Search Results

The article investigates unequal admissions patterns at the University of Oxford. Statistical work shows differences in admission rates by social class, ethnicity, gender, qualification status and secondary schooling. In-depth interviews with admissions tutors, college and university officials and observations of eight admissions meetings provide insights into the processes behind those admissions patterns. Results illustrate that adjustment of applicants' performance in the light of their schooling can account for the statistical observation of a lower chance of admission for private school applicants compared with their state school counterparts. The advantage in admissions chances enjoyed by post-qualification applicants appears to be related to the lower risk they pose with regards to their attainment. Little direct evidence is found, however, to explain inequalities in admission rates by social class, ethnicity and gender. A tentative suggestion is made that homophilic tendencies among selectors might account for these unequal admissions rates. It is recommended that future research should use different methods, such as experiments or detailed observations, to gain a better viewpoint on these proposed mechanisms. The article concludes by considering implications for policy and the social stratification literature.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Changes in governmental financial support are causing many would-be students to question the value of higher education or to consider attending a local university. Oral history testimonies provide a source for understanding the role that living, as well as working, within an academic community plays in the learning lives of its alumni. An understanding of the cultural and social space provided by an institution offers an insight into how time spent in higher education remains integral to long-term learning lives, often articulated as marking a ‘watershed’ or inspiration. Interviews for the University of Winchester Alumni Voices project invited alumni and retired staff to reflect on the process of learning generated by their time at Winchester (previously King Alfred’s College). At the article’s core is the significance of oral history narratives to the social history of learners and learning. We discuss how we have developed voice relational analysis in order to interrogate the transformative impact of learning on individuals’ sense of self. The richness of the data from a small scale research project and the increasing sophistication of oral history methodology demonstrate the relatively untapped potential that histories of higher education hold for understanding individual learning lives.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Starting from the present knowledge society with its social overvaluing of cognition and white-collar jobs at the expense of manual labour, this article examines whether school type - academic versus technical/vocational schools - relates to students’ sense of futility. It assesses the schools’ culture of futility and investigates the explanatory value of sense of futility and culture of futility in the relation of school type with study involvement and study culture. Multilevel analyses of data from 6,373 students in 44 Flemish schools (2004-2005) show that students in technical/vocational schools share higher feelings of futility, suggesting the existence of cultures of futility. The students’ study involvement relates to their sense of futility. The schools’ futility culture affects the students’ study involvement independent of their sense of futility. Finally, futility culture explains the association between school type and study involvement, and is responsible for less study-oriented cultures in technical/vocational schools.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

A rich body of research on streaming or tracking conducted mainly in the USA and UK suggests that teachers have lower expectations of students in lower education streams and adapt their curriculum and pedagogy in line with such expectations. Recent large-scale quantitative research conducted in Flanders (Belgium) shows that teachers teaching in lower status technical/vocational streams share a lower 'study culture' and perceive their students as less teachable than teachers teaching higher status general education students, which in turn influences students' educational outcomes. This research builds on these studies by using data from qualitative interviews with secondary school teachers in two Flemish secondary schools to explore teachers' perceptions of students in different streams and their adaptations in terms of curriculum and pedagogy. In addition, the relationship between students' educational achievement and stream allocation is analysed using survey data collected in these two Flemish schools. The results further support the findings of research in this area but also suggest that stratification occurs within streams. Furthermore, students from different streams are perceived to value different forms of cultural and social capital, suggesting the prevalence of social class cultures in different streams. The conclusions discuss implications for further research on streaming or tracking in (Flemish) secondary schools.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

The National Student Survey (NSS) of course experience satisfaction is sent to final year students of all higher education institutions in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales (N=171,290 and 157,342 students in 2005 and 2006) and results are made publicly available. The present investigation assesses the reliability and appropriate use of the NSS from a multilevel perspective. Although NSS responses provide a limited basis for discriminating amongst universities and courses within universities, the ratings of universities are highly reliable and stable over time due to the large number of students (2005 and 2006 rankings correlated r=.86). The unresolved question is whether very small (only 2-3 per cent of the variance explained) but reliable and stable differences between universities provide useful information for benchmarking universities, self-improvement, and informing student choice.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Continuing education is a defining characteristic of work in the professions. Yet the approach various professional groups take to continuing professional development (CPD) differs widely in terms of regulatory frameworks and requirements, modes of delivery and funding. Importantly, little is understood about how CPD impacts on practice. This paper compares the regulatory context of different professional groups and devises a two-dimensional model to explore differences in CPD practice by mapping control over CPD content and mode. The emergent quadrants we label as liberal, regulated, managed and controlled. The paper continues by using empirical data from two studies of continuing education in dentistry and the wider literature to explore factors affecting CPD impact. The paper ends by considering how the regulatory context may affect impact and concludes that changes in the control of CPD have potential to influence the power of education to make a difference to professional practice.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Eighteenth-century readers received copious advice on how to improve their oral reading. Private lecturers and instructors, often called 'elocutionists', disparaged old-fashioned methods of teaching. These older methods encouraged readers to use a sing-song tone and chanting rhythm when they read. These qualities were useful in earlier periods because they aided memorisation and helped readers to project into large social spaces. In the eighteenth century, however, the well-off had less need to memorise and were more likely to read aloud in domestic settings. The elocutionists therefore encouraged a 'natural' or 'conversational' style, and implied that by following their advice, readers would be able to acquire this. Yet at the same time, many eighteenth-century authorities suggested that good oral reading required the innate quality of taste. As a result, learners experienced a tension between the suggestion that anyone could learn to read in the new style through instruction, and the suggestion that only those genteel readers with taste could be good oral readers.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

In the last 20 years, the teaching of reading in Britain has moved away from an interest in how children take delight in, and make meaning of, their literature to a preoccupation with a mechanistic approach to literacy which breaks down texts into bite-sized chunks and fragments reading into a series of isolated skills. Although an expensive, comprehensive system for literacy has been put in place with its plethora of related materials for teachers and pupils, it has not been particularly successful in raising literacy standards, and it has turned some children away from reading. Using The Arabian Nights as a case study (the book most often mentioned as favourite childhood reading of dozens of famous writers from the eighteenth century to the present day, worldwide), I have examined its influence on certain famous writers living in the nineteenth century with particular reference to how it may have shaped their approach to writing fiction. Using a cross-disciplinary approach, I have tried to combine the skills and insights of the literary critic and the literary historian: the former showing how literary texts work and how writers construct them to provoke a range of responses in their readers; the latter exploring the biographical and social context of the emergent writer, identifying and evaluating the factors that contributed to developing their particular creative identity. A further strand is that of the educator seeking to glean insights from tantalisingly fragmentary historical data which may cast light on some contemporary concerns about children’s learning, including debates about the teaching of reading. By bringing these different approaches together, my specific intention is to further the understanding of one aspect of learning in the modern world - that of children’s reading. The message that my tentative findings suggest is that whatever policy initiatives are taken in literacy, encouraging children to take pleasure in reading whole books of their own choosing should be a priority.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Since the publication of the Moser Report in 1999, improving the basic skills of adults has been a major priority for all of the UK’s governments. There has been a particular interest in building up workplace provision, because of the assumed relationship between the basic skills of the employed population and productivity. A longitudinal study tracked 53 workplaces which hosted subsidised basic skills courses, and examined the impact on the enterprises themselves as well as on learners. It established that employers were not, contrary to policy-makers’ expectations, concerned about employees’ literacy levels, and supported provision largely as a way of providing general development opportunities. Learners, who made small literacy gains at best, did not change their behaviour in ways which were likely to affect productivity. Once subsidies ended, employers were unwilling to support further provision at full cost. This provides further evidence that basic skills tuition does not have an immediate impact on performance. Overall the subsidised programmes used an extremely costly approach, and left no lasting legacy. The findings have major implications for the organisation of effective educational provision for less-skilled employees and suggest that the current approach to subsidising workplace training is seriously defective.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

The link between the funding of higher education and the attainment of higher education transformation goals in South Africa, especially access by students from previously under-represented communities, is the main focus of this paper. Specifically, the paper examines three questions: (a) how does public funding of higher education encourage (or discourage) the attainment of higher education transformation goals in South Africa?; (b) what challenges do frequent tuition fee increases pose to the attainment of higher education transformation goals?; and (c) how can South Africa’s higher education be made affordable for indigent (mostly black) students? The paper concludes that although South Africa’s higher education funding formula is generally geared towards attaining the goals of transformation, several of its aspects are inimical to the achievement of these goals. Further, declining public funding of higher education and frequent tuition fee increases by public universities vis-a-vis higher education’s natural inclination to reproduce, and even to exacerbate, existing social disparities and inequalities do not bode well for the attainment of transformation in South Africa’s higher education. This is aggravated by existing high levels of poverty and inequality mostly affecting the majority of the communities that were marginalised during apartheid.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less