Showing papers in "Education, Knowledge and Economy in 2010"
TL;DR: The authors argue that employability must be seen as an active social process, and that this process is mediated significantly by the way graduates position themselves, and are positioned, within a social context.
Abstract: This article presents an alternative approach to the dominant analysis of graduate employability, through a consideration of the dynamic and socially mediated interaction that graduates have with labour market. This interaction is largely constitutive of their dispositions and identities as graduates, and entails a dynamic interplay between graduates' agency and the wider structural context of the labour market. Informed by structuration theory, this perspective offers a richer, more socially nuanced account into employability than that presented by dominant policy-based approaches, namely the human capital and ‘skills’ agenda. Such approaches present a largely de-contextualised account of employability and a somewhat simplistic notion of the link between education and the labour market more generally. In this article, we argue that employability must be seen as an active social process, and that this process is mediated significantly by the way graduates position themselves, and are positioned, within a ...
91 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors report on an innovative strategy for auditing university students' anxieties across the study cycle and discuss the shortcomings of traditional feedback mechanisms and identify the opportunities that anxiety auditing presents in terms of providing scope for students to discuss and to more directly influence improvement in course delivery, learning and in creating real opportunities for dealing with some of the more enduring anxieties they experience.
Abstract: This article reports on an innovative strategy for auditing university students' anxieties across the study cycle. It discusses the shortcomings of traditional feedback mechanisms and identifies the opportunities that anxiety auditing presents in terms of providing scope for students to discuss and to more directly influence improvement in course delivery, learning and in creating real opportunities for dealing with some of the more enduring anxieties they experience. Students' anxieties are tracked three times across the study cycle through a standard questionnaire with follow up discussion between students as a group and between students and staff. The research found that despite the reduction of anxiety across the majority of factors over the academic year, three areas of student experience appeared to be associated with increasing student anxiety as the year progresses. The three areas were: the anxiety about students' ability to make the transition from undergraduate learning to post graduate learnin...
13 citations
TL;DR: Further education (FE) colleges in England were statutorily "cut free" from local education authority (LEA) control in 1992, and debates about the post-1992 changes were immanent in economic and social forces that had coalesced during 1970s.
Abstract: Further education (FE) colleges in England were statutorily ‘cut free’ from local education authority (LEA) control in 1992. This article, however, primarily considers changes within FE in the 30 years before this ‘incorporation’ of FE colleges, as well as debates that followed. It argues that the post-1992 changes were immanent in economic and social forces that had coalesced during the 1970s. FE and LEA relations altered decisively during the 1960s with the LEA grip on colleges slipping, and most principals were powerful figures by the end of that decade with colleges generally having developed significant administrative systems. During the 1980s performance indicators began to drive the educational process as quality assurance approaches derived from industry took grip. These were accompanied by a marketing approach that primed the colleges for competition. There was, by the mid-1980s, an established culture of managerialism and performativity that permeated FE. The post-incorporation years would witne...
5 citations
TL;DR: Quality management theory pervades education policy across Europe and its prevalence is examined through analysis of policy texts drawn from 16 different state systems in Europe, as well as from the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Quality management theory pervades education policy across Europe. In this article its prevalence is examined through analysis of policy texts drawn from 16 different state systems in Europe, as well as from the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The article argues that Quality discourse has served to reshape educational provision in ways borrowed from the private sector and within a predominantly market paradigm. In a parallel development, economic purposes have become the primary goal of European state education systems and Quality discourse is the means by which these economic ends are realised. The article argues that Quality has not simply become a dominant managerial approach but that Quality discourse is now so embedded within educational discourse that its concepts and language are the ways by which education policy frames and communicates its concerns. This phenomenon has served to narrow the ends of education and to reconfigure the educational e...
5 citations
TL;DR: In a previous piece of research as mentioned in this paper, the authors explored the idea of informal learning environments as a factor that influenced inclusive education and explored this theme in greater depth in this article.
Abstract: The idea of inclusive education has featured very highly in the educational priorities of many educational systems. However, the same educational systems are often criticised because of the failings of their teachers to respond to inclusive environments of learning, where all children, despite their different abilities, receive equal opportunities in teaching and learning. In one of our previous pieces of research the theme of informal learning environments arose as a factor that influenced inclusive education. Based on this finding, we go further and explore this theme in greater depth in this article. Data collected via qualitative research methods from three primary schools in Cyprus indicate that teaching in informal learning environments helps improve inclusive education. Further, it became apparent that certain factors helped in the successful teaching in informal learning environments. These factors were related to teachers' beliefs about effective teaching and the ways in which these beliefs found...
3 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present research that draws attention to the intensification of co-branding within elite US graduate colleges of business and education and present a robust set of descriptive data collected and analyzed.
Abstract: This article presents research that draws attention to the intensification of co-branding within elite US graduate colleges of business and education. A robust set of descriptive data collected and...
2 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine a group of high school students' perceptions of their physics teachers and determine whether students focus more on specific characteristics of the teacher and if they perceive certain characteristics more important than others.
Abstract: This paper reports findings of a research study that aimed to examine a group of high school students' perceptions of their physics teachers. A secondary goal of the research was to determine whether students focus more on the specific characteristics of the teacher and if they perceive certain characteristics more important than others. The study was conducted with questionnaires administered to 608 high school students in five schools that were selected in two stages, the first stage through purposive sampling and the second through stratified random sampling. Analysis of the data revealed five main models of teacher effectiveness as perceived by the students: (a) the all-or-nothing model, (b) the model of the ‘unforgivable’ characteristics, (c) the model of the ‘forgivable’ characteristics, (d) the model of the minimal positive teacher behaviour and (e) the model of the minimal negative teacher behaviour. These models indicate that students perceive certain teacher characteristics as more important tha...
2 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine two policies in an attempt to measure their impact and ascertain any potential trajectory from government-level agenda to borough-level contextualisation, inspired by content analysis, but also taking into account the implementation of the documents, they draw upon the Every Child Matters green paper as a government initiative and seek to establish the progression route taken by one particular borough (Knowsley).
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to examine two policies in an attempt to measure their impact and ascertain any potential trajectory from government-level agenda to borough-level contextualisation. Inspired by content analysis, but also taking into account the implementation of the documents, this study draws upon the Every Child Matters green paper (2003) as a government initiative and seeks to establish the progression route taken by one particular borough (Knowsley). Knowsley, a borough with high unemployment figures for school leavers, aims to address its problematic areas through policy implementation and strongly acknowledges the significance of Every Child Matters. The two policies looked at here are the government green paper Every Child Matters (2003) and Knowsley's Children and Young People's Strategic Plan 2007–2010 (2007). Both policies concern themselves with progression routes for young people and problematic areas are identified at an early age.