Struggling to handle teaching and research: a study on academic work at select universities in the Chinese Mainland

In order to raise the international reputation and quality of higher education in China, the Ministry of Education initiated new university employment reform, which pressed academics to produce more research. Recent employment reform has aggravated the conflict between teaching and research. This study uses mixed methods to investigate how academics perceived the employment reform and how they employed various strategies to handle teaching and research. Our study indicates a trend of deprofessionalization in academic work and an increasing tension between teaching and research. Handling teaching and research required a strong and conscientious effort on the part of academics. Concerted efforts should be made to offer a more supportive environment for academics to balance teaching and research.     

Impacts of organisational culture on academic efficiency and productivity in selected private universities in the Niger delta region of Nigeria

Organisational efficiency is a consistent quality that derives more from and thrives on strong internal culture than on isolated instances of timely and effortless accomplishments by corporate systems. This study sought to evaluate the relationship between organisational culture and enhanced productivity and efficiency among members of five universities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, which with its peculiarities provided a unique context for the study. The quantitative and qualitative methods were used for data collection among 104 respondents. Faculty were assessed on the direct impacts of their organisations' culture on their research and publication, creativity and innovativeness, among others, while students were assessed on learning, career prospects and others. The study suggested that most of the five universities had no well-articulated organisational culture. This significantly compromises their unique value addition to the educational system, implying that they risk losing their relative advantages unless they fortify their organisational cultural frontiers.     

高校学科带头人队伍建设研究

学科带头人不仅是高校实现培养人才、科学研究和服务社会职能的支柱力量,更是高水平大学和创新型国家建设的重要方面军。通过对30年来学科带头人队伍重要性、存在问题及原因分析等主要议题的研究,未来应在如何科学界定学科带头人、选拔培养高层次学科带头人、构建学科团队机制、优化学科科研环境、完善评价体系等方面进行探索。     

略论不正规教育对学校教育的影响

学校教育除了正规教育外,还存在不正规教育。然而在实践中,它往往被忽略,成为实施素质教育的冷点问题。不正规教育具有松散性、潜在性、非预测性等特点,不正规教育对学生的身心发展具有独特的影响,教育同行们应引起足够的重视。     

大学创新学术团队生命周期初探

当代科学技术的特征和高等学校在建设创新型国家中的历史使命,要求不断加强大学创新学术团队建设。本文借鉴组织生命周期理论和团队发展理论,建立了大学创新学术团队的生命周期模型,并对大学创新学术团队生命周期各阶段的特征和行为方式进行了分析,指出了每一个阶段促进团队可持续发展的关键问题。     

Teacher education as academic work: the affordances of a materialist analysis

In this paper we make an argument for paying close attention to the materiality of practice in understanding the work of teacher educators; specifically, the meanings of artefacts used by teacher educators in the course of their daily work. We locate this analysis within a dialectical materialist understanding of the development of human activity, providing examples of artefacts-in-use in initial teacher education and the meanings accorded to these artefacts by the teacher educators we observed and interviewed. Our aim is to make a case for what is afforded epistemologically when researchers pay attention to artefacts from a dialectical materialist viewpoint. In the final part of the paper, we argue that paying attention to how teacher educators engage with artefacts can help us understand the unity of psychological and social processes within dominant approaches to teacher education, as well as providing clues about how adaptation of artefacts can drive cultural change.     

地方综合性高校硕士研究生学制改革初探

硕士研究生学制改革问题是近几年教育界讨论的热点问题之一,针对国内与国外部分国家硕士研究生现行学制情况、我国地方综合性高校的特征及现行硕士研究生学制中存在的主要问题,笔者认为应将现阶段硕士研究生分为研究型硕士研究生与应用型硕士研究生两类,并在学制上加以区别:研究型硕士研究生学习年限为3～4年,应用型硕士研究生学习年限为2～3年.     

试析美国研究型大学基层学术组织模式

美国研究型大学基层学术组织是以学科为基础的独立的、自主的学术组织。其组织规模主要根据教学科研任务的需要来决定。其内部管理以教授统治为主,采取的是少数服从多数的决策机制。总结和归纳美国研究型大学基层学术组织的现状与改革动向,对于探讨我国研究型大学未来的改革重点与方向具有重要的借鉴意义。     

Organisational barriers for women in senior management: a comparison of Turkish and New Zealand universities

This paper reports on the second phase of a multi‐country study examining cross‐cultural perspectives of gender and management in universities. The first phase of this research with eight countries found that the representation of women was consistently low, especially at Rector/Vice Chancellor level. In the second phase interviews were conducted with both male and female senior managers including current and former Rectors/Vice Chancellors. The focus of this paper is on the organisational barriers to women becoming and being managers in Turkish and New Zealand universities. Twenty‐four interviews were conducted in Turkey and 26 in New Zealand. Rectors/Vice Chancellors and other senior academic colleagues were found to be crucial in supporting academics into senior management. Barriers discussed include time management and role conflict between work and non‐work life.     

网络语言对高校思想政治工作的影响探究

随着网络信息技术的发展,网络新兴语言对大学生的正常交际和言论造成了严重的影响,同时给高职院校的思想政治教育工作带来新的挑战。充分了解和把握网络语言的两面性,理性、客观的对待网络语言,利用网络语言的积极性,加强高职院校大学生的语言文明,塑造良好的道德修养。     

The influence of emotional intelligence on academic progress and achievement in UK university students

Previous research has found relationships between higher levels of emotional intelligence (EI) and academic success in both adolescents and adults. This study examines the relationship between overall EI and specific EI competencies in 135 undergraduate psychology students in the UK. EI was measured at the start of a psychology degree course using the Emotional Competence Inventory-University Edition (ECI-U II). Performance was assessed using retention statistics and students’ final average percentage mark (APM) at the end of their degree course. Results showed that there were no differences in overall EI or specific EI competencies in those students who graduated compared to those who failed to graduate. Whilst global EI did not significantly predict final APM, specific EI competencies (conscientiousness, adaptability, empathy, organisational awareness, and building bonds) significantly predicted APM after controlling for gender. Recommendations for the implementation of EI training in higher education institutions are considered.     

新媒体时代背景下社交软件在辅导员工作中的运用

借用百度百科的定义,新媒体是新的技术支撑体系下出现的媒体形态。高校辅导员是学生思想政治工作的骨干力量,专职从事学生思想教育和行为管理工作,在新媒体时代的大背景下,以个人电脑和智能手机在学生中的高持有率为基础,社交软件的使用在当今已经得到很大普及。如何合理的运用它们与学生进行高效率的沟通,是辅导员工作中遇到的重要的新课题。     

Early emotional and communication functioning predicting the academic trajectories of refugee children in Canada

Abstract

We examined how emotional and communication functioning at kindergarten predicted the academic trajectories of refugee children. Drawing from a population-based Canadian cohort, the study followed 629 refugee children from age 5 to 13 and (i) modeled kindergarten, Grade 4, and Grade 7 academic trajectories via group-based trajectory modeling and (ii) investigated to what extent teacher ratings of kindergarten emotional and communication functioning predicted academic trajectory group membership. Three groups were identified: ‘Average’ (n?=?438), ‘Declining’ (n?=?119), and ‘Low-But-Improving’ (n?=?72) groups. Logistic regression analyses revealed that, in comparison to the Average trajectory, lower emotional functioning at kindergarten was associated with an increased likelihood of a Declining academic trajectory, whereas lower communication functioning at kindergarten was associated with a greater likelihood of a Low-But-Improving trajectory (versus an Average trajectory). The findings indicate that refugee children are more likely to overcome early communication challenges versus emotional challenges to achieve academically, and this has important implications for early mental health support.     

Distribution of influence,communication, and relational mentoring in the US superintendency

We report on how fifty superintendents (chief executive officers of public school systems, each invited by a researcher to participate) from seven states in the US talked in eight focus groups of their perspectives on their influence as leaders, their efforts to communicate with stakeholders, and how they learn from these stakeholders. We maintain that our participants’ revelations suggest that three definitions must be expanded to fit their work. First, influence or authority must be seen not merely as vested in the superintendent; rather, these superintendents described their leadership in terms of working with and through others. Second, organizational communication for these superintendents is more than the district’s leader communicating his or her perceptions and wishes to others; it is more relational, in which a variety of actors communicate their perspectives to one another. Third, this type of inter‐professional leadership leads logically to relational mentoring, where learning does not pass merely from expert to novice; rather, superintendents described their roles in terms of various parties learning from and teaching one another. We discuss implications of these insights for practice, research, and preparation.     

学术职业压力下教师学术产出行为与制度重构——基于新功能主义的社会行为分析

新功能主义下的社会行为分析强调行为本身以及行动者自身的创造性,强调环境对于行为的强制性作用以及行为对于环境的变革作用。伴随着新管理主义对高等教育的渗透以及强调效率和产出的制度环境的出现,教师的学术职业压力不断增加,导致学术产出出现"重量而不重质"的现象。学术职业压力表现为时间维度上的紧迫性、学术产出总量上的高要求以及对学术产出质量的高追求。基于新功能主义下的社会行为分析,结合访谈材料对该现象的产生原因进行解释,学术职业压力的增加使得教师增大时间和精力的投入成本以缓冲学术职业压力对于学术产出的影响,教师为了寻求成本最小化和回报最大化的理想状态倾向于一般性的学术产出而规避高水平的学术产出。透过学术职业压力下的教师学术产出行为审视制度环境,高校应从学术职业的本身特征以及教师的内在追求和内在动力方面重构教师发展的制度环境。     

New practices in doing academic development: Twitter as an informal learning space

Using social media platforms to build informal learning processes and social networks is significant in academic development practices within higher education. We present three vignettes illustrating academic practices occurring on Twitter to show that using social media is beneficial for building networks of academics, locally and globally, enhancing information flows, inspiring thinking, and motivating academic practice. Using a reflective and diffractive methodology, we illuminate how different flows of forces and relations are enacted. We argue it is in this fluidity of informal learning that perspectives are contested and shaped, and that academic developers can benefit by encompassing such practices.     

两次学术革命与研究型大学的发展

科学研究被引入大学的第一次学术革命 ,造就了研究型大学。此后科学研究这一大学(主要是研究型大学 )的社会职能逐步走向职业化和专业化 ,从“小科学”步入“大科学” ,研究型大学也由此在今天成为新知识与新经济的策源地 ,以致人们提出大学正经历着把经济发展也引为学术使命的第二次学术革命。     

Turning collegial governance on its head: symbolic violence,hegemony and the academic board

This article draws on Bourdieu’s theorisation of domination and Gramsci’s notions of hegemony within the context of a larger empirical study of Australian university academic governance, and of academic boards (also known as academic senates or faculty senates) in particular. Reporting data that suggest a continued but radically altered form of collegial governance in which hegemony is exercised by management rather than by the professor, it theorises the domination of academic boards within western democratic universities. However, traditional collegial governance is also dependent upon a community of scholars, a role historically played by the academic board. In view of the suggested transition in collegial governance and the resultant convergence of academic work and management, the article concludes with questions about whether academic boards can continue to serve as communities of scholars in future.     

Argumentative and trustworthy scholars: the construction of academic staff at research-intensive universities

Research-intensive universities, such as the Russell Group in the UK, the Ivy League Colleges in the USA and the Sandstone Universities in Australia, enjoy particular status in the higher education landscape. They are, however, also often associated with social elitism and selectivity, and this has led to critique as higher education systems seek to widen access. This article looks at how academic staff are discursively constructed in five such institutions in South Africa through an analysis of documentation submitted as part of a national review. Three interrelated discourses are identified: a discourse of ‘staff as scholars’ whereby research is privileged over teaching, a discourse of ‘academic argumentation’ whereby a critical disposition is valued and is called upon by academics to resist development initiatives and a discourse of ‘trust’ whereby it is assumed that academics share a value system and should thus be trusted to undertake quality teaching without interference.