A Abbas
Biographic Data
| ID | 7268 |
|---|---|
| NAME | A Abbas |
| GIVEN NAMES | A |
| FAMILY NAME | Abbas |
| SIGNATURE | ABBAS A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Bath |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3528-7393 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 48 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1957 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The need for social recognition
The migration of teachers from rural to urban areas is a global challenge, with significant implications for educational equity and quality. In China, teacher migration has exacerbated educational disparities between rural and urban regions. Whilst previous research has examined a range of factors influencing teacher turnover, this study focuses on the concept of professional honor as a fundamental motivator for teacher migration in China. We use…
Urban Dynamics in Historic Marketplaces
This research examines the vital role of traditional bazaars in the historical urban settings. It specifically examines the bustling area of Old Rusafa and Al Nahar Street, in the district of Rusafa, Baghdad, in the context of social and cultural landscape. This street is noted for its heritage-rich architecture which serve as key facilitators of social interactions and contributes to its cultural and communal identity
I am just a loser of higher education
This paper proposes a unique framework for comparative analysis of different Adult Higher Education (AHE) systems. The framework combines, a conceptualisation of how students’ outcomes are shaped by the way that they and their degree courses are positioned in stratified higher education systems with, insights about the effects of institutional practice and individual students’ agency gained from applying Basil Bernstein’s notion of pedagogic righ…
Gender and the changing face of Higher Education in Asia Pacific
Book Review: Neubauer, D.D. and Kuar, S. (eds). 2019. Gender and the Changing Face of Higher Education in Asia Pacific. London: Palgrave Macmillan
How does completing a dissertation transform undergraduate students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge
Dissertations are positioned as the capstone of an undergraduate degree, bringing together what students have previously learned from their programmes through a piece of independent research. However, there is limited research into the ways in which engaging in a dissertation has an impact on students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge. In this article, we explore the relations between students’ accounts of sociological knowledge in their …
Conceptualising transformative undergraduate experiences
Existing ways of understanding the transformative potential of students’ undergraduate experiences either focus solely on the formal educational elements of these experiences or present an overly static picture of students’ intentions in engaging in higher education. In this article we argue that the notion of ‘personal project’ offers a more flexible way of understanding what students are trying to gain from being at university. Based on a pheno…
Representations of a high-quality system of undergraduate education in English higher education policy documents
This article examines the ways in which a high-quality system of undergraduate education is represented in recent policy documents from a range of actors interested in higher education. Drawing on Basil Bernstein's ideas, the authors conceptualise the policy documents as reflecting a struggle over competing views of quality that are expressed through pedagogic discourses. They identify two pedagogic discourses: a dominant market-oriented generic …
The use and value of Bernstein’s work in studying (in)equalities in undergraduate social science education
This paper illustrates how critical use of Basil Bernstein's theory illuminates the mechanisms by which university knowledge, curriculum and pedagogy both reproduce and interrupt social inequalities. To this end, empirical examples are selected from the findings of the ESRC-funded project ‘Pedagogic Quality and Inequality in University First Degrees' (RES-062-23-1438, November 2008–January 2012). The project investigated sociology-related social …
Qualitative research as a method for making just comparisons of pedagogic quality in higher education
Systems designed to ensure that teaching and student learning are of a suitable quality are a feature of universities globally. Quality assurance systems are central to attempts to internationalise higher education, motivated in part by a concern for greater global equality. Yet, if such systems incorporate comparisons, the tendency is to reflect and reproduce inequalities in higher education. Highlighting the European context, we argue that, if …
Social Futures
1.1 This is the second of two collections of papers from the British Sociological Association (BSA) Annual Conference 2003 to be published within Sociological Research On-Line. The conference was titled Social Futures: Desire, Excess and Waste. The call for papers invited delegates to interrogate currently dominant academic, political and media discourses within western societies which emphasise and celebrate the ‘progress’ and ‘freedoms’ associa…
The embodiment of class, gender and age through leisure
Leisure activities claiming to promote health and fitness have been an increasing feature of contemporary society. The impact of such activities on social inequality is an important area of study for both theoretical and policy reasons. This paper adopts an embodied approach to explore the development of long‐distance running and the gendered, aged and classed nature of it. It is based upon part of a study which involved analysing a running magaz…
Communicative Competence and the Improvement of University Teaching
The arguments in this article have been generated from involvement in a government-funded project designed to improve teaching. The authors reflect on their experience and use Jurgen Habermas's theory of communicative competence to argue that initiatives designed to improve university teaching often work against their own intentions by closing down opportunities for open dialogue. They argue that improvement of teaching requires undistorted commu…
Becoming Sociologists
This article is based on research undertaken as part of a project designed to promote support for part-time teachers in sociology. Contemporary changes in higher education are the backdrop for suggesting that a reflexive sociology should scrutinise itself, including the conditions and experiences of part-time teachers in their own department. Empirical data raises issues about the implications of the working conditions of part-time teachers for t…
Foreign Aid and Industrial Development in Pakistan
Capital Requirements for the Development of South and Southeast Asia
The embodiment of class, gender and age through leisure
Leisure activities claiming to promote health and fitness have been an increasing feature of contemporary society. The impact of such activities on social inequality is an important area of study for both theoretical and policy reasons. This paper adopts an embodied approach to explore the development of long‐distance running and the gendered, aged and classed nature of it. It is based upon part of a study which involved analysing a running magaz…
Becoming Sociologists
This article is based on research undertaken as part of a project designed to promote support for part-time teachers in sociology. Contemporary changes in higher education are the backdrop for suggesting that a reflexive sociology should scrutinise itself, including the conditions and experiences of part-time teachers in their own department. Empirical data raises issues about the implications of the working conditions of part-time teachers for t…
Conceptualising transformative undergraduate experiences
Existing ways of understanding the transformative potential of students’ undergraduate experiences either focus solely on the formal educational elements of these experiences or present an overly static picture of students’ intentions in engaging in higher education. In this article we argue that the notion of ‘personal project’ offers a more flexible way of understanding what students are trying to gain from being at university. Based on a pheno…
The use and value of Bernstein’s work in studying (in)equalities in undergraduate social science education
This paper illustrates how critical use of Basil Bernstein's theory illuminates the mechanisms by which university knowledge, curriculum and pedagogy both reproduce and interrupt social inequalities. To this end, empirical examples are selected from the findings of the ESRC-funded project ‘Pedagogic Quality and Inequality in University First Degrees' (RES-062-23-1438, November 2008–January 2012). The project investigated sociology-related social …
Communicative Competence and the Improvement of University Teaching
The arguments in this article have been generated from involvement in a government-funded project designed to improve teaching. The authors reflect on their experience and use Jurgen Habermas's theory of communicative competence to argue that initiatives designed to improve university teaching often work against their own intentions by closing down opportunities for open dialogue. They argue that improvement of teaching requires undistorted commu…
The need for social recognition
The migration of teachers from rural to urban areas is a global challenge, with significant implications for educational equity and quality. In China, teacher migration has exacerbated educational disparities between rural and urban regions. Whilst previous research has examined a range of factors influencing teacher turnover, this study focuses on the concept of professional honor as a fundamental motivator for teacher migration in China. We use…
Representations of a high-quality system of undergraduate education in English higher education policy documents
This article examines the ways in which a high-quality system of undergraduate education is represented in recent policy documents from a range of actors interested in higher education. Drawing on Basil Bernstein's ideas, the authors conceptualise the policy documents as reflecting a struggle over competing views of quality that are expressed through pedagogic discourses. They identify two pedagogic discourses: a dominant market-oriented generic …
Qualitative research as a method for making just comparisons of pedagogic quality in higher education
Systems designed to ensure that teaching and student learning are of a suitable quality are a feature of universities globally. Quality assurance systems are central to attempts to internationalise higher education, motivated in part by a concern for greater global equality. Yet, if such systems incorporate comparisons, the tendency is to reflect and reproduce inequalities in higher education. Highlighting the European context, we argue that, if …
Capital Requirements for the Development of South and Southeast Asia
Foreign Aid and Industrial Development in Pakistan
Becoming Sociologists
This article is based on research undertaken as part of a project designed to promote support for part-time teachers in sociology. Contemporary changes in higher education are the backdrop for suggesting that a reflexive sociology should scrutinise itself, including the conditions and experiences of part-time teachers in their own department. Empirical data raises issues about the implications of the working conditions of part-time teachers for t…
Communicative Competence and the Improvement of University Teaching
The arguments in this article have been generated from involvement in a government-funded project designed to improve teaching. The authors reflect on their experience and use Jurgen Habermas's theory of communicative competence to argue that initiatives designed to improve university teaching often work against their own intentions by closing down opportunities for open dialogue. They argue that improvement of teaching requires undistorted commu…
The embodiment of class, gender and age through leisure
Leisure activities claiming to promote health and fitness have been an increasing feature of contemporary society. The impact of such activities on social inequality is an important area of study for both theoretical and policy reasons. This paper adopts an embodied approach to explore the development of long‐distance running and the gendered, aged and classed nature of it. It is based upon part of a study which involved analysing a running magaz…
Social Futures
1.1 This is the second of two collections of papers from the British Sociological Association (BSA) Annual Conference 2003 to be published within Sociological Research On-Line. The conference was titled Social Futures: Desire, Excess and Waste. The call for papers invited delegates to interrogate currently dominant academic, political and media discourses within western societies which emphasise and celebrate the ‘progress’ and ‘freedoms’ associa…
Qualitative research as a method for making just comparisons of pedagogic quality in higher education
Systems designed to ensure that teaching and student learning are of a suitable quality are a feature of universities globally. Quality assurance systems are central to attempts to internationalise higher education, motivated in part by a concern for greater global equality. Yet, if such systems incorporate comparisons, the tendency is to reflect and reproduce inequalities in higher education. Highlighting the European context, we argue that, if …
The use and value of Bernstein’s work in studying (in)equalities in undergraduate social science education
This paper illustrates how critical use of Basil Bernstein's theory illuminates the mechanisms by which university knowledge, curriculum and pedagogy both reproduce and interrupt social inequalities. To this end, empirical examples are selected from the findings of the ESRC-funded project ‘Pedagogic Quality and Inequality in University First Degrees' (RES-062-23-1438, November 2008–January 2012). The project investigated sociology-related social …
Representations of a high-quality system of undergraduate education in English higher education policy documents
This article examines the ways in which a high-quality system of undergraduate education is represented in recent policy documents from a range of actors interested in higher education. Drawing on Basil Bernstein's ideas, the authors conceptualise the policy documents as reflecting a struggle over competing views of quality that are expressed through pedagogic discourses. They identify two pedagogic discourses: a dominant market-oriented generic …
Conceptualising transformative undergraduate experiences
Existing ways of understanding the transformative potential of students’ undergraduate experiences either focus solely on the formal educational elements of these experiences or present an overly static picture of students’ intentions in engaging in higher education. In this article we argue that the notion of ‘personal project’ offers a more flexible way of understanding what students are trying to gain from being at university. Based on a pheno…
How does completing a dissertation transform undergraduate students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge
Dissertations are positioned as the capstone of an undergraduate degree, bringing together what students have previously learned from their programmes through a piece of independent research. However, there is limited research into the ways in which engaging in a dissertation has an impact on students’ understandings of disciplinary knowledge. In this article, we explore the relations between students’ accounts of sociological knowledge in their …
Gender and the changing face of Higher Education in Asia Pacific
Book Review: Neubauer, D.D. and Kuar, S. (eds). 2019. Gender and the Changing Face of Higher Education in Asia Pacific. London: Palgrave Macmillan
I am just a loser of higher education
This paper proposes a unique framework for comparative analysis of different Adult Higher Education (AHE) systems. The framework combines, a conceptualisation of how students’ outcomes are shaped by the way that they and their degree courses are positioned in stratified higher education systems with, insights about the effects of institutional practice and individual students’ agency gained from applying Basil Bernstein’s notion of pedagogic righ…
Urban Dynamics in Historic Marketplaces
This research examines the vital role of traditional bazaars in the historical urban settings. It specifically examines the bustling area of Old Rusafa and Al Nahar Street, in the district of Rusafa, Baghdad, in the context of social and cultural landscape. This street is noted for its heritage-rich architecture which serve as key facilitators of social interactions and contributes to its cultural and communal identity
The need for social recognition
The migration of teachers from rural to urban areas is a global challenge, with significant implications for educational equity and quality. In China, teacher migration has exacerbated educational disparities between rural and urban regions. Whilst previous research has examined a range of factors influencing teacher turnover, this study focuses on the concept of professional honor as a fundamental motivator for teacher migration in China. We use…
Sociology (13 works) · Political science (10 works) · Pedagogy (9 works) · Social science (8 works) · Higher education (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies (4 works) · Global Educational Policies and Reforms (4 works)