What's Happening to Photography?

This is the first public output of the joint Arts Council/University of Portsmouth research project into photography teaching in GNVQ Art and Design and Media Communications and Production. It reports principally from various contacts and interviews in the first six months of the project and from the results of a questionnaire survey of art and design lecturers involved in GNVQ. The paper suggests that the increasing significance of photography in artistic cultural and social practices is not adequately reflected in formal education. It describes a variety of aims and practices in those institutions involved in GNYQ, although we have found little collaboration between art and design and media courses. In some art and design courses, photography functions mainly as an aid to research and preparatory work, elsewhere we found lecturers willing to describe it as ‘an art form in its own right’ or as a ‘fundamental part’ of the art and design curriculum. We report on the resource implications of offering substantial photography courses. some preliminary findings about the kinds of students studying art and design GNVQ, and the perceived value of official publications. The question of choosing ‘A’ level or GNVQ is raised, as is the issue of progression. We have found expectations that GNVQs will become a regular route into HE although their currency is not yet clear. Although we report difficulties with GNVQs in art and design, and more specifically with photography, we also record comments which indicate some reasons for optimism.     

Motivating Learning and the Development of Human Capital

This paper revisits Schultz's concept of human capital. In both the South and the North the concept has been incorporated uncritically into policy discourses. The academic community has been less critical. Its theoretical, empirical and methodological critiques have generated at least two responses from the economists. The first is the extension and refinement of the conceptual and methodological frameworks of human capital. The second maintains the focus on the monetary returns and draws attention to the enduring unexplained variance of differences in lifetime earnings and the 'behavioural' factors, besides education, that may account for it. The basic proposition of human capital theory, that people invest in themselves through education, takes human motivation for granted. The author suggests that questions of motivation and learning are central to the concept of human capital. Not only is learning motivated, but learning can itself be motivating. A review of studies of the motives for learning in education and work and the motivational effects of learning in education and work highlights the goals, besides the economic, that motivate human endeavour. Such studies, many informed by psychological and education perspectives, deserve more attention from both economists and educators in the future. The paper concludes with two further challenges for those who work with concepts of human capital and development. The first concerns units of analysis conventionally used in the social sciences. The second concerns the way that economic growth, the dependent variable of human capital theory, is specified in relation to the broader goals of human and societal development.     

Empowering and Enabling or Patronising and Pressurising?: Opening dialogues between staff and students

In this article we reflect on the process and experience of our attempts to open dialogues between Women's Studies staff and students on the topic of feminist teaching practices. The article provides biographies of the staff and students concerned, discusses what is meant by empowerment and delinates the debates regarding the Women's Studies teaching model. By reflecting on the responses made to the points in an earlier conference paper on teaching practices we address the contradictions and conflicts inherent in attempting 'empowering' education and opening dialogues.     

Relationship of a Group Counseling Course,Hours in Counselor Education,and Sex to Empathic Understanding of Counselor Trainees

This study investigated the relationship of a graduate course in group counseling, the number of hours completed in counselor education, and sex to the empathic understanding of trainees in a counselor education program. The trainees were taped in similar counseling sessions, and their responses were rated independently by three counselor educators, who used Carkhuff's empathic understanding scale. A three-way analysis of variance determined only one significant difference. The trainees who had completed a course in group counseling were significantly higher (p <.05) than those who had not. The level of empathic understanding of the higher group, however, was less than the level considered to be the minimum for effective counseling.