The aim of the research is to identify implications for the practice of Politics academics from the experience their students have of expressing their political views. This exploratory study is set within the wider debate of power and performativity in the HE classroom. It is situated in a study of practice and perceptions in one Department at the University of Chester and conducted through a review of the literature and empirical qualitative research with both Politics students and Politics academics. The research found that while Politics students wish to express their political views, these may not be their actual political views. Politics students indicate that the Politics academic can affect their expression of political views. They prefer academics who express their own political views and they do not like politically neutral academics. They may wish to know an academic’s political views in order to gain advantage for themselves. Knowing an academic’s political views enables the student to avoid expressing political views which some Politics academics find offensive. The research highlights the part played by power and performativity in the expressing of the Politics student’s political views and identifies some of the complexities arising from this. The practice outcomes provide guidance on how Politics academics can approach the issue of the Politics student’s expression of political views. This single case study’s value lies in these contributions to wider practice. Research is identified which will explore the findings further.

No description available.

This thesis explores the practices and positionings of two groupings of professionals in UK higher education, ‘educational developers’ and ‘learning technologists’. It investigates the emergence of the groupings, and their professional paths and respective approaches to supporting teaching and learning. It also explores the use of information and communication technology within what is seen as a changing university context. These two ‘new’ professional groupings are most associated with a shift of focus in universities from teaching towards learning, heightened emphasis on the quality of teaching and learning, the increased impact of learning technologies on practice, organisational transformation, and increased numbers of students attending universities, i.e. massification of higher education world-wide. Thus, equivalent exemplars and variations can also be found throughout Europe and in other international settings. The social structure and practices that govern the two groupings have been analysed by means of a wide range of theories, concepts and methods which include Bourdieu’s (1988) concepts of habitus, field, position and capital, Boyer’s (1990) ideas about new scholarship, Palmer’s (1998) conceptualisation of the university teacher and Clark’s (2003) identification of the entrepreneurial university. The work of others, in particular Schön (1967) and Ball (2003), also provides an insight into the powerful relationship between technology, society, education and change. Thus, the thesis explores fields and sub-fields, as social arenas in which capital is accumulated and where struggles for power and resources take place. The study suggests that both groups occupy a highly politicised position, are affected by the shifting value of social, cultural and economic capital in the constantly changing higher education, are subject to struggle regarding ‘position’ and agency and are susceptible to the demands of new power regimes and technological solutions. It suggests that educational development is a scholarly field of study but has also become a technology responsible for translating institutional policy into practice, while learning technologists have been more politically successful and have had a relatively greater impact on academic practice in university settings. Whilst the relationship and division of work between educational developers and learning technologists has been hitherto little understood this study shows the similarities and differences, and boundaries and overlaps in the knowledge, practices, positions, dispositions and allegiances of the two groupings. An argument of the thesis is for a more cohesive approach to educational development in higher education which embraces learning technologies and higher education policy. Furthermore, this thesis suggests that the balance of power and the value placed on social, cultural and economic capital in the knowledge economy of higher education is shifting; from teaching and learning towards change and ‘innovation’ underpinned by new technologies, business imperatives and new forms of management. This shift in the UK has been reinforced by successive periods of reform and restructuring of the university, where both ‘new’ and ‘old’ professionals are subject to social and political pressures initiated by new forms of central governance and a growing bureaucracy of change. A danger for higher education is that the balance is pulled more towards policy technologies and bureaucracy and away from the professional judgement of university academics/teachers.

Das Web 2.0 hat die Kommunikation verändert. Dies gilt zum einen für die Kommunikation im Alltag, für die inzwischen knapp ein Drittel aller Internetnutzer in Deutschland regelmäßig auf Web 2.0-Angebote zurück greifen (Busemann & Gscheidle, 2010). Dies gilt aber auch für die Kommunikation im Hochschulkontext, wo das Web 2.0 von Seiten der Studierenden wie der Hochschulen in den Bereichen Lehre, Forschung und Verwaltung und Dienstleistungen genutzt wird (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz, 2010).

This thesis explores the relatively under-researched experiences of module design of academics employed within one UK university. In all, 96 people responded to an initial e-questionnaire survey, and 23 of these participated in follow-up semi-structured interviews. The qualitative data collected from both sources is the main focus of discussion. The thesis contextualises the research by presenting a brief description of the university of study and a sense of the social and political context of higher education in the few years preceding the onset of the project. Following this, there is a review of the existing literature around module and curriculum design. A separate chapter outlines the mixed methods employed to collect the data and the form of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) used to theme the qualitative data provided by the survey and interviews. The findings supported previous studies, but there was some contradictory data concerning assessment design, the value of the institutional approval procedures, and the usefulness of involving students in the design process. This study found that, as a result of the effect of institutional processes and documents on design, the consequence of changing student profiles (particularly around assessment), and the obligation staff feel to their students (despite their expressed lack of available time and resources), module design (and redesign) is more situation-informed than evidence-informed. It concludes that module designers employ a realistic and pragmatic approach to the process, even when their views, attitudes, and consciences around the rights and wrongs of the design process are sometimes questioned.

Submitted by TAISA SCARPIN GUAZI null (taisa_guazi@hotmail.com) on 2017-08-15T20:50:00Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação Taísa.pdf: 1306309 bytes, checksum: 4293392198ac4c50c1741810879ff2d1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Monique Sasaki (sayumi_sasaki@hotmail.com) on 2017-08-22T17:58:46Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 guazi_ts_me_bauru.pdf: 1306309 bytes, checksum: 4293392198ac4c50c1741810879ff2d1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-22T17:58:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 guazi_ts_me_bauru.pdf: 1306309 bytes, checksum: 4293392198ac4c50c1741810879ff2d1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-07-28 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Em estudo anterior, Guazi e Laurenti identificaram a presença de reforçamento natural na manutenção do comportamento acadêmico de pesquisadores seniores. Contudo, as atuais contingências acadêmicas destoam, em muitos aspectos, das contingências às quais os pesquisadores seniores estavam expostos no início de suas carreiras. As atuais contingências acadêmicas estão permeadas, por exemplo, pelos fenômenos (relativamente recentes) do produtivismo acadêmico e da competitividade entre pesquisadores. Nesse sentido, os professores iniciantes, que ingressaram contemporaneamente na academia, parecem constituir uma geração de pesquisadores cujo perfil é diferente. Considerando esses aspectos, esta pesquisa objetivou identificar as diferenças e similaridades existentes entre as variáveis que controlam o comportamento acadêmico de professores seniores e iniciantes. Participaram desta pesquisa, de natureza exploratória, seis professores bolsistas de produtividade do CNPq que atuam nas áreas de Psicologia, Genética e Física – sendo selecionado, de cada área, um pesquisador sênior e um pesquisador iniciante. Os dados, coletados por meio de entrevistas, foram analisados pelo método de interpretação analítico-comportamental e organizados de modo a permitir a análise, em separado, das contingências originárias e mantenedoras do comportamento acadêmico dos participantes. As três participantes seniores deste estudo são mulheres brancas, que concluíram o doutorado na década de 1960 (os dados coletados permitiram considerar a variável gênero na análise do comportamento acadêmico das participantes seniores), e os participantes iniciantes, são três homens brancos, que se doutoraram entre 2009 e 2012. As contingências responsáveis por instalar o comportamento acadêmico das participantes seniores foram, preponderantemente, contingências de reforçamento positivo, as quais expuseram as entrevistadas à formação liberal. O padrão comportamental acadêmico dos participantes iniciantes, por outro lado, parece ter sido instalado por meio do emprego de regras. Na contemporaneidade, o comportamento acadêmico das participantes seniores parece ser mantido por meio de reforçamento positivo natural. Em contrapartida, as contingências responsáveis por manter o comportamento acadêmico dos participantes iniciantes, as quais estão relacionadas às atuais exigências de produtividade científica, parecem distanciar o comportamento acadêmico dos entrevistados das suas consequências naturais. As principais diferenças encontradas entre as contingências originárias e mantenedoras do comportamento acadêmico dos participantes seniores e iniciantes parecem aludir às diferentes contingências a que os entrevistados foram expostos ao longo da formação básica e superior, e às mudanças pelas quais a educação e ciência brasileira passaram nas últimas décadas. Este estudo contribuiu para a compreensão das práticas científicas contemporâneas, bem como permitiu elucidar as contribuições da análise do comportamento para esta temática. A interpretação dos dados coletados sugere a necessidade de que mais pesquisas, que versam sobre as atuais contingências institucionais acadêmicas, sejam feitas. / In previous study, Guazi and Laurenti identified the presence of natural reinforcement in maintaining the academic behavior of senior researchers. However, current academic contingencies are in many ways at odds with the contingencies to which senior researchers were exposed early in their careers. The current academic contingencies are permeated, for example, by the (relatively recent) phenomena of academic productivism and competitiveness among researchers. In this sense, the beginner professors, who entered the academy contemporaneously, seem to constitute a generation of researchers whose profile is different. Taking these matters into consideration, this research aimed to identify the differences and similarities between the variables that control the academic behavior of senior and beginner professors. Participated in this exploratory research, six academic professors with productiveness scholarships granted by the CNPq who work in the fields of Psychology, Genetics and Physics - a senior researcher and a beginner researcher were selected from each area. The data, collected through interviews were analyzed by the Behavior Analysis interpretation method and organized to allow the analysis, separately, of the contingencies that originated and maintained the participants' academic behavior. The three senior participants in this study were white women, who completed their doctorate in the 1960s (the data collected allowed the gender variable to be considered in the analysis of the academic behavior of senior participants), and the beginner participants were three white men, who completed their doctorate between 2009 and 2012. The contingencies responsible for installing the academic behavior of the senior participants were, predominantly, contingencies of positive reinforcement, which exposed the interviewees to the liberal formation. The academic behavioral pattern of beginner participants, on the other hand, seems to have been installed through the use of rules. Currently, the academic behavior of senior participants seems to be maintained through natural positive reinforcement. On the other hand, the contingencies responsible for maintaining the academic behavior of the beginner participants, which are related to the current demands of scientific productivity, seem to distance the academic behavior of the interviewees from their natural consequences. The main differences found between the contingencies that originated and maintained the academic behavior of the senior and beginner participants seem to allude to the different contingencies to which the interviewees were exposed during basic and higher education, and the changes that Brazilian education and science have undergone in recent years decades. This study contributed to the understanding of the contemporary scientific practices, as well as allowed to elucidate the contributions of the analysis of the behavior to this theme. The interpretation of the data collected suggests the need for more studies on current academic institutional contingencies. / FAPESP: 2015/09081-9

Das Web 2.0 hat die Kommunikation verändert. Dies gilt zum einen für die Kommunikation im Alltag, für die inzwischen knapp ein Drittel aller Internetnutzer in Deutschland regelmäßig auf Web 2.0-Angebote zurück greifen (Busemann & Gscheidle, 2010). Dies gilt aber auch für die Kommunikation im Hochschulkontext, wo das Web 2.0 von Seiten der Studierenden wie der Hochschulen in den Bereichen Lehre, Forschung und Verwaltung und Dienstleistungen genutzt wird (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz, 2010).

This thesis explores the relatively under-researched experiences of module design of academics employed within one UK university. In all, 96 people responded to an initial e-questionnaire survey, and 23 of these participated in follow-up semi-structured interviews. The qualitative data collected from both sources is the main focus of discussion. The thesis contextualises the research by presenting a brief description of the university of study and a sense of the social and political context of higher education in the few years preceding the onset of the project. Following this, there is a review of the existing literature around module and curriculum design. A separate chapter outlines the mixed methods employed to collect the data and the form of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) used to theme the qualitative data provided by the survey and interviews. The findings supported previous studies, but there was some contradictory data concerning assessment design, the value of the institutional approval procedures, and the usefulness of involving students in the design process. This study found that, as a result of the effect of institutional processes and documents on design, the consequence of changing student profiles (particularly around assessment), and the obligation staff feel to their students (despite their expressed lack of available time and resources), module design (and redesign) is more situation-informed than evidence-informed. It concludes that module designers employ a realistic and pragmatic approach to the process, even when their views, attitudes, and consciences around the rights and wrongs of the design process are sometimes questioned. / The full text was made available at the end of the embargo, 26th Oct 2020

This thesis traces the inception and evolution of a combined collaborative action research project and living theory action research project. Six academic staff members attempted to improve our practice of generating locally relevant research in a university psychology clinic. This process impacted not only on the lives of the participants, but facilitated the enactment of the three tasks of universities and so influenced the lives of the student and residential communities to whom we had a responsibility. This thesis explores two research questions that formed the first part of the study, namely: “How can we improve the functioning of Itsoseng Psychology Clinic?” and “How can we increase our research output?” The second part of the study was a self-study action research project in which I examined my attempts to improve my academic practice by inquiring into my practice of facilitating the collaborative action research project as a peer support initiative. In the form of my living theory, this thesis therefore also explored my answers to the questions: “How can I facilitate a peer support research initiative?” and “How can I improve my academic practice through facilitating such an initiative?” I take a macro-level view of the relationship between a university and surrounding communities and discuss within the South African context three discernable mandates or tasks that universities fulfil: teaching, research and community engagement. I discuss the relevance of this study to psychology and specifically university psychology clinics as potential interface between the university and the surrounding community when enacting community engagement as the third academic task. I also discuss the implications of this study to action research methodology and the concept of transformation in emancipatory research. The main argument of my living theory of my academic practice is that the formation and nurturing of a regular, supportive and critical audience in the form of peer support research meetings contributed to the transformation of resources into assets when we worked towards improving the service delivery and local relevance of a university psychology clinic. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Psychology / unrestricted

No description available.