Managing the teaching–research nexus: ideals and practice in research-oriented universities

This paper demonstrates that while ideals of close linkages between research and teaching are widely embraced in research-oriented universities, a practice of division of labour between teaching-oriented and research-oriented staff persists. In an investigation of how the research–teaching nexus is managed at three Swedish universities, we identify a perceived misalignment between institutional incentives for individual academic staff and the needs of teaching. Under pressure from such tensions, managers are forced to deploy pragmatic strategies for the staffing of undergraduate education tasks. This includes allowing research needs and agendas to take priority over teaching needs. While managers seek to secure the participation of senior researchers in education, they often actively prefer to delegate the bulk of teaching activities to less research-active staff. Such strategies seem to reinforce existing patterns of division of labour among academic staff.     

The relationship between engagement in the scholarship of teaching and learning and students’ course experiences

While there has been a good deal of discussion about the scholarship of teaching and learning, and models have been developed to understand its scope, the effects on students’ learning of academics engaging in the scholarship of teaching and learning are unclear. In the context of initiatives to develop the scholarship of teaching and learning in a large research‐intensive university in Australia, this paper discusses the relationship between faculty performance on a set of scholarly accomplishments in relation to teaching and learning from 2002 to 2004, and changes in students’ course experiences from 2001 to 2005. The paper provides evidence of the relationship between the scholarship of teaching and learning and students’ course experiences and demonstrates the effectiveness of institutional strategies to encourage the scholarship of teaching and learning.     

Are there distinctive clusters of higher and lower status universities in the UK?

In 1992 the binary divide between universities and polytechnics was dismantled to create a nominally unitary system of higher education for the UK. Just a year later, the first UK university league table was published, and the year after that saw the formation of the Russell Group of self-proclaimed ‘leading’ universities. This paper asks whether there are distinctive clusters of higher and lower status universities in the UK, and, in particular, whether the Russell Group institutions can be said to constitute a distinctive elite tier. Cluster analysis of publicly available data on the research activity, teaching quality, economic resources, academic selectivity, and socioeconomic student mix of UK universities demonstrates that the former binary divide persists with Old (pre-1992) universities characterised by higher levels of research activity, greater wealth, more academically successful and socioeconomically advantaged student intakes, but similar levels of teaching quality, compared to New (post-1992) institutions. Among the Old universities, Oxford and Cambridge emerge as an elite tier, whereas the remaining 22 Russell Group universities appear to be undifferentiated from the majority of other Old universities. A division among the New universities is also evident, with around a quarter of New universities forming a distinctive lower tier.     

A research on the relationship between ejaculation andserum testosterone level in men

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Research and teaching in the universities of Denmark: Does such an interplay really exist?

The unity of research and teaching is an ingrained principle in university policy in Denmark, but this principle has also been subjected to increasing criticism. This article presents an investigation, consisting of about 50 interviews with teachers from higher educational institutions in Denmark, aiming at the illumination of this issue. According to the conclusions of this investigation it is the basic experience of the teachers that an important interplay exists between research and teaching of the individual teacher, and that almost none would prefer to work in a pure research institution. At the same time the teachers have some crucial reservations. Firstly it can be difficult to administer this twofold task. Secondly the interrelationships are dependent on several factors, the most important of which is the level of teaching and the disciplinary context. This latter factor is explained by differences pertaining to the very nature of varying disciplines - demonstrated and analyzed with reference to Thomas Kuhn and Basil Bernstein. Finally, the importance of the interrelationships between research and teaching for higher educational and research policies in broader perspective is discussed.     

What's in a name? The impact of reputation and rankings on the teaching income of English universities

This study examines the impact of universities’ reputation on teaching income and demonstrates how strongly reputation may affect the fees that they can charge. Higher Education is increasingly competitive and international, and institutions are preoccupied with national and international prestige. Research output is demonstrably central to reputation and, specifically, to global rankings, but less has been written about the benefits of high prestige for teaching income and the ability to charge high fees. This article uses English data to show the impact when fees are partially deregulated. Public universities with high rankings in global league tables and on domestic measures can command teaching income per student which is very much higher (in this case typically more than a third) than lower‐prestige institutions. This financial return to prestige further increases universities’ incentives to seek high positions in league tables and establish a reputational brand.     

Reproducing peace? A CRT analysis of Whiteness in the curriculum and teaching at a University of The UN

Peace and conflict studies (PACS) higher education is a blossoming field. Literature (both conceptual and conjectural) and research (theoretical and empirical) has proliferated in recent decades. This paper details case findings from an ethnographic study with university-based PACS educators completed at one University of The United Nations in 2015. The six-month ethnography involved document analysis, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews with 25 peace scholars and 108 postgraduate students. Data was thematically coded and analyzed using concepts from critical race/critical Whiteness studies. This paper outlines the study and explores the theme of Whiteness that emerged from data. Findings point toward the cultural reproduction of Whiteness in the faculty, pedagogy, and institution. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications concerning global equity and ‘post-structural violence’ in PACS education, as well as a call for further research into the role of peacebuilding education in broader social change.     

The role of the associate dean in UK universities: distributed leadership in action?

This paper reports on findings from a Leadership Foundation for Higher Education funded project exploring the role of associate deans in UK universities. While the number of associate deans leading cross-curricular and inter-disciplinary initiatives appears to be on the increase, there has been very little research focusing on the exact nature of the role and its importance, or otherwise, in the leadership and management of universities. Drawing on mixed-methods data from 15 semi-structured interviews and a follow-up online survey (n = 172), this paper reports on how the role is defined and positioned in relation to university organisational structures and identifies what the similarities and differences are between associate deans working at traditional and modern universities. As the first national survey of the role, it is argued that this paper makes a significant and original contribution to knowledge. By drawing on the concept of distributed leadership, the paper also offers new theoretical insights into how different types of universities in the UK are responding to external pressures as a consequence of the fast-changing and increasingly complex sector environment.     

What motivates early adolescents for school? A longitudinal analysis of associations between observed teaching and motivation

For many early adolescent students, motivation for school declines after their transition to secondary education. Increasingly, the decisive importance of teachers in shaping early adolescents' motivation is stressed; thus far, however, both longitudinal and observational studies on this topic have been scarce. The present study investigated how early adolescents' interactions with their maths teachers were associated with the development of their motivation for maths. In line with self-determination theory, videotaped teacher–student interactions were coded in terms of their being supportive or thwarting of the three fundamental human needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, i.e. in terms of their providing autonomy support, structure, and involvement. To assess need-supportive teaching, at four measurement time-points equally spread over the first year of secondary education, video analysis was conducted of, in total, 137 complete maths lessons in 20 maths classes (40% female teachers). To assess developments in motivation at each of the four measurement time-points, questionnaires were distributed to the 489 students (aged 12–13; 49.9% girls) in the 20 maths classes. Multilevel analysis did not indicate associations of autonomy-supportive teaching with any of the four motivational constructs incorporated in the study (autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, amotivation, and performance avoidance). For structure, associations in expected directions were found with autonomous motivation (positive) and amotivation (negative), but not with the other two motivational constructs. For teacher involvement, associations in the expected direction were found with all four motivational constructs. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for research and educational practice.     

Impacting policy discourse? An analysis of discourses and rhetorical devices deployed in the case of the Academies Commission

Academisation of the English secondary school system has been extremely rapid and represents significant changes to the governance of the English school system. However, there has been a relative scarcity of attention to the rationales, rhetorics and discourses underpinning the academies programme. Seeking to address this gap, a poststructuralist discourse analytic lens is applied to 63 written submissions to the Academies Commission from a range of stakeholder groups, in order to map the different discourses and narratives drawn on in relation to academies and academisation. In setting out the various discourses identified, a cluster of discourses and rhetorical devices that produce the British education system as ‘in crisis’ are given especial attention. It is argued that these discourses provide the rationale and legitimisation for radical policy intervention as exemplified by the academies programme. The findings also provoke discussion concerning potential subjective agency in the promotion or otherwise of particular narratives and ‘conceptual emblems’ that inform the field of educational policy.     

The end of the credential society? An analysis of the relationship between education and the labour market using big data

ABSTRACT

A major focus of sociological research is on the role of the credential as a ‘currency of opportunity’, mediating the relationship between education and occupational destinations. However, the labour market has largely remained a ‘black box’ in sociological and education policy studies. This article draws on ‘big data’ from over 21,000,000 job adverts to explore how employers in the UK describe job requirements, with particular reference to the role of credentials. It challenges existing theories premised upon the notion that higher levels of formal education determine individual (dis)advantage in the competition for jobs. Although they have different views of the relationship between credentials, opportunity and efficiency, these theories assume that credentials largely determine occupational hiring. Our analysis suggests that formal academic credentials play a relatively minor differentiating role in the UK labour market, as the majority of employer’s place greater emphasis on ‘job readiness’. This raises a number of issues for sociological and policy analysis, including the future role of credentials in the (re)production of educational and labour market inequalities. Methodologically, the article highlights how the use of big data can contribute to the analysis of education, skills and the labour market.     

The politics of historical discourse analysis: a qualitative research method?

This article deals with the ways in which historical discourse analysis is at once different from and similar to research described as qualitative or quantitative. It discusses the consequences of applying the standards of such methods to historical discourse analysis. It is pointed out that although the merit of research using historical discourse analysis must not be judged by the standards of qualitative methods alone, it can be easier to admit the influence of the discourse on methodology. Therefore, the article considers whether and how the ideas of validity, reliability, sample, and transferability can be used to explain the merit of study using historical discourse analysis. The author also discusses the basic concepts and principles of historical discourse analysis, and he describes step-by-step a particular way of conducting historical discourse analysis.     

University academics’ experience of research and its relationship to their experience of teaching

There has been a growing research debate over the relations between university teaching and research. This paper contributes to that debate by describing the variation in the way university academics’ experience research, then linking that empirical evidence with previous work to explicate the relations between variation in research, teaching, and understanding of the subject matter being taught. Previous investigations have shown that conceptual change/student-focussed approaches to teaching are associated with clear articulation of the important aspects of the subject matter being taught, how those aspects relate to each other, and how the teacher situates their understanding of the subject matter in the field as a whole. However, teachers who were unable to explain their understanding of their subject matter in these ways were more likely to experience their teaching as a process of information transfer from a teacher-focussed perspective. Since the characteristics of the first type of understanding subject matter resemble processes underlying the experience of active researchers, these findings seemed to justify a more intensive search for evidence of the link between effective university teaching and research. Interviews have been conducted with 37 university teachers who had strong publication and grant success records and who were teaching and researching in similar topic areas. They represent a range of disciplines and universities, and from both the UK and Australia. The study methods and results are described and we conclude that qualitative variation in the experience of research is related (a) moderately to experience of teaching and (b) strongly to experience of understanding the subject matter.

International research orientation of Swiss universities: self-regulated or politically imposed?

International openness is essential to science in small modern countries. The modernization of Swiss science and economy in the nineteenth century was promoted largely by foreigners: newly founded Swiss universities were staffed to a large extent by foreign professors, but students also came from abroad. Up to the middle of this century, the development of Swiss universities was marked by distinct successive phases of inviting in or shutting out international influence, depending mainly on changes in the political context. The international landscape of knowledge and science since the 1950s has undergone dynamic change. University structures were installed as a reaction to this dynamism. Patterns of international research orientation emerging in different universities and in the disciplinaryfields of business administration, chemistry and history are discussedin a comparative perspective.     

Are New Zealand universities underperforming? An analysis of international enrolments in Australian and New Zealand universities

International education is widely recognised as providing a range of positive outcomes for students, universities, and both the source and destination countries. New Zealand politicians, however, see international education as a means of generating significant export earnings able to subsidise the local provision of university education. New Zealand universities have been criticised as underperforming in comparison to their Australian counterparts in attracting revenue from international students. This article explores the evidence of that observation by examining the patterns of enrolment by international students in New Zealand and Australian universities. The analysis identifies significant drivers of the international student enrolments in Australia and discusses potential strategic and policy implications for international education in New Zealand that respond to these drivers.     

Skills versus pedagogy? Doctoral research training in the UK Arts and Humanities

The traditional ‘lone scholar’ view of an Arts and Humanities doctoral student sits uneasily with the skills-based discourse underpinning policies aimed at enhancing researcher development and employability. This paper reports on a case study of a research training programme for doctoral students in the Arts and Humanities at a UK university. It calls for the embedding of the generic skills agenda within a more clearly articulated pedagogic discourse and formulates four pedagogic principles for research training programme design. Additionally, the paper problematises the research trainer role and highlights the importance of paying attention to the students' own learning agendas and the learning value they are prepared to derive from training.     

Jane Eyre&Charlotte Bronte--An analysis about the relationship between character and writer

Through the comparison of Charlotte Bronte’s experience and Jane Eyre’s,it proves that any character and plot have the trace of the author. Therefore,the novel can be analyzed and understood better by another way,to analyze the writer’s life.