is the definition.
(academic circles)
'a rebel with intent rising' is the wordplay.
'rebel' becomes 'cade' (15th-century rebel Jack Cade).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'intent' becomes 'aim' (synonyms).
'rising' is a reversal indicator (letters written upwards in a down clue).
'aim' reversed gives 'mia'.
'a'+'cade'+'mia'='ACADEMIA'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for academia that I've seen before include "schools and universities" , "The world of teaching" , "Educational community" , "World of university and learning" , "university life" .)