Action learning and coaching as an integrated approach for supporting women’s career progression: A reflective analysis

This paper offers a critically reflective evaluation of an online action learning initiative in one university which addressed gender inequality and support for women’s career development. It was a pilot scheme, led jointly by the university’s Women of Westminster network and Centre for Education and Teaching Innovation action learning community. The action learning group comprised four women working in academic roles, and four working in professional services roles. It was co-facilitated by the authors from a shared understanding as coaches working together as ‘third space’ practitioners; defined as those working in higher education who do not fit conventional binary descriptors/roles such as academic or professional services. Key features of the paper are: (i) the argument that holistic academic practice development applies to individuals working in professional services, technical/operational, and academic roles; and (ii) adoption of a ‘practice first’ approach. The paper illustrates action learning as a practice, and the important role of reflective supervision based on systems-psychodynamic thinking in co-facilitation of action learning as a group process. Nancy Kline’s coaching-based Thinking Environment approach was also used in both the facilitation of action learning, and as a framework for critical reflection and supervision of our coaching practice. Theoretically, action learning was informed by the job demands-resources model, and concepts of job crafting and self-compassion, which enable individuals to shape their work environment by adjusting to prevailing demands and accessing resources. The paper includes outcomes of this action learning initiative, and offers new perspectives for personal, professional, and career development. However action learning and coaching alone cannot overcome organisational barriers to women’s career progression. Nor can they address the wider and well documented damage caused by higher education policy and politics. The approach we advocate here calls for a collective process for inquiring into – and revealing – the institutional problems and practices that create barriers for women’s career progression. This allows action learning and coaching to move beyond being seen as simply an individual/group process for problem-solving and career development

The noise policy statement for England : significance, application and implications

The Noise Policy Statement for England, published by Defra in March 2010, describes a ‘policy vision to facilitate decisions regarding what is an acceptable noise burden to place on society’. The publication of the NPSE coincided with the formal adoption and publication of the Noise Action Plans as required by the Environmental Noise (England) Regulations 2006 (as amended) and the Environmental Noise Directive . However, the potential implications of the NPSE go much wider, and as this article shows, it may well turn out to have a considerable impact on the work of many members of the Institute of Acoustics

Stopping relativistic Xe, Ho, Au and U nuclei in nuclear emulsions

Nuclei of Xe-54, Ho-67, Au-79 and U-92 accelerated at the Bevalac to energies between 1200 and 900 MeV/n were stopped in nuclear emulsions. The observed residual ranges were compared with those calculated from various models of energy loss and shown to be most consistent with a calculation that includes those higher order correction terms proposed previously to describe the energy loss of highly charged particles, for which the first Born approximation is not valid

The charge and energy spectra of heavy cosmic ray nuclei

A charged particle detector array flown in a high altitude balloon detected and measured some 30,000 cosmic ray nuclei with Z greater than or equal to 12. The charge spectrum at the top of the atmosphere for nuclei with E greater than 650 MeV/n and the energy spectrum for 650 less than or equal to E less than 1800 MeV/n are reported and compared with previously published results. The charge spectrum at the source of cosmic rays is deduced from these data and compared with a recent compilation of galactic abundances

Gamma ray emission from the region of the galactic center

A combination nuclear emulsion-spark chamber gamma ray (E=100 MeV) telescope was used to study the region of sky that includes the Galactic Center. 95% confidence upper limits on the flux from the reported sources G gamma 2 - 3 and Sgr gamma-1 were placed at 4.4 and 8.8 x 10 to the minus 5th power protons/sq cm-sec, and a similar limit on the emission from the Galactic Center as a point source (plus or minus .75 degrees) was placed at 3.3 x 10 to the minus 5th power protons/sq cm-sec. No enhanced emission was observed from the Galactic Plane (plus or minus 6 degrees) and an upper limit of 2 x 10 to the minus 4th power protons/sq cm-sec rad/ was obtained

Harmonising Research Reporting in the UK - Experiences and Outputs from UKRISS

The Jisc-funded UK Research Information Shared Service (UKRISS) project investigated the reporting of research information across the UK HE sector and assessed the feasibility of a national infrastructure based on CERIF with the objective of increasing the efficiency, productivity and reporting quality across the sector. A core reporting profile was developed that would enable harmonised reporting on RCUK-funded research, taking into account the HE-BCI survey as well as REF reporting elements. In this paper we describe the UKRISS modelling approach and provide some insight into the UKRISS reporting objects to support understanding of their formal CERIF representations, i.e. the selection of underlying CERIF entities; the challenges with managing objects and aggregations in CERIF. Example data extracts demonstrate the work

Trends and perspectives in business psychology. What are the outcomes of the fifth International scientific-practical conference “Business psychology: theory and practice”?

The article analyzes the current state, trends and development prospects of business psychology based on the Fifth International Scientific and Practical Conference “Business Psychology: Theory and Practice (HSE, Moscow, Russia), which was held November, 30 — December, 1, 2018. The conference was prepared and held by the master’s program “Psychology in Business”, which is the domestic scientific and practical center for the development of business psychology — a new branch in applied psychology. Presentations, their discussion, workshops showed a growing interest of researchers and practitioners to business psychology. There has been a tendency to search for a deeper psychological validation of business psychological tools, search for integrated approaches that can be the basis for the development of business psychological practice. A more clear understanding of the structure of business psychology from the perspective of personal, organisational, social, cultural factors of business management was indicated. The strengths of business psychologists were identified in the context of their ability to solve problems systematically and rely on an interdisciplinary approach. The prospects for the development of business psychology are the following: the expansion of geography and subject areas of research and practical activities of business psychology on the development of new approaches in management and organisational consulting