Silence is golden: using ‘safe words’ to promote research student ownership in supervisory meetings

The quality of supervisory relationships has a significant impact on research students’ ability to successfully attain their goals. One risk factor is contrasting expectations of the role of the supervisory team. We report a case where we became aware firstly, that a student may have different expectations to us (as supervisors) relating to the level of independence that we expected from them and secondly, that we had unwittingly enabled a passive approach which masked the student’s ability. We subsequently describe a strategy we developed, based on the use of ‘safe words,’ for ensuring that the student’s contributions took centre stage during supervisory meetings. Also considered is how this practice allowed us to make a more accurate assessment of their abilities as well as enabling us to form recommendations to help the student develop their ideas more independently

What About BOEM? The Need to Reform the Regulations Governing Offshore Oil and Gas Planning and Leasing

The nature of offshore oil and gas activities is changing as companies are forced into difficult and remote areas, including the U.S. Arctic Ocean. As evidenced by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon tragedy and Shell\u27s error-plagued efforts to drill exploration wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in 2012, the rules governing whether and under what conditions to allow offshore drilling in frontier areas have not kept pace with environmental and technical changes. These rules were implemented in 1979 and have remained substantively the same since. Recent changes to at the Department of the Interior to disband the Minerals Management Service, improve certain safety requirements, and move toward implementing Arctic-specific spill prevention and response requirements are important steps. Those changes, however, apply only after the decision to allow oil and gas activity has been made. Congress has not amended the governing statute, and the agency has not modified in any meaningful way the regulations that govern the initial processes through which it decides whether and under what circumstances to allow offshore oil and gas activities in a given area. This Article argues that the regulations that govern offshore oil and gas planning and leasing should be fundamentally revised to account for changes in the industry and agency, remedy broadly acknowledged deficiencies, and reflect new administrative policies. It also recommends a path to achieve the needed change

Student experience of gamified learning: a qualitative approach

Student engagement and student outcomes in Higher Education continue to be the subject of academic concern, and thus receive research attention. To address these concerns, we aim to explore the use of gamification to enhance student engagement, and thereby improving student learning and performance. Gamification represents the use of game elements to enhance engagement in activities such as learning.  This paper highlights the use of game elements such as: leader boards, scores for activities, and multiplayer (group) activities.  The paper does this by exploring students’ learning journeys, as well as their experience of modules in which gamification had been introduced. Group-based competitive activities were introduced to modules undertaken by business students, student nurses, and paramedic students.  Students undertaking these modules were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews.  Twelve students drawn from the three disciplines took part in these semi-structured interviews, which were digitally recorded to enable production of accurate transcripts. Thematic analysis was used to identify key themes from the interviews. To explain student responses and their learning experience, four themes were developed; challenge, difference, group processes, and competition. Students often presented themselves as enjoying challenge, although this was sometimes contrasted with enjoyment of ‘easy’ activities.  Challenge was presented not only as a motivational factor, but also sometimes as a barrier to success.  This sense of challenge was often conceptually linked to students’ perception of difference within their gamified learning, which was pedagogically distinct from their typical learning experience.  Most, but not all, expressed positive views of this difference.  As with the theme of challenge, discussion of difference could be both positive and negative.  Participants highlighted competition as a positive factor.  The competition between groups influenced some group processes.  Some students noted previous challenges involved in group-work, such as unequal work distribution.  Participants observed the potential for intra-group friction, while identifying the positive learning outcomes of group work.  Taken together, the analysis suggests that competitive group work is a beneficial strategy for enhancing student engagement and performance

Teach phenomenology the bomb: Starship Troopers, the technologized body, and humanitarian warfare

Paul Verhoeven's SF films are often concerned with how the future body will be reshaped as a technological device. Starship Troopers strangely departs from Verhoeven's own work, other SF films, and current directions in cultural theory by seeing the future body as one that is more organic than mechanical. Drawing upon and challenging ideas developed by Paul Virilio, this article argues that Starship Troopers' departure from the notion of the 'post-human' mechanized body needs to be understood not as a nostalgic reassertion of de-technologized subjectivity. Rather, Verhoeven's film sees the idea of the pure body as a dangerous anachronism. And, this article further argues, Starship Troopers suggests that narratives of human salvation - such as those that arose during Nato's interventions in the Balkans - often conceal an appetite for territorial conquest

Governing International Criminal Justice: Managerial Practices and the International Criminal Court

Managerial practices such as strategic planning, audit, and performance appraisal pervade global governance regimes, including the regime of international criminal justice (ICJ). The mainstream view is that such practices are objective tools which optimise institutional performance and thereby assist them in attaining their goals. Against this view, I offer an alternative understanding of managerial practices. Viewing international criminal justice as a technocratic imaginary, and defining managerial practices as tools of power/knowledge, I explore the discursive effects of management upon the contemporary project of ICJ. I problematize the assumptions inherent in the mainstream approach to managerial practices, relying on critical international law and critical management scholarship to provide a comprehensive sociology and history of management. Employing a genealogical method, I trace the historical journey of managerial practices from the steel factories of the American Midwest to the structures of the United Nations after decolonization. This genealogy reveals the political significance of management as a set of tools deployed to reinforce extant distributions of institutional power. At the International Criminal Court (ICC), I trace the expansion of managerial practices and find them to have certain reality- and identity-making effects on the organisation and its professional staff. Managerial practices produce the court as an efficient, modern institution, reinforcing the image of ICJ as the optimal allocation of institutional resources by experts. Such practices also produce the identity of the ICC lawyer as an efficient cog in the ICJ machine. Collectively, managerial practices enact a discursive closure around an institutional and expert-driven ICJ project. That discursive closure is illustrated further in two detailed studies: the ICC Presidency and the reorganisation of the Registry. Demonstrating the mechanics of managerial knowledge, the thesis reveals how international criminal justice is governed.The funding for this research was provided by an Arts & Humanities Research Council Doctoral Training Programme Studentship (Cambridge

Work-related wellbeing in UK prison officers: a benchmarking approach

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to examine the well-being of UK prison officers by utilising a benchmarking approach. Design/methodology/approach-The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Stress Indicator Tool is widely used in the UK to assess key psychosocial hazards in the workplace encompassing demands, control, support from managers and co-workers, relationship quality, role and change management. This study utilises this approach to examine the extent to which a sample of UK prison officers meets the HSE recommended minimum standards for the management of work-related well-being. Levels of mental health and job satisfaction in the sector are also assessed using measures with extensive occupational norms. The psychosocial hazards that make the strongest contribution to mental health and job satisfaction are also considered. Findings-Respondents reported lower levels of well-being for all of the hazard categories than recommended. Moreover, mental health and job satisfaction were considerably poorer among prison officers than other occupational groups within the emergency and security services in the UK. Considerable variation was found in the psychosocial hazards that predicted mental health and job satisfaction. Practical implications-The high levels of stressors and strains experienced by UK prison officers gives serious cause for concern. Priority areas for interventions to enhance well-being in the sector are considered and areas for future research discussed. Originality/value-This study highlights the wide-ranging benefits of a benchmarking approach to investigate work-related stressors and strains at the sector level

“When are you coming back?” Presenteeism in UK Prison Officers

Presenteeism has negative implications for staff wellbeing and the safety of prisons, but little is known about its prevalence and causes.  This mixed-methods study examines these issues among 1,682 UK officers. Most respondents (84%) reported working while sick at least sometimes, with 53% always doing so. Six linked themes were identified that underpinned presenteeism in the prison sector: punitive absence management systems; pressure from management; short-staffing and fear of letting colleagues down; job insecurity; fear of disbelief and shaming; and duty and professionalism. The implications of presenteeism for the health and job performance of prison officers are considered.