Retaining female postgraduates in academia : the role of gender and prospective parenthood

Women remain under-represented in almost all academic levels at universities internationally, and previous evidence has suggested that women move out of the university system in increasing numbers as they progress from postgraduate study to an academic career. The current study aimed to explore the role of gender in the reports of study experiences and future career plans of Australian postgraduate research students (n = 249). Questionnaire data indicated women were significantly less likely than men to rate an academic career as appealing. In particular, female postgraduate students without dependent children were least likely to want to pursue an academic career. On the basis of qualitative analysis, we attribute this finding, at least in part, to a perceived incompatibility between motherhood and an academic career and discuss the implications for gender equity in higher education.

Moderating teen drinking : combining social marketing and education

Purpose This paper outlines a pilot study that was undertaken in Australia in 2011 that combined social marketing with education. An intervention targeting 14-16 year olds to influence attitudes and behavioural intentions towards moderate drinking was developed and tested. Game On:Know alcohol (GO:KA) is a six-module intervention that is delivered to a year level cohort in an auditorium. GO:KA combines a series of online and offline experiential activities to engage (with) students. Design/methodology Following social marketing benchmark criteria, formative research and competitive analysis were undertaken to create, implement and evaluate an intervention. The intervention was delivered in one all boys' and one all girls' school in April and June 2011, respectively. A total of 223 Year 10 students participated in GO:KA with the majority completing both pre- and post-surveys. Paired samples t-tests and descriptive analysis were used to assess attitudinal and behavioural intention change. Findings Attitudinal change was observed in both schools while behavioural intentions changed for girls and not boys according to paired samples t-testing. Post hoc testing indicated gender differences. Research limitations The lack of a control group is a key limitation of the current research that can be overcome in the 20 school main study to be conducted in 2013-2015. Originality/value The current study provides evidence to suggest that a combined social marketing and education intervention can change teenage attitudes towards moderate drinking whilst only changing behavioural intentions for female teenagers. Analysis of the intervention provides insight into gender differences and highlights the need for a segmented approach.

The serious and playful work of gender : talk and social order in a preschool classroom

This chapter reports some observations made of the social interactions of girls and boys, aged 3 to 5 years, in play situations in a preschool classroom of a childcare centre. It provides an alternate framework for early childhood educators to become aware of how preschool children construct their gendered social organizations. As girls and boys organise and build their social worlds of play through their talk-in-interaction, they are building their social orders. In this chapter, an analysis of one episode of children's play has, as its focus , the methods that some girls and boys use in their talk and activity to make sense of their everyday interactions. The analysis of play shows the children's real life work of constructing and maintaining gendered social orders in their lived everyday social worlds. A close reading of the transcript of an episode illustrates how two girls turn they boys' masculine practices o ritualized threats into performance. By so doing, they show that while they know masculine discourse, and can perform it themselves, they do not actually 'own' it in the same way that the boys do. In this way, gender is established not as a social density but as a shaped dynamic practice that is ongoing, build by relational encounters and shaped by the collective performances of the participants.

Primary schools and the delivery of relationships and sexuality education : the experience of Queensland teachers

Primary school provides an appropriate opportunity for children to commence comprehensive relationships and sexuality education (RSE), yet many primary school teachers avoid teaching this subject area. In the absence of teacher confidence and competence, schools have often relied on health promotion professionals, external agencies and/or one-off issue related presentations rather than cohesive, systematic and meaningful health education. This study examines the implementation of a ten-lesson pilot RSE unit of work and accompanying assessment task in two primary schools in South-East Queensland, Australia. Drawing predominantly from qualitative data, this research explores the experiences of primary school teachers as they engage with RSE curriculum resources and content delivery. The results show that the provision of a high quality RSE curriculum resource grounded in contemporary educational principles and practices enables teachers to feel more confident to deliver RSE and minimises potential barriers such as parental objections and fear of mishandling sensitive content.

Troubling silences and taboo texts : constructing safer and more positive school climates for same-sex attracted high school students in Australia

This chapter offers three insights into the relationship between curriculum decision making, positive school climate, and academic achievement for same-sex attracted (SSA) students, highlighting the need for students to be offered more than heteronormative narratives and silence on issues of sexuality in the official school curriculum. The authors firstly provide a review of research and report on findings of a doctoral study (Mikulsky, 2007) explaining the impact of SSA students’ perceptions of school climate on their motivation and academic self-concept. Situating the work in the context of the Australian Curriculum for English and associated classroom texts, the dominant discourse of ‘straight, white female’ heroines as exemplified in the globally popular young adult novel The hunger games and other texts popular with Australian students are critiqued, with an argument made for expanding notions of what it means to ‘attend to’ gender and sexuality through textual choice and critical pedagogy. The authors show how texts that feature LGBTQ characters and storylines continue to be marginalized and constructed as taboo and demonstrate how curricular choices can and do impact academic outcomes for marginalized students. Issues of gender and sexuality are framed as a cross-curriculum imperative, with recommendations made for the explicit inclusion of materials exploring gender and sexuality in the official curriculum of all key learning areas.

Schooling elsewhere: Rurality, inclusion and education

Over its history, the International Journal of Inclusive Education has had a strong record of naming, critiquing and redressing the ways in which particular social locations shape experiences of inclusion and exclusion in education. In this special issue, we continue this tradition taking as our focus those who live outside the metropolitan mainstream. To date, rural schools and the communities of which they are part have often been overlooked by researchers of inclusive education. This is not to suggest that the rural has been ignored entirely in research on inclusivity and schooling. For example, a number of studies have included rural case studies as part of broader research on subjects such as educational disadvantage and experiences of poverty (Horgan 2009), inclusivity and early childhood services (Penn 1997), constraints to inclusive educational practice (Shevlin, Winter, and Flynn 2013) and the efficacy of inclusivity training programmes for teachers (Strieker, Logan, and Kuhel 2012). Such work provides a critical reference point for this special issue as it has demon- strated that the educational landscape may be very differently experienced in the rural compared to the urban. Illustrative is Wikeley et al.’s (2009, 381) assertion that working class Irish youth living outside the urban sphere are ‘doubly disadvantaged’ in terms of accessing out-of-school activities and Milovanovic et al.’s (2014, 47) claim that for young children in the Western Balkans, there is a ‘dearth of pre-school provision in rural areas’. As well as highlighting cleavages of disadvantage as they exist between urban and rural schools, work in this journal has also revealed disadvantage that exists within rural schools. This scholarship has explored how particular social locations, such as disability, ethnicity, sexuality, gender and class intersect with rurality to produce very different educational biographies. For example, it may be class, as Holt (2012) found in her study of young rural women’s transition to a city university, or it may be gender, as Tuwor and Sossou (2008) posited in their work on the schooling of girls in West Africa.

Gender, Politics and Democratisation in Cameroon

Gender perceptions, religious belief systems, and political thought have excluded women from politics, for ages, around the world. Combining feminist and modernisation theorists in my theoretical framework, I examine the trends in patriarchal Europe and I highlight the gender-sensitive model of the Nordic countries. Retracing local gender patterns from precolonial to postcolonial eras in sub-Saharan Africa, I explore the links between perceptions, needs, resources, education and women's political participation in Cameroon. Democratisation is supposed to open up political participation, to grant equal opportunities to all adults. One ironic feature of the liberalisation process in Cameroon has been the decrease of women in parliamentarian representation (14% in 1988, 6% in 1992, 5% in 1997 and 10% in 2002). What social, cultural and institutional mechanisms produced this paradoxical outcome, the exclusion of half the population? The gender complementarity of the indigenous context has been lost to male prevalence privileged by education, church, law, employment, economy and politics in the public sphere; most women are marginalised in the private sphere. Nation building and development have failed; ethnicism and individualism are growing. Some hope lies in the growing civil society. From two surveys and 21 focus groups across Cameroon, in 2000 and 2002, some significant results of the processed empirical data reveal low electoral registration (34.5% women and 65.9% men), contrasted by the willingness to run for municipal elections (33.3 % women and 45.2% men). The co-existence of customary and statutory laws, the corrupt political system and fraudulent practices, contribute to the marginalisation of women and men who are interested in politics. A large majority of female respondents consider female politicians more trustworthy and capable than their male counterparts; they even foresee the appointment of a female Prime Minister. The Nordic countries have institutionalised gender equality in their legislation, policies and practices. France has improved women's political inclusion with the parity laws; Rwanda is another model of women's representation, thanks to its post-conflict constitution. From my analysis, Cameroonian institutions, men and more so women, may learn and borrow from these experiences, in order to design and implement a sustainable and gender-balanced democracy. Keywords: democratisation, politics, gender equality, feminism, citizenship, Cameroon, Nordic countries, Finland, France, United Kingdom, quotas, societal social psychology.

A mobile robot platform for open learning based on serious games and remote laboratories

Within the pedagogical community, Serious Games have arisen as a viable alternative to traditional course-based learning materials. Until now, they have been based strictly on software solutions. Meanwhile, research into Remote Laboratories has shown that they are a viable, low-cost solution for experimentation in an engineering context, providing uninterrupted access, low-maintenance requirements, and a heightened sense of reality when compared to simulations. This paper will propose a solution where both approaches are combined to deliver a Remote Laboratory-based Serious Game for use in engineering and school education. The platform for this system is the WebLab-Deusto Framework, already well-tested within the remote laboratory context, and based on open standards. The laboratory allows users to control a mobile robot in a labyrinth environment and take part in an interactive game where they must locate and correctly answer several questions, the subject of which can be adapted to educators' needs. It also integrates the Google Blockly graphical programming language, allowing students to learn basic programming and logic principles without needing to understand complex syntax.

Gender Bias and Caste Exclusion in Engineering Admission: Inferences from the Engineering Entrance Examination in Kerala

The major problem of the engineering entrance examination is the exclusion of certain sections of the society in social, economic, regional and gender dimensions. This has seldom been taken for analysis towards policy correction. To lessen this problem a minor policy shift was prepared in the year 2011 with a 50–50 proportion in academic marks and entrance marks. The impact of this change is yet to be scrutinized. The data for the study is obtained from the Nodal Centre of Kerala functioning at Cochin University of Science and Technology under the National Technical Manpower Information System and also estimated from the Centralized Allotment Process. The article focuses on two aspects of exclusion based on engineering entrance examination; gender centred as well as caste-linked. Rank order spectral density and Lorenz ratio are used to cognize the exclusion and inequality in community and gender levels in various performance scales. The article unfolds the fact that social status in society coupled with economic affordability to quality education seems to have significant influence in the performance of students in the Kerala engineering entrance examinations. But it also shows that there is wide gender disparity with respect to performance in the high ranking levels irrespective of social groups

More women in informatics research and education

Speaker: Lynda Hardman Organiser: Time: 04/02/2015 12:30-13:30 Location: B32/3077 Abstract The challenges of addressing gender inequalities in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine is widely acknowledged. We currently hold a bronze award and ECS is one of many academic units in the University which has gained Athena Swan Charter status. In this seminar, Professor Lynda Hardman, Chair of the Informatics Europe working group "Women in Informatics Research and Education” will be explaining the causes of issued underlying gender inequality and constructive routes to addressing this important agenda. In undertaking to commit to an action plan which is a prerequisite of gaining charter status, the University or academic department agreed to accept and incorporate the Athena Swan six principles listed below: * To address gender inequalities requires commitment and action from everyone, at all levels of the organisation * To tackle the unequal representation of women in science requires changing cultures and attitudes across the organisation * The absence of diversity at management and policy-making levels has broad implications which the organisation will examine * The high loss rate of women in science is an urgent concern which the organisation will address * The system of short-term contracts has particularly negative consequences for the retention and progression of women in science, which the organisation recognises * There are both personal and structural obstacles to women making the transition from PhD into a sustainable academic career in science, which require the active consideration of the organisation. This seminar is designed to provide an opportunity to explore these issues NOTE: Lynda will be basing here talk on some of the work she directed as chair of the "Women in Informatics Research and Education” working group. The purpose of the working group is to actively participate and promote actions that contribute to improve gender balance in Information and Communication Sciences and Technologies. The first concrete result of the working group's activities was the publication of the booklet "More Women in Informatics Research and Education" in 2013. The booklet is a compact source of clear and simple best practices to deans and heads of departments that aim to increase the participation of women as both students and employees in their institutions. Many tips included were also inspired by colleagues already in leading positions who have already implemented actions in their institutions to attract more women and ensure their continued participation in the organization at commensurate ratios with their male colleagues. The booklet is endorsed by the European Commission and features a foreword by Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for the Digital Agenda.

Transnational feminism, globalisation, human rights and education

The article demonstrates how neo-liberal ideologies and market forces of
globalisation have produced new discourses in education, which have created new sites of political action and require a radical rethinking about feminist theorizing concerning gender equity in education. The article, in analysing the transformation of the social relations of gender and social stratification, draws from feminist, poststructuralist and postcolonial theories. The author concludes that there is need for redefining
feminist paradigms in global pedagogies. Such a new paradigm in feminist pedagogy, based on discourses of power, human rights and social justice should provide a foundation for improving the equity for girls and women in education and society globally.

Feminists re-reading Bourdieu: old debates and new questions about gender habitus and gender change

There is a revival of interest in Bourdieu's work and this article examines dominant trends within feminist re-engagements. It considers the insights into gender identity afforded by ‘habitus’ and ‘social field’, distinguishing between analyses of 'gender habitus', and the potential of habitus and social field for feminist analysis of change. Feminist responses to Bourdieu continue to be divided on the extent to which social field structure determines habitus, and there is a tendency to represent the relationship as too seamless and coherent. Drawing on debates within recent feminist sociology, notably the work of Lois McNay and Lisa Adkins, this article argues instead for greater acknowledgement of the instability of gender norms and the contradictory effects of crossing different social fields. A feminist rethinking of the relationship between gender change, habitus and social field is suggested, which arises from a more contextual analysis of the varying degrees of correspondence between habitus and field. This addresses the co-existence of change and continuity in gender relations and identities, and aims to move such debates beyond questions of either freedom or reproduction.

Gender, age, and educational-attainment differences in Australian adults' participation in vigorous sporting and fitness activities

Background: Participation in regular vigorous physical activity could confer health benefits additional to those derived from moderate-intensity physical activities that are currently the focus of public health strategies.
Methods: Sociodemographic differences in reported participation in vigorous sporting and fitness activities over the past 2 weeks were examined using cross-sectional data from an Australian urban population sample.
Results: Participation at least once in any form of vigorous physical activity and regular participation (six or more sessions) both decreased across successive age groups and from high to low levels of education. The most frequently reported types of vigorous physical activity were cycling (13.3%), jogging (10.1%), swimming (8.4%) for men; and, swimming (8.9%), cycling (8.8%) and aerobics (8.6%) for women.
Conclusion: Rates of regular participation in vigorous activities were low. Interventions might focus on ways to encourage younger adults to engage more regularly in these activities and to maintain participation through the lifespan.

Gender differences and learning outcomes: does gender matter?

Student placement outcomes were examined using archival data from a field education program on the gender of both students and supervisors to test the hypothesis that gender is a predictor of placement outcome. The results of these analyses suggest that whilst the supervisor gender is not critical, the student gender is a significant predictor of placement outcome. As male students are more likely to encounter placement difficulties than female students, inquiry into the student’s concept of masculinity is proposed as a way to assist male students in field education.