Irrational bodies and corporate culture: further education in the 1990s

The further education sector in England and Wales has been marketized. Colleges are now corporations, business practices have been adopted wholesale and a new managerialism is clearly evident. Economic rationalist discourse, a new cult of the individual and a growing emphasis on the promises of new technology are all major features of the further education sector today. In this paper, I want to argue that these changes are not simply the result of the global restructuring of the economy and New Right politics, but can be seen as a direct descendant of deeply patriarchal philosophical trends in the history of Western thought. The Cartesian mind/body dichotomy, with its gendered, racialized and classed implications, is replayed within the discourses and practices of economic rationality, masculinist managerialism and the mythologies of the new technology. I will argue that far from being neutral and rational, newly marketized colleges embody those irrational and dangerous elements usually reserved for ‘Others’.     

“We Were Told We’re Not Teachers … It Gets Difficult to Draw the Line”: Negotiating Roles in Peer-Assisted Study Sessions (PASS)

Peer learning models in pre-service teacher education are in the early stages of implementation. In this article, we evaluated a pilot Peer-Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) program that supplemented a course for pre-service teachers at one New Zealand university. PASS participants discussed experiences of the program, revealing tensions between what students and facilitators felt should happen in PASS, and how they acted differently. We explained these tensions by considering how social and cognitive congruence operated between students and facilitators. The majority of our peer facilitators were pre-service teachers, suggesting these intersecting roles offered important considerations for reciprocity in near-peer relationships, and joint negotiations of roles and responsibilities. We conclude this article with implications for future training of PASS facilitators, including those training as teachers.     

Practical Guides

CABLE ADVERTISING: NEW WAYS TO NEW BUSINESS by Kensinger Jones, et al. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986—price not given)

ON DEADLINE: MANAGING MEDIA RELATIONS by Carole Howard and Wilma Mathews (New York: Longman, 1985—price not given)

MEGARATES: HOW TO GET TOP DOLLAR FOR YOUR SPOTS (Washington: National Association of Broadcasters, 1986—price not given, paper)

UNDERSTANDING AND USING VIDEO: A GUIDE FOR THE ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATOR edited by Clara Degen (New York: Longman, 1985—price not given)

AUDIO IN MEDIA by Stanley R. Alten (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1986—$32.50)

TELEVISION PRODUCTION: DISCIPLINES AND TECHNIQUES by Thomas Burrows and Donald Wood (Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown, 1986—price not given, paper)

RADIO BROADCASTING: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SOUND MEDIUM by Robert L. Hilliard (New York: Longman, 1986—price not given, paper)     

Academic Freedom: Impressions of Australian Social Scientists

This article reinterprets a recentexploratory study of the academic freedom ofAustralian social scientists in an increasinglycommercialised university environment. Thestudy revealed that academics are experiencingseveral conditions that undermine academicfreedom: the intensification of work at theexpense of quality; pressure to choose `safe'research topics; the erosion of intellectualcapital and student standards; and increasingcorporate governance. We position thesefindings within the transition to `Mode 2'knowledge production, arguing that thisprovides a more appropriate basis forreconceptualising the traditional concept ofacademic freedom and renegotiating its socialpractice.     

Imagery and Verbal Ability and Recognition Memory for Pictures and Words in Males and Females

Objective and subjective indices of imagery and verbal ability and their relationship to recognition memory for pictures and concrete words were examined in a large correlational study. Objective spatial tests of imagery proved to be better predictors of picture recognition than were self‐assessments, the Flags test excepted. Spatial tests also predicted word memory in males, but not females. Imagery control and imagery vividness bore little relation to recognition; vividness within specific modalities may have some influence, however, particularly in males. Verbal fluency and verbal comprehension were either unrelated or marginally negatively related to performance. In general, a more specialised pattern of ability‐performance correlations emerged for females than for males.     

Inquiry Science Learning and Teaching: a Comparison Between the Conceptions and Attitudes of Pre-service Elementary Teachers in Hong Kong and the United States

Research in Science Education - International studies of science education, such as the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), have revealed considerable national disparities in...     

Social work learning spaces: the Social Work Studio

This paper explores the contribution of a physical learning space to student engagement in social work education. Drawing on a constructivist methodology, this paper examines the findings of a survey conducted with students and staff in a social work and human service programme about their experiences of a Social Work Studio learning space. The analysis identified that students and staff who used the Studio reported that students were emotionally, cognitively and behaviourally engaged in the space, which enriched their development as social work and human service practitioners. The researchers concluded that the Social Work Studio is a useful tool for enhancing social work student engagement and increasing their confidence to address the ‘real-life’ challenges they may face as social work practitioners.     

Teachers' perspective: Developing and implementing an sts curriculum

This article explores science TEACHERS' perceptions of and consequent decisions about the development and implementation of a nontraditional science curriculum. It is a case-study analysis that examines the perceptions of 14 secondary teachers of a model science/technology/society (STS) curriculum designed to promote scientific literacy. Although the TEACHERS' decisions varied on whether to accept, alter, or reject the STS curriculum, they shared similar concerns about the development and implementation of this multidisciplinary curriculum. There existed a common set of five factors that the teachers believed to be critical, and that strongly affected their daily teaching decisions. This study offers insights into how science teachers perceive an STS curriculum, and the influence those perceptions have on their teaching decisions. It explores curricular issues from the frame of reference of teachers, the key factor in successfully implementing innovations.     

The segmentation of elite education institutions and of their students: the new preparatory courses for the French grandes écoles

The present paper focuses on the preparatory courses for the French grandes écoles (CPGEs), which are selective higher education programmes that enable ‘good’ students to bypass mass higher education and study under ‘favourable’ conditions. These CPGEs, originally intended to educate the children of the social and cultural elite, are now accepting young people from more diverse social backgrounds. Our investigation of this ‘new’ student population is based on a survey (1000 students and 350 teachers) and on interviews conducted with students (82) and teaching staff (24). Our research leads us to conclude that under the pretext of democratisation and adaptation to the labour market, CPGEs recruiting these new students are, paradoxically, helping to maintain social stratification.