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.     

Communication with feeling: Emotion,publicness, and embodiment

AN EMOTIONAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Edited by Peter Stearns and Jan Lewis. New York & London: New York University Press, 1998; pp. 476. $22.50.

ANOTHER SELF: MIDDLE CLASS AMERICAN WOMEN AND THEIR FRIENDS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. By Linda W. Rosenzweig. New York & London: New York University Press, 1999; pp. 225. $35.00.

BATTLEGROUND OF DESIRE: THE STRUGGLE FOR SELF CONTROL IN MODERN AMERICA. By Peter Stearns. New York & London: New York University Press, 1999; pp. 434. $28.95.

CRYING: THE NATURAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY OF TEARS. By Tom Lutz. New York & London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999; pp. 352. $25.95.

EMOTIONS IN SOCIAL LIFE: CRITICAL THEMES AND CONTEMPORARY ISSUES. Edited by Gillian Bendelow and Simon J. Williams. London & New York: Routledge, 1998; pp. 336. $29.99.     

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.     

The importance of financial aid: The case of higher education in Sweden

This is the first in a series of investigations planned with a view to studying the effects of the financial aid reform which was introduced in Sweden in the mid-1960s. The group studied is a nationally representative sample of those born in 1948. It is shown that social background is a strongly influential factor in the selection for higher education. However, this class bias would have been far greater if it had not been for the national financial aid system. The aid is not only important for recruitment but also to enable the students to complete a degree program and this is particularly true for those from lower socio-economic strata.     

Access to the scholarly record of medicine by the osteopathic physicians of southeastern Michigan

This paper is one part of a continuing study to determine the availability of library service to physicians in southeastern Michigan not associated with academic institutions. The institutional affiliations of the 800 osteopathic physician community of the area were identified. As the availability of library service at these institutions was known, the conclusion is patent that 60 percent of these physicians do not have dependable access to the library resources of the area. Further, it is apparent from the way the institutions are distributed and the responsibilities physicians have, that the only hope of providing library service to the practicing physician is through hospitals.     

Mentoring as Socialization for the Educational Leadership Professoriate: A Collaborative Autoethnography

In this study, we analyzed the experiences of an educational leadership doctoral student and aspirant to the professoriate (protégé) and an educational leadership professor (mentor) during our two-year mentoring relationship. Collaborative autoethnography was employed, and our analysis relied primarily upon a process-oriented model of mentoring. Four main themes emerged: (a) reciprocal trust, (b) experiential learning, (c) stability and change, and (d) mutual benefit. Our relationship also was marked by several critical features, and we described the timing and sequence of the socialization experience. This productive mentoring relationship offers a detailed model for doctoral students and faculty members who wish to pursue a similar relationship. From our research, we also contribute to the broader mentoring literature, in which previous researchers have rarely delved simultaneously into mentor and protégé experiences. Scholars who study mentoring will gain from insights into the manner in which anticipatory socialization unfolds, as well as critical features that emerge and evolve in the process.     

The conceptualization of cases of physical motion

The question addressed in the present article concerns the contextual character of students’ conceptions of cases of psysical motion. An interview investigation with students following the mechanical engineering line of study at Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden was carried out during the students’ first year of study, before and after their first course in Mechanics. In the interviews, the students were verbally presented with eight cases of physical motion, four before and four after the course. The analysis of the conceptualization of physical motion points clearly to the very restricted contextual character of the conceptions of the cases. In previous research, the tradition of describing thinking and knowledge in terms of cognitive structures, shemas, models and so on, is very dominant. In relation to our results, one problem with the focus on cognitive structures is the assumptions made about generality across case or instances. Also, the students’ starting-point for their reasoning about the cases is not in any conceptual framework but in the specific cases. The conceptualizations are related to the students’ previous experiences rather than to any clearly delimited and structured conceptual framework.     

Science,Coloniality, and “the Great Rationality Divide”

This article aims to analyze how science is discursively attached to certain parts of the world and certain “kinds of people,” i.e., how scientific knowledge is culturally connected to the West and to whiteness. In focus is how the power technology of coloniality organizes scientific content in textbooks as well as how science students are met in the classroom. The empirical data consist of Swedish science textbooks. The analysis is guided by three questions: (1) if and how the colonial history of science is described in Swedish textbooks; (2) how history of science is described; (3) how the global South is represented. The analysis focuses on both what is said and what is unsaid, recurrent narratives, and cultural silences. To discuss how coloniality is organizing the idea of science eduation in terms of the science learner, previous studies are considered. The concepts of power/knowledge, epistemic violence, and coloniality are used to analyze how notions of scientific rationality and modernity are deeply entangled with a colonial way of seeing the world. The analysis shows that the colonial legacy of science and technology is not present in the textbooks. More evident is the talk about science as development. I claim that discourses on scientific development block out stories problematizing the violence done in the name of science. Furthermore, drawing on earlier classroom studies, I examine how the power of coloniality organize how students of color are met and taught, e.g., they are seen as in need of moral fostering rather than as scientific literate persons.     

Teachers’ leadership: a maker or a breaker of students’ educational motivation

Teachers’ leadership plays a critical and central role in students’ educational motivations. This indicates that, in the school context, a teacher’s leadership can have both positive and negative impacts on students’ educational motivation and performance. This article explores these assumptions, building on the path-goal theory, more specifically the effects of teachers’ leadership from students’ perspectives. Using a qualitative research design, this study collected data comprising 35 interviews with children and young people in both primary and upper-secondary school. The results show that the degree of teachers’ developmental leadership greatly affects students’ educational motivation and school performance. Two contrasting teachers’ profiles were found: teachers with a high degree of developmental leadership and teachers with a low degree of developmental leadership. Our findings suggest that teachers with the profile of a high degree of developmental leadership create an environment that fosters educational motivation positively among students, facilitating students’ achievement of high performance levels and a sense of well-being about their studies. In contrast, we show that teachers with a low degree of developmental leadership create an environment that is nonconductive for educational motivation, performance or the welfare of schoolwork.