If leaders expect the feedback they give to translate to improved results, they need to practice delivering it in such a way that others are willing to receive it and act on it, writes school principal Sanée Bell. Here, Bell provides three ingredients for feedback that resonates.

This article explores Swedish teachers' and school leaders' Facebook rebellion groups as a medium where professional needs and actions can be formulated. Data consist of interviews with administrators representing the rebellion groups. Based on a theoretical perspective of teacher agency we searched for experiences and visions related to…

Michel Serres was a successful scholar who made a living within the university on two continents. However, he also viewed the university with great trepidation and tried to warn young scholars against falling victim to the university culture that encouraged a scholar to become a critic and not do original work. In place of the current university…

This article considers the difficulty of implementing change in a university workplace and discusses the popularity of 'the Valley of Despair' change curve as a way of predicting and managing resistance to change. The Valley of Despair is based on Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's (1970; 2005) work with the dying and bereaved, and posits that people going…

In recent times, the role of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), as a public service within Irish society has been illuminated. In the twenty-first century, although crises may unfold on a global scale, the response from society is galvanised at local level. Amongst other functions, ECEC is ideally positioned to form part of a local…

This historical exploration of the development of the academic workforce in the UK and France was triggered by the observation of significant similarities in contemporary debates on casualisation, and segmentation despite their distinctive HE systems. We develop a quantitative history of academic staff to understand why the differences in the two…

This article argues for using French pragmatic sociology to explore tensions regarding teachers' work, by studying critique formulated by teachers themselves. Based on interviews with teachers in Swedish adult education it shows how teachers labour to reconcile 'what is' with 'what should be' by voicing critique. The findings suggest that, while…

In this paper, we examine how evolutions related to the fragmentation of labour markets, the flexibilisation of work and employment conditions, and the multiplication of teacher training models and teachers' roles in schools, are contributing to reshaping teachers' careers. Drawing on interviews with teachers and senior leaders from 8 schools in…

The intensification of the working life of academics in the corporate world of higher education shaped by new public management, is the backdrop for an exploration of the appropriation of opportunities for silence and quietude through the operation of internalised disciplines of self-imposed control. The paper includes a review of selected…

Marx developed a sophisticated theory of labour under capitalism's expanding reproduction but wrote little specifically on immaterial labour. This paper reflects on how to build from Marx's writings a more comprehensive theory of immaterial labour. Integral to this theorisation is bringing in young Marx's writings on alienation and human nature,…

In 2008, social work education underwent a major shift from accrediting undergraduate and graduate programs based on curriculum design and structure to focusing on student outcomes. These competencies are believed to be inclusive of the proficiencies needed for competent social work practice. Central is the notion that social work competency can…

This paper analyses the consequences of what are regarded as neoliberal developments within the Danish ECEC area. More specifically, it looks at how an increasing monitoring and regulation affects the ECEC educator's sense of professionalism. Drawing on a qualitative study of educators' interactionist accounts, a series of unintended consequences…

"The Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy" was published in 2016 to critical acclaim. Rejecting outright the marketisation of the modern university, the book proposed a countercultural approach which denounced the seductive imperatives to overwork and competition and called on academics to make a more…

This article begins with an examination of phenomena such as the market, homo economicus and entrepreneurialism, which have become salient in discussions of neoliberalism in recent years and which are central to the contributions to this special issue. In the second half of the article, the focus shifts to the author's personal take on these…

Purpose: This paper aims to introduce the concept of adaptive agency and illustrate its emergence in the field of English teaching in a number of countries using England over the past 30 years as a case study. It examines how the exceptional flexibility of English as school subject has brought many external impositions whilst its teachers have…