Affiliation policy rhetoric and reality in the Ghanaian higher education context

The present affiliation policy regime of Ghana’s higher education system has existed for more than two decades. However, empirical studies to examine the policy rhetoric and reality with regard to building quality assurance capacity in mentored institutions appear non-existent. This paper is based on an illustrative qualitative case study undertaken to examine the achievements and challenges of implementing the policy to build internal quality assurance capacities in mentored institutions. The study was guided by Institutional Theory using 12 key informant in-depth interviews and document reviews as data collection sources. The findings indicate a minimal achievement of the policy intent on internal quality assurance capacity building due to key implementation challenges such as a tripartite relationship structure; increasing cost on mentored institutions and increasing workload on mentor institutions. The study concludes that the gap between the policy rhetoric and reality in the studied mentored institutions appears undesirable and requires stakeholders’ attention.     

Training in the public sector in a period of austerity: the case of the UK

This article examines what has happened to training in public sector organisations in the UK in a period of austerity. It draws on individual-level data collected over the period 2000–2012 and establishment-level data collected from employer surveys carried out between 2005 and 2012. To understand these data further, 75 qualitative interviews with public sector employers were carried out between mid-2010 and early 2012. This article finds that while training incidence remained relatively high in the public sector, establishment-level control over planning and funding fell faster than in the private sector. Nevertheless, the public sector ethos of serving the community along with the tradition of the public sector as a ‘good employer’ meant that the training system within public sector organisations remained largely intact, even when the availability or frequency of some courses was reduced. The result was that limited training funds were made to go further by reducing the frequency of courses, prioritising courses immediately relevant to front-line services, tightening the application of eligibility criteria among potential trainees and economising on training delivery – summed up by one respondent as ‘training smarter’.     

The problem of gender categorisation: addressing dilemmas past and present in gender and education research

Developments in the field of gender theory as applied to education since the 1970s are briefly reviewed in order to highlight key challenges and debates around gender categorisation and identification in gender and education. We argue that conundrums of categorisation have haunted, and continue to haunt, the field of gender theory, and empirical applications (such as the case of education) in particular. We explain how we have attempted to address some of the conundrums arising in our own theoretical work, and analyse remaining challenges that we feel the field of education needs to address in order to advance theoretically. Identifying two key tensions underpinning this empirical dilemma of gender categorisation – the tension between agency and determinism in gender identification, and that between gender deconstruction and gender analysis – we seek to weave a path through some of these complex debates, and to indicate ways in which they may be addressed in future work. We argue that in order to avoid essentialism and reification of gender distinction, we need to apply a ‘three-fold’ analysis that incorporates three different elements in our categorisation of gender: spectator perspective; respondent perspective and social context.     

An Experimental Study of Scheduling and Duration of "Tier 2" First-Grade Reading Intervention

This study compared the effects on reading outcomes of delivering supplemental, small-group intervention to first-grade students at risk for reading difficulties randomly assigned to one of three different treatment schedules: extended (4 sessions per week, 16 weeks; n = 66), concentrated (4 sessions per week, 8 weeks; n = 64), or distributed (2 sessions per week, 16 weeks; n = 62) schedules. All at-risk readers, identified through screening followed by 8 weeks of oral reading fluency (ORF) progress monitoring, received the same Tier 2 reading intervention in groups of 2 to 4 beginning in January of Grade 1. Group means were higher in word reading and ORF at the final time point relative to pretest; however, the groups did not differ significantly on any reading outcome or on rates of adequate intervention response. Of potential covariates, site, age, free lunch status, program coverage rate, and tutor were significantly related to student outcomes; however, the addition of these variables in multivariate models did not substantially change results. Rates of adequate intervention response were lower than have been reported for some first-grade interventions of longer duration.