Micro-political practices in higher education: a challenge to excellence as a rationalising myth?

O’Connor, Pat; López, Estrella Montez; Hagan, Clare O’; Wolffram, Andrea; Aye, Manuela; Chizzola, Valentina; Mich, Ornella; Apostolov, Georgi; Topuzova, Irina; Saglamer, Gulsun; Tan, Mine; Çağlayan, Hülya

doi:10.1080/17508487.2017.1381629

Cited by 47 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 53 publications

(33 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…They also suggest that such patterns are unlikely to promote real diversity. They highlight the importance of covert processes in perpetuating gendered regimes [16].…”

Section: Current Volumementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Introduction to Special Issue on Gender and Leadership and a Future Research Agenda

O’Connor

2018

Education Sciences

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…They also suggest that such patterns are unlikely to promote real diversity. They highlight the importance of covert processes in perpetuating gendered regimes [16].…”

Section: Current Volumementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Firstly, these women regarded universities as operating according to male-definitions of merit. Thus, they challenged assumptions that universities are gender neutral meritocracies [14][15][16].…”

Section: Current Volumementioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction to Special Issue on Gender and Leadership and a Future Research Agenda

O’Connor

2018

Education Sciences

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Metrics have become part of academic culture and identities, and notions of excellence, both at individual and institutional levels. O'Connor et al (2020) contend that "excellence is often seen as the dominant logic in decisions about recruitment/progression in higher education. Implicit in this is the idea that excellence is unambiguous, gender neutral and unaffected by context" (p. 196).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Should Google Scholar be used for benchmarking against the professoriate in education?

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the neoliberal environment of contemporary academia, an individual’s research rankings and outputs can shape their career security and progression. When applying for ongoing employment and promotional opportunities, academics may benchmark their performance against that of superior colleagues to demonstrate their performance in relation to their discipline. The H-index and citation rates are commonly used to quantify the value of an academic’s work, and they can be used comparatively for benchmarking purposes. The focus of this paper is to critically consider if Google Scholar be used for benchmarking against the professoriate in education, by weighting up issues of data reliability and participation. The Google Scholar profiles of full professors at top ranked universities in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America are analysed to explore how widespread Google Scholar use is in the education professoriate. Quartiles of impact are established in relation to H-index, with exploration of how gender is distributed across these quartiles. Limitations of using Google Scholar data are highlighted through a taxonomy of quality confounders, and the utility of Google Scholar as a legitimate tool for benchmarking against the professoriate in education is strongly challenged. As metrics continue to rise in their importance for academics’ job security and promotional prospects, reliance on metrics of dubious quality and uneven participation must be questioned.

show abstract

“…Karatas-Ozkan and Chell [33] show how at the meso and macro organisational levels our academic institutions 'perpetuate practices that have significant bearings on academic career development' (p. 121). However, institutional transparency alone does not adequately address the primacy of the covert processes played out in promotions procedures [54]. What is needed is a shift in emphasis from addressing overt processes (representation of genders on a promotions panel) to uncover more covert processes such as addressing the mechanisms through which applications are assessed.…”

Section: Challenges Of Gender Denial and Gendered Hierarchies Becomimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although raising awareness of gender bias is becoming more commonplace across HE it is recognised that cultural change takes time-indeed the cultural context is arguably the most intractable problem to resolve alongside a range of established and often undetected systemic biases. As a case in point, HE continues to thrive on 'grace and favour' appointments, more often than not culminating from men's relationship with other men [54]. This putative homosociability, an apposite example of remasculinization in its emphasis on interpersonal and relational domains, promulgates a 'boys club' culture and furthermore, serves to penalise those who do not, cannot, or choose not to fit in.…”

Section: Masculinity and Remasculinisation Of Leadership And Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empirical Evidence Illuminating Gendered Regimes in UK Higher Education: Developing a New Conceptual Framework

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Debates on the absence of women in senior organizational roles continue to proliferate but relatively little attention is paid to the Higher Education (HE) context in which women in leadership roles are seriously under-represented. However, higher education is now central to UK political discourse given the growing controversy around student fees, vice chancellors' remuneration' and Brexit. This paper draws on a collaborative research study on the experiences of 105 senior women leaders across 3 UK Universities, which elicited accounts of constraints, successes and career highlights. Our research findings present empirical insights that expose the continuing gender inequalities most notable in senior Higher Education roles. Women's accounts include stories of diverse experiences, on-going discriminatory practices and a failure to recognise the embedded gendered inequalities that continue to prevail in these institutions. Through a critical interrogation of the narratives of female professors and building on insights from a seminal paper by Broadbridge and Simpson a conceptual framework is offered as a heuristic device to capture critical and reflexive data in future studies of equality and inequality in leadership roles.

show abstract

Micro-political practices in higher education: a challenge to excellence as a rationalising myth?

Abstract: MG, & Çağlayan, H. (2017), 'Micro-political practices in higher education: a challenge to excellence as a rationalising myth? Critical Studies in Education dx.

Cited by 47 publications

References 53 publications

Introduction to Special Issue on Gender and Leadership and a Future Research Agenda

Introduction to Special Issue on Gender and Leadership and a Future Research Agenda

Should Google Scholar be used for benchmarking against the professoriate in education?

Empirical Evidence Illuminating Gendered Regimes in UK Higher Education: Developing a New Conceptual Framework

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About