Social trajectories or disrupted identities? : Changing and competing models of teacher professionalism under New Labour

Since the 1988 Education Reform Act, the teacher’s role in England has changed in many ways, a process which intensified under New Labour after 1997. Conceptions of teacher professionalism have become more structured and formalized, often heavily influenced by government policy objectives. Career paths have become more diverse and specialised. In this article, three post-1997 professional roles are given consideration as examples of these new specialised career paths: Higher Level Teaching Assistants, Teach First trainees and Advanced Skills Teachers. The article goes on to examine such developments within teaching, using Bourdieu’s concept of habitus to inform the analysis, as well as Bernstein’s theories of knowledge and identity. The article concludes that there has been considerable specialization and subsequent fragmentation of roles within the teaching profession, as part of workforce remodelling initiatives. However, there is still further scope for developing a greater sense of professional cohesion through social activism initiatives, such as the children's agenda. This may produce more stable professional identities in the future as the role of teachers within the wider children’s workforce is clarified

Lap shear strength comparison between different random glass fibre reinforced thermoplastic matrix composites bonded by adhesives using variable-frequency microwave irradiation.

This paper compares the lap shear strengths of three types of random glass fibre reinforced thermoplastic matrix composite joined by adhesives using microwave energy. Variable-frequency microwave (VFM) (2-18 GHz) facilities are used to join 33 wt % random glass fibre reinforced low-density polyethylene composite [LDPE/GF (33%)], 33 wt % random glass fibre reinforced polystyrene composite [PS/GF (33%)] and 33 wt % random glass fibre reinforced nylon 66 composite [nylon 66/GF (33%)]. With a given power level, the composites were exposed for various times to microwave irradiation. The primer or coupling agent used was a 5 min two-part adhesive

Plaster glue complex permittivity response in the microwave range

This paper describes a complementary method for determining dielectric properties of granular materials using the Transmission/Reflection Method in order to estimate their moisture content. The Newton's Complex Interactive Method is used here as a numerical tool to calculate the complex permittivity of the plaster glue material. Results for samples with moisture contents of 35%, 40% and 45% in the range of 100 MHz to 3 GHz are presented