Murray Saunders

Understanding emerging trends in higher education curricula and work connections

In this article issues will be explored associated with emerging trends in UK higher education curricular policy which embody an explicit work orientation. In the HEINE project (a research project under the TSER initiative funded by the EU) we came across several examples of curricular change or trend which were introduced on the basis of a perceived need for students to rehearse, in an explicit way, the employment practices they were likely to enter. These justifications have embedded within them a theory which identifies what ought to be Higher Education/Work Relations (HEWR for short). In effect these are prescriptive theories. There are also ideographic or descriptive theories which attempt an articulation of the nature of HEWR. We have termed this theory as a form of neo-correspondence. Clearly, there is often a strong connection between them in that descriptive theories underpin ideas about what ought to be. The article refers to the broad area of policy interventions which focus on regular teaching and learning in the higher education context.

From ‘organisms’ to ‘boundaries’: the uneven development of theory narratives in education, learning and work connections

This paper uses the metaphor of a ‘theory narrative’ to discuss the way in which the connections between education, learning and work have been understood. It identifies six theory narratives, and analyses each in turn, leading to an overview that suggests the way in which these explanatory frameworks might evolve in the future. The six narratives are grouped into three types. Functionalist and Marxist narratives constitute modernist, ‘structuralist’ explanations; liberal and progressive emancipatory narratives foreground educational aims and social practice; and boundary‐crossing narratives emphasize the integration of learning and work practices. The paper plots the ebb and flow of these narratives in terms of their theoretical assumptions, policy implications and the inferences made for the learner as clear distinctions between educational practices and work practices are challenged.

Beginning an Evaluation with RUFDATA: Theorizing a Practical Approach to Evaluation Planning

This article draws on research into evaluation and on the tacit practices used in an evaluation agency to develop an approach to initiating new evaluators into evaluation planning processes. Using these two sources as a base, this article suggests that it is possible to conceptualize evaluation as a series of knowledge-based practices. These knowledge-based practices form the resources of ‘communities of practice’, i.e. a group of practising evaluators. In that this conceptualization refers to any job, work or occupation, beginning to be an evaluator, just like beginning any job or work, requires the ‘novice’ to be inducted or socialized into the ‘community of practice’. Understanding evaluation activity in this way should provide the basis for some enabling ‘tools’ for thinking about an evaluation design. The learning as an outcome of ‘process use’ is, in fact, the way we might prompt access to a reservoir of experiential and other knowledge in order for evaluations to be carried out by new evaluators, within the normative frame of a group of evaluators. In essence, it involves a process of reflexive questioning during which key procedural dimensions of an evaluation are addressed, leading to an accelerated induction into key aspects of evaluation design. It enables initial planning to occur and an evaluation to ‘get off the ground’. RUFDATA is the acronym given to questions which consolidate this reflexive process. To that extent, the approach is a ‘meta-evaluative’ tool. It outlines RUFDATA as an example of such an approach and demonstrates its use by a ‘mini case study’.

Using Evaluation to Create ‘Provisional Stabilities’: Bridging Innovation in Higher Education Change Processes

This article reports the evaluation experience in two SOCRATES (European Union funding mechanism designed to support innovation in teaching and learning) projects focused on change in higher education. The projects were international in scope involving six countries and ten institutions within the last four years. The article reflects on change in institutions specifically, especially those introduced by the use of information and communication technologies, and it suggests the hypothesis that in such a phase of transition, new rules are not yet established and a state of anomie can occur at the level of courses, departments and institutions. The article details what happens in educational institutions in which rules and practices are well established and validated and a new event radically changes or challenges the traditional practices. Instead of the psycho-social notion of ‘resistance to change’, the theory of Durkheim and followers that analyses human responses in times of social change may be of use to interpret situations in which change or the will to change creates conflicting systems of rules and practices. The article will argue for a crucial role for evaluation in negotiating such periods of change.

Taylorism, Tylerism and Performance Indicators: defending the indefensible?

Summary This paper explores some of the antecedents to the recent growing interest in the United Kingdom in the use of educational performance indicators, and links it in particular to aspects of both Taylorist and Tylerist philosophies. It attempts to distinguish between different constructed meanings of performance indicators evident in both policy statements and practice. Whilst acknowledging the many potential problems inherent in the adoption of this approach to evaluation, the paper argues that both the nature and use of educational performance indicators are crucially shaped by factors such as purpose, authorship, focus and audience. The paper outlines an approach to performance indicators which tacitly addresses a critique of Taylorist and Tylerist influences, adopting an optimistic view that indicators can be made professionally relevant and useful. At the heart of the paper is an account of a collaborative evaluation project which, over the last 5 years, has supported the development of teacher‐...

Representing teachers’ professional culture through cartoons

Abstract By reflecting on a variety of cartoon representations of teachers and their work, this paper outlines a semiotic approach to undertaking research on teachers’ professional cultures.

Preparing Students for the New Work Order: the case of Advanced General National Vocational Qualifications

Drawing upon data from a recent empirical study, this article examines the extent to which Advanced General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ) programmes fulfil the implied, and often contradictory requirements of the new post-capitalist labour market. Arguing that the rhetoric of empowerment is employed in discourses surrounding both GNVQs and modern labour market needs, it suggests that this notion can be misleading and can mask practices which are in reality disempowering, encouraging conformity and self-surveillance. In particular the atomisation of content encouraged by the GNVQ framework and specifications, coupled with the heavy workload and changing requirements, make it difficult for both students and teachers to plan coherently or to develop holistic understanding. Despite this, however, the article concludes that the programme is popular with both teachers and students and has the potential to provide a vehicle for meaningful learning and personal development.

Productive Activity in the Curriculum: Changing the Literate Bias of Secondary Schools in Tanzania.

Abstract This paper offers an analysis of the attempt in Tanzanian Secondary Schools to alter the conventional academic school curriculum by the inclusion of productive work. It describes the broad aims of the policy of education for self reliance as a text, focussing in particular on those elements in the policy which imply a redefinition of the relationship between the dominant literate curriculum and the productive, or essentially practical, projects carried out by the schools. The paper includes some research evidence which suggests that, in practice, teachers have been unable to adopt the ‘unified’ approach advocated by President Nyerere. The paper outlines different practices carried out by teachers in response to the policy imperatives and presents three critical factors affecting teachers’ actions. These are the relationship between schools and the division of labour, the difficulties of specifying what ‘unity’ may mean in terms of pupil action and the problems of school organisation related to th...

Capturing effects of interventions, policies and programmes in the European context: A social practice perspective

A policy imperative for the EU is cohesion, integration and a drive to reduce the disparity in social and economic development across member states.1 This is an issue for all citizens within the EU who provide the resources through taxation that fund the expenditure on European policy. It constitutes, as I will suggest, the logic of policy intention. As custodians and distributors of these resources, the various DGs, but in particular, the DG with responsibility for the development of the regions (DG Regio) is coming under pressure, indeed, is anxious itself, through its evaluation arm, to increase the effectiveness and consider the focus of its work.

Organisational culture: electronic support for occupational learning

This paper outlines the inter-relationship between telematic learning support and the organisational culture of the workplace. It defines occupational learning and types of organisationally generated knowledge while siting them in different forms of learning context. The paper identifies concepts of organisational culture and assesses the plausibility of the argument that telematics can effect changes in culture. It contextualises these issues in new research on the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on organisations in general.