Don’t we care?: the ethics and emotional labour of early years professionalism

This paper argues that early childhood education and care (ECEC) has a legitimate aspiration to be a ‘caring profession’ like others such as nursing or social work, defined by a moral purpose. For example, practitioners often draw on an ethic of care as evidence of their professionalism. However, the discourse of professionalism in England completely excludes the ethical vocabulary of care. Nevertheless, it necessarily depends on gendered dispositions towards emotional labour, often promoted by training programmes as ‘professional’ demeanours. Taking control of the professionalisation agenda therefore requires practitioners to demonstrate a critical understanding of their practice as ‘emotion work’. At the same time, reconceptualising practice within a political ethic of care may allow the workforce, and new trainees in particular, to champion ‘caring’ as a sustainable element of professional work, expressed not only in maternal, dyadic key‐working but in advocacy for care as a social principle.     

Why lecturers still matter: the impact of lecturer-student exchange on student engagement and intention to leave university prematurely

This research examines the impact of lecturer-student exchange (student-LMX) on engagement, course satisfaction, achievement, and intention to leave university prematurely for 363 students in one Australian university. Survey and grade point average (GPA) data were collected from domestic undergraduate first- and second-year students and analysed using structural equation modelling. The results indicated that student’s levels of engagement and course satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between student-LMX and intention to leave university, when demographic and socio-economic factors were controlled for. In an era when low student engagement and attrition is often attributed to individual demographic factors, and lecturers are under increasing threat of being replaced by technology, this research offers compelling evidence regarding the role of lecturer-student relationships in enhancing tertiary student outcomes.     

Reviews

Moyle, Donald (compiler) (1979) Teaching Reading. Peddie, W. S. & White, G. R. (1978). Testing in Practice–a guide to the preparation and marking of tests, formal examinations and informal assessments. Drummond, Don and Wignell, Edna (Editors), 1979. Reading: A Source Book. Roswell, Florence G. and Chall Jeanne S., (1979). Roswell Chall Diagnostic Reading Test of Word Analysis Skills.     

Making R&D More Than Research Plus Development

Much criticism of educational research has focussed on the problem of its effective dissemination to practitioners. This paper explores an alternative model, in which research, in some of its modes at least, is linked with development rather than dissemination. This argument is made in the context of further education. Most further education colleges have a tradition of involvement in development work, and many have a senior member of staff responsible for it. An examination of this has led to the conclusion that a two-way link needs to exist between researchers and those who have the role of development manager in colleges. It is argued that a well developed model embracing both research and development could be very powerful, and could establish a new and more productive relationship between colleges and universities. However, it is also argued that this relationship cannot be fully effective without some form of mediation. This requires the creation of a new kind of professional to undertake this function. The model proposed is one in which research and development remain distinct activities, each with their own disciplines and expertise, but where R&D as an integrated concept becomes more than the sum of its parts.     

Information management in law enforcement: The case of police intelligence strategy implementation

Strategy implementation is important because failure to carry out strategy can cause lost opportunities and leave police officers reluctant to do strategic planning. Lack of implementation creates problems in maintaining priorities and reaching organizational goals. The strategy execution task is commonly the most complicated and time-consuming part of strategic, management. Yet, strategy implementation suffers from a general lack of academic attention. This research paper makes a contribution to police strategy implementation literature by developing a, research model to study the extent of intelligence strategy implementation.     

Values, Rights and Dilemmas

Professor Geoff Lindsay, Director of the Special Needs Research Unit at The University of Warwick, is the fourth of the new professors to contribute to the debate on the future of Special Education.     

Careers Under Stress: Teacher Adaptations at a Time of Intensive Reform

There is currently a crisis of recruitment and retention of teachers in the United Kingdom. One feature of this trend is the number of teachers who are leaving the profession prematurely in reaction to the changed nature and organization of their work. This article focuses on how the crisis was experienced at the level of the individual. It explores the perceptions and interpretations of a group of teachers who left teaching or who considered leaving but remained by making adaptations to their roles; adaptations of retreatism; downshifting; and self-actualisation. The article uses data from a longitudinal study of a sample of English primary school teachers who are experiencing or have experienced occupational stress and stress-related illness. Unpredictable and stress-induced breaks in the teachers' careers are defined as `fateful moments' involving a `reassessment' and `redefinition' of each teacher's self, commitment and career. This case study of teacher stress makes emerging patterns and experiences of teacher career in the conditions of `late modernity' highly visible. The article concludes by arguing that the new and unplanned disruption in careers can involve the teachers in repeated re-inventions of the self (a stressful and convoluted process in itself) and that a reconceptualisation of teacher career is required.