A Model of Classroom Coping Strategies

This paper represents an attempt to construct a theoretical model with which to analyse the social context and genesis of classroom coping strategies, thereby linking macro‐ and micro‐factors. I approach this firstly through a critique of A. Hargreaves’ analysis which tends to emphasise macro‐factors and constraints on teacher action. I suggest that this analysis should be balanced and augmented by recognition of more independent and creative action in micro contexts. In the second part of the paper I develop Woods’ work on teacher survival by considering the use of the interactionist concept of ‘self and the phenomenological concept of ‘interests‐at‐hand’ as a means of defining the subjective meaning of ‘coping’, and its implication for classroom processes. I emphasise the importance of teacher biography. Finally a conceptual model which seeks to integrate many macro‐ and micro‐factors which bear on classroom coping strategies is presented.     

Performance-based university funding and the drive towards ‘institutional meritocracy’ in Italy

Many countries, including Italy, are increasingly managing their public higher education systems in accordance with the New Public Management principle that private-sector management practices improve efficiency and quality. A key mechanism has been the introduction of performance-based funding systems designed to reward ‘high-performing’ institutions and incentivise ‘lesser-performing’ institutions to improve. Instead of improving efficiency and quality across the board, however, we argue that performance-based funding systems naturalise longstanding structurally determined inequalities between institutions by recasting national higher education systems as competitive institutional meritocracies in which institutional inequalities are redefined as objective indicators of intrinsic ‘merit’ or worth. We illustrate how performance-based university funding systems naturalise pre-existing inequalities between universities drawing on the case of Italy, a country characterised by longstanding inequalities between its northern and southern regions which demonstrably impact on the apparent ‘performance’ of universities. The concept of institutional meritocracy captures the illusory nature of this performance game.     

Researching learning outcomes: building confidence in our conclusions

The ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme is expected to produce knowledge of high social scientific quality and practical pedagogic value. It faces, in a particularly acute form, the issue of how confidence in its conclusions can be built. This article begins with some conceptual clarification of the notion of a ‘warrant’ for research findings and distinguishes between warrants in social research and warrants for educational policy and practice. It then, in the specific context of research on learning outcomes, proposes an integrated model that recognizes the importance of, and relationships among, criteria associated with research design and empirical work, theoretical coherence, relationship with other research, and user affirmation. It concludes by emphasizing the need for continuing debate about, and development of, the roles and relationships of ‘researchers’ and ‘users’.     

Unpacking Our Academic Suitcases: The Inner Workings of Our Feminist Research Group

In this paper we focus on the lived experiences of multidisciplinary scholars as we navigated and coalesced into a productive, interdisciplinary collaboration. We pull from our foundations in feminist methodology and provide excerpts from personal journals and reflexive group interviews to provide a behind-the-scenes account of the inner workings of a feminist research group. While sharing a common research goal, each member negotiated her personal, conceptual, and epistemological stances as we produced an effective, interdisciplinary pastiche. Throughout this process, we worked to create a non-hierarchical atmosphere, continuously and ethically questioned our methods, and incorporated reflexivity in the research processes. In addition to sharing our past experiences, we note challenges we encountered and offer practical suggestions based on the lessons we learned through this collaboration.     

Academic users’ interactions with ScienceDirect in search tasks: Affective and cognitive behaviors

This article presents part of phase 2 of a research project funded by the NSF-National Science Digital Library Project, which observed how academic users interact with the ScienceDirect information retrieval system for simulated class-related assignments. The ultimate goal of the project is twofold: (1) to find ways to improve science and engineering students’ use of science e-journal systems; (2) to develop methods to measure user interaction behaviors. Process-tracing technique recorded participants’ processes and interaction behaviors that are measurable; think-aloud protocol captured participants’ affective and cognitive verbalizations; pre- and post-search questionnaires solicited demographic information, prior experience with the system, and comments. We explored possible relationships between affective feelings and cognitive behaviors. During search interactions both feelings and thoughts occurred frequently. Positive feelings were more common and were associated more often with thoughts about results. Negative feelings were associated more often with thoughts related to the system, search strategy, and task. Learning styles are also examined as a factor influencing behavior. Engineering graduate students with an assimilating learning style searched longer and paused less than those with a converging learning style. Further exploration of learning styles is suggested.     

Pupils’ Learning,Identity and Social Context: the case of Mary∗

ABSTRACT

This paper provides an analysis of social factors which influence the sense of identity and approach to learning of young children. The analysis is set in the context of a critique of national education policies which fail to appreciate the importance of the engagement of learners in learning processes. However, it focuses at a more detailed level on the social dynamics between children and parents, siblings, peers and teachers and the ways in which these evolve over time and influence identity. A model of key factors and processes is presented which draws on both symbolic interactionism and social constructivism and its use is illustrated through a detailed case study of the learning of one child over a three‐year period.

     

Expansion,differentiation, and the persistence of social class inequalities in British higher education

Conventional political wisdom has it that educational expansion helps to reduce socioeconomic inequalities of access to education by increasing equality of educational opportunity. The counterarguments of Maximally Maintained Inequality (MMI) and Effectively Maintained Inequality (EMI), in contrast, contend that educational inequalities tend to persist despite expansion because those from more advantaged social class backgrounds are better placed to take up the new educational opportunities that expansion affords (MMI) and to secure for themselves qualitatively better kinds of education at any given level (EMI). This paper sets out to test the predictions of the MMI and EMI hypotheses against empirical data for the case of Britain where higher education expanded dramatically during the 1960s and again during the early 1990s. The results show that quantitative inequalities between social classes in the odds of higher education enrolment proved remarkably persistent for much of the period between 1960 and 1995, and began to decline only during the early 1990s, after the enrolment rate for the most advantaged social class had reached saturation point. Throughout this same 35 year period, qualitative inequalities between social classes in the odds of enrolment on more traditional and higher status degree programmes and at ‘Old’ universities remained fundamentally unchanged. In short, social class inequalities in British higher education have been both maximally and effectively maintained.     

National Security Directive declassification

The secret character of National Security Directives (NSDs) impairs Congress's ability to pursue its constitutionally mandated policy making and oversight roles when the president employs these directives to unilaterally make national security policy. In addition, their typically classified status presents numerous problems for scholars who can monitor the president's unilateral actions when he employs executive orders, proclamations, or executive agreements, but cannot do so in the case of policy created by security classified NSDs. Many of these directives remain classified for significant periods, as the results presented in this article will show. Furthermore, classification and declassification policy is unilaterally set by the president and, therefore, may be arbitrarily altered to lengthen the time it takes for NSDs to become available for congressional and public scrutiny. The article concludes that a statutory basis could provide more government openness and enhance Congress's ability to provide effective oversight of national security policy made through NSDs.