Private‐sector provision of schooling: an economic assessment

In many countries the school choice agenda has promoted increased inter‐school competition as a means of creating stronger incentives for state schools to raise measures of average pupil attainment. Privatization of the provision of schooling takes market‐based reforms a stage further. We identify the factors that have increased governments' concern with educational outcomes and why these concerns have led to greater interest in privatization. The rationale employed for such policies elsewhere in the public sector has been based upon efficiency gains, in that existing government failures were more harmful than future market failures. More recently it has been argued that contracting or improved regulation can control the market failures associated with privately provided schooling. Given the multiple outputs generated by education providers, privatization may be particularly attractive to governments who find that the professionalism of teachers and their public service motivation generate severe agency problems. We critically review each of these propositions and question the current practice of separating issues concerned with government funding of schooling from those concerned with its provision.     

Deconstructing Social Media: An Analysis of Twitter and Facebook Use in the Publishing Industry

The article analyses the social media activity around two genre fiction titles published in the UK. The research is focused on the platforms Twitter and Facebook as they are the sites currently most used as marketing tools by the publishing industry. Over 10,000 social media posts were collected and categorised to create a timeline of social media activity for two case studies. The findings were then compared to sales data from Nielsen BookScan to give an understanding to the value of social media marketing in the publishing industry. The findings show that social media is most effective as a marketing platform when there is already an established community, allowing publishers to converse with readers. While social media is less effective at marketing new books written by debut authors with no existing readership, it is none the less an important tool in the marketing plan as it provides a platform to engage with readers around significant events.     

Does a Management Degree Do the Business for Women in the Graduate Labour Market?

The increasing dominance of an economic ideology of higher education, that its principal role is to contribute to national competitiveness, has increased focus on the employability of graduates and their transition into the labour market. Drawing on a major study of the early career paths of 1995 graduates from 38 UK higher education institutions, this paper looks specifically at graduates from business and management programmes. Such graduates would apparently be attractive to employers seeking to recruit degree holders with specific transferable skills who might be expected to ‘hit the ground running’ once in organisations. The paper seeks to address the question of what effect holding a business degree has on the employment outcomes in comparison with other degree disciplines and whether or not there is any gender effect upon relative success in the labour market.     

The Management and Impact of a Student Led Iraq War Protest in a Fresh Start School

A student led Iraq war protest in a Fresh Start school provides a case study for examining the relationship between political literacy and institutional change. Pragmatic and creative management of the protest encourages a democratic problem-solving process, which contributes to mutual respect and sustained trust between pupils, and staff and pupils. There is evidence to suggest that this democratic experience within the school has the potential to bring a democratic problem solving ethos into the classroom, where learning may increasingly become characterized by individuals achieving autonomy with and for each other.     

Hanky-Panky

Although it is commonplace to recommend the serious study of "media texts" alongside "literary" ones, it is usually assumed that traditional attitudes to the value and values of "literature" can remain largely unaffected by this. In this article, however, Nick Peim demonstrates that setting Marvell alongside Madonna actually raises some radical political and pedagogical implications.