Barbara Read
Biographic Data
| ID | 761889 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Barbara Read |
| GIVEN NAMES | Barbara |
| FAMILY NAME | Read |
| SIGNATURE | READ B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Glasgow |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8125-8550 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 211 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Between privileged dependence and precarious autonomy: Class and gender in Chinese students’ experiences in international education
This article examines how social class and gender intersect to shape educational experiences and aspirations of Chinese international postgraduate students’ in the UK. Drawing on qualitative longitudinal research with 25 Chinese taught postgraduate students, the study explores how family socio-economic background structures access to financial, cultural and social resources over one academic year. Using the concepts of ‘privileged dependence’ and…
Affective inequalities beyond heteronormativity. Impostor feelings, wellbeing and belonging in STEM students in the UK and India
STEM in higher education has been framed as a central site to boost the knowledge-based economy. Within this context, gender equality and mental health have been of primary concern. However, the affective inequalities experienced by STEM students with marginalised “sexual orientations and gender identities” – SOGI – remain underexplored. In this article, we drew on Butler’s work on the heterosexual matrix and Ahmed’s gendered notion of affective …
Time spent together: Through children’s and fathers’ eyes
Fathers’ positive involvement I in their children’s lives is linked to their greater academic, social, and emotional prowess, as well as fathers’ own well-being. In our study set in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), we report a mixed-methods study in which children aged between five and eight years (n = 41) were asked to draw a picture showing how they spent time with their father when he came home from work, triangulated with fathers’ (n = 49) own…
Gender equity in academic knowledge production: The influence of politics, power and precarity
This paper explores the issue of gender, intersecting with other aspects of identity, in relation to academic staff and academic knowledge production in higher education institutions across Europe. The paper argues for the need to go beyond the ‘topline’ figures regarding gender equity (and intersecting aspects of identity) when considering diversity of academic staff, to a focus on the degree to which academics can meaningfully contribute to kno…
Mapping the emotions of racialised international students and the politics of exclusion in higher education
The concerns of power and recognition regarding international students’ experiences are largely absent from the literature, with a discourse of social inclusion framing the focus. Social inclusion within an economically centred view of international education ignores issues of ‘difference’ and celebrates ‘diversity’ as a key aspect. Such an approach lacks a discussion of power concerns; diversity is portrayed as unproblematic, whereas difference …
Gendered precarity in higher education: Subversions, strategies, survival
This Special Issue brings together contributions from contrasting contexts to explore ways in which higher education learning and teaching is affected by precarious working conditions and ways in which this is gendered. The articles here address precarity in three different geographical contexts: Western and Northern Europe, represented by the United Kingdom and Sweden; Central-Eastern Europe, illustrated by Hungary; and South America, exemplifie…
International student-parents in UK higher education: A temporal analysis of their intersectional experiences and challenges
Educational research in the global north and south; reflections on the field and future directions
Editorial
Fathers' Experiences of Juggling Work and Family Life in Abu Dhabi Workplaces
In academic literature, fathers often cite barriers related to their employment, which may halt or negatively influence their level of involvement with their children. This is sometimes reported in relation to practices and policies around leave, such as for new-born children or child illness, and flexibility in leaving the workplace to attend key events in children's lives. Research has also shown that fathers receiving validation of their pater…
Short-term, short-changed? A temporal perspective on the implications of academic casualisation for teaching in higher education
The increasing casualisation of academic labour over recent years has been noted across the global north. In the UK, this takes a number of forms, including fixed term, hourly paid and zero hours contracts. What tends to characterise them all, however, is a focus on the short-term. In this paper, we draw on a qualitative study with 20 UK-based academics on casualised contracts to consider the implications of the short-term nature of such employme…
Men’s participation in early childhood education and care (Ecec): Comparative perspectives from Edinburgh, Scotland and Tianjin, China
At the global level, prominent narratives about improving the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) promote the recruitment of men into the profession. However, comparing across different policy and practice settings demonstrates contrasting expressions and experiences of how men contribute to ECEC. This article presents findings from a study in Edinburgh, Scotland and Tianjin, China. The study explored how male and female practiti…
The Roma in European higher education: Re-casting identities, reimagining futures
No abstract available
Compelled to Compete: Chinese graduates on employment and social mobility after international and domestic study
Casualised academic staff and the lecturer-student relationship: Shame, (Im)permanence and (Il)legitimacy
This paper is based on findings from an email interview study with 20 academics (17 women, 3 men) in the UK on short-term, insecure or ‘casualised’ contracts. The paper focuses on their perceptions of the effect their contract status has on the lecturer/student relationship: particularly in regard to student perceptions of their legitimacy and status. Using a poststructuralist theoretical lens, we explore lecturers’ concerns or anxieties as to wh…
It is like school sometimes: Friendship and Sociality on University Campuses and Patterns of Social Inequality
Whilst most social and educational research on friendship focuses on children at school, it remains a crucially important factor for students in higher education – and can play a key role in the maintenance, exacerbation or subversion of dominant forms of social inequalities. This paper explores the complexities of such dynamics in relation to friendship and social life at university, utilising data from an in-depth qualitative study of HE studen…
Tomorrow’s a mystery: Constructions of the future and ‘un/becoming’ amongst ‘early’ and ‘late’ career academics
Constructing a secure sense of a professional future has become increasingly difficult for early career researchers, whilst concerns about present and future job in/security have also been expressed in relation to already-established academics. In this paper, we draw on qualitative data from a U.K. study to explore everyday conceptualisations of the future for both ‘early career’ and ‘late career’ academics, in the context of increased fears and …
Women as leaders of higher education institutions: A British-German comparison
Across the vast majority of countries women are a significant minority in senior academic positions, and as of 2013 only 17% of vice chancellors (VCs) of UK universities and 12% of German Universities were women. This paper discusses findings from a study consisting of interviews with eight female VCs of British and German higher education institutions. The paper takes a feminist poststructuralist approach to look at the ways in which characteris…
Queens of academe: Beauty pageantry, student bodies, and college life
No abstract available
The submergence and re-emergence of gender in undergraduate accounts of university experience
Gender distinction has been shown to characterise both undergraduate experiences and outcomes. Yet research recounted in this article supports work that shows that young people are often unaware of such trends, subscribing instead to individualist perspectives that foreground equality of opportunity and agency. This article examines the gender continuities and divergences in 64 undergraduate students' accounts of their experiences, and constructi…
Research policy and academic performativity: Compliance, Contestation and Complicity
Research, a major purpose of higher education, has become increasingly important in a context of global economic competitiveness. In this paper, we draw on data from email interviews with academics in Britain to explore responses to current research policy trends. Although the majority of academics expressed opposition to current policy developments, most were nevertheless complying with research imperatives. Informed by a Foucauldian conceptuali…
Gender, popularity and notions of in/authenticity amongst 12‐year‐old to 13‐year‐old school girls
This paper draws on data from a research project investigating gendered identities and interactions of high‐achieving students in Year Eight in England (12–13 years old), particularly in relation to students’ ‘popularity’ amongst their peers. As part of this study 71 students were interviewed from nine different schools in urban, rural and small town locations. From an analysis of participants’ conceptions of the characteristics of ‘popular’ and …
Britney, Beyoncé, and me – primary school girls’ role models and constructions of the ‘popular’ girl
This paper looks at the ways in which the gendered social construction of the ‘popular girl’ infuses girls’ ideas as to their role models: those representing who they would like to be when they ‘grow up’. It will look at the ways in which the gendered characteristics that are seen to be of most value to girls (often embodied by ‘celebrities’ such as Britney and Beyoncé) often reflect socially dominant constructions of femininity. These characteri…
The simultaneous production of educational achievement and popularity: How do some pupils accomplish it
In spite of research showing that pupils—particularly boys—tend to experience tension between high academic achievement and popularity with peers at school, some pupils continue to maintain simultaneous production of both. This article focuses on a sample of 12–13 year‐old pupils, identified as high achieving and popular, to examine classroom subjectivities, with attention to their practices around gender and educational achievement. Data are dra…
Gender ‘matters’ in the primary classroom: Pupils' and teachers' perspectives
A recent project involving Year 3 (seven–eight year‐old) pupils and their teachers revealed that ‘gender matters’ differently to boys and girls, and teachers. The study sought to elicit whether pupils and their teachers felt the gender of a teacher mattered to their experiences of schooling. Pupils were concerned about how effective teachers were in carrying out their professional functions and a teacher's gender was subsumed within this. For the…
A perfect match? Pupils’ and teachers’ views of the impact of matching educators and learners by gender
British government policy on teacher recruitment gives a high priority to increasing the number of male teachers, particularly in primary schools. This focus stems from concern to challenge ‘boys’ underachievement’: policy‐makers believe that ‘matching’ teachers and pupils by gender will improve boys’ engagement with school. Yet there is little evidence to support such assumptions which, as this article notes, are predicated on out‐dated theories…
Challenging Cultures? Student Conceptions of 'Belonging' and 'Isolation' at a Post-1992 University
Academic culture is not uniformly accessed or experienced. Whilst financial constraints have a major impact on student entry and retention, students from 'non-traditional' backgrounds are also disadvantaged by institutional cultures that place them as 'other'. Individuals do not passively receive these cultural discourses, however, but actively engage with them and attempt to challenge them. This article explores such negotiations by looking at s…
Research policy and academic performativity: Compliance, Contestation and Complicity
Research, a major purpose of higher education, has become increasingly important in a context of global economic competitiveness. In this paper, we draw on data from email interviews with academics in Britain to explore responses to current research policy trends. Although the majority of academics expressed opposition to current policy developments, most were nevertheless complying with research imperatives. Informed by a Foucauldian conceptuali…
Britney, Beyoncé, and me – primary school girls’ role models and constructions of the ‘popular’ girl
This paper looks at the ways in which the gendered social construction of the ‘popular girl’ infuses girls’ ideas as to their role models: those representing who they would like to be when they ‘grow up’. It will look at the ways in which the gendered characteristics that are seen to be of most value to girls (often embodied by ‘celebrities’ such as Britney and Beyoncé) often reflect socially dominant constructions of femininity. These characteri…
The simultaneous production of educational achievement and popularity: How do some pupils accomplish it
In spite of research showing that pupils—particularly boys—tend to experience tension between high academic achievement and popularity with peers at school, some pupils continue to maintain simultaneous production of both. This article focuses on a sample of 12–13 year‐old pupils, identified as high achieving and popular, to examine classroom subjectivities, with attention to their practices around gender and educational achievement. Data are dra…
A perfect match? Pupils’ and teachers’ views of the impact of matching educators and learners by gender
British government policy on teacher recruitment gives a high priority to increasing the number of male teachers, particularly in primary schools. This focus stems from concern to challenge ‘boys’ underachievement’: policy‐makers believe that ‘matching’ teachers and pupils by gender will improve boys’ engagement with school. Yet there is little evidence to support such assumptions which, as this article notes, are predicated on out‐dated theories…
It is like school sometimes: Friendship and Sociality on University Campuses and Patterns of Social Inequality
Whilst most social and educational research on friendship focuses on children at school, it remains a crucially important factor for students in higher education – and can play a key role in the maintenance, exacerbation or subversion of dominant forms of social inequalities. This paper explores the complexities of such dynamics in relation to friendship and social life at university, utilising data from an in-depth qualitative study of HE studen…
Women as leaders of higher education institutions: A British-German comparison
Across the vast majority of countries women are a significant minority in senior academic positions, and as of 2013 only 17% of vice chancellors (VCs) of UK universities and 12% of German Universities were women. This paper discusses findings from a study consisting of interviews with eight female VCs of British and German higher education institutions. The paper takes a feminist poststructuralist approach to look at the ways in which characteris…
Gender, popularity and notions of in/authenticity amongst 12‐year‐old to 13‐year‐old school girls
This paper draws on data from a research project investigating gendered identities and interactions of high‐achieving students in Year Eight in England (12–13 years old), particularly in relation to students’ ‘popularity’ amongst their peers. As part of this study 71 students were interviewed from nine different schools in urban, rural and small town locations. From an analysis of participants’ conceptions of the characteristics of ‘popular’ and …
The submergence and re-emergence of gender in undergraduate accounts of university experience
Gender distinction has been shown to characterise both undergraduate experiences and outcomes. Yet research recounted in this article supports work that shows that young people are often unaware of such trends, subscribing instead to individualist perspectives that foreground equality of opportunity and agency. This article examines the gender continuities and divergences in 64 undergraduate students' accounts of their experiences, and constructi…
Playing Safe: Undergraduate essay writing and the presentation of the student 'voice
For undergraduate students, the act of essay writing involves not only the struggle to understand and critically engage with a particular area of knowledge, but also the struggle to successfully utilise the language that must be used in order to communicate this engagement. Based on interviews with final-year undergraduates from four different universities, this article focuses on the difficulties students face in acquiring the language necessary…
An Analysis of Undergraduate Writing Styles in the Context of Gender and Achievement
Despite the increased use of blind-marking in undergraduate examinations, gendered patterns persist in the figures on achievement at undergraduate level in British universities. It has been suggested that in the humanities, such differences in achievement might be explained by differences in writing style according to gender. This article examines data drawn from an analysis of undergraduate students' writing in order to investigate the extent to…
Compelled to Compete: Chinese graduates on employment and social mobility after international and domestic study
Gender ‘matters’ in the primary classroom: Pupils' and teachers' perspectives
A recent project involving Year 3 (seven–eight year‐old) pupils and their teachers revealed that ‘gender matters’ differently to boys and girls, and teachers. The study sought to elicit whether pupils and their teachers felt the gender of a teacher mattered to their experiences of schooling. Pupils were concerned about how effective teachers were in carrying out their professional functions and a teacher's gender was subsumed within this. For the…
University Lecturers' Perceptions of Gender and Undergraduate Writing
It has been argued that male and female undergraduates adopt different, gendered writing styles. This paper discusses findings from a project that examined this issue, and explores lecturers' perceptions of gender and undergraduate writing. It shows that, in the case of 'second-class' awarded essays, a majority of academics were unable to correctly identify the authors gender. Applying analysis of discourse to the explanations of academics concer…
Men’s participation in early childhood education and care (Ecec): Comparative perspectives from Edinburgh, Scotland and Tianjin, China
At the global level, prominent narratives about improving the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) promote the recruitment of men into the profession. However, comparing across different policy and practice settings demonstrates contrasting expressions and experiences of how men contribute to ECEC. This article presents findings from a study in Edinburgh, Scotland and Tianjin, China. The study explored how male and female practiti…
Casualised academic staff and the lecturer-student relationship: Shame, (Im)permanence and (Il)legitimacy
This paper is based on findings from an email interview study with 20 academics (17 women, 3 men) in the UK on short-term, insecure or ‘casualised’ contracts. The paper focuses on their perceptions of the effect their contract status has on the lecturer/student relationship: particularly in regard to student perceptions of their legitimacy and status. Using a poststructuralist theoretical lens, we explore lecturers’ concerns or anxieties as to wh…
Tomorrow’s a mystery: Constructions of the future and ‘un/becoming’ amongst ‘early’ and ‘late’ career academics
Constructing a secure sense of a professional future has become increasingly difficult for early career researchers, whilst concerns about present and future job in/security have also been expressed in relation to already-established academics. In this paper, we draw on qualitative data from a U.K. study to explore everyday conceptualisations of the future for both ‘early career’ and ‘late career’ academics, in the context of increased fears and …
Male and female teachers’ evaluative responses to gender and the implications of these for the learning environments of primary age pupils
This paper adopts a social constructionist position on assessment, specifically that it can never be free of the social conditions in which it is practiced. As such, we explore two aspects of classroom interactions which contribute to and shape the learning environments in which assessment takes place. By drawing on interviews carried out with 51 teachers and 307 Year 3 (7–8‐year‐old) pupils the paper demonstrates where and how beliefs and attitu…
The world must stop when I’m talking’: Gender and power relations in primary teachers’ classroom talk
The present paper examines male and female teachers’ language practices in relation to ‘censuring’ talk in the primary classroom, in the context of the debate around boys’ ‘underachievement’ and the ‘feminisation’ of primary school culture. Through an analysis of classroom observations with 51 men and women teachers, it looks to see whether gender differences could be found in the ways individual men and women teachers communicated in terms of th…
Gender, student confidence and communicative styles at university: The Views of Lecturers in History and Psychology
This study examines the perceptions of 100 university lecturers in history and psychology regarding the impact of gender on their students' achievement. Qualitative data were gathered from semi‐structured interviews and analysed according to discipline and gender of respondent. Key findings were that most respondents (with the exception of most female history lecturers) did not believe gender had an impact on essay writing style but that it did h…
International student-parents in UK higher education: A temporal analysis of their intersectional experiences and challenges
Educational research in the global north and south; reflections on the field and future directions
Editorial
Fathers' Experiences of Juggling Work and Family Life in Abu Dhabi Workplaces
In academic literature, fathers often cite barriers related to their employment, which may halt or negatively influence their level of involvement with their children. This is sometimes reported in relation to practices and policies around leave, such as for new-born children or child illness, and flexibility in leaving the workplace to attend key events in children's lives. Research has also shown that fathers receiving validation of their pater…
Historical Representations and the Gendered Battleground of the 'Past: A Study of the Canterbury Heritage Museum
Historical Representations and the Gendered Battleground of the 'Past: A Study of the Canterbury Heritage Museum
Playing Safe: Undergraduate essay writing and the presentation of the student 'voice
For undergraduate students, the act of essay writing involves not only the struggle to understand and critically engage with a particular area of knowledge, but also the struggle to successfully utilise the language that must be used in order to communicate this engagement. Based on interviews with final-year undergraduates from four different universities, this article focuses on the difficulties students face in acquiring the language necessary…
Playing Safe: Undergraduate essay writing and the presentation of the student 'voice
For undergraduate students, the act of essay writing involves not only the struggle to understand and critically engage with a particular area of knowledge, but also the struggle to successfully utilise the language that must be used in order to communicate this engagement. Based on interviews with final-year undergraduates from four different universities, this article focuses on the difficulties students face in acquiring the language necessary…
An Analysis of Undergraduate Writing Styles in the Context of Gender and Achievement
Despite the increased use of blind-marking in undergraduate examinations, gendered patterns persist in the figures on achievement at undergraduate level in British universities. It has been suggested that in the humanities, such differences in achievement might be explained by differences in writing style according to gender. This article examines data drawn from an analysis of undergraduate students' writing in order to investigate the extent to…
University Lecturers' Perceptions of Gender and Undergraduate Writing
It has been argued that male and female undergraduates adopt different, gendered writing styles. This paper discusses findings from a project that examined this issue, and explores lecturers' perceptions of gender and undergraduate writing. It shows that, in the case of 'second-class' awarded essays, a majority of academics were unable to correctly identify the authors gender. Applying analysis of discourse to the explanations of academics concer…
Challenging Cultures? Student Conceptions of 'Belonging' and 'Isolation' at a Post-1992 University
Academic culture is not uniformly accessed or experienced. Whilst financial constraints have a major impact on student entry and retention, students from 'non-traditional' backgrounds are also disadvantaged by institutional cultures that place them as 'other'. Individuals do not passively receive these cultural discourses, however, but actively engage with them and attempt to challenge them. This article explores such negotiations by looking at s…
Gender, student confidence and communicative styles at university: The Views of Lecturers in History and Psychology
This study examines the perceptions of 100 university lecturers in history and psychology regarding the impact of gender on their students' achievement. Qualitative data were gathered from semi‐structured interviews and analysed according to discipline and gender of respondent. Key findings were that most respondents (with the exception of most female history lecturers) did not believe gender had an impact on essay writing style but that it did h…
Gender, ‘bias’, assessment and feedback: Analyzing the written assessment of undergraduate history essays
This paper reports on findings relating to a project on gender and essay assessment in HE. It focuses on one aspect of the study: the assessment of and feedback given to two sample essays by 50 historians based at universities in England and Wales. We found considerable variation both as to the classification awarded to the essays and to positive and negative comments made about their quality, supporting the argument that the ‘quality’ of a piece…
Male and female teachers’ evaluative responses to gender and the implications of these for the learning environments of primary age pupils
This paper adopts a social constructionist position on assessment, specifically that it can never be free of the social conditions in which it is practiced. As such, we explore two aspects of classroom interactions which contribute to and shape the learning environments in which assessment takes place. By drawing on interviews carried out with 51 teachers and 307 Year 3 (7–8‐year‐old) pupils the paper demonstrates where and how beliefs and attitu…
A perfect match? Pupils’ and teachers’ views of the impact of matching educators and learners by gender
British government policy on teacher recruitment gives a high priority to increasing the number of male teachers, particularly in primary schools. This focus stems from concern to challenge ‘boys’ underachievement’: policy‐makers believe that ‘matching’ teachers and pupils by gender will improve boys’ engagement with school. Yet there is little evidence to support such assumptions which, as this article notes, are predicated on out‐dated theories…
The world must stop when I’m talking’: Gender and power relations in primary teachers’ classroom talk
The present paper examines male and female teachers’ language practices in relation to ‘censuring’ talk in the primary classroom, in the context of the debate around boys’ ‘underachievement’ and the ‘feminisation’ of primary school culture. Through an analysis of classroom observations with 51 men and women teachers, it looks to see whether gender differences could be found in the ways individual men and women teachers communicated in terms of th…
Gender ‘matters’ in the primary classroom: Pupils' and teachers' perspectives
A recent project involving Year 3 (seven–eight year‐old) pupils and their teachers revealed that ‘gender matters’ differently to boys and girls, and teachers. The study sought to elicit whether pupils and their teachers felt the gender of a teacher mattered to their experiences of schooling. Pupils were concerned about how effective teachers were in carrying out their professional functions and a teacher's gender was subsumed within this. For the…
Britney, Beyoncé, and me – primary school girls’ role models and constructions of the ‘popular’ girl
This paper looks at the ways in which the gendered social construction of the ‘popular girl’ infuses girls’ ideas as to their role models: those representing who they would like to be when they ‘grow up’. It will look at the ways in which the gendered characteristics that are seen to be of most value to girls (often embodied by ‘celebrities’ such as Britney and Beyoncé) often reflect socially dominant constructions of femininity. These characteri…
The simultaneous production of educational achievement and popularity: How do some pupils accomplish it
In spite of research showing that pupils—particularly boys—tend to experience tension between high academic achievement and popularity with peers at school, some pupils continue to maintain simultaneous production of both. This article focuses on a sample of 12–13 year‐old pupils, identified as high achieving and popular, to examine classroom subjectivities, with attention to their practices around gender and educational achievement. Data are dra…
Gender, popularity and notions of in/authenticity amongst 12‐year‐old to 13‐year‐old school girls
This paper draws on data from a research project investigating gendered identities and interactions of high‐achieving students in Year Eight in England (12–13 years old), particularly in relation to students’ ‘popularity’ amongst their peers. As part of this study 71 students were interviewed from nine different schools in urban, rural and small town locations. From an analysis of participants’ conceptions of the characteristics of ‘popular’ and …
The submergence and re-emergence of gender in undergraduate accounts of university experience
Gender distinction has been shown to characterise both undergraduate experiences and outcomes. Yet research recounted in this article supports work that shows that young people are often unaware of such trends, subscribing instead to individualist perspectives that foreground equality of opportunity and agency. This article examines the gender continuities and divergences in 64 undergraduate students' accounts of their experiences, and constructi…
Research policy and academic performativity: Compliance, Contestation and Complicity
Research, a major purpose of higher education, has become increasingly important in a context of global economic competitiveness. In this paper, we draw on data from email interviews with academics in Britain to explore responses to current research policy trends. Although the majority of academics expressed opposition to current policy developments, most were nevertheless complying with research imperatives. Informed by a Foucauldian conceptuali…
Queens of academe: Beauty pageantry, student bodies, and college life
No abstract available
Women as leaders of higher education institutions: A British-German comparison
Across the vast majority of countries women are a significant minority in senior academic positions, and as of 2013 only 17% of vice chancellors (VCs) of UK universities and 12% of German Universities were women. This paper discusses findings from a study consisting of interviews with eight female VCs of British and German higher education institutions. The paper takes a feminist poststructuralist approach to look at the ways in which characteris…
Tomorrow’s a mystery: Constructions of the future and ‘un/becoming’ amongst ‘early’ and ‘late’ career academics
Constructing a secure sense of a professional future has become increasingly difficult for early career researchers, whilst concerns about present and future job in/security have also been expressed in relation to already-established academics. In this paper, we draw on qualitative data from a U.K. study to explore everyday conceptualisations of the future for both ‘early career’ and ‘late career’ academics, in the context of increased fears and …
Casualised academic staff and the lecturer-student relationship: Shame, (Im)permanence and (Il)legitimacy
This paper is based on findings from an email interview study with 20 academics (17 women, 3 men) in the UK on short-term, insecure or ‘casualised’ contracts. The paper focuses on their perceptions of the effect their contract status has on the lecturer/student relationship: particularly in regard to student perceptions of their legitimacy and status. Using a poststructuralist theoretical lens, we explore lecturers’ concerns or anxieties as to wh…
It is like school sometimes: Friendship and Sociality on University Campuses and Patterns of Social Inequality
Whilst most social and educational research on friendship focuses on children at school, it remains a crucially important factor for students in higher education – and can play a key role in the maintenance, exacerbation or subversion of dominant forms of social inequalities. This paper explores the complexities of such dynamics in relation to friendship and social life at university, utilising data from an in-depth qualitative study of HE studen…
Compelled to Compete: Chinese graduates on employment and social mobility after international and domestic study
Short-term, short-changed? A temporal perspective on the implications of academic casualisation for teaching in higher education
The increasing casualisation of academic labour over recent years has been noted across the global north. In the UK, this takes a number of forms, including fixed term, hourly paid and zero hours contracts. What tends to characterise them all, however, is a focus on the short-term. In this paper, we draw on a qualitative study with 20 UK-based academics on casualised contracts to consider the implications of the short-term nature of such employme…
Men’s participation in early childhood education and care (Ecec): Comparative perspectives from Edinburgh, Scotland and Tianjin, China
At the global level, prominent narratives about improving the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) promote the recruitment of men into the profession. However, comparing across different policy and practice settings demonstrates contrasting expressions and experiences of how men contribute to ECEC. This article presents findings from a study in Edinburgh, Scotland and Tianjin, China. The study explored how male and female practiti…
Sociology (29 works) · Psychology (23 works) · Gender Studies (20 works) · Pedagogy (20 works) · Political science (17 works) · Higher education (15 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Gender Studies (12 works) · Social science (11 works) · Gender Roles and Identity Studies (9 works)