An Occupational Hazard Warning: academic life can seriously damage your health. An investigation of sexual harassment of women academics in a UK university

The pervasiveness of sexual harassment in US academic institutions is widely documented. However, little is known, and little has been written about the extent of sexual harassment in UK universities. The study reported here investigates this issue through a qualitative survey of women academics in a UK university using intensive interviews. It analyses these women's perceptions and experiences of sexual harassment, from both colleagues and students. The findings are conceptualised using a recent comprehensive categorisation of types of harassment by Gruber (1992). It raises important questions about the possible under‐reporting and underestimation of the incidence of sexual harassment and its effect on professional women.     

‘Alive’ on the internet: A user‐centred evaluation of BIS‐online

Recent UK government initiatives have encouraged academic staff to consider using IT to enhance students' experience of higher education in terms of its quality, flexibility and effectiveness. In 1999 second year undergraduate students studying Information Management at Queen Margaret University College in Edinburgh were invited to use a set of tailored web resources in support of the module Business Information Sources. This article presents the results of an evaluation conducted to discover the student view of the web site materials and the alternative learning methods employed for the module. Student opinions were sought on the accessibility, retrievability and usefulness of the information presented, and the ‘enjoyment’ of the learning experience. A comparison of the 1998/9 student examination performance was made with that of previous cohorts to determine whether adding another dimension to the experience of taking the module might impact the quality of the students' learning. The findings presented in the article will inform the further development of such initiatives, which in tum should improve the electronic delivery of learning materials in UK higher education.     

Conceptualisations of literacy and literacy practices for children with severe learning difficulties

Literacy is traditionally narrowly conceptualised as a set of skills related to accessing and generating written or printed text. For children designated as having severe learning difficulties (SLD), who are unlikely to develop these ‘conventional’ literacy skills, such a conception implies their semi‐literacy or nonliteracy. Although conceptions of multimodal literacy and multiliteracies have rarely been applied to this group, broader understandings of literacy that include a range of activities, modes and media provide greater opportunities for including these learners in literacy practices. Drawing upon our research with teachers of this group of children and young people, we illustrate these literacy practices. We note, however, that such practices are often haphazard, not coherently thought through, and that there is much confusion regarding any distinction between communication and literacy. We argue for literacy as a specific form of communication, but conclude that broader models of literacies should be utilised to guide and support practitioners in developing interactive practice and in making reasoned and principled approaches and decisions about literacy practices, routes and progression for children with SLD.     

Constructs of teacher professionalism within a changing literacy landscape

This paper argues that the work of teachers in England's primary schools has been reconstructed. It is proposed that the literacy curriculum has been a major factor in this reconstruction. The paper suggests that the purposes of literacy today have been determined by policy makers, and that the nature of policy texts has changed, hardened, into specific requirements. It argues that the role of the policy driver has been fundamental in this era, influential in the contexts of policy making, policy text production and teacher training. The paper develops by proposing that there is an emerging model of professionalism today largely determined by two key figures: the Policy Driver, and the Practice Driver, or Headteacher. These two figures are at the meeting place of policy and practice and assume the mantle of ‘reality definers’ for the process of literacy education in English primary schools.     

THE DEVELOPMENT AND ASSESSMENT OF PERSONAL TRANSFERABLE SKILLS DURING WORK‐BASED PLACEMENTS

The article focuses on the development and assessment of skills during the work‐based placements of business studies sandwich degree students. A total of forty‐two skills are identified and these have been subsumed within two distinct frameworks according to their general or vocational nature. The importance of the work‐based placement In acquiring these skills is borne out when this is compared against a variety of other methods.

Aggregated students’ ratings have been compared with those of employers. Whilst there appears to be some agreement about development having occurred during the placement for virtually all skills, the research highlights major inconsistencies between employers and students in their ratings of the actual level of proficiency finally achieved. This discrepancy between student and employer assessments suggests that a more comprehensive and systematic approach to assessment is required if formal credit is to be given for work‐based learning within degree programmes. This could involve techniques such as triangulation, contract learning or the assessment of competencies, but the difficulty of ensuring a common frame of reference between the parties involved, and across the methods of assessment employed, is likely to remain a major issue, particularly among those advocating formal credit towards degree classifications.