Teacher narratives and curricular justice : a study of teachers' work in the disadvantaged schools' program in Victorian education

Investigates teacher contributions to conversations about theory, policy and practice concerning poverty and education. The research examines patterns in teacher interpretive categories drawn from action research texts and associated documentation in the Disadvantaged School Program in Victoria over a twenty year period. Deals theoretically with the sociology of curricular theory, history and practice through the utilisation of feminist, postcolonial and poststructural approaches to society and culture.

Sociology of cancer in men and women : sexuality, identity and body changes

Prostate and breast cancers are a common group of gender specific diseases that affect men and women respectively. This study explores the impact of the cancer and the social processes involved in re-establishing the self in the aftermath of cancer. The study's premise is that the self is an embodied social agent and that the body is the medium where illness is expresses and experienced by the embodied self.

The sociology of Pierre Bourdieu and researching education policy

Bourdieu did not write anything explicitly about education policy. Despite this neglect, we agree with van Zanten that his theoretical concepts and methodological approaches can contribute to researching and understanding educational policy in the context of globalisation and the economising of it. In applying Bourdieu's theory and methodology to research in education policy, we focus on developing his work to understand what we call 'cross-field effects' and for exploring the emergence of a 'global education policy field'. These concepts are derived from some of our recent research concerning globalisation and mediatisation of education policy. The paper considers three separate issues. The first deals with Bourdieu' s primary 'thinking tools', namely practice, habitus,capitals and fields and their application to policy studies. The second and third sections consider two additions to Bourdieu's thinking tools, as a way to reconceptualise the functioning of policy if considered as a social field. More specifically, the second section develops an argument around cross-field effects, as a way to group together, research and describe policy effects. The third section develops an argument about an emergent global education policy field, and considers ways that such a field affects national education policy fields.

Globalizing policy sociology in education : working with Bourdieu

This paper uses Bourdieu to develop theorizing about policy processes in education and to extend the policy cycle approach in a time of globalization. Use is made of Bourdieu's concept of social field and the argument is sustained that in the context of globalization the field of educational policy has reduced autonomy, with enhanced cross-field effects in educational policy production, particularly from the fields of the economy and journalism. Given the social rather than geographical character of Bourdieu's concept of social fields, it is also argued that the concept can be, and indeed has to be, stretched beyond the nation to take account of the emergent global policy field in education. Utilizing Bourdieu's late work on the globalization of the economy through neo-liberal politics, we argue that a non-reified account of the emergent global educational policy field can be provided.

A Chinese style of HRM : exploring the ancient texts

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relevant sayings and stories of the ancient Chinese sages in relation to the style of Chinese human resource management (HRM).

Design/methodology/approach – Related texts generated from the quotations and stories from four Chinese sages, Guanzi, Hanfeizi, Xunzi and Yanzi, were translated and analyzed and their thinking regarding ruling the state and managing the people was discussed in line with the thoughts from the mainstream and modern Western management gurus such as Warren Bennis, Peter Drucker, Mary Parker Follett, Douglas McGregor, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Elton Mayo and Jeffrey Pfeffer.

Findings – It was found that there were striking similarities in thoughts and call for actions to address key issues in HRM by both old and contemporary, east and west thinkers across 2,500 years. The main concerns are to select the right leaders and managers and recruit the right people; create attractive organisational culture and environments that promote a participative management approach to encourage, empower and engage employees to achieve desirable outcomes; uphold the people-centred management principles; and focus on designing reward schemes that emphasise service and contribution instead of position and profits.

Originality/value – There is much to be learned from the past to address the present people management issues among modern organisations both inside China and perhaps from other parts of the world. It was as difficult to take seriously the principles-based ruling and management approaches in ancient times as it is today. However, if these principles had been put into practice, the world would have had fewer of the corporate corruption scandals and less of the mischievous behaviour in the state that are manifested in today's society, but more productive population, effective organisations, ethical governments and harmonious environment; hence less global human suffering.

Scandalous texts : the anxieties of the literary

This thesis explores contemporary literary scandals in order to identify the cultural and literary anxieties revealed by controversial works. Examining how scandals emerge in relation to challenging representations of children, women, religion and authenticity, the thesis argues that literary controversies reveal concerns about the construction of identity, history and reality.

Sacred rules, secular revelations : the conceptions of rights in pre-modern Europe

This paper is an attempt to reflect on the methodological approaches that I bring to ‘reading law’ in my current project on understandings of individual rights in the legal and theological texts of the twelfth- and early thirteenth-century Middle Ages, entitled ‘Sacred Rules, Secular Revelations: The Conceptions of Rights in Pre-Modern Europe’