The importance and degree of implementation of the European standards and guidelines for internal quality assurance in universities: the views of Portuguese academics

Abstract

The article aims at critically discussing the role and position of a buffer agency from the point of view of some of its different tasks, viz. accreditation, quality audit, support of academic leadership and internal quality enhancement The contribution seeks to illuminate the conflicting roles of a buffer orgamsation in the light of these tasks and pressures from the government and higher education institutions. It concludes that the different roles can support and complement each other, and that change is best accomplished by emphasising support in the early stages of the establishment of a national quality assurance system.     

Moral relations in encounters with nature

The overall aim of this article is to develop in-depth knowledge about the connection between outdoor experiences and moral attitudes towards nature. The study focuses on processes in which moral relations are at stake in encounters between students and nature. The purpose is to identify such events, describe their specific circumstances and clarify how moral relations are established in these events. The empirical material consists of video-recordings of activities in three different outdoor education practices. In order to identify and categorise moral situations, an analytical tool called the ethical tendency is used. This tool is based on Wittgenstein’s language game method. The findings show that in the investigated outdoor education practices, moral relations towards nature are established in several different ways. The article concludes with four educational implications: responsibility when dealing with moral reactions; bringing ethical questions to the fore; different educational conditions create different encounters with nature; and the consequences of different language games.     

Teacher‐Student Verbal Interaction and Questioning,Class Size and Bilingual Students' Academic Performance

This article is a result of a small-scale study with the purpose of investigating teacher-student verbal interactions and questioning and students' curriculum-related performance in small and large mainstream classes. In mainstream classes the bilingual students were taught together with their monolingual Norwegian peers. The study shows that there are inter-group and intra-group differences with respect to: (i) teacher-student verbal interaction; (ii) academic questioning; (iii) curriculum-related performance of students in small classes compared with large classes. The bilingual minority students in general, and bilingual minority girls in particular, benefit from civics lessons in small classes more than they do in large classes. It is suggested that by creating rich possibilities for teacher-student verbal interaction and curriculum-oriented academic questioning, small classes can provide conditions for better academic performance in content area subjects, i.e. civics, for bilingual students in general and bilingual girls in particular than do large classes.     

Challenging Sexism? Gender and Ethnicity in the Secondary School

This article discusses understandings of girls confronting sexism in a Swedish multiethnic urban school. The empirical study includes school observations, conversations and formal group interviews with 15–16‐year‐old pupils from seven classes in four schools. The article provides an analysis of one of the schools, where the fieldwork showed gender to be frequently on the agenda. In particular, girls confronted what they deemed to be sexist and derogatory remarks from male classmates. Teachers were also seen to comment on gender during lessons and to act on what they agreed to be sexism among pupils. However, gender was largely understood as important to cultural differences and dealt with as related to pupils’ family and ethnic background. This is explored in the article as well as the various, partly conflicting ideas on gender expressed by different groups of pupils.     

From the Past to the Present: Imam and Preacher Schools in Turkey—An Ongoing Quarrel

One of the most controversial issues in Turkey since the establishment of the Republic in 1923 has been the question of religious education in general, with a focus on the Imam and Preacher Schools (IPS) in particular. This continues to be a serious problem even today. This article touches on this important matter. The article begins with a history of the opening of IPSs and tries to indicate the development of this institution throughout the history of the Republic. It provides answers as to why, while some people oppose these schools, others support the very same institution. In this article it is claimed that these schools not only act as good models for the Turkish educational system, but also for education in other Muslim countries. In addition, the article examines how the people who have graduated from these schools have served Turkish people in various fields, from the conception of the schools to the present day.     

Healthy bodies: construction of the body and health in physical education

In physical education, bodies are not only moved but made. There are perceived expectations for bodies in physical education to be ‘healthy bodies’—for teachers to be ‘appropriate’ physical, fit, healthy and skilful ‘role models’ and for students to display a slim body that is equated with fitness and health. In teachers’ monitoring of students with the intention of regulating health behaviour, however, the surveillance of students’ bodies and associated assumptions about health practices are implicated in the (re)production of the ‘cult of the body’. In this paper, we consider issues of embodiment and power in a subject area where the visual and active body is central and we use data from Australian and Swedish schools to analyse the discourses of health and embodiment in physical education. In both Swedish and Australian physical education there were discourses related to a fit healthy body and an at risk healthy body. These discourses also acted through a range of techniques of power, particularly regulation and normalisation.     

Shepherds in the gym: employing a pastoral power analytic on caring teaching in HPE

Drawing on research conducted in Australian Health' and Physical Education (HPE) and Swedish Physical Education and Health (PEH), this paper demonstrates the analytic possibilities of Foucault's notion of pastoral power to reveal the moral and ethical work conducted by HPE/PEH teachers in producing healthy active citizens. We use the pastoral power analytic to make visible the consequences of caring HPE/PEH teaching practices which appear unassailable as producing a general ‘good’ for all students. In so doing we undertake the challenge posed by Nealon to be attuned to those social practices that appear beyond reproach as ‘power becomes more effective while offering less obvious potential for resistance’. From this Foucauldian perspective we argue that caring HPE/PEH teachers employ a wide range of normalization tools to interpellate young people into a specific model of ‘normal’ healthy living, simultaneously determining those who represent problematic deviations from the norm. We further argue that instead of discarding or ignoring these students, such deviations call upon the HPE/PEH teacher to care more fervently, to employ more intense strategies of individualization such as togetherness, encouragement and familiarity. In conclusion, we highlight the tensions and implications that may result for HPE/PEH teachers and their students.     

If sport's the solution then what's the problem? The social significance of sport in the moral governing of ‘good’ and ‘healthy’ citizens in Sweden, 1922–1998

All over the westernised world, sport has been promoted as a ‘solution’ to many of the social ‘problems’ and challenges that face modern societies. This study draw on Foucault's concept of governmentality to examine the ways in which Swedish Government Official Reports on sport, from 1922 to 1998, define social problems and legitimate governing, and sport as a solution, in the name of benefiting Swedish society. The analysis shows that citizens' ‘good’ and ‘healthy’ behaviour and bodies are in focus of problematisation throughout the studied period. In relation to this, sport is seen as an important tool and solution. Parallel with increased critique of sport in contemporary times, a neo-liberal governmentality is embraced which in turn affect how ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’ are thought of in individualistic and rational ways.     

In the Margins of Journalism

Research on journalists and journalistic work has focused on journalists with permanent, full-time employment. Given the rapid decrease of such employment opportunities, we argue that journalism research needs to pay more attention to those who those who have had to leave their jobs and either stopped doing journalism entirely, or who have switched to a freelance career (sometimes combining journalism with other work). This category of people is at once becoming more marginalized and “the new normal” within the occupation: In this paper, we furthermore focus on local (Swedish) journalists and ex-journalists. Based on a set of semi-structured interviews (n?=?12) with ex-journalists who share the experience of having lost their permanent, full-time jobs, we use the concept of livelihood as an analytical tool. The concept of livelihood highlights the shift from journalism as a job practiced exclusive of other jobs to an activity conducted alongside other income-generating activities and makes it possible to analyse leaving the occupation from a context that incorporates the whole life situation of the respondents. This also contributes to the current wave of studies of journalism and job loss by adding qualitative data about individual experiences of job loss to the existing quantitative survey evidence.