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1 – 10 of 67Jakov Jandrić, Rick Delbridge and Paolo Quattrone
The increasing push towards centralisation and bureaucratisation in higher education, further exacerbated by the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, calls for a better…
Abstract
The increasing push towards centralisation and bureaucratisation in higher education, further exacerbated by the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, calls for a better understanding of the nature of collegiality in contemporary universities. We address this issue by looking into the necessary conditions and barriers to sustaining a collegiate environment. The empirical focus is on academics, academic leaders and professional support staff at Anonymous Business School (ABS), a department in a large civic UK university. We interviewed 32 participants across the school, ranging from early-career academics to experienced professors and members of department leadership teams. The findings suggest multiple emerging perspectives on collegiality, with features of horizontal collegiality perceived as key to successful academic responses to the crisis. The findings also indicate how sustaining a collegiate environment within the department requires both choice and effort from leadership and from staff, particularly when decision-making is primarily located at the centre of the university. The choice and effort made across different collegiate pockets contribute to the department becoming an ‘island of collegiality’ within the increasingly centralised and bureaucratised university hierarchy. In this sense, the actions of the department leadership to establish supporting mechanisms, and the actions of the staff to, in turn, embrace and build interpersonal relationships and professional identities, are key to sustaining a collegiate environment.
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This paper explores the idea of the prudent entrepreneurial self, through re-conceptualizing prudence into the domain of entrepreneurial education, to unite the two processes of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the idea of the prudent entrepreneurial self, through re-conceptualizing prudence into the domain of entrepreneurial education, to unite the two processes of becoming enterprising and entrepreneurial. It is argued that developing a capacity for prudence among graduates involves past, present and conjecture forms of knowledge that the authors find in the interplay between individuation and social awareness.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on Palmer's idea of wholeness, the authors discuss six poles of paradoxes in entrepreneurial education and in conjunction establish a philosophical argument for the idea of stimulating the development of prudence as fundamentally important to contemporary notions of entrepreneurial education.
Findings
The paper presents a model to develop a schema that moves students towards becoming prudent entrepreneurial selves. The model rests on two interrelated developmental processes – individuation and social awareness – conditional for developing the three forms of knowledge (past, present and conjecture) that makes up prudence where developing prudence is a means to handle or cope with the unknown.
Research limitations/implications
This paper argues that for enterprise and entrepreneurship education to realize their potential contributions, both the relationships between each field and the overarching purpose that ties the fields together need to be rethought, and the poles of paradoxes need to be connected to further develop both fields and creating wholeness for the emerging scholarly discipline.
Practical implications
To educate towards the prudent entrepreneurial self means educating towards an unknown end where student development aims to meet both the objectives of individual development and the growth in social awareness required to handle the changing nature of contemporary society.
Originality/value
This study philosophically conceives a united enterprise and entrepreneurship education landscape in which deeper student learning makes possible the notion of the prudent entrepreneurial self.
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The study seeks to understand what teachers know about students’ friend networks and how they use that information for instruction.
Abstract
Purpose
The study seeks to understand what teachers know about students’ friend networks and how they use that information for instruction.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study relied on interviews and sociograms that teachers drew of students’ friend networks.
Findings
Our data suggest that teachers’ awareness of their students’ friend networks varies by their experience and their exposure to students. Also, their use of this information for instruction coalesces around dimensions of grouping and social support.
Research limitations/implications
This study took place at one school. To more deeply understand what teachers perceive about their students’ friend networks and how they use that information for instruction, more studies could be done with teachers in more schools.
Practical implications
Implications might suggest developing teachers’ social competence to support their students’ learning and development.
Originality/value
While studies cited in this paper have explored teachers’ knowledge of students’ social networks, this study builds on this work by exploring how that information can be useful for instruction. In addition, this study explores the use of teachers drawing sociograms as representations of what they know about students’ friend networks.
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Hans-Peter Degn, Steven Hadley and Louise Ejgod Hansen
During the evaluation of European Capital of Culture (ECoC) Aarhus 2017, the evaluation organisation rethinkIMPACTS 2017 formulated a set of “dilemmas” capturing the main…
Abstract
Purpose
During the evaluation of European Capital of Culture (ECoC) Aarhus 2017, the evaluation organisation rethinkIMPACTS 2017 formulated a set of “dilemmas” capturing the main challenges arising during the design of the ECoC evaluation. This functioned as a framework for the evaluation process. This paper aims to present and discuss the relevance of the “Evaluation Dilemmas Model” as subsequently applied to the Galway 2020 ECoC programme evaluation.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper takes an empirical approach including auto-ethnography and interview data to document and map the dilemmas involved in undertaking an evaluation in two different European cities. Evolved via a process of practice-based research, the article addresses the development of and the arguments for the dilemmas model and considers its potential for wider applicability in the evaluation of large-scale cultural projects.
Findings
The authors conclude that the “Evaluation Dilemmas Model” is a valuable heuristic for considering the endogenous and exogenous issues in cultural evaluation.
Practical implications
The model developed is useful for a wide range of cultural evaluation processes including – but not limited to – European Capitals of Culture.
Originality/value
What has not been addressed in the academic literature is the process of evaluating ECoCs; especially how evaluators often take part in an overall process that is not just about the evaluation but also planning and delivering a project that includes stakeholder management and the development of evaluation criteria, design and methods.
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Recent studies in education attempt to ‘criminologise’ some of the current practices and policies of higher education institutions – that is, to deconstruct certain philosophies…
Abstract
Recent studies in education attempt to ‘criminologise’ some of the current practices and policies of higher education institutions – that is, to deconstruct certain philosophies and practices which may be discriminatory, offensive, and biased to certain social groups. Recent theoretical frameworks problematize current higher education policies, many of which are taken for granted. This paper adopts a critical perspective, shedding light on some practices as they occur in higher educational institutions, by human and non-human agencies. The study applies a ‘detective’ approach examining some problematic uses of technology a higher education institution. In this proposed approach, researchers play the role of ‘detectives’, investigating possible breaches of good practice (possibly discriminatory) committed by higher education actors (referred hereafter as ‘defendants’). Most of these offences are committed through the use of educational and institutional technologies. The purpose of this theoretical approach is to empower alienated social groups against such practices by identifying ‘defendants’ and the implications of their acts. The study uses empirical data from interviews, visits, and observations to explain the ways in which defendants respond to the accusations levelled against them by other users of educational technologies. The investigation revealed that technology was used, among many other functions, to manoeuvre around the legal and ethical system serving the interests of some stakeholders. Then, the study categorises these manoeuvres, explaining the legal implications of each category, and recommending consideration of important academic and institutional issues.
Laura Moloney and Daniela Rohde
Physical activity is associated with both physical and mental health benefits for people with psychosis. However, mental health services have been criticised for failing to…
Abstract
Purpose
Physical activity is associated with both physical and mental health benefits for people with psychosis. However, mental health services have been criticised for failing to adequately promote physical activities. Occupational Therapy, with its focus on meaningful everyday occupations, is well placed to incorporate physical activity interventions. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of men with psychosis participating in an Irish community-based football programme.
Design/methodology/approach
Six men with psychosis participated in qualitative interviews. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Interview data were analysed thematically.
Findings
Participants identified many benefits of engaging in the programme. Football became a valued part of weekly routines and fostered re-engagement with previously valued roles. Participants identified improvements in social confidence and motor and process skills, as well as a positive impact on their mental and physical health.
Originality/value
This study highlights the value and meaning of participation in football for men with psychosis, as well as demonstrating the longer-term feasibility of football as a therapeutic medium in Occupational Therapy mental health service provision. Findings could help to promote the routine use of sports interventions to mental health services.
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