scholarly journals ‘Embedded into the core’: The discursive construction of ‘policy’ in higher education learning and teaching documents and its recontextualisation in practices

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 478-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Horrod
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Quality ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Policy Compliance ◽  
Teaching Excellence ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
The Core ◽  
Policy Ideas

With increasing competition and metrics focusing on teaching quality (e.g. the teaching excellence framework or TEF), there is a spotlight on learning and teaching (L&T) in policies and practices within universities. Bodies at national and institutional levels focus on disseminating policy ideas on L&T which are oriented to government priorities. This article focuses on how policy itself is discursively constructed in selected L&T policy documents and explores the means of the recontextualisation of policy discourses. I discuss the following three findings: (1) the construction of policy as ‘embedded within processes and practices’, (2) shifts in genre and discursive strategies as policy ideas become short guidelines and (3) the role of ‘discursive mechanisms’ in forcing engagement with policy ideas. Through an analysis of discursive strategies and recontextualisation, I demonstrate the seeming insecurity around policy compliance and show how constructions of L&T are never value-free.

scholarly journals Social Sustainability and Transformation in Higher Educational Settings: A Utopia or Possibility?

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 4176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lili-Ann Wolff ◽  
Peter Ehrström
Keyword(s):  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Sustainable Leadership ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Educational Levels ◽  
The Core ◽  
Leadership Framework ◽  
Definition Of

Social sustainability is a dimension of sustainability that has received little attention. Our aims in this article are to create a definition of social sustainability based on a comprehensive literature study, and to discuss the implementation of the concept in higher education settings at theoretical and practical levels. We also aim to answer the question of whether it is possible to achieve a socially sustainable and transformative practice in educational contexts. Our approach in the study is critical and reflective and, firstly, built on a literature review including policy documents, research articles and books on sustainability from the perspectives of education and social studies. Secondly, we provide examples of practice from four university sustainability courses. In these courses, social sustainability appears in an interdisciplinary and a sustainable leadership framework. The conclusion from this study is that it is possible to implement social sustainability in various ways at the course level. We identify elementary features at basic, personal and educational levels that facilitate the implementation. However, we see the inclusion of social sustainability as the only way to reshape education and rethink the role of educational institutions. In this reshaping, ethics is the core.

scholarly journals Critical Reflection on the Maltese Legal Framework and the Policy Documents in Relation to the Role of the Educational Leader

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. p1
Author(s):  
Doreen Said Pace
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Style ◽  
Distributed Leadership ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
Educational Leader ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Core Business ◽  
The Core ◽  
Education Act

In Malta, the core role of the educational leader is to be a curricular leader whilst attending to student matters, teaching personnel, home-school-community links, administration and finance. Research recommends that such expectation can be best fulfilled through the adoption of a distributed leadership style. However, when analyzing the Maltese legal contextual background laid out in the Laws of Malta - Education Act, the subsequent Government documents and the job description for the post of Head of School (HOS) to identify whether the theoretical stance and what is requested in practice align, the findings indicate that the suggested styles in the legal framework do not align clearly well with the policy documents and the practice thus possibly creating certain conflicts and confusion. The point being made is that notwithstanding being knowledgeable about what should be the core business of the school leader if the laws state otherwise, then the educational practitioners will end in a dilemma between the theory and the practice. Consequently, here, it will be emphasized that the legal documentation’s expectations of the system guiding the work of the educational leaders should not only be adjourned but more importantly, should promote more the distributed leadership role more clearly and allow the school leaders to fulfill what they are expected to do by reducing, or better still, removing unnecessary administrative work that alienates them from their core business.

Intellectual Property in an Innovation-based Economy

2008 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heiki Pisuke ◽  
Aleksei Kelli
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Entrepreneurial Universities ◽  
Industrial Property ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
The Core ◽  
Considerable Impact ◽  
Basic Course ◽  
Innovation Processes

AbstractThe process of transformation into an innovation-based economy has had a considerable impact on the intellectual property (IP) system. IP has become an integral part of innovative processes. These developments have led to changes in IP concepts. The authors argue that the notion of IP must include both legal (IP as rights) and economic (IP as an asset) aspects. The balance between different kinds of IP (copyright, related rights, industrial property) within innovation processes should be reviewed in order to acknowledge the rightful place of copyright as the core of IP and IP culture. Nevertheless, the major tools for enhancing innovation are still based on industrial property. The role of IP in different kinds of policy documents should be increased. In order to fully exploit the potential of IP, it is necessary to enhance the development of supportive infrastructure for the utilization and commercialization of IP (intellectual infrastructure). Such infrastructure should support the functioning of IP systems, identifying new knowledge and transfering knowledge from entrepreneurial universities to industry. Raising public awareness about practical aspects of IP and fostering IP competencies are of paramount importance. Teaching IP at universities and adopting university IP policies form an important part of this process. According to the vision of the authors, a basic course on IP should be taught at every university to all students. Specialized IP courses should be part of the curricula at the faculties of law, economics, engineering, biology, philosophy, etc. The authors outline the Estonian experience with regard to these issues.

scholarly journals Setting The Standards For Sessional Staff: Quality Learning And Teaching

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 52-85
Author(s):  
Marina Harvey ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Quality ◽  
National Standards ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Teaching Standards ◽  
The Face ◽  
Potential Strategy ◽  
Quality Learning

Across the Australian Higher Education sector a focus on quality is driving a new paradigm for learning and teaching: quality standards. One challenge is to engage all academics with this progress towards systematic quality enhancement and assurance. Sessional staff, who provide most of the face-to-face teaching in Australian universities, remain at the periphery of learning and teaching. Any development of standards must therefore proactively address the role of sessional staff in attaining and achieving quality learning and teaching. Building on seminal research on sessional staff, this paper argues the need for standards as a potential strategy for quality learning and teaching with sessional staff. The rationale for, and process of, developing national standards is outlined and the learning and teaching standards are introduced.

scholarly journals The role of teaching observations: Developing or managing academic practice?

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Compton
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Development ◽  
Education Programme ◽  
Teaching Quality ◽  
Further Education ◽  
Teaching Excellence ◽  
Development Activity ◽  
Professional Development Activity ◽  
Positive Engagement ◽  
Managerial Mechanism

Observations of teaching are becoming increasingly common in Higher Education, often as part of a peer observation project, taught teacher education programme or other professional development activity. In the context of the evolving Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), this paper argues that teaching observations can and should play a central role in developing teaching quality but that there needs to be clarity about the value and purpose of them from the start. Drawing on experiences from the Further Education sector,  issues and pitfalls are highlighted that illustrate how a tool for teacher development can become a managerial mechanism for teacher perfromance monitoring whilst also suggesting approaches designed to create a positive engagement with observation by both the observer and the observed.

Developing illustrative descriptors of aspects of mediation for the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR)

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian North ◽  
Enrica Piccardo
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Second Language Education ◽  
The Core ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
The Common

The notion of mediation has been the object of growing interest in second language education in recent years. The increasing awareness of the complex nature of the process of learning – and teaching – stretches our collective reflection towards less explored areas. In mediation, the immediate focus is on the role of language in processes like creating the space and conditions for communication and/or learning, constructing and co-constructing new meaning, and/or passing on information, whilst simplifying, elaborating, illustrating or otherwise adapting input in order to facilitate the process concerned. At a deeper level though, the notion of mediation embraces a broader spectrum of dimensions and connotations. Mediation has been defined as a ‘nomadic notion’ (Lenoir 1996) insomuch as it is at the core of a variety of scientific disciplines and the term ‘mediation’ is used in different senses in different contexts.

Does a Ribosome Really Read? On the Cognitive Roots and Heuristic Value of Linguistic Metaphors in Molecular Genetics. Part 2

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-62
Author(s):  
Suren T. Zolyan
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Genetic Information ◽  
Formal Organization ◽  
Dual Nature ◽  
Reading Frame ◽  
The Core ◽  
Genetic Information Processing ◽  
Cognitive Frame ◽  
Effective Instrument

We discuss the role of linguistic metaphors as a cognitive frame for the understanding of genetic information processing. The essential similarity between language and genetic information processing has been recognized since the very beginning, and many prominent scholars have noted the possibility of considering genes and genomes as texts or languages. Most of the core terms in molecular biology are based on linguistic metaphors. The processing of genetic information is understood as some operations on text – writing, reading and editing and their specification (encoding/decoding, proofreading, transcription, translation, reading frame). The concept of gene reading can be traced from the archaic idea of the equation of Life and Nature with the Book. Thus, the genetics itself can be metaphorically represented as some operations on text (deciphering, understanding, code-breaking, transcribing, editing, etc.), which are performed by scientists. At the same time linguistic metaphors portrayed gene entities also as having the ability of reading. In the case of such “bio-reading” some essential features similar to the processes of human reading can be revealed: this is an ability to identify the biochemical sequences based on their function in an abstract system and distinguish between type and its contextual tokens of the same type. Metaphors seem to be an effective instrument for representation, as they make possible a two-dimensional description: biochemical by its experimental empirical results and textual based on the cognitive models of comprehension. In addition to their heuristic value, linguistic metaphors are based on the essential characteristics of genetic information derived from its dual nature: biochemical by its substance, textual (or quasi-textual) by its formal organization. It can be concluded that linguistic metaphors denoting biochemical objects and processes seem to be a method of description and explanation of these heterogeneous properties.

An Interview with Associate Professor Margaret Plunkett

2020 ◽  
pp. 47-53
Keyword(s):  
Primary Education ◽  
Gifted Education ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Associate Professor ◽  
Professional Experience ◽  
Teaching Excellence ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
National Office ◽  
Vice Chancellors

Associate Professor Margaret Plunkett, Federation University, Australia, has over 30 years' experience in education. She currently coordinates and lectures in a range of courses and programs in both secondary and primary education, related to gifted education and professional experience. Margaret has won a number of awards for teaching excellence including the Monash Vice Chancellors Teaching Excellence Award (Special Commendation, 2010); the Pearson/ATEA Teacher Educator of the Year Award (2012); and a National Office of Learning of Learning and Teaching (OLT) Citation in 2014.

Exploring the Mechanism of Lingzhu San in Treating Febrile Seizures by Using Network Pharmacology

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Zhou ◽  
Xiao-Fei Zhang ◽  
Dong-Yan Guo ◽  
Yan-Jun Yang ◽  
Lin Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Febrile Seizures ◽  
Network Pharmacology ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Active Compounds ◽  
Potential Core ◽  
R Language ◽  
The Core ◽  
Multiple Factors ◽  
Therapeutic Mechanism

Objective: Lingzhu San (LZS) is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) prescription which can be effective in treating febrile seizures (FS) and has few researches on the mechanisms. In order to better guide the clinical use of LZS, we used the research ideas and methods of network pharmacology to find the potential core compounds, targets and pathways of LZS in the complex TCM system for the treatment of FS, and predict the mechanism. Materials and Methods: Databases such as BATMAN, TCMSP, TCMID, and SWISS TARGET are used to mine the active compounds and targets of LZS, and the target information of FS was obtained through GENECARDS and OMIM. Using Venny2.1.0 and Cytoscape software to locked the potential core compounds and targets of FS. The R language and ClusterProfiler software package were adopt to enrich and analyze the KEGG and GO pathways of the core targets and the biological processes and potential mechanisms of the core targets were revealed. Results: 187 active compounds and 2113 target proteins of LZS were collected. And 38 potential core compounds, 35 core targets and 775 metabolic and functional pathways were screened which involved in mediating FS. Finally, the role of the core compounds, targets and pivotal pathways of LZS regulated FS in the pathogenesis and therapeutic mechanism of FS was discussed and clarified. Conclusions: In this paper, the multi-compounds, multi-targets and multi-pathways mechanism of LZS in the treatment of FS was preliminarily revealed through the analysis of network pharmacology data, which is consistent with the principle of multi-compounds compatibility of TCM prescriptions and unified treatment of diseases from multiple angles, and it provides a new way for TCM to treat complex diseases caused by multiple factors.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document