New Public Management in an age of austerity: knowledge and experience in further education

This article originates in a piece of educational research into the experiences of further education (FE) student teachers in the West Midlands region of England. This cohort of students experienced significant upheaval in their college workplaces and placements during the 2010/2011 academic year. Pressures on FE funding were exacerbated by a Comprehensive Spending Review by the coalition government in late 2010 – prompted by the on-going global economic crisis. Some of the repercussions of these funding cuts for staff and students in the sector are discussed in this article, as perceived by this cohort of student teachers working in a range of FE providers across the West Midlands. Many of these repercussions can broadly be seen as an extension of existing managerialist practices, as the justification for an increasing squeeze on local resource allocation continues to be a wider appeal to global market ‘realities’. But we theorise that new public management (NPM) plays an important role in a reductive kind of knowledge production for policy-makers which fuels and legitimises on-going policy intervention, and we see this as an important shaping force in the emerging professional identity of these new teachers.     

American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century

Modern Literature for Oral Interpretation: a practice book for Vocal Expression. 418 pp. Gertrude; E. Johnson. The Century Co., 1920.

Public Speaking. By Clarence Stratton, Ph.D. New York, 1920. Henry Holt and Company. Pp. 342. $1.48.

A Manual of Debate and Oral Discussion. By James Milton O'Neill. Published by the Century Company. 303 pages.

Sources of Effectiveness in Public Speaking. Psychological Principles Practically Used in Developing Ability to Speak. By C. Edmund Neil, Professor of Public Speaking in Boston University and Newton Theological Institution. Hinds, Hayden &; Eldredge, Inc., 1920; 590 pages.

University Debaters’ Annual. Phelps, 1919–1920. The H. W. Wilson Co., New York.     

Universities,medical education and women: Birmingham in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

Examining the evolution of medical education for women in a major city, this paper details the combination of private and public initiative, and the role of nonconformist denominational networks in Birmingham, one of the largest industrial and commercial centres of the British Empire. From the 1880s women gradually gained access to both higher education and professional training in medicine. This was necessarily underpinned by the growth of school science for girls. In this, the role of the new endowed and proprietary schools for girls was very significant in Birmingham but that of the School Board and LEA was also important, not least in demonstrating class and gendered attitudes in education and medicine. In theory from the 1880s and 1890s it was possible even for girls from elementary schools to proceed by way of scholarship both to secondary school and to university. Such educational opportunities expanded in early twentieth-century Birmingham yet always remained slimmer for girls. From 1900 the new university ostensibly gave equal rights to women in medical education as in all other studies. The university itself had grown out of local interests and patronage and saw itself as serving the local community. Birmingham’s liberal leaders believed in scientific education and social reform, including greater equality between the sexes, although contemporary cultural and social currents could militate against such high aspirations. Nevertheless, the university did take a lead in opening up medicine to women, allowing participation in professional life, for some at the highest levels, and serving the local city and regional community.     

Social Realism and the problem of the problem of knowledge in the sociology of education

This paper examines from a Social Realist perspective a set of issues in the sociology of education regarding the problem of knowledge. It focuses upon the issue of relativism associated with the constructionist approach that since the time of the New Sociology of Education in the 1970s has constituted in different forms the dominant perspective in the field. It identifies features shared between constructionism and the ‘positivist’ approach with which it contrasts itself. It is argued that these two positions have more in common than is often recognized and draws upon Critical Realism as an alternative to both. Social Realism explores the sociological implications of Critical Realism for education.     

Enigmas in School Science: students’ conceptions for scientifically associated words

Master's students were involved in the design, and later the administration, of a questionnaire for 500 junior secondary students in Botswana and Lesotho, to buildup a picture of student perceptions of science and technology. Responses to mainly open‐ended questions were categorised according to key phrases mentioned by the students. There was some confusion over the differences between science and technology, but they were overwhelmingly perceived as subjects appropriate to both sexes. Science and technology were seen in broad socio‐economic terms, enabling people to cope in the modern world, gain employment in both the formal and informal sectors, and contribute towards national development. Although science and technology were judged to have enhanced the quality of life, they had introduced conflicts into traditional beliefs and cultures, in part as a result of increasing female emancipation. The attitudes of the students towards the two subjects, and to the impact they have had on everyday life, were congruent with the philosophical aims of the science and technology syllabuses of both countries and with global initiatives such as Project 2000 +.     

Goldilocks Meets Gertrude Stein: Poetry Explication for the Verse-Averse

Literature students often fear poetry explication, supposing it is beyond their intellectual reach. As with many preconceptions that surface in the classroom, this is an impression I find helpful to tackle forthrightly. Years of teaching literature have convinced me that even English majors can become timid in the face of assignments calling for poetry explication. Given this common response, I have experimented with many methods for acclimating students to poetry as a form. The activity described here has proven helpful in this regard.