Search

Research into the impact of neoliberalism has shown that institutional and individual pressure on staff working in Higher Education (HE), has changed over the last 30 years. Our first research study showed that the changes resulted in mostly negative experiences for White staff. In a second study we have investigated the impact of neoliberalism on Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) staff to investigate whether experiences matched those of their White colleagues. Drawing on narrative methodology, we undertook fourteen interviews, eight with BAME staff and six with White staff all with responsibility for equity in their institutions. We also drew on current and numerical data detailing employment patterns. While many of the negative impacts of neoliberalism were common to all staff, BAME staff offered a collective narrative focussing primarily on injustice, bullying and racism. Most striking was the pain resulting from simultaneous hypervisibility and invisibility of BAME staff, the continual questioning of their professional competence.

This paper draws on interviews of a mother and daughter concerning their experiences of working in higher education. It uses narrative research and its focus on temporality, sociality and place, to expose subject positionings, critical events, and the scope for 'activism' in the recent past and present. It is argued that the relationship between the two researcher-participants was a positive factor for the research enabling the exploration of their subjectivities as political actors, frequently in conditions not of their own making. At the same time, there were moments of discomfort, misunderstanding and critique. Similarities emerged between the two researchers in their capacities both to perform to work expectations and to take an activist position. There were substantial differences, however, due to generational intellectual schisms as well as changes in higher education.

This article reports findings from a research project on the impact of neo-liberalism on university life in the UK. Unusually, data collection includes interviews with senior management such as heads of departments and senior professors, as well as with lecturers and union representatives. Interviewees reported that the nature of institutional and individual pressures has changed and intensified over the last 30 years, resulting generally in negative experiences for staff and students; yet grounds exist for rejecting a purely deterministic thesis on the impact of neo-liberalism on higher education. Certain aspects of university work were described in positive terms and individual senior managers seemed able at times to mediate external pressures. Creative strategies of resistance were evident which provided some relief from an otherwise gloomy scenario.

The main task of this paper is to understand the methodological insights from researchers' reflexive accounts about the production of gender in the specific practices of three Scottish elite schools. Accordingly, the paper poses three questions: How is gender re/constructed through the specific practices of these elite schools? What insights into these specific school gender regimes are offered in researchers' reflexive accounts? What methodological insights are gained for future such studies? The paper opens with a discussion of gender policy in Scotland which suggests that the country's policy and governance take little account of gender, equality and in/exclusion issues, in particular their intersectional nature. The methodology for the wider study from which this paper emerges is then outlined followed by the methodology for this researcher reflexive sub-study. Then, the data relating to the three schools' gender practices' regimes and the researchers' reflexive data are presented and analysed. The paper concludes by delineating a number of important gender power issues which the researcher reflexive accounts highlight and argues that the insights thus gained will aid the development of gender and power sensitive methodology.

A school health promotion project was carried out in an elementary school in Sweden where active participation, gender equality, and empowerment were leading principles. The objective of the study was to understand challenges and to identify social processes of importance for such a project. Focus group interviews were conducted with 6 single-sex groups (7-12 year olds) in grade 1-2, grade 3-4, and grade 5-6 on 2 occasions. The analysis used a grounded theory approach. The analysis identified the core category "normalization processes of violence and harassment." It is argued that school health promotion initiatives need to be aware of normalization processes of violence and, which may be counter-productive to the increase of empowerment and participation among all pupils. (Contains 1 figure.)

This paper draws on a research study into multiple capitals in independent schooling in Scotland. We examine gender discourses and practices in the specific inter/institutional space created within school and research group relations. A three-level conceptual framing of physical, social and intellectual space is used together with theorizations of power/knowledge and social capital theory, to analyse instances of gender discourse and practice within research relations, where gender is understood as produced in and through social power and knowledge relations. Findings from the study include the usefulness of scalar analysis for gender and that school and researcher relations are affected by the coherence or otherwise of power/knowledge value systems. Following this, it is suggested that researchers incorporate gender sensitivity as a feature of their work, particularly methodology. The paper draws on school case studies involving observation, interviews, student focus groups and researcher accounts. (Contains 2 tables and 1 note.)

This paper draws on case study data from a study of independent schools in Scotland, to examine school space as a site of mediation of educational dis/advantage and in/exclusion. A threefold and scalar conceptualisation of space is used together with social capital theory to analyse staff and student identifications with relations within and beyond school space. The analysis indicates the existence of specific territorial bonding and prevailing spatio-temporal boundaries, both of which produce educational advantage of benefit to students and the institution but can also, for some, lead to alienation and frustration. The conclusion reached is that strong in-school bonding is central to the reproduction of educational advantage, but that possibilities exist for its interruption which may offer key messages for schools more generally. The approach to analysis is discourse-based and draws on spatial and social and multiple capitals theory. (Contains 1 note.)

Drawing on our experience of working in Sweden and seeking to help colleagues enter the prestigious culture of Anglophone academic text production, this article explores the landscape of academic writing and publishing. We first provide an account of the birth of academic writing and the gradual emergence of its present forms. We then explore academic writing as it is practised in the first decade of the 2000s; and finally, we consider the future of journal publishing and what it might mean for academic authors. We consciously introduce monetary or commercial imagery to underline the impact of exchange or market relationships in the world of academic publishing, arguing that texts need to be reworked until they become responsive to the branding and marketing requirements of specific academic journals.

This paper draws on a research study into the existence and use of different forms of capital--including social, cultural and physical capital--in three independent schools in Scotland. We were interested in understanding how these forms of capital work to produce and reproduce "advantage" and "privilege". Analysis is framed by a multiple capitals approach drawing on and developing the work of Putnam and especially Bourdieu. We suggest that sport plays a role with important effects for strong bonding and for the production of symbolic capital in the form of branding by each school. (Contains 12 notes.)

This article provides an overview and analysis of the relationship between gender, educational policy, and governance in Scotland and Sweden and the two countries' response to European Union and global legislative and policy change. In Scotland, gender is mainly invisible in recent policies on inclusion, achievement beyond academic attainment, and the idealisation of the child. Gender is thus marginalised within a range of factors contributing to social in/equality. In Sweden, in contrast, gender has higher visibility in policy and governance as both an indicator of democracy and a means of preserving social democratic consensus and prosperity. However, recently its privileged position has come under attack. We draw on social capital, gender, and policy theory to analyse the range of influences on gender and educational governance in the two countries including that of the social capital of organised feminism. (Contains 5 notes.)

This paper explores the differential influence of government ideology and education governance on the gender policies of socialist and conservative administrations in Spain from 1983 onwards.The first national policies which favoured equal rights for men and women in education, employment, and social and political life were developed under a European framework and promoted by the National Institute for Women, and governments of the autonomous communities. This was followed by a national policy strategy for gender which initially focused on education but whose influence gradually weakened. The situation changed once more in 2004 when the new socialist government developed a range of policies to promote equal opportunities for men and women. The paper closes with a reflection on how policy on gender equity developed in Spain between 1970 and the present, and the impact of different political ideologies and discourses on that process. It is argued that while policy researchers have long emphasised the impact of government ideology on educational policy and governance (e.g. Lingard and Ozga, 2007; Fullan 2001; Fullan et al., 1997), there are few analyses ofthe impact of different forms of ideology and governance on gender policy-making, of which the study reported in this paper is an example.

The aim of this article is to start a debate about the inclusiveness/exclusiveness of the field of gender and education, and what change might be possible. While we focus on the field of gender and education as a whole (including its journals and academic practices), our main sources of evidence are our own experiences as gender researchers on different sides of the Anglophone divide, and a small survey of articles in this journal, "Gender and Education", chosen because it is the main journal of choice for those hoping to make a contribution to the field. We examined articles published in three years, 1990, 1998 and 2007, in order to identify if and how the journal (and hence the field) has changed in orientation over time. Following a discussion of the survey outcomes, we draw attention in particular to the journal's Anglophone orientation and the implications this has for the field as a whole. We further argue for greater reflexivity about our and other's practices as feminist academics, and propose some strategies for action with the aim of making the field more inclusive. (Contains 12 notes and 1 table.)

This paper presents a study from the Scottish Independent School Project (SISP). The first part of the paper provides an overview of the characteristics of Scottish independent schools (e.g. location, structure, fees) with the aim of distinguishing the different orientations of schools in the sector. The second and main part of the paper is a discourse-based analysis of the website texts of three case-study schools to show how schools discursively construct themselves and their "assumptive worlds" (Ball, 2001). We explore what these schools take for granted by their use of language, and the nature of their communication with potential parents and pupils. The analytic of social capital (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992; Coleman, 1988; Putnam, 2000) and following Bourdieu, other capitals (e.g. cultural, national, emotional) are used to examine the discourses accepted, appropriated and deployed by the schools and the extent to which they advance the interests of specific social groups. (Contains 2 tables and 7 notes.)

This paper considers Olive Banks' work on charting the history and development of British feminism, and particularly her use of collective biography as a research and analytic tool. It is argued that while this has been seen as the least "fashionable" aspect of her work, it took forward C. Wright Mills' contention for one definition of sociology as the interaction between biography and history, and predated by a decade or so similar work on prosopography by Bourdieu from the 1990s onwards. More recently other sociologists and educationists have taken up this methodological approach, including Jane Martin and Bronwyn Davies and Susanne Gannon. (Contains 1 note.)

This paper explores the factors that are at present reconstructing teacher education in Sweden and in other European countries, including professionalization, inherited traditions, feminization and globalization. The authors use as a basis for the paper: documentary analysis and nearly 60 qualitative semi-structured interviews with management and teaching staff from teacher education at one Swedish higher education institution, Umea University. Five overall themes emerged from the study: gender; teacher education cultures; organizational changes; collaboration; and research. It is argued that women and men in teacher education are positioned differently with regard to change. Women teacher educators identify more with research and accountability imperatives while their male colleagues tend to focus more on classroom knowledge and skills. The paper considers possible explanations and makes tentative extrapolations to other European sites in varying political contexts. (Contains 4 tables and 4 notes.)

This paper is the sum of the author's experience when she moved from England to Sweden four years ago. Sweden's international reputation for gender equality is unparalleled and therefore she expected to be part of a different gender order than that in the United Kingdom. However, she finds that at the level of everyday experience, gender relations in Sweden show some of the less desirable characteristics of other less equality-conscious countries such as the UK. As someone on the periphery who is attempting to work toward the center of the community of practice of Swedish educators, she has sought to understand more about gender relations in education in Sweden, and the impact of "jamstalldhet" and feminism. This has provided a challenge both to her expectations of Sweden and to her assumptions on gender equality, shaped mainly in the UK context. In this paper, she first provides an overview of gender equality discourses in the UK (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) particularly as they apply to education, and then outlines her growing understanding of how gender works in Sweden, in particular the concept of "jamstalldhet." The final section raises questions about the impact of gender discourses and policies of the two countries on schools and education more widely, and possible future implications. (Contains 1 note.)

Critical action research emphasises participation, democracy and social critique, and thus has had considerable potential for feminist scholarship and action. Feminist action research, in turn, has gained a foothold in education, for example, through the work of Hollingsworth, Miller, Lather and others, although much action research might still be termed gender blind. This theoretical resource provides a discussion of recent developments in feminist ideas and their relevance for critical action research, suggesting that there is much to unite the two paradigms. The resource's overall aim is to call attention to the importance of feminist ideas for action research, and to demonstrate what feminist action research has to offer, not only for girls and women pupils and teachers, but for other marginalised and discriminated groups. (Contains 2 notes.)

Introduces several articles on social inclusion written by individuals struggling to accommodate changing professional demands with their own understandings and practices, drawing on the dominant discourses surrounding them, which include old professional understandings of equal opportunities, social justice, race, gender, and class and new discourses of social inclusion and exclusion, responsible citizenship, social cohesion, and educational failure. (SM)

Examines the invention of school effectiveness as a specific curriculum and pedagogical discourse that has captivated researchers, policymakers, and politicians. Considers school-effectiveness research methodology, politics, and underlying epistemological assumptions. Explores the dilemmas confronting inclusive education research. The concepts of efficiency and effectiveness must be disentangled. (Contains 63 references.) (MLH)

Explores differences and similarities in various European national histories, politics, and traditions regarding gender relationships within and outside teacher education that affect school and college practice, discussing: the feminization of teaching and teacher education; the European Union's impact; the extent to which gender is a discourse in European teacher education; and theoretical and strategic approaches necessary to strengthen gender's influence. (SM)

Presents the results of a historical survey of the contemporaries of Harriet Martineau who were born in the United Kingdom between 1792 and 1812. Focuses on the length of life, marital status, number of children, women's occupations, husbands' occupations (of married women), and fathers' occupations (of unmarried women). (CMK)

Considers the impact of several trends in higher education in the United Kingdom on groups previously excluded, and examines equal job opportunity and equal education policymaking from the 1970s to the present. Focus is on the definition of equal opportunity, how policy has evolved, and equality issues for students, staff, management, and organizations. (Author/MSE)

Proposes a social justice approach to the evaluation of educational programs that would illuminate the impact on subordinated and underrepresented groups, such as women and ethnic minorities. (DM)

Considers the British 1988 Education Reform Act's reconceptualization of schooling and the associated process of curriculum reformulation in relation to equal opportunities. The particular focus of this article is sexual and racial inequality. Proposed curriculum reforms in mathematics, science, and English are examined within this context. (IAH)

The Woman and the Hour: Harriet Martineau and Victorian Ideologies. By CAROLINE ROBERTS. Toronto, Buffalo, and London: University of Toronto Press. 2002. ix+253 pp. $50; 32 £. ISBN 0-8020-3595-5. This [...]

The perspectives of 'ordinary' people, especially if they are women, are frequently missing from historical sources. This article relates the life of Steffi Dinger, an ordinary Viennese woman, whose life was rendered extra-ordinary by the Nazi rise to power, becoming a refugee in London, and the impact of Cold War politics. The article recounts her applications for naturalisation in the 1950s, why they were turned down, and the covert surveillance that she endured. It also recounts the difficulty, some 60 or 70 years later, of extracting information which is still deemed a risk to national security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]