Equality and Resistance in Higher Education

ABSTRACT

This paper is an account of how higher education can become a site of resistance in the pursuit of equality while also identifying the dangers and limitations involved in this process. The development of a new intellectual perspective, namely Equality Studies, is examined and its potential for the understanding of egalitarian practice is explored. The paper examines the reasons why sociology, in particular critical and neo‐Marxist sociology, became inadequate as a way of understanding inequality and exploring egalitarian goals. It explores the limitations of the work of equality empiricists which has failed to move outside the liberal paradigm, and of critical theory and neo‐Marxism which has not gone beyond critique to identify mechanisms and institutions to develop a new egalitarian order. Prom the author's perspective, the seeming inability of sociology to marry empirical and normative discourses was a key factor in contributing to the development of Equality Studies. The latter part of the paper outlines some of the central issues in Equality Studies and the positive influences on its development, both nationally and internationally. It argues for a new and more politically involved role for radical academics while recognising the very real constraints within which they now work.     

FACULTY ATTITUDES TOWARD THE MIXED‐AGE COLLEGE CLASSROOM

With the number of nontraditional students on college campuses continuing to increase, college educators need to become aware of issues regarding the mixed‐age classroom. Part of this awareness should be an understanding of how faculty perceive different‐aged students and their mixed‐age classroom experiences. Through telephone interviews with approximately 100 faculty, we investigate attitudes about the professor‐student relationship, views toward teaching in a mixed‐age classroom, and beliefs about both older and younger students.     

Practical work in schools: An examination of teachers' stated aims and the influence of practical work according to students

In a state-wide questionnaire survey dealing with practical work in school science, science teachers (N = 257) in Tasmanian schools and matriculation colleges were required to respond to a validated list of 10 aims for practical work in order to establish a relative order of importance of aims according to practicing teachers. The aims were then rewritten as possible influences (as perceived by students) and the relative order of importance of influences established for the students (N = 724). The orientation of teachers and students towards the set of aims/influences of practical work were first examined separately and then compared. Teacher's aims are associated with a clear rank ordering of importance which shows little change over the whole grade range. The implications of this educational emphasis is discussed. It is argued that teachers aims are in some respects misguided or misjudged and when viewed against student perceptions there are some major mismatches. The instrument would appear to be a simple and useful way of evaluating the orientation of teachers and students towards the role of practical work in schools and raises many issues about the quality of the enterprise.