Lisa Lucas

Learning about research: exploring the learning and teaching/research relationship amongst educational practitioners studying in higher education

The paper examines aspects of the relationship between teaching and research in higher education in social science research methods, with particular reference to the subject area of Education. There are three main themes: reflections on how social science research methods should be (or are) taught; a review of current debates about the relationship between teaching and research, both in higher education and for school teachers; and finally, reporting how a group of educational practitioners (mainly school teachers) studying at Masters level experience learned about research methods. The paper is illustrated by qualitative data from a case study of student experiences of research methods teaching on a Masters degree in Education in a research-intensive UK university. It is suggested that studying the journey embarked upon by taught postgraduate students inexperienced in research is helpful in understanding how learning about research methods takes place, which in turn can assist future research methods teaching.

Different Places, Different Specialisms: Similar Questions of Doctoral Identities under Construction.

We share a common interest in researching the experiences of doctoral students. Over time, as we conducted our independent studies, we became increasingly interested in the varied ways in which doctoral students constructed their identities in relation to their past experiences, present and shifting intentions and affect, personal and social resources and more general life contexts. In this paper we analyze a subset of data from two studies of doctoral students in the social sciences in two different research universities. Using the notion of identity-trajectory, we view doctoral student identity as under construction as students explore ways of thinking and interacting in their academic work within the fullness of their overall lives.

Academic resistance to quality assurance processes in higher education in the UK

Abstract The focus of this article is on academic resistance to quality assurance processes that have developed within UK higher education in relation to both research and teaching. These quality processes are often seen as forms of disciplining technologies (Blackmore, 2009) and are arguably an important part of the means by which new public management has been introduced to the sector. They have been perceived to monitor and control academic work in relation to teaching and research within UK universities over the last 20 years or so. However, this article attempts to look at the complexity of academic reactions to these processes and the ways in which academics situated within particular contexts might challenge and resist the discourses and subject positions that are being offered to them Thomas and Davies (2005). Following the work of Graham (2011) and Hyatt (2013) a Foucauldian informed critical discourse analysis is used to examine two critical case studies of resistance to both the quality assurance processes for teaching and the assessment and evaluation of university research work.

Academic Resistance in the UK: challenging quality assurance processes in higher education

Abstract The focus of this article is on academic resistance to quality assurance processes that have developed within UK higher education in relation to both research and teaching. These quality processes are often seen as forms of disciplining technologies (Blackmore, 2009) and are arguably an important part of the means by which new public management has been introduced to the sector. They have been perceived to monitor and control academic work in relation to teaching and research within UK universities over the last 20 years or so. However, this article attempts to look at the complexity of academic reactions to these processes and the ways in which academics situated within particular contexts might challenge and resist the discourses and subject positions that are being offered to them Thomas and Davies (2005). Following the work of Graham (2011) and Hyatt (2013) a Foucauldian informed critical discourse analysis is used to examine two critical case studies of resistance to both the quality assurance processes for teaching and the assessment and evaluation of university research work.

Responding to university policies and initiatives: the role of reflexivity in the mid-career academic

ABSTRACT How do academics make sense of university policies and strategic initiatives and act on them? Interviews were conducted with 27 mid-career academics in different disciplines, different research-intensive university environments and two countries (England and Australia). Data were analysed iteratively utilising a critical realist perspective, specifically, Archer’s modes of reflexivity. The paper argues that individuals’ responses to university policies and initiatives, to changes in policy and policy conflicts, can at least partially be understood through interrogating the modes of reflexivity they employ.

Navigating the demands of academic work to shape an academic job

ABSTRACT Findings from interviews with mid-career academics in English and Australian universities elucidate how academics interpret and navigate complex institutional contexts in shaping academic jobs. The paper argues that how they do this is a function of what they notice and respond to as well as the mode of reflexivity they employ. Three core areas are seen to affect academics sense of agency as they shape their own jobs: how they orient themselves to the world around them including the academic institution and department; their underlying goals and purposes as they seek to have a fulfilling role; and how they relate to structural conditions of the workplace. The paper argues that understanding academics’ differing foci of awareness in these areas is helpful to institutional policies and strategies.

The fourth way: the inspiring future for educational change

Written at the height of the credit crunch, but also at a high point of optimism, this book is a yes-we-can manifesto for educational change. Recapitulating and building on the research and learning of the authors and many others, it seeks to seize the moment when all seemed possible just after Obama’s election, taking to heart his (then) chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel’s adopted dictum: ‘never let a good crisis go to waste’. Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley, educational change gurus with fully-paid-up liberal democratic credentials, are aiming for impact, relevance, and engagement with a broad audience. Reading this book now may, as they intend, renew our inspiration but also tests it, by prompting three questions. As the Tea Party continues and the bankers’ bonuses return, has the ship of state already washed up on the reefs of greed in the squalls of hate, or can we still allow the audacity of hope? Can we really identify a Fourth Way, and was there ever even a Third Way? And maybe a fourth question: who are the intended audience? As a student and practitioner of higher educational management and policy I may be at the margins of that audience, but the book’s argument can nevertheless be applied with advantage to the current travails of English higher education policy. After the global financial crisis ‘the status quo is no longer an option’. Hargreaves and Shirley start from here, setting out their credo assertively. It is ‘askew’ to argue for: British Journal of Sociology of Education Vol. 32, No. 4, July 2011, 643–663

Academic Resistance in the UK

Abstract The focus of this article is on academic resistance to quality assurance processes that have developed within UK higher education in relation to both research and teaching. These quality processes are often seen as forms of disciplining technologies (Blackmore, 2009) and are arguably an important part of the means by which new public management has been introduced to the sector. They have been perceived to monitor and control academic work in relation to teaching and research within UK universities over the last 20 years or so. However, this article attempts to look at the complexity of academic reactions to these processes and the ways in which academics situated within particular contexts might challenge and resist the discourses and subject positions that are being offered to them Thomas and Davies (2005). Following the work of Graham (2011) and Hyatt (2013) a Foucauldian informed critical discourse analysis is used to examine two critical case studies of resistance to both the quality assurance processes for teaching and the assessment and evaluation of university research work.