Equality Studies, the Academy and the Role of Research in Emancipatory Social Change

If people are structurally excluded from democratic engagement with research practice, they are precluded from assessing its validity in an informed manner. They are effectively disenfranchised from controlling the generation and dissemination of knowledge about themselves and/or the institutions within which they live and work. This issue is especially acute for marginalised groups and communities who are the subjects of so much social scientific research. Such research is frequently undertaken without the involvement of the groups or communities in question. The ownership of data gives researchers and policymakers power over the groups which may add to their marginalisation; there are now people who can claim to know you better than you know yourself. Without democratic engagement therefore, there is a real danger that research knowledge can be used for manipulation and control rather than challenging the injustices experienced. This paper analyses the role of research in relation to social change. It explores, in particular, the implications of utilising an emancipatory research methodology in the study of issues of equality and social justice. While recognising the difficulties involved in developing an emancipatory approach to research, it is argued that such an approach is analytically, politically, and ethically essential if research with marginalised and socially excluded groups is to have a transformative impact.

Strategies for Transition From Primary to Post-Primary

The origin of the researcher’s work on this theme began with her experience of teaching senior primary school pupils and observing the difficulties that can exist in the transferring of these pupils to post-primary school. This research project aims to propose workable strategies to ease the transfer process and to make the transition a more positive experience for the students. Having encountered negative tones of fear and concern from sixth class pupils, much apprehension about their making the change and, in many cases, pupils exploring the feasibility of repeating the final year in primary school rather than transfer, the researcher undertook to explore the topic of transition further. A variety of research instruments were employed and these include: (a) Survey among students prior to and after entry to post-primary school, looking at their fears, concerns and hopes and examining their settlingin patterns. (b) Survey among the principals of the schools to which the pupils transferred and looking at practices in existence for the induction of pupils. (c) Interviewing teachers in primary and post-primary schools surveyed, about their feelings on transfer. (d) Comments from parents in schools surveyed as to how they perceive the transition process. It is proposed to plan an improved transfer programme in the light of responses received. Recommendations are made to ease the transfer for the pupils and to work towards the children being more prepared and consequently more content upon their arrival in post-primary school

International League Tables and Rankings in Higher Education: an Appraisal

Universities have marketed themselves in the public sphere and justified public funding for their activities on the grounds that they serve the public good. They have traded on their Enlightenment inheritance that they are the guardians and creators of knowledge produced for the greater good of humanity in its entirety. They are seen and claim to be seen as the watchdogs for the free interchange of ideas in a democratic society; they claim to work to protect freedom of thought, including the freedom to dissent from prevailing orthodoxies

The Relationship of MMPI-A Item Effectiveness to Item Content, Diagnostic Category, and Classification Accuracy

Archer, Handel, and Lynch (2001) recently compared the item endorsement frequencies for the MMPI-A normative sample against two adolescent clinical samples. Results showed that the MMPI-A contains a substantial number of items that do not show a significant difference in item endorsement frequency between normative and clinical samples. The current study extends Archer et al.\u27s (2001) research in three ways: (1) it examines the item endorsement frequencies of the Supplementary scales, Harris Lingoes subscales, and subtle-obvious items; (2) it examines the Basic, Content, and Supplementary scales, and Harris Lingoes subscales with two homogeneous diagnostic criterion groups (as suggested by Archer, Handel, and Lynch); and finally (3) it reexamines and recalculates Basic scale data using only those items that were shown by Archer, Handel, and Lynch (2001) to effectively discriminate between the normative and clinical populations. The mean profiles of the normative and clinical groups were contrasted based on these “revised” Basic scales using a newly acquired independent clinical sample to evaluate the extent to which profile sensitivity and specificity is affected by these scale modifications. Results demonstrated that examining the Supplementary scales and Harris-Lingoes subscales, or subtle-obvious items, or when extended to homogeneous criterion groups led to no improvement in item effectiveness from the results of Archer and his colleagues\u27 study. However, results supported the hypothesis in that the overall effectiveness of Basic scale discrimination increased, in terms of sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive power, and hit rate, when the Basic clinical scale items were removed that did not discriminate between normative and clinical groups of adolescents

"The land tells our story": urban native place-making and implications for wellness

In this mixed-methods community-based participatory research project I examine the ways in which sense of place (or lack thereof) is developed for Native Americans living in the urban Boston area, and the implications this has for physical health and social well-being. Through in-depth interviews, ethnographic data, and community photo-voice, I argue that a triad of Place, Stress, and Identity configure and act upon the bodies of urban Natives in complex ways, creating a paradoxical sense of place in the city. Each analytical chapter examines particular interactions of this triad: place as a physical and socially-experienced phenomenon, the interactions of place and stress, the process of "place-making", and social stress surrounding “urban Native” identity. Developing a framework of “place/body multiple” (Eyles and Williams 2007, Scheper-Hughes and Lock 1987; see background chapter), these chapters build toward the argument that, in contrast to “sense of place” literature that focuses on reservations (see Background Chapter), urban “sense of place” operates within what I term a “landscape of distress.” Forming an urban “sense of place” is beneficial to overall well-being because it leads to support networks and creates a proxy for “home”, building on current literature on social support and anthropological literature on Indigenous place-making. However, it is also detrimental to health because it creates an identity that is inherently separate from tribe and traditional land, creating both social and physiological distress

Exploring Teachers’ Implementation of Comparison in Algebra I

Discussions where teachers engage students in the comparison of multiple solution strategies to a single problem have been recommended in curriculum policy documents, yet integrating these discussions into teachers' normative routines is not widespread. In this paper, we begin to explore variations in teachers' implementation of Algebra I curriculum materials specifically focused on comparison. We explore (via case studies) implementation of the curriculum materials by two teachers with similar teaching backgrounds. The case studies suggest that these two teachers’ implementation of the comparison materials differed markedly, raising questions about possible factors which may have contributed to implementation differences