Bundled or unbundled? A multi-text corpus-assisted discourse analysis of the relationship between teaching and research in UK universities

Creating and disseminating knowledge through research and teaching has long been regarded as the hallmark of the modern university. However, new university business models have called into question the ‘bundling’ of teaching and research, and sustained research on the relationship between teaching and research has found little evidence of an insoluble connection between the two activities. In this article, we explore the relationship between teaching and research from the perspective of universities’ institutional discourse. We use corpus-assisted discourse analysis to examine the relationship between research and teaching as presented in two sets of institutional texts currently influential in UK Higher Education: Research Excellence Framework environment statements and Teaching Excellence Framework provider submissions (a total of 2143 documents and 12,492,071 words). Our findings show that, while universities emphasise the value of research to their teaching, they do not always emphasise (or sometimes even decry) the influence of teaching on their research. We empirically evidence that, according to what universities themselves write in institutional texts, teaching and research are not always in a mutually beneficial entanglement, but often rather a one-way relationship in which research expertise and institutional prestige are used to bolster claims of teaching excellence. This has implications for the communication of both the vision and the purpose of a university in regulatory exercises and wider policy, but also speaks to the broader idea and practice of being a university in the twenty-first century.     

'She just got me’: supporting care experienced young people negotiating relationships and identities at school

In this article we examine the complex relationship between care experience, mental health and exclusion from school and how young people (YP) negotiate these different experiences and identities. The study is a secondary analysis, informed by symbolic interactionist theory, of interviews conducted with 19 care experienced YP in Scotland. Not all of the YP were excluded and not all had a formal mental health diagnosis, as such our study design allows interrogation of the contexts and relationships which not only facilitate but also disrupt pathways to exclusion. It also allows reconsideration of assumptions of vulnerability which are often applied to care experienced YP. Our findings suggest that these YP are moving beyond ‘role playing’ the identities ascribed to them and actively seek out relationships which enable them to construct alternative identities.     

‘Teaching’ the path towards university: understanding student access through storied-futures and meritocratic grand narratives

The notion that the stories of our lives shape dispositions towards imagined futures is another lens through which university underrepresentation should be viewed. A storied lens attends to how futures, like university attendance, are storied during childhood to the extent that some youth imagine, and therefore plan, these futures as natural progression. Such was the case for study participants, indicating that childhood stories contain answers for mitigating social reproduction connected to parental education and cultural forces within the home. Examining social mobility through the underexplored storied-futures grand narrative presents unique solutions that lay hidden within the dominant meritocratic grand narrative.     

Breaking Down Barriers for Student Parents and Caregivers with Family-Friendly Library Spaces

Abstract

In 2016, J. Murrey Atkins Library at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte opened a reservable study room where student parents and caregivers can study with their children on campus. In 2018, the library opened a second family-friendly study room to meet the needs of our growing campus community. To inform the room design, the library conducted a mixed methods research study that included a user survey, an examination of room reservation and usage data, and one-on-one user interviews. This paper focuses on the user-centered design process used to inform the development of the second, family-friendly, library study room.     

Meeting Information Needs through Global Partnerships: A Roadmap to Becoming a Global Health Sciences Library

Abstract

Supporting global health priorities through the development of robust health science librarianship partnerships is of significant importance. Increased demand for synthesizing evidence-based information, collating quality resources, and increasing research productivity to improve human health requires integration of library and information science skills and expertise. The Health Sciences Library (HSL) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), exists to be an indispensable partner in health information and knowledge, teaching and learning, and research. As global efforts at UNC expanded, the HSL sought to ensure that our global engagement strategy and integration were aligned with campus priorities and partner needs. The HSL created a global research partnership plan: identify resources that improve efficiency, increase access to information, build in-country capacity and expertise—all while strengthening collaborations across multiple countries. Creating a meaningful and sustainable engagement strategy was central to envisioning our path forward and can be used as a framework for consideration by librarians in similar settings.     

在线健康社区用户个人健康信息管理行为特征研究

[目的/意义] 旨在对在线健康社区用户的个人健康信息管理行为特征进行分析，并在此基础上，对"平台-PHIM-健康目标"这一模式中的元素之间的关系进行探讨。[方法/过程] 选择患有红斑狼疮的在线健康社区用户作为调查对象。采用聚类方法对个人健康信息管理行为的总体测度水平不同的群体进行识别；利用单因素方差分析（One-way ANOVA）对不同群组进行比较研究。[结果/结论] 将依托在线健康社区进行的个人健康信息管理行为界定为健康信息发现、健康信息互动和健康信息分享。从数据分析结果来看，首先，在线健康社区的红斑狼疮患者在个人健康信息管理行为水平上存在显著的高低差异。第二，用户所感知到的社会支持与其个人健康信息管理水平存在正相关关系。第三，个人健康信息管理与用户健康目标之间存在正相关关系。本研究为在线健康社区完善其服务方式，促进慢性病人个人健康信息管理水平提高提供合理建议。     

‘I would say nine times out of 10 they come to the LSA rather than the teacher’. The role of teaching assistants in supporting children's mental health

This research explored how seven primary school teaching assistants (TAs) experienced their role in supporting children's mental health. Interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The participants believed that they supported children's mental health and particularly referenced the close relationships that they formed with children. Throughout their accounts of supporting children, the TAs referenced helpful factors (e.g. support from other staff) and challenges (e.g. hierarchy) within the school system. Supporting children’s mental health was an emotional experience for the TAs; they discussed the rewarding element, however, the topic also elicited fear. The findings provide several implications for school staff and external professionals about how TAs can be supported in their role. These include involving TAs in training opportunities, providing TAs with supervision, considering communication systems in schools, and introducing a mental health policy.     

The Mystery Room: discovering the flexibility of an information literacy-based educational escape room

Abstract

The Mystery Room is an educational escape room based on information literacy and applied to multiple audiences, including first-year students and library student employees. In this article, we explain how we developed the game, its theoretical underpinnings, and why it’s a flexible workshop for a variety of audiences.     

Parents’ son preference,childhood adverse experience and mental health in old age: Evidence from China

BackgroundSon preference is an enduring phenomenon in China and may often be related to childhood adverse experiences. According to a life-course perspective, adverse experiences during a childhood period may have a long-term effect on mental health in later age. However, little is known about this relationship between parents’ son preference, childhood adverse experiences and adulthood mental health in China.ObjectiveThe study aims to evaluate the association of parents’ son preference and individual mental health in old age in China. The mediating role of childhood adverse experiences was also estimated.Participants and settingThe China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2015 combined with CHARLS life history survey was analyzed (N = 11,666).MethodsMental health was measured by a shortened modification of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale including seven items, and higher scores indicated worse mental health status. A four-step mediating model was applied.ResultsRespondents growing in families with son preference had on average 0.75 (P < 0.001) points higher on the mental health scale than their counterparts, and the effects were consistent for both males and females. Childhood adverse experiences measured by physical maltreatment, emotional adverse experiences and witnesses of inter-parent violence mediated the relationship between parents’ son preference and individual adulthood mental health by 47.87%. For females, physical maltreatment and emotional adverse experiences explained the most parts of health effects of parents’ son preference, whereas witnesses of inter-parent violence was the most influential mediator for males.ConclusionParents’ son preference led to adverse childhood experiences, which influenced mental health in adulthood.     

Performative technologies and teacher subjectivities: A conceptual framework

Critical educational literature suggests that an increased reliance upon performative technologies is currently transforming the very foundations from which teacher subjectivities are constructed. Arguably though, the number of studies pointing to this risk or tendency is considerably larger than the ones theorising why this should be the case. Further, in those cases where the relationship between performative technologies and teacher subjectivities is theorised, the psychological mechanisms that the technologies appeal to are seldom brought to the fore. Based on this, the purpose of this article is to theorise the psychological mechanisms that performative technologies appeal to and work through, by means of identifying, systematising and elaborating extant understandings of such mechanisms in the critical educational literature. The results are presented in the form of a conceptual framework (referred to as the CMIS-framework) which suggests that one and the same performative technology may play many different roles, where each such role appeals to and works through a particular psychological mechanism. Importantly, depending on the type of psychological mechanism that is appealed to, the CMIS-framework suggests that this will lead to teachers (un)consciously conducting particular forms of subjectivising work upon themselves, here referred to as compliance, mirroring, identification and self-realisation (CMIS).