Retaining a foothold on the slippery paths of academia : University women, indirect discrimination, and the academic marketplace
- Authors: Wilson, Jacqueline , Marks, Genee , Noone, Lynne , Hamilton-Mackenzie, Jennifer
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Gender and Education Vol. 22, no. 5 (2010), p. 535-545
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- Description: This paper examines indirect discrimination in Australian universities that tends to obstruct and delay women's academic careers. The topic is defined and contextualised via a 1998 speech by the Australian Human Rights Commission's Sex Discrimination Commissioner, juxtaposed with a brief contemporaneous exemplar. The paper discusses the prevalence of women among casual and fixed-term academic workers, and the contrasting low numbers of women in senior academic positions. It is argued that the neo-liberal 'marketisation' of higher education, which still prevails, has fostered a number of indirectly discriminatory practices and conditions that substantially disadvantage women. A selection of studies of the problem are critiqued. It is argued that a broad statistical methodology is inadequate due to its tendency to 'homogenise' the academy and its component individuals, in the process giving scope for unjustified optimism among university policy-makers. A particulate approach is advocated, acknowledging the wide variation between and within universities, and the range of hidden difficulties individual women academics can face. It is concluded that despite apparent reforms over the past decade, the situation of women has improved little in practical terms.
- Description: 2003007854
Teachers' emotional intelligence as a predisposition for discrimiation against students with severe emotional and behavioural disorders
- Authors: Metaxas, Melinda
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
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- Description: Students with Emotional Behavioural Disorders (EBD) are among the most challenging students to teach. Personality Trait Theory predicts teachers’ level of Emotional Intelligence (EI) would affect their cognitive-affective-behavioural reactions towards students with EBDs, and influence level of academic achievement and difficult behaviour of these students. This research explores which teachers are more predisposed to discriminate against EBD students, and identifies the most ‘effective’, supportive EI teacher traits. Underlying psychological processes, such as genetic EI make-up of teachers, may prove to be most valuable in determining whether more practical strategies for dealing with students’ behaviour/emotions are effectively applied and successful. An Attribution Model framework helped assess teacher reactions towards students. Two hundred and sixty one teachers from 51 Victorian schools participated in the study by completing self-report questionnaires, including the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire. A quantitative survey methodology used vignettes, with each school contact person randomly giving 50/50 surveys to their teachers (depicting a student with either mild or severe EBD symptoms). Pathway analysis revealed that teachers with higher EI reported less stigmatising and punitive intentions and likely greater helping behaviours. A new EI Process Model of Stigmatisation was proposed to measure teacher reactions through an affective-cognitive-behavioural sequence, rather than a cognitive-affective-behavioural sequence. Teachers’ EI levels also related to their own levels of psychological distress and/or compassion stress, which influenced likely helping or punitive outcomes. Despite behavioural severity of EBD students, teachers higher in EI still indicate more supportive helping behaviours. Specifically-identified ‘ideal’ teacher EI traits should lead to greater helping and be psychologically beneficial to both students and teachers. These results assisted development of an assessment tool (ASET – Assessment Screen for Emotionally Intelligent Teachers), which lays a sound foundation for schools and others to profile or recruit teachers with best ‘qualities’ to effectively teach students EBD students.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Through the lens of the trainer-masseurs: Australia's incongruous engagement with the olympic amateur ethos
- Authors: Strachan, Shirley , Reeves, Keir
- Date: 2022
- Type: Journal article
- Relation: International journal of the history of sport Vol. 39, no. 6 (2022), p. 631-652
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- Description: This paper examines the history of coach/trainer-masseur support to Australian athletes at Olympic Games during the twentieth century. Given Australia's cultural historical connection to Great Britain, the Australian Olympic Federation (AOF) pursued a strict interpretation of amateurism, best understood in the global context of amateur ideals and elite athletics. The AOF's proscriptive application of Olympic amateur rules and values throughout the organisation meant that the core issue that surfaced in delivering amateur status was the discrimination against overt specialized professional support. Ultimately the AOF's motivation emphasized promoting an amateur ethos of recreation and Olympic sporting values. It also pursued a strategic priority of athletic competitiveness at the Olympics. The result was an irreconcilable underlying tension that became untenable by the 1970s. Until then, the AOF responded by engaging coach/trainer-masseurs, also referred to as athletes' attendants. This group was distinguishable as non-specialized attendants and included masseurs, coach-masseurs, trainer-masseurs and physical directors in contrast to specialized professional coaches and masseurs/physiotherapists. Ultimately, Australian athletes benefitted from non-specialized coach/trainer masseurs expert support and their professional emphasis on winning.
Sustaining work participation across the life course
- Authors: Pransky, Glenn , Fassier, Jean-Baptise , Besen, Elyssa , Blanck, Peter , Ekberg, Kerstin , Feuerstein, Michael , Munir, Fehmidah , Boot, C.R.L.
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation Vol. 26, no. 4 (2016), p. 465-479
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- Description: Introduction Many disability prevention strategies are focused on acute injuries and brief illness episodes, but there will be growing challenges for employers to manage circumstances of recurrent, chronic, or fluctuating symptoms in an aging workforce. The goal of this article is to summarize existing peer-review research in this area, compare this with employer discourse in the grey literature, and recommend future research priorities. Methods The authors participated in a year-long sponsored collaboration that ultimately led to an invited 3-day conference, “Improving Research of Employer Practices to Prevent Disability”, held October 14–16, 2015, in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA. The collaboration included a topical review of the scientific and industry literature, group discussion to identify key areas and challenges, drafting of initial documents, and feedback from peer researchers and a special panel of experts with employer experience. Results Cancer and mental illness were chosen as examples of chronic or recurring conditions that might challenge conventional workplace return-to-work practices. Workplace problems identified in the literature included fatigue, emotional exhaustion, poor supervisor and co-worker support, stigma, discrimination, and difficulties finding appropriate accommodations. Workplace intervention research is generally lacking, but there is preliminary support for improving workplace self-management strategies, collaborative problem-solving, and providing checklists and other tools for job accommodation, ideas echoed in the literature directed toward employers. Research might be improved by following workers from an earlier stage of developing workplace concerns. Conclusions Future research of work disability should focus on earlier identification of at-risk workers with chronic conditions, the use of more innovative and flexible accommodation strategies matched to specific functional losses, stronger integration of the workplace into on-going rehabilitation efforts, and a better understanding of stigma and other social factors at work.