Emotion Work Revealed by Job Loss Discourse: Backgrounding-Foregrounding of Feelings, Construction of Normalcy, and (Re)instituting of Traditional Masculinities

Three emotion work themes were displayed in the discourse of individuals who lost their jobs and of their family members. Foregrounding-backgrounding of emotions indicated not only how some individuals and family members exerted effort to express positive emotions, but also why they would do so (for deep authenticity). In the construction of normalcy, respondents made an effort to portray and enact their lives as similar to the way things were before the job loss. By (re)instituting traditional masculinities, the men who lost their jobs were able to be "real" men in an emasculating situation. Taken together, these findings offer possibilities for further theoretical development and for communication interventions that can be applied by human resource professionals, career and outplacement counselors, family members, friends, and the individuals themselves.     

Evaluating academic development in the higher education sector: academic developers’ reflections on using a toolkit resource

The professionalisation of teaching is of increasing importance in UK higher education due to converging processes including the proliferation of managerialism, increasing quality agendas and changes to student fee structures. These have brought into sharp relief the need for greater understanding of how quality teaching evolves in university settings. One key element of this involves academic development and its impacts on teaching and learning. Current literature suggests that a plethora of ideas, frameworks and instruments claiming best practice exist but that take-up of these is inconsistent. This prompted a UK national research project which produced an evidence-based toolkit for evaluating academic development. As part of the toolkit augmentation, academic development representatives from across the sector were asked to create, review and test uniquely tailored evaluation instruments. These instruments were then piloted on university teachers who had participated in teaching-related continuing professional development activities. This paper reports on these individuals’ reflections of using the toolkit. It suggests that academic developers are interested in evaluating the impact of their work on teachers, students and on the wider institutional culture but that confidence and expertise varies. Using the toolkit generated ‘traditional’ evaluation data including satisfaction with the development activity and changes to lecturers’ conceptions and behaviours. However, it also prompted critical discussions around current evaluation practice. This included the need for transformational reform of institutional culture to support links between evaluation and good standing; and making explicit the thorny issue of evidencing student learning. This paper will be of interest to those with an interest or responsibility for evaluating teaching in higher education. The paper offers an important contribution to the international literature at a time when global higher education is faced with questions about teaching, learning and quality. Evaluation, and how to do it well, is timely and important business.     

Critical action learning: a method or strategy for peer supervision of coaching practice

This paper deals with the on-going practice of a critical action learning set who come together to meet their needs for coaching supervision as a group of executive coaches working from, and within, the University sector in South Wales. The reasons for the successes of, and the challenges around, this practice of four years standing have been articulated using an academic backdrop. The use of multi-factorial supervision has been heralded as being able to give a more rounded form of supervision which, despite its challenges, has, in this example, stood the test of time. Further data are required to try to understand if this form of supervision provides better coaching to the executive field in South Wales and beyond, and what can be learnt from the practice of supervision in general.     

Unvarnished Documentation: A Dialogue Between Teacher and Parent in Understanding a Child's “Bad” Behavior

Teachers are often asked to fill out progress reports that include check marks indicating if a child has met certain criteria. While this document offers a superficial glance at knowing a child, it is often the only kind of “assessment” a parent receives. The authors, a daycare teacher and a parent of Rosa, “the mean girl” in the daycare, show how the teacher's daily, unvarnished observations of Rosa and her daycare peers are written and shared publicly in a way that not only helps Rosa's mother gain profound new understandings of her daughter but also helps create a trusting community.     

Regulation of professional sport in a changing broadcasting environment: Australian club and sport broadcaster perspectives

Broadcasting is undergoing massive changes with technology introducing new delivery opportunities and thereby more broadcasters into the equation. Emerging technology in the sport broadcasting environment is complicated by the existing league and broadcasting regulations. League-based regulations impact on income distribution and product distribution, while broadcasting regulations, largely imposed by the elected Federal Government of the day, are enacted to ensure that commercial and public interests are being supported. Introducing a stakeholder interest-based approach, the regulation affecting professional sport clubs and broadcasters was examined in order to identify how they would respond to the regulation imposed on them in the emerging broadcasting environment.In depth interviewing of senior managers of Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL) clubs as well as sport broadcasters was undertaken with the data analysed, and emergent themes recorded. Results indicate that league, broadcaster and government regulations impact on the clubs and broadcasters in a variety of ways, with clubs facing regulation from the league and the broadcasters, while the broadcasters and league face regulation from the government legislation enacted. The results indicate that these organisations need to be aware of the conditions that arise from the existing and emerging broadcast regulatory environment in order to better understand and respond to it.     

International perspectives on student awareness,experiences and perceptions of research: implications for academic developers in implementing research‐based teaching and learning

This paper explores the implications of the effective integration of research, teaching and learning for academic development through the lens of an international multi‐institutional comparison of student perceptions of research and its impact on their learning environment. The study, with a sample of over 500 final‐year undergraduate students across three institutions in the UK and Canada, represents a spectrum of research and teaching intensive universities and is one of the largest exploring undergraduate student perceptions of research in the linking teaching and research literature. The results indicate a complex relationship between student perceptions and experiences of research and the type of institution, as well as the individual, institutional and national context. They also inform the discussion of particular issues that academic developers face and the strategies they use to improve the integration of research and teaching to benefit the undergraduate learning experience in their institution.

Cet article explore les implications, pour le développement pédagogique, de l’intégration effective de la recherche, de l’enseignement et de l’apprentissage à l’aide de la lentille d’une comparaison internationale multi institutionnelle des perceptions étudiantes à l’égard de la recherche et de leur impact sur l’environnement d’apprentissage. L’étude, reposant sur un échantillon de plus de 500 étudiants en dernière année de 1^er cycle, provenant de trois institutions au Royaume‐Uni et au Canada, représente un spectre d’universités centrées sur l’enseignement ou sur la recherche. L’étude constitue une des recherches les plus importantes au sujet des perceptions étudiantes à l’égard de la recherche dans la littérature portant sur le lien entre l’enseignement et la recherche. Les résultats indiquent une relation complexe entre les perceptions et les expériences des étudiants, et le type d’institution, de même qu’avec les contextes individuel, institutionnel et national. Les résultats contribuent aussi à la discussion de questions particulières auxquelles les conseillers pédagogiques font face ainsi que les stratégies que ceux‐ci utilisent en vue d’améliorer l’intégration de la recherche et de l’enseignement de façon à en faire bénéficier l’expérience d’apprentissage au 1^er cycle au sein de leur institution.     

Development of self-belief for employability in higher education: ability,efficacy and control in context

Self-belief is argued here to be a key aspect of employability development that has been largely under conceptualisation in terms of what the construct may mean and how it may be developed through higher education (HE) study. This paper proposes three fundamental beliefs that need to be fostered in order to develop student self-belief: (1) that ability can be improved; (2) that one has the ability to achieve one's goals; and (3) that the environment will allow for goal attainment. Self-belief needs to be developed within the HE curriculum in the context of disciplinary knowledge and skills. The factors that may influence the development of these beliefs within the curriculum will be explored along with implications for practice that may support the development of self-belief and contribute to the production of employable graduates from HE.