Students as human resources in the corporatised school

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis (Routledge) via the DOI in this record.The transfer of Human resource management (HRM) practices from the corporate business context into schools has taken a novel turn. No longer restricted to the management of school teachers, HRM techniques are now being applied to the management of students. HRM views the student as a human resource to serve the school, and seeks to systematically regulate students’ identities in order to align them with school values and goals. The paper introduces the Uncommon Schools model as an exemplar of student centred HRM. The case study demonstrates how student-centred HRM is being operationalised in schools and concludes by exploring the potential of this systematic innovation in student management. The paper is informed by critical management theories and argues that student centred HRM constitutes a radical shift in the relationship between school and student

Fantasy sport: a systematic review and new research directions

Research questions: Fantasy sport is an increasingly significant social phenomenon. But what do we actually know about participation in fantasy sport? We examined the extant literature to ask: how has fantasy sport participation been conceptualised; what theoretical frameworks and research approaches have been used; what are their strengths and weaknesses; and what further research is needed to improve our understanding? Research methods: We conducted a systematic review of academic journal articles relating to fantasy sport participation. 71 articles met the inclusion criteria and we analysed them on several dimensions. We then conducted a meta-evaluation of the research approaches used in the 71 studies and extended this through critical discussion and analysis of future research possibilities. Results and findings: Fantasy sport participation has been conceptualised in several ways, but most commonly as a form of consumer behaviour. Studies have used various theoretical frameworks and methodologies, but a majority, to date, have employed quantitative, survey-based approaches. These have advantages, enabling researchers to build on each other’s work, but also have certain conceptual and methodological limitations. Implications: If we are to understand the social significance of fantasy sport and develop appropriate managerial policies around it, we require a well-developed understanding of fantasy sport participation. This research synthesis highlights the strengths and weaknesses of existing research and offers suggestions for how future researchers can advance knowledge in this area. In particular, the synthesis suggests we need to offer more multi-level, critical analysis

Rethinking Young People’s Participation: Two Reflexive Case Studies

This research aims to establish a new way of understanding the ‘problem’ of children and young people’s participation. The problem is that the reality of participation has not lived up to its theoretical promise of enabling children and young people to meaningfully shape their environment on their own terms. With a reflexive approach, the research reformulates the relationship between the theory and reality of children and young people’s participation through investigating two case studies of participation projects in museums and galleries in the UK. In the literature review the problem of participation is situated within the policy, organisational and personal contexts; at each level of context, it is argued that there are fundamental, intractable reasons why the promise of participation cannot be realised in practice. In the case studies participation in practice is investigated in an in-depth way from a range of perspectives, focusing on the framing, practice and experience of the projects through discourse analysis of project documentation, observation of the projects in practice, and interviews with the participants. In the case studies the theoretical contradictions of participation emerge in practice; while the organisations attempt to enable the participants to engage with the project on their own terms, the top-down organisation of the project mean that controls over the participants are unintentionally created. The participants engaged with and experienced the projects in different ways and types of participants were identified in terms of how the projects were navigated. It was found that all participants were able to draw a positive experience from the projects even though there were problematic aspects. In response to the intractable problems of participation, in conclusion it is suggested that ‘spaciousness’ may be a more useful concept, focusing on enabling young people to make sense of their ambivalent experience in organisations in their own way.ESR

Fu Baoshi in Chongqing: Some Paintings in European Collections

Vainker Shelagh. Fu Baoshi in Chongqing: Some Paintings in European Collections. In: Arts asiatiques, tome 67, 2012. pp. 89-96

Chinese pottery and porcelain From prehistory to the present

Fist published 1991Available from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:GPC/08091 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo