Barbara Read

Bio: Barbara Read is an academic researcher from University of Glasgow. The author has contributed to research in topics: Higher education & Writing style. The author has an hindex of 21, co-authored 47 publications receiving 2034 citations. Previous affiliations of Barbara Read include London Metropolitan University & University of Bristol.

Challenging Cultures? Student Conceptions of 'Belonging' and 'Isolation' at a Post-1992 University

Abstract: Academic culture is not uniformly accessed or experienced. Whilst financial constraints have a major impact on student entry and retention, students from 'non-traditional' backgrounds are also disadvantaged by institutional cultures that place them as 'other'. Individuals do not passively receive these cultural discourses, however, but actively engage with them and attempt to challenge them. This article explores such negotiations by looking at students' conceptions of 'belonging' and 'isolation' at a post-1992 university with a statistically high proportion of 'non-traditional' students in terms of class, maturity and ethnicity. It looks at: the extent to which such students can challenge their positioning as 'other' by choosing a university where they feel they can 'belong'; the extent to which institutional academic cultures work to constrain and disrupt such feelings of 'belonging'; the adoption of alternative discourses of the student-lecturer/student-institution relation, and the extent to which suc...

Gender and the Changing Face of Higher Education: A Feminized Future?

Abstract: Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: The feminization thesis Chapter 3: The global context: gender, feminization and higher education Chapter 4: Gender, participation and higher education in the UK Chapter 5: Institutional identities and representations of the university Chapter 6 : Student identities, femininities and masculinities Chapter 7: Academic identities and gendered work Chapter 8: Academic practices: Assessment, speaking and writing Chapter 9: Academic practices: Curriculum, knowledge and skills Chapter 10. Conclusions - re-visioning the academy

Research Policy and Academic Performativity: Compliance, Contestation and Complicity.

Abstract: Research, a major purpose of higher education, has become increasingly important in a context of global economic competitiveness. In this paper, we draw on data from email interviews with academics in Britain to explore responses to current research policy trends. Although the majority of academics expressed opposition to current policy developments, most were nevertheless complying with research imperatives. Informed by a Foucauldian conceptualisation of audit, feminist research on gendered performativity, and sociological and psycho-social theoretical resources on the affective, we discuss compliance, contestation and complicity in relation both to the data and to our own location as academics in this field.

The simultaneous production of educational achievement and popularity: how do some pupils accomplish it?

Abstract: In spite of research showing that pupils—particularly boys—tend to experience tension between high academic achievement and popularity with peers at school, some pupils continue to maintain simultaneous production of both. This article focuses on a sample of 12–13 year‐old pupils, identified as high achieving and popular, to examine classroom subjectivities, with attention to their practices around gender and educational achievement. Data are drawn from a qualitative study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, which involved observation of classes at nine different co‐educational state schools in England, and interviews with 71 high‐achieving pupils, including 22 that were identified as high achieving and popular. The study findings belie the notion that high‐achieving pupils necessarily jeopardise their social standing with classmates. However, it also demonstrates the importance of embodiment and even essential attributes in productions of subjectivity that successfully ‘balance’ popularit...

Does the gender of the teacher really matter? Seven‐ to eight‐year‐olds’ accounts of their interactions with their teachers

Abstract: In recent years, policy‐makers in England, Australia and other countries have called for measures to increase male recruitment to the teaching profession, particularly to the primary sector. This policy of targeted recruitment is predicated upon a number of unexamined assumptions about the benefits of matching teachers and pupils by gender. For example, it is held that the dearth of male ‘role models’ in schools continues to have an adverse effect on boys’ academic motivation and engagement. Utilizing data from interviews with more than 300 7‐ to 8‐year‐olds attending primary schools in the north‐east and south‐east of England, the paper sets out to scrutinize these claims. The findings revealed that the gender of teachers had little apparent effect on the academic motivation and engagement of either boys or girls. For the majority of the children, the gender of the teacher was largely immaterial. They valued teachers, whether men or women, who were consistent and even‐handed and supportive of them as lea...

Research methods in the social sciences

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