The Promotion to Full Professor – Through Competition or by Individual Competence?

This paper analyses the outcome of a reform of the academic career structure in Norway. From 1993 on, associate professors can apply for promotion to full professorships on the basis of individual research competence irrespective of vacant professorships. This has now become a more important way of attaining a full professorship than through competition with other applicants. Only 30% of new professors are appointed the traditional way. The reform has led to a substantial increase in the number of full professors in the university sector, from 37% of the tenured academic staff in 1991 to 47% in 2001.     

Nurturing ‘buds of development’: from outcomes to opportunities in early childhood practice

The current future-focused, outcomes driven early childhood policy climate presents a danger that early years pedagogy will lose sight of the ‘present’ child. Increasingly policy support for early childhood education is built around an emphasis on preparing children for school and positioning it as a key element in enhancing society through preparing future citizens to become productive members of society. The measurable outcomes discourse, in emphasising product, renders invisible the critical contribution of the processes of everyday practice to children’s development. To challenge and counteract the strong outcome discourse early years professionals must have confidence in their pedagogy. However, research suggests that those working in the early years may lack the language and strategies for supporting their educational practice. Using the bio-ecological model of development and drawing on the capabilities approach this paper calls for a shift in policy and pedagogical discourse from measuring competencies towards enhancing capabilities, from assessing outcomes towards providing rich, day-to-day learning opportunities. Such a shift in narrative could weaken the neo-liberal, outcome language of early childhood policy and refocus on supporting an early childhood pedagogy that would explicitly reflect current understanding of what is most beneficial to children’s development and well-being and provide a powerful potential for change.     

Alternative education and social justice: considering issues of affective and contributive justice

This article considers the ways in which three alternative education sites in Australia support socially just education for their students and how injustice is addressed within these schools. The article begins with recognition of the importance of Nancy Fraser’s work to understandings of social justice. It then goes on to argue that her framework is insufficient for understanding the particularly complex set of injustices that are faced by many highly marginalised young people who have rejected or been rejected by mainstream education systems. We argue here for the need to consider the importance of ‘affective’ and ‘contributive’ aspects of justice in schools. Using interview data from the alternative schools, we highlight issues of affective justice raised by students in relation to their educational journeys, as well as foregrounding teachers’ affective work in schools. We also consider curricular choices and pedagogical practices in respect of matters of contributive justice. Our contention is that the affective and contributive fields are central to the achievement of social justice for the young people attending these sites. Whilst mainstream schools are not the focus of this article, we suggest that the lessons here have salience for all forms of schooling.     

Lamaze Childbirth among the Amish People

This paper is an account of the author's observation of three Amish births in 1972, one in a home and two in a hospital. This 30-year-old story illustrates normal birth among a group dedicated to "low-tech" living. Although some aspects of Amish life and birth may have changed in the past 30 years, the basic philosophy of life and birth has not. This philosophy serves as a living reminder to us that generations of women from many cultures have given birth in a similar manner.     

When Poststructural Theory and Contemporary Politics Collide—The Vexed Case of Global Warming

Policy debate about global warming has been framed in the public sphere in the manner of most political topics, as a matter of “skeptics” and “supporters,” making it very difficult for many US publics to know what to believe. This essay critically reads a preeminent public policy debate—that of global warming—with a twofold purpose. I first array the extensive commercial and political efforts to manipulate public information about global warming in order to illustrate that this debate is a “disingenuous” or “pseudo-controversy,” which can be seen in the asymmetrical resources, motives, and authority behind the scenes. Second, I ask what institutional and discursive conditions have enabled this moment, in which the ideals of academic freedom and protocols of scientific inquiry hold precarious authority in the public arena, and argue that contemporary critical perspectives on knowledge and truth have been co-opted in public discourse, making it more difficult to intervention in commercial and political efforts to obfuscate and mislead US publics.     

Treatment Utilization on College Campuses: Who Seeks Help for What?

The purpose of this study was to develop a better understanding of why college students seek psychological treatment by examining indicators of psychological distress. A secondary goal was to assess the utility of screening for treatment need via a brief self‐report measure of distress. Two samples (1 clinical, 1 nonclinical; N= 8,380) were examined via logistic regression analyses to identify meaningful predictors of treatment‐seeking behavior. Clinical applications are discussed.