Retired academics and professional activity: A British-American comparison

This study investigated the professional activities of retired academics from two old civic universities in Great Britain, and compared the findings to those of recent studies of retired academics from a major state university in the United States (Dorfman, 1980, 1981). A high degree of similarity was found between the two groups of academics: (1) a large majority continued to perform professional roles and participate in professional activities in retirement; (2) there was a striking degree of consistency between pre- and postretirement professional activity levels; (3) the most consistent predictors of both total level and rate of professional activity in retirement were level of professional activity during the preretirement career and ties to professional organizations outside the University.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the thirteenth International Congress of Gerontology, New York City, July 1985.     

The Trouble with Equal Opportunities: The case of women academics

Women's position in the academic labour market remains a largely marginal one, despite equality legislation in the 1970s and subsequent initiatives at national and local level. This paper examines the development of equal opportunities at just one university, Bristol (UK), in the context of contemporary gender divisions in higher education and more general experience with equal opportunity policies in other sectors of employment. In discussing the possibilities but also limitations of equal opportunities, it raises a number of key questions about both the way in which issues of gender equality are often handled, and the terms on which women's place in the academic profession is understood. We argue for more rigorous empirical data on promotion chances, for tighter arguments on discrimination, and for full recognition of the complex cultural and other institutional barriers to equality.     

A study on the measurement of job-related stress among women academics in research universities of China

This study intends to gain an understanding of the sources of stress among women academics in research universities of China. Studies have shown that, compared with their male counterparts, women report higher level of stress in work/family conflicts, gender barriers and career development. Based on the results of this study, the following conclusions can be drawn about their particular stress experiences. Firstly, women academics perceived the demands for career development as highly stressful. The main career challenges for them include the need for renewing knowledge, lack of research productivity, and slow career progress. Secondly, gender related barriers increased pressure on women academics. These barriers are difficulties in getting into male-dominated networks, social stereotypes of women, and gender discrimination in promotion. Finally, women academics experienced more difficulties in fulfilling both academic work and family roles. The main conflict situations pertained to “performing both work and family roles very well,” “children’s education and future” and “lack of time to satisfy personal interests and hobbies.”     

Vocational training choices of women: public and private colleges

This paper contrasts the profiles of women who choose to pursue vocational training in either public institutions (community colleges) or private institutions (career colleges) in Canada with particular attention given to respondents’ life‐course positions. The study employs 1998 Adult Education and Training Survey data. Correspondence analysis shows the relation between training choices of women, their individual characteristics and selected situational, dispositional, and institutional factors. The space topography determined by the correspondence between training choices and women profiles indicates that duration of training constitutes the primary institutional feature distinguishing choice. Older women who need to balance both work and family obligations tend to enroll in single courses and are attracted to the modular programming of the private colleges. In contrast, the traditional program‐based vocational training offered by community colleges is the preferred option for younger women.     

Sources of research confidence for early career academics: a qualitative study

There is a paucity of studies investigating how early career academics (ECAs) form attitudes towards aspects of their work and gain skills in research, teaching and service. This is especially the case with respect to research. A review of the pertinent literature revealed the prominence of a notion of research self-efficacy (or confidence) and how it was aligned with the other issues distilled from the literature. Employing a qualitative approach, the author of the study sought to develop a better understanding of how ECAs generate research confidence. Interview data were analysed using a process drawing together analytic induction and constant comparison methods. Six themes emerged from this analysis, namely, graduate student research experience, priorities, isolation, researcher identity, mentorship and a vote of confidence. These themes are discussed in detail and the implications of the results for university managers and lecturers are then considered.     

Aspiration levels and educational choices: An experimental study

The explanation of social inequalities in education is still a debated issue in economics. Recent empirical studies tend to downplay the potential role of credit constraint. This article tests a different potential explanation of social inequalities in education, specifically that social differences in aspiration level result in different educational choices. Having existed for a long time in the sociology of education, this explanation can be justified if aspiration levels are seen as reference points in a prospect theory framework. In order to test this explanation, this article applies the method of experimental economics to the issue of education choice and behaviour. One hundred and twenty-nine individuals participated in an experiment in which they had to perform a task over 15 stages grouped in three blocks or levels. In order to continue through the experiment, a minimum level of success was required at the end of each level. Rewards were dependent on the final level successfully reached. At the end of each level, participants could either choose to stop and take their reward or to pay a cost to continue further in order to possibly receive higher rewards. To test the impact of aspiration levels, outcomes were either presented as gains or losses relative to an initial sum. In accordance with the theoretical predictions, participants in the loss framing group choose to go further in the experiment. There was also a significant and interesting gender effect in the loss framing treatment, such that males performed better and reached higher levels.     

Australian academics: Career patterns,work roles,and family life-cycle commitments of men and women

Men and women who held a full-time appointment at lecturer level and above in Australian universities in 1988 were compared in terms of the career paths they had followed, geographic mobility, domestic responsibilities, work roles, and levels of performance as an academic. Women had more often spent a period outside the workforce or in part-time employment due to childcare responsibilities. They more frequently had followed their partners to another city or country, they more often had been a tutor (a non-tenurable position) before becoming a lecturer. The survey indicated that substantially more women than men pursuing a full-time career as an academic were combining substantial household labour and childcare with employment. However, even when number of children and ages of children were considered, there were no differences between men and women in self-rated performance in such academic roles as research, teaching, and administration. The results are discussed with reference to the question of why in numerical terms there have been so few women academics in Australian universities.     

Supporting the activity choices of two-year-olds

The participation of children under the age of three in center-based child care programs is a growing phenomenon. This increase has raised questions about which type of program is best for these children. The curriculum for infants and toddlers has received considerable attention over the last decade. As a result, the activities and experiences planned for infants and toddlers have been clearly defined (Honig, 1974; Honig and Lally, 1981; Lally and Gordon, 1982). However, the differences between young toddlers, preschoolers, and two-year-olds are less discernible, which has made it difficult for child care workers to plan environments which are developmentally appropriate for two-year-olds. Consequently, two-year-olds may spend time in programs where the curriculum may be more appropriate for younger toddlers and preschoolers.Margaret King is Associate Professor, School of Home Economics, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. Anne Oberlin is Master Teacher, Ohio University Child Development Center, Athens, Ohio. Terry Swank is Assistant Teacher, Ohio University Child Development Center, Athens, Ohio.     

The celluloid ceiling: women academics,social expectations,and narrative in 1940s American film

This paper examines the portrayal of women university academics in American films from the 1940s. It applies analytical tools from a critical methodology to access the socio‐cultural ideas and values attributed to the female professoriate during what is a period of great change for women in American society. This analysis reveals that the values associated with the professors are aligned with the themes of chastity, sanctuary, and sacrifice in ways which portray them as other in the profession and society. Not only does this analysis illustrate the consequences and conditions of being a woman professor during the 1940s, but it also highlights the implications of these values for today’s female professoriate.     

Examining the fabric of academic life: An analysis of three decades of research on the perceptions of Australian academics about their roles

Over the last three decades there have been numerous surveys in Australian universities which have attempted to describe the perceptions of academic staff to various aspects of their roles. Each of these surveys appears to have been inspired by changes resulting from contemporaneous government policies and/or community expectations. Calls for “Efficiency and Effectiveness”, “Accountability”, and “Quality and Diversity”have coincided with massive expansion in the higher education system, the change from a binary system to the Unified National System, and consequent changes to student profiles, funding arrangements, and academic workloads. Academic culture, with its tradition of freedom and autonomy, has been besieged by the alien culture of managerialism with its own vocabulary of “client”, “quality assurance”, and “product”: but has this assault made any difference to how academics perceive their work and their perceptions of quality in university teaching ? This paper reports on an analysis of data (relating to academics' perceptions of their work) from surveys conducted in universities from the late 70s and throughout the 80s and 90s. The paper analyses, compares and contextualises academic perceptions across these decades, and draws some conclusions about the perseverence of academic culture under siege.     

New perspectives on an old problem: the position of women academics in British higher education

Women academics in Britain are an elite group among women. Nevertheless, there is abundant evidence that they are disproportionately in lower grades and less secure posts than their male counterparts. These are longstanding inequities which appear to have been met with complacency rather than commitments to bring about change. This paper draws upon feminist theory to outline a range of perspectives which can be used to analyze this situation. Different approaches define the problem differently: it can be located in sex-typed socialization; family-career role conflicts; under-investment in women's education; sex discrimination; or the working of capitalism and patriarchy. The strategies which follow from each approach are discussed and evaluated. Certain features of the British university system may operate to the detriment of women, and there is no network of powerful liberal feminist organizations that can act as a watchdog to safeguard their interests. The unsettled situation of higher education in Britain would seem to make this an inauspicious time to initiate reform, but there are contradictions which might be a basis for feminist action. Socialist and radical feminist frameworks go further than liberal ones in making sense of the entrenched inequalities and resistance to change. Yet there is a case for pursuing liberal feminist strategies, at least in the short run.     

教师是教育研究的主体

教育研究是促进教育事业发展的动力之一。教师是教育改革和发展中最基本、最活跃的因 素，掌握现代教育科学和教育技术的教师将是最先进教育生产力的代表。教师──每一个教 师应该成为科研兴教、科研兴校的直接参与者，成为教育研究的主体。教师是教育研究的参与主体。伴随全球经济一体化、国际化，国际政治、经济、文化和教 育竞争日趋激烈。中国经济高速发展和人民生活水平日益提高，对于高素质人才和高水平的 教育的需求更加旺盛。教育国际化、信息化、民主化和个性化的趋势不断改变着教师的地位 、功能和作用，教师的培养模式和发展模…     

From object to subject: hybrid identities of indigenous women in science

The use of hybridity today suggests a less coherent, unified and directed process than that found in the Enlightenment science’s cultural imperialism, but regardless of this neither concept exists outside power and inequality. Hence, hybridity raises the question of the terms of the mixture and the conditions of mixing. Cultural hybridity produced by colonisation, under the watchful eye of science at the time, and the subsequent life in a modern world since does not obscure the power that was embedded in the moment of colonisation. Indigenous identities are constructed within and by cultural power. While we all live in a global society whose consequences no one can escape, we remain unequal participants and globalisation remains an uneven process. This article argues that power has become a constitutive element in our own hybrid identities in indigenous people’s attempts to participate in science and science education. Using the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand (called Māori) as a site of identity construction, I argue that the move from being the object of science to the subject of science, through science education in schools, brings with it traces of an earlier meaning of ‘hybridity’ that constantly erupts into the lives of Māori women scientists.

Quality criteria of research perceived by academics in social sciences at higher education

The purpose of this study is to examine the problem of research quality in social sciences at higher education. Quality of research produced at higher education started to be questioned more often as research became the major factor determining academics＇ promotion and fund allocation to universities. In the study, we aimed to reveal how academics perceive research quality and what they identify as the main problems that make it difficult to achieve quality in research. Data were collected through interviews with 25 academics from 7 disciplines （educational sciences, sociology, communicational sciences, law, history, management and political science） in 7 universities. Six of the academics interviewed were professors, 7 were associate professors, 10 were assistant professors and 2 were doctors. Interviews were carried out in 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 academic years, and each lasted about one hour on average. Data collected were analyzed through content analysis. Study findings revealed that academics referred most often to methodological issues as the most important quality criterion of research, followed by issues of theoretical background and originality. Academics definitions of sub-criteria related to these were tackled in more detail in the study. As the most important hindrances that make it difficult to achieve quality in research academics mentioned lack of a long-established research culture, problems of research resources and the pressure caused by academic promotion criteria. Some recommendations related to the problems were made to develop research quality in the light of the study findings.     

教师:教育规律研究中忽视的主体

教育的初级客观性决定了教育的社会化功能属性,同时教育的次级客观性又决定了教育者不可化约为简单的社会代表。教育工作是教育者与受教育者的心智交流的过程,是其心智图式外化影响甚至再生产的过程。因此教育发展不仅要与社会、人的发展相适应,还与教育者自身的解放和发展有着必然关联。     

电大教师实践性技能对教学科研质量影响的思考

好的教学方法脱离不了教师渊博的专业理论、教学理论及精湛的教学技能。无可置疑,实践性技能与专业理论、教学理论及教学技能具有同样的角色。电大教师相关专业的实践性技能(以下简称:实践性技能)短缺对远程教育带来的负面质量效应是电大面临的现实问题。因此,寻找解决教师实践性技能短缺的对策,设法弥补理论与实践性技能间的鸿沟,努力建立弥合理论与实践性技能间鸿沟的制度、方法是电大所面临的重要任务。