Search results

The paper aims to shed light on how a group of feminist managers/leaders, in education and social studies departments, a notably under-explored and under-theorised group, “do power” in the increasingly corporatized education marketplace.

The research draws on the narratives of a small group of feminist women who hold authority positions at middle or senior levels. It draws on data from ethnographic interviews and participant observation carried out as part of an in-depth narrative inquiry (Andrews et al., 2008), carried out at three higher education institutions in the UK.

From a small sample such as this, any findings are necessarily tentative. Nonetheless, findings suggest that, whilst taking account of individual differences in styles, there has been a shift, over time, in the ways that the management role is approached by some feminist women. Analysis of the data also reveals that gendered expectations remain for those who carry the “feminist” label and asks whether these expectations are realistic.

The sample group is small which raises questions about what can and cannot be claimed. However, along with Maguire (2008), the author’s purpose is not with generalizability but seeks to explore issues and open up further areas of study.

This paper is an original empirical research which explores an under-researched group of women, namely, feminist managers and leaders who operate within the education marketplace. As they negotiate the challenges of working within the neoliberal academy, these women try, to varying degrees, to remain true to their feminist values and beliefs.

The purpose of this paper is to address an under-explored and under-theorised aspect of gender work in UK academia in that it looks at the professional lives of middle and senior women managers and leaders who are responsible for initial teacher training in their institutions. As Maguire (2002) and Murray (2002, 2006) point out, within academia, teacher trainers occupy a particularly under-researched space despite some recent interest (Korthagen and Vasalos, 2005; Thompson, 2007).

This research draws on a larger study which explored how 22 middle and senior managers and leaders in ten institutions in England try to come to terms with carrying out their roles in the education marketplace. In-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out with these women and data were also collected from field notes from participant observation undertaken at three of the institutions.

Whereas some women are moving into positions of authority in the education marketplace, some existing women managers are being marginalised within new internally differentiated layers of managerial structures. Simultaneously, many women who manage teacher training are engaged in a struggle for survival individually and professionally. Those who succeed have managed to re-invent themselves to endorse neo-liberal discourses.

Original empirical research which sheds new light on previous discourses related to women managers in neo-liberal academia.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the twentieth to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items in English published in 1993. A few are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.

Purpose – This chapter highlights two studies, one in Canada and one in the United Kingdom. The Canadian study focused on the examination of student experiences with respect to specific ‘difficult’ content in the classroom. The purpose of the study was to identify ways that were effective and engaging for students to learn. The UK study examined issues of access, retention and drop-out of non-traditional students in higher education. The study examined the learning experiences of women who returned to learning after being out of the education system for some time.

Methodology – The Canadian study used surveys and interviews. Participants were recruited on the basis of their enrolment in specific classes. The UK study used interview samples drawn from student data in three universities. In each university, a cohort was followed and interviewed three times while in another cohort students were interviewed in their first year of study and different cohort in their final year of study.

Approach – Both studies use a feminist, narrative approach that relies on reflexive engagement in the research process.

Findings and implications – The studies highlight that the classroom is a place where dialogue and engagement occur; where the identities of the participants and their learning are in a dynamic process; and where the learners challenge attitudes and ideologies such as capitalism and forms of marginalisation. The studies revealed that learning has a social value and entreats women to reconsider their lives, work and citizenship.

Equestrian sports offer a rare opportunity to bring male and female athletes together as competitors and team members, and women's historic participation in this field has been on the rise worldwide. Nonetheless, as our own previous research on the elite world of show jumping has shown, there are a series of cultural and institutional factors that have operated – within the Brazilian context – to restrict horsewomen's access to the highest international levels and thereby acquire the visibility, success and celebrity status that have been awarded to its most prominent male equestrians. Women's entrance into the still very masculine world of horse racing has proven even more difficult. The work presented here, part of a broader ethnographic study of gender, space and sport at the racetrack, looks at the paths taken by young Brazilian women jockeys – in this case, of predominantly poor and working class origin – in their pioneering incursion into the male preserve of the turf. We focus on questions of subjectivity, construction of identities and negotiation of space, insofar as these processes both reflect and contribute to changing gender relations in contemporary Brazilian society.

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the twenty‐second to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items in English published in 1995. After 21 years, the title of this review of the literature has been changed from “Library Orientation and Instruction” to “Library Instruction and Information Literacy,” to indicate the growing trend of moving to information skills instruction.

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the seventeenth to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items, in English published in 1990. A few are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.

This study aims to examine the relationship of work–family demands with employees’ well-being, and the role of management/supervisory support in this relationship. The following hypotheses were proposed: work–family demands would be negatively related to employees’ well-being; management/supervisory support would moderate the relationship of work–family demands with employees’ well-being.

The researchers used 250 working female academicians as respondents, working in the research universities in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Their ages ranged from 30 to 60 years.

The findings of the present study proved that the work–family demands were negatively associated with employees’ well-being. Results also revealed that management and supervisory support strengthens the relationship between work–family demands and employees’ well-being. Thus, management and supervisory support plays an important role in balancing work demands and family roles and also in increasing working female academicians’ well-being.

In this study, management and supervisory support was found to be directly related to well-being, including life satisfaction, job satisfaction and family satisfaction. However, the direct relationship between management/supervisory support and well-being was positive and significant. This study also found that management/supervisor support reduced work–family conflict and work–family demands. Also, supervisory and management support was found to have a significant and positive relationship with well-being. Given these findings, supervisory and management support plays a very important role as a moderator of work–family demands and in developing and improving well-being in working women.