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Author(s): Sue Clegg [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.10346.30, 0000 0001 0745 8880, Leeds Beckett University, , Leeds, UK The 29 essays and papers that make up this two-volume collection are [...]

Author(s): Sue Clegg [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0001 0745 8880, grid.10346.30, Leeds Beckett University, Headingley Campus, , LS6 3QQ, Leeds, UK This book makes an important contribution to thinking [...]

This paper explores conceptions of curricular and extracurricular in UK higher education. Reporting on a case study of staff understandings of the extracurricular we argue that our data highlight the lack of debate about curricular matters. We found that there was considerable blurring of boundaries in conceptions of the curricular and extracurricular and argue that this is related to the lack of any stable or explicit conception of the curriculum in UK higher education. The paper highlights issues of recognition and non-recognition of the sorts of cultural capital which flow from traditional and other forms of extracurricular activities (ECA) and points to the continued gendering of caring and its valuing. Recognition of capital from within diverse communities and derived from activities which have not been traditionally conceptualised as ECA might contribute to graduate outcomes, but there are limitations to a politics of recognition. We argue that account also needs to be taken of the materiality of student lives and the constraints they face. Keywords Extracurricular activities * Curricular * Cultural capital * Staff conceptions * Gender, Introduction This paper reports on findings from a larger project investigating extracurricular activities (ECA) in higher education (Cleggs et al. 2008). (1) There is very little research addressing the question [...]

Abstract. Progress files, involving personal development planning (PDP), are becoming a feature of many higher education systems internationally. In the UK they will become mandatory for all undergraduate students from [...]

Byline: Sue Clegg (1), Deborah Trayhurn (3), Andrea Johnson (1) Keywords: classroom observation; coaching style; collaborative learning; computing; gender; higher education Abstract: Previous research has indicated that women areavoiding the `hard' end of computer studies on coursesin higher education. In this paper we challenge someof the descriptions of computing and suggest thatcomputing is best understood as a concrete sciencecharacterised by the acquisition of artistry. Wereport findings from a case study of men and women onIT courses in one higher education institution in theUK. Students followed common first-year modulesinvolving the use of workbooks aimed at encouragingindependent learning. Our methodology involvedobservations of the coaching styles of male andfemale tutors in computer laboratories. Thirty-fourone-and-a-half-hour sessions were observed. Attendancewas higher for the sessions led by female tutors, butmale students had higher attendance rates overall. Wefound that the male tutors had more short interactionswith female students and intervened more directlymanipulating the keyboard or mouse, but that both maleand female tutors spent longer with men in the class.However, women students we observed appearedconfident, were more vocal and were sought out bytheir peers as advice givers. Women tutors adopted amore active coaching style, which encouragedcollaboration between students and greater peerinteraction. We conclude that we should use casestudies to re-describe women's presence withincomputing and render it more visible. From ourobservations of women in computer laboratories it isclear that computing is not just for men. Author Affiliation: (1) School of Professional Education and Development, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK (2) Beckett Park Campus, Leeds, LS6 3QS, U.K. (3) School of Information Management, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK Article History: Registration Date: 09/10/2004

Byline: Sue Clegg (1) Abstract: The paper outlines the development of accredited supervisor trainingusing reflective journals at Leeds Metropolitan University. It explores someof the tensions between quality assurance and reflective practice whichemerged in the implementation of the programme. One of the advantages of amore formalised approach to training has been the increased participation ofwomen supervisors. Some of the themes emerging from journals concerntensions within supervisory teams and pressures in relation to completion.Supervisors also report difficulties when research students appear to beresistant to advice. Issues about the dynamics of race and gender insupervision are also surfacing, and there is some disagreement about therole and legitimacy of experience as part of the research process. Overallcourse participants appear to welcome exchanges across disciplineboundaries, although there is some resistance to perceived 'education speak'in the concept of reflection. Despite the lack of measurable behaviouraloutcomes a number of supervisors report that the process of keeping ajournal is empowering. Author Affiliation: (1) School of Professional Education and Development, Leeds Metropolitan University, Beckett Park Campus, Leeds, LS6 3QS Article History: Registration Date: 17/09/2004

The importance of employability in higher education and increasing numbers of students working while studying led leaders on a social science degree to introduce work experience modules. This paper reports on an in-depth case study based on the analysis of staff and student interviews, the students' reflective assignments, and a focus group session with students a year after completing the module. The themes of reflection and linkages are discussed. Linking theory to practice was difficult, but when achieved, students spoke of new ways of seeing the social sciences. The major challenge was learning to be reflective about themselves as employees, while reflecting on the workplace. The paper concludes by emphasising the value of this mode of study for producing deep learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Staff involved in pedagogic innovations are often presented with challenges that take them outside their customary spheres of expertise and disciplinary identities. This paper presents an analysis of data collected from staff involved in a 'bottom up' pedagogic innovation introducing inquiry-based learning to a cohort of first year social science students. Data were collected in the form of transcripts of emails shared by staff weekly during the development, research interviews conducted after the module had finished, and a follow up email questionnaire a year later asking them to reflect on the value of the original email exchanges. The email exchanges were descriptive close-to-action summaries of events in the classroom and provided a way of creating teaching as community property. The follow-up interviews revealed states of uncertainty and liminality (in-betweeness). The paper argues that the characteristics of email, as both informal and intimate and at the same time a public mode of exchange, allowed sharing which supported tutor learning. The paper illustrates the importance of different sorts of talk in community creation and in supporting academic innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a critical realist analysis of the significance of agency in education. Exploration of how lecturers apply their understandings of learning outcomes and personal development planning; Argument for the importance of detailed analysis of mundane practices; Remarks on theorising about teaching and learning, and change in higher education

Debates about middle management in higher education have been largely confined to the dominant discourse of managerialism. In this paper, we argue for an engagement with the broader management literature, with its multiple discourses of middle management. We present an analysis of middle management as a multifaceted phenomenon and review literature on middle managers as representing: core organisational values; as self-interested agent of control; as corporate bureaucrat; and as repositories of organisational wisdom. In considering each of these views, we reflect on the relevant debates within higher education. We conclude that a more productive discussion of the role of middle management in higher education is possible by breaking with the simple managerialism/collegiate duality found in the higher education literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Progress files represent a major policy initiative involving the use of Personal Development Planning (PDP) aimed at the production of autonomous learners who are capable of planning for their own career and personal futures. The paper is organized in three parts and argues for a more critical approach, which locates PDP as part of broader shifts within educational policy and practice. The first part of the paper explores the lack of conceptual clarity associated with the term PDP. It argues that 'evidence' of 'what works' is unlikely to yield useful knowledge for practitioners as long as this evidence is based on untheorized accounts of PDP. The second part of the paper explores the concept of reflection, which underpins PDP, and argues for greater critical engagement with the conditions of reflection and an understanding of the limitations of reflection. The final part of the paper takes up the broader theme of individualization and returns to the major theme of the paper that the sorts of autonomy that are assumed in the practices of PDP are neither neutral nor an accomplished fact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the meanings involved in the development and implementation of learning and teaching policies in higher education through a single institution case study in an English university. It draws on interview data collected from middle manager-academics, located in Schools, who are charged with implementing learning and teaching policies. Tensions and contradictions of practice emerged from a detailed analysis of the data identified through three closely related themes: centre/periphery, time and temporality, and disciplinary locations. The central theme, which frames the discussion of the other two, concerns relations between centre and periphery. The manager-academics identify themselves with the interests of their colleagues within Schools and use their position to mediate between central pressures and practice on the ground. Rather than identifying with managerialist practices, they rely on projected ideals of collegiality in their relationships with School colleagues. At the core of these experiences are differing conceptions of time in the centre/periphery relationship. Different experiences of temporality, tempo, and timing are explored from the manager-academics' perspective. There is considerable tension between time understood on the ground and the time-scales of central learning and teaching initiatives. The final theme concerns the organising role of disciplinary identities in articulating meaning at the periphery. Innovations appear rooted in disciplinary practice and some tensions exist between these and perceptions of educational theory and development. The article suggests that these contradictions and tensions might be a source of strength to the institution rather than having negative effects. It concludes with some reflections on the importance of time to the development of educational theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decline in numbers of women on computing courses in higher education has been the subject of much comment. However, the debate has moved from a 'women and computing' approach to a more sophisticated theorisation of gender. We suggest that computing also requires better theorisation. Computing is most usefully characterised as a concrete not abstract science. Women's contribution to the field is often ignored because they are seen as end-users, not part of the academic mainstream. We report a case study of men and women on applied information technology courses. Using data from in-depth interviews, we found that both men and women were aware of gender in computing practice. However, both men and women expressed intrinsic as well as instrumental reasons for studying and the women were confident in their own abilities. Women brought with them valuable administrative experience of using computer systems. One of the challenges is to conceptualise women's computer skills as real computing and to ask what is wrong with computing rather than what is wrong with women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that as institutions, universities are being recast in policy discourse as serving particular external agendas shaped by economic calculation and market incentives. The result has been that a wedge has been driven between research and teaching, and that both are mis-described in utilitarian terms as serving the market and 'employability'. The article makes the case for more careful descriptions of the purposes of research and education based on the unity of academic identity and the value of intellectual enquiry. Such a model has implications for the organisation, for universities, and for their broader civic functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]