Nancy Worth

Making friends and fitting in: a social-relational understanding of disability at school

In this article, I extend the growing literature on education spaces by examining disabled young peoples possibilities for sociality in mainstream and specialist high schools in the UK, focusing on visually impaired (VI) young peoples narratives of bullying, friendship and their complex relationships with carers and support workers. By using stories from both mainstream and specialist schools, the research is able to compare how young peoples agency comes up against the power of disablism in different school spaces and the impact of this interplay on VI young peoples relationships at school. A focus on sociality recognizes how highly young people value their social lives at school and that school sociality is a powerful indicator of future inclusion. Theoretically, I offer new insight on spatiality within a relational understanding of disability, arguing that school is a key site where discourses of disablism and youth agency intersect.

Who we are at work: millennial women, everyday inequalities and insecure work

Abstract Based on research with millennial women in Canada, this article examines the process of workplace identity, or (un)conscious strategies of identity management that young women employ at work. First, despite increasing labour market participation from women, young women’s experience of the workplace can be one of precarity and insecurity. Many millennial women have responded with a ‘positive front’ – saying yes to all work tasks while highlighting their likability and acceptance of the status quo. This is not seen as a permanent strategy, but rather one that gets you into the workplace and ‘liked’ until your work speaks for itself. Second, and operating at the same time, young women also use tactics to confront intersections of ageism/sexism in the workplace. While some employ conscious strategies to be ‘taken seriously’ through dress, small talk, even taking on stereotypical traits of masculinity to be recognized as competent, others explicitly confront inequality through ‘girlie feminism’ with a pro-femininity work identity that challenges the masculine-coded norms of how a successful workplace operates and what it looks like. In jobs of all types, who we are at work is a constantly shifting negotiation between how we are treated and seen by others, the workplace as a social space, our past experiences and our own expectations. Considering young women’s work identities reveals how power and privilege operate in the workplace, and the possibilities of young women’s agential challenges to inequitable workplace norms and a precarious labour market.

Student-focused assessment criteria: thinking through best practice

Using results from a survey and focus groups with staff and students, I evaluate best practice for student-focused assessment criteria, including the value of specific assessment criteria, where and when students engage with criteria, the use of exemplars, how assessment criteria connect to feedback and the importance of bringing students more actively into the assessment process. I argue that we need to accept that many students are assessment motivated, and rather than work against this reality (which is rarely successful), we should instead consider how assessment can address student concerns of clarity and fairness while being more tied into learning.

Experimenting with student-led seminars

Abstract This article examines student-led seminars as one way of operationalizing discourses of active learning. The format of the seminars is described in detail, including an example of the kind of discussion organized by students. Evaluation follows, touching on learning outcomes, assessment, personal reflections and comments from students across two cohorts. Two key issues are highlighted as the importance of the learning space (or ‘built pedagogy’) and the challenge of getting students to recognize student-led seminars as a learning opportunity.