Move over Rover! An essay/assay of the field of educational management in the UK

UK educational administration scholars have undertaken a survey to redefine the field of knowledge in educational management and/or administration. In responding to the resulting corpus of work, I argue that that this is an exercise in ‘turf talk’. I draw on theorizations of the socio-spatialities of fields of knowledge to consider educational management and/or administration and its border scuffles with policy sociology and the exclusion of debates about knowledge and truth claims that characterize the ‘new humanities’. I suggest that the lack of regard accorded the situated empirical and practical knowledges of practitioners, and the invisibility in the analyses of the active role of head teacher professional associations in the current context, places the academy in an adversarial position vis-á-vis practitioners. As government moves to make research ‘more useful’, and positions academics as training providers and management consultants for head teachers, I propose that educational management and/or administration scholars must move over to share ground and dialogue with the emerging head teacher profession.     

Parents,professionals and social welfare models: the implementation of the Education (Scotland) Act 1981

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the effect of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1981, in terms of one of its aims, that is, to increase parental control over assessment, recording and placement of children with special educational needs. Kirp (1982) has argued that British provision for children with special educational needs reflects a social welfare model based on a belief in professional benevolence and expertise. This is in contrast with the United States, where a human rights model of social welfare prevails. Kirp's account is critically examined through an analysis of the legislation and guidance literature, and also data gathered from interviews with professionals and parents.

It is concluded that data do exist to support Kirp's argument. The legislation did not radically increase parents’ rights, and professionals themselves retained control through failing to provide parents with adequate information, often excluding them from multi‐disciplinary meetings and omitting to foster the involvement of voluntary organisations and Named Persons.     

Troubling reflexivity: the identity flows of teachers becoming mothers

This paper explores the transition to first‐time motherhood as experienced by a small sub‐sample of women engaged in the professional care of young children. In the context of a wider study of motherhood in the UK, their experience of combining work with new motherhood was distinctive. Women who professionally care for young children present a counter‐narrative to the view that teaching and motherhood can be blended. Negotiating the boundaries between work and motherhood produced a troubling reflexivity in which difficult feelings emerged and collided. Working in urban education involves emotionally intense forms of attachment that are disrupted by pregnancy. Becoming a mother prompts a renegotiation of professional and personal boundaries, leading women to pursue mothering as a separate enterprise, marked by individual solutions to care and career. Separating themselves from their working environment, women simultaneously isolate themselves from their middle‐class counterparts who pay for childcare and return to work.     

Electronic detection of dielectrophoretic forces exerted on particles flowing over interdigitated electrodes

Dielectric particles flowing through a microfluidic channel over a set of coplanar electrodes can be simultaneously capacitively detected and dielectrophoretically (DEP) actuated when the high (1.45 GHz) and low (100 kHz–20 MHz) frequency electromagnetic fields are concurrently applied through the same set of electrodes. Assuming a simple model in which the only forces acting upon the particles are apparent gravity, hydrodynamic lift, DEP force, and fluid drag, actuated particle trajectories can be obtained as numerical solutions of the equations of motion. Numerically calculated changes of particle elevations resulting from the actuation simulated in this way agree with the corresponding elevation changes estimated from the electronic signatures generated by the experimentally actuated particles. This verifies the model and confirms the correlation between the DEP force and the electronic signature profile. It follows that the electronic signatures can be used to quantify the actuation that the dielectric particle experiences as it traverses the electrode region. Using this principle, particles with different dielectric properties can be effectively identified based exclusively on their signature profile. This approach was used to differentiate viable from non-viable yeast cells (Saccharomyces cerevisiae).     

Reliability and validity of the Zebris FDM-THQ instrumented treadmill during running trials

Little is known about the reliability, validity and smallest detectable differences of selected kinetic and temporal variables recorded by the Zebris FDM-THQ instrumented treadmill especially during running. Twenty male participants (age = 31.9 years (±5.6), height = 1.81 m (±0.08), mass = 80.2 kg (±9.5), body mass index = 24.53 kg/m² (±2.53)) walked (5 km/h) and ran (10 and 15 km/h) on an instrumented treadmill, wearing running shoes fitted with Pedar-X insoles. A test-double retest protocol was conducted over two consecutive days. Maximal vertical force (F_max), contact time (CT) and flight time (FT) data from 10 consecutive steps were collected. Within- and between-day reliability, smallest detectable differences (SDD) and validity (95% limits of agreement (LOA)) were calculated. ICC values for the Zebris for Fmax were acceptable (ICC ≥ 0.7) while CT and FT reliability indices were predominantly good (ICC ≥ 0.8) to excellent (ICC ≥ 0.9). The Zebris significantly underestimated Fmax when compared with the Pedar-X. The 95% LOA increased with speed. SDD ranged between 96 N and 169 N for Fmax, 0.017s and 0.055s for CT and 0.021s and 0.026s for FT. In conclusion, Zebris reliability was acceptable to excellent for the variables examined, but inferior in comparison with Pedar-X. With increased running speeds, a bias effect (underestimation) existed for the Zebris compared with Pedar-X.