Let's Get Organised: Practicing and Valuing Scientific Work Inside and Outside the Laboratory

Over the past thirty years there has been a significant turn towards practice and away from institutions in sociological frameworks for understanding science. This new emphasis on studying \'science in action\' (Latour 1987) and \'epistemic cultures\' (Knorr Cetina 1999) has not been shared by academic and policy literatures on the problem of women and science, which have focused on the marginalisation and under-representation of women in science careers and academic institutions. In this paper we draw on elements of both these approaches to think about epistemic communities as simultaneously practical and organisational. We argue that an understanding of organisational structures is missing in science studies, and that studies of the under-representation of women lack attention to the detail of how scientific work is done in practice. Both are necessary to understand the gendering of science work. Our arguments are based on findings of a qualitative study of bioscience researchers in a British university. Conducted as part of a European project on knowledge production, institutions and gender the UK study involved interviews, focus groups and participant observation in two laboratories. Drawing on extracts from our data we look first at laboratories as relatively unhierarchical communities of practice. We go on to show the ways in which institutional forces, particularly contractual insecurity and the linear career, work to reproduce patterns of gendered inequality. Finally, we analyse how these patterns shape the gendered value and performance of \'housekeeping work\' in the laboratory.Women, Science, Laboratory, Epistemic Community, Organisation, Value, Work, Career, Housekeeping

The role of professional development and learning in the early adoption of the New Zealand curriculum by schools.

This paper is set in the context of Phase One of the Ministry of Education Curriculum Implementation Exploratory Studies (CIES) project. The schools selected for this study were considered early adopters of the revised New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) (Ministry of Education, 2007). The paper provides theoretical insights and research evidence related to the role of professional development and learning in the early stages of implementation of the revised curriculum. A key finding common to most schools was the progressive development of a professional learning culture led by the principal that focused on pedagogy and student achievement prior to the introduction of the curriculum. The establishment of this culture involved processes that were task-oriented, reflective, consultative and collaborative. While there are strong parallels between the experiences of primary and secondary schools in the study, some important differences have also been noted

Cross-Cultural Leadership: Best Practices In Multinational Graduate Education

The international security environment depends in part on professional military leaders with the knowledge, skills and attributes to execute a broad range of leadership communication, collaboration and negotiations with counterparts in complex international and intercultural settings. If higher education is the path to cognition, metacognition, motivation and behavior, then it may be an effective instrument for developing leadership readiness for a range of international/inter-cultural tasks. This study explores US military leaders’ perceptions about graduate-level, senior professional military education alongside foreign military officers at the U.S. Army War College as an influence on readiness for decision-making, cultural adaptation, and task performance in a cross-cultural leadership context. Five findings suggest the influence of a collaborative multinational graduate education setting on US leaders’ cross-cultural competence. Best practices based on theory-based analysis of graduate interviews include institutional guidance linking cultural agility and professional purpose; direct and meaningful engagements; skillful faculty facilitation; cultural immersion-like effects through multiple cross-cultural experiences; and experiential learning that challenges and reframes mental models

Institutional and Student Transitions Into Enhanced Blended Learning

This presentation provides an overview of the ‘Transitions into blended learning’ project, which has focused on three areas: developing an institutional transition framework, researching student experiences, and identifying interventions to support effective transitions. The framework identified external drivers for blended learning, a set of considerations for institutions, and a set of processes to facilitate change involving three stakeholder groups at the heart of the model. The work included learner experience research with students newly engaged in blended learning. This work identified support needs around access (to technology and learning materials), attitudes (towards learning online) and attributes (skills) needed to engage autonomously in blended learning. The institution-wide Enhancement themes team identified a set of interventions or ‘anchor points’ to prevent the institution ‘drifting back’ into purely traditional approaches to learning and teaching. These included the recognition and promotion of good practice through case studies, development of an institutional e-learning framework, and an event to encourage staff and students to share good practice in blended learning. This three-year project was largely led by a PhD student (JA), working with the principal investigator (VHD) and the institutional representative (KG)

Moccasin Confluence: Occupation and Settlement in the Lower Fredericksburg Basin of the Edwards Plateau

During the summer of 1982 the eastern half of Lyndon B. Johnson State Historical Park was surveyed and sites tested. The work was sponsored by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and performed by Center for Archaeological Research and the Division of Behavioral and Cultural Sciences, The University of Texas at San Antonio. The Principal Investigator was Joel D. Gunn. The field work was conducted by the field course in archaeology from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Members (listed in the Acknowledgments section) of the Anthropology Laboratory class assisted the Principal Investigator with laboratory analysis. Most of the sites were shallow or deflated and of limited information value except for their location in the overall settlement pattern. Excavation of 41GL21, Hop Hill (Gunn and Mahula 1977a), was completed. An old stream channel was found in the bedrock under the site. It was filled with occupation debris from the Late Archaic. The site may have been used as an overlook to an adjacent ford in the Pedernales River. At the confluence of the Pedernales River and Williams Creek (Moccasin Confluence) at the east end of the park a very important site was found. Moccasin Confluence consists of two segments divided by Williams Creek. The west segment (41BC71) is a deeply stratified alluvial site with a Holocene sequence. Whether the sequence is continuous through the Holocene remains to be determined. The levels are extremely thick in the Middle and Early Holocene. The location, at three sources of varying sediments, indicates that the site could be a very sensitive geological barometer of Holocene climate, a hypothesis that seems to have merit based on analysis of sediment grain size composition and IPF analysis of sediment chemistry. The site is very rich in chronological diagnostics and is of great potential for studying environmental and cultural process in the Edwards Plateau region. Analysis of artifact wear patterns, points, flake size and frequencies, and mollusks indicates the site was inhabited over long periods of time, sometimes with a fair amount of intensity. Nomads apparently visited the site at the beginning of each cultural period and eventually settled there until their culture was disrupted. The site is recommended for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. The site (41BC63) on the east bank of Williams Creek outside the park, considered to be the eastern segment of Moccasin Confluence, was tested enough to show that it has a dense burned rock midden. It is assumed to represent a shift of occupation locus to the east side of the creek during the Middle Archaic

Meeting NCATE Standard 4: One University’s Plan to Help Preservice Teachers Develop Knowledge, Skills, and Professional Dispositions to Ensure that All Students Learn

Standard 4-Diversity of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) requires that preservice teachers, or candidates, demonstrate and apply proficiencies related to diversity