Lived experiences of women academics during the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan

This study explores the experiences of women academics while combining the challenging job of online teaching and familial responsibilities during the COVID‐19 pandemic in Pakistan. The aim is to outline the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 on women academics. We employed a qualitative research design and collected data through in-depth qualitative telephonic interviews with thirteen women academics in four public sector universities in Pakistan. The findings show that women academics remained overwhelmed by the workload; lacked support; and endured a tiring struggle to manage their official duties and familial responsibilities. They were stressed and stuck in their children and family care and online teaching and had hardly any time for academic writing. The participants expressed being burned out, depressed, exhausted, angry, and in desperate need of personal time. Since women experienced the lockdown differently than men we suggest that they may be compensated at the time of tenure/promotions.     

Gender,Work Time,and Care Responsibilities Among Faculty1

This study explores how faculty at one research‐intensive university spend their time on research, teaching, mentoring, and service, as well as housework, childcare, care for elders, and other long‐term care. Drawing on surveys and focus group interviews with faculty, the article examines how gender is related to time spent on the different components of faculty work, as well as on housework and care. Findings show that many faculty report working more than 60 hours a week, with substantial time on weekends devoted to work. Finding balance between different kinds of work (research, teaching, mentoring, and service) is as difficult as finding balance between work and personal life. The study further explores how gendered care giving, in particular being a mother to young children, is related to time spent on faculty work, controlling for partner employment and other factors. Men and women devote significantly different amounts of time to housework and care giving. While men and women faculty devote the same overall time to their employment each week, mothers of young children spend less time on research, the activity that counts most toward career advancement.     

Gender,Organizational Cultures and the Practices of Manager‐Academics in UK Universities

The article explores gendered management in UK universities in the context of moves to introduce new managerialism to higher education. Qualitative data are drawn from an Economic and Social Research Council funded project (R00023 7661) in which interviews were conducted with 137 male and female manager‐academics, from Heads of Department to Vice Chancellors, in 16 universities. The career trajectories of female and male manager‐academics are analysed to see if gender power relations, expectations and discrimination have affected their careers and organizational experiences. Also examined are whether and how gender relations and cultures are perceived to be relevant to management, the practices of women and men manager‐academics and the extent to which the differential value and status attached to teaching, research and management are gender‐related. It is suggested that women's participation in management roles, their perceptions of their practices and the expectations others hold of them are still marked by gender, even though some women have benefited, through promotion, from the greater emphasis on management now evident in UK universities.     

Teaching, research, and service: Expectations of assistant professors

In this article, we critically evaluate the expectations of assistant professors as perceived by junior and senior faculty (n=22) across seven disciplines at two universities. Our research shows that there are similarities and differences within Sociology departments, across disciplines, and across the teaching and research schools where we collected our data. In one respect, Sociology is no different than the other departments where we interviewed faculty members—ambiguity abounds in terms of expectations for junior faculty. Scholarship expectations for tenure and promotion to associate professor vary much more greatly across rank, discipline, and institution than do those for teaching or service. Based on our findings, we offer several suggestions for improving the transition to the role of Assistant Professor in Sociology. Our suggestions focus on change within graduate programs, hiring institutions, and Sociology as a discipline. While our results are consistent with prior research in many cases, we note that the generalizability of our findings is limited given the number of interviews conducted and the purposive sampling design utilized. However, we hope that our results will provide additional information that may help others as they prepare to begin their roles as assistant professors.     

Schemes and social workers: Issues of time pressure and training

This article is based on data from almost 400 questionnaires completed by social workers and social work assistants from six Social Services Departments. It addresses three questions:— what time did staff spend on schemes compared with other social work activities; did schemes or other forms of social work contribute to ‘felt pressure’; and were qualifying and post qualifying courses seen as helpful for undertaking schemes or community based projects. We found that staff spent a significant amount of time on schemes and other non-casework activities. A high proportion of staff felt under pressure which was associated both with working out of office hours and with working in their ‘own time’. A high caseload and involvement in non-casework activities were also both associated with ‘pressure’. Basic training was seen as less useful than previous occupational experience for undertaking community based projects. These findings, when considered with a low staff turnover, suggest that introducing a community approach requires a staff and management development programme together with a workload management system as part of a comprehensive policy.     

The Corporate University and social work academic roles

Abstract

Universities have undergone significant changes in the last decade. Universities have become ‘corporate’, integrating the values, assumptions and ethics of corporate economic capitalism. Within universities, social work practice expertise is negated as a criterion of valued ‘technological role expertise’ of social work academics. The paper describes and analyses the compounding impact of changes in the role of universities upon the historically problematic relationship between social work practice and social work education, The paper suggests a means to integrate both roles in the roles of practitioner-academic and academic-practitioner A typology is developed which identifies the knowledge and skill basis of social work practitioners and academics. The typology enables an identification of the cross fertilisation of each role on the practice expertise of the other. Through such a typology an alternative valued criterion of ‘technological role expertise’ can be established by the profession itself for utilisation in both academic and practice appointments and promotion assessment.     

A Pilot Study Evaluating Students' Interest in International Social Work Education

International social work (ISW) has gained traction across the USA with a number of schools taking the lead in promoting the values of social work through exchange programs, service learning, and volunteerism. The internalization of campus through the proactive action of institutions to incorporate global perspectives into teaching, learning, and research in order to build intercultural competence among students, faculty, and staff has received little attention. This paper assesses the level of interest of social work students at a large urban university in the southwestern USA in embracing ISW and how they conceptualized their learning needs. Using a self-administered web-based survey offered to a total of 1,500 social work students with 18% respondent rate, the research determined through a chi-square test that students in Bachelor of Social Work, Master of Social Work, and PhD programs had a significant difference in preferences in areas of interests (χ² = 153, p ≤ 0.000). Overall, students demonstrated interest in direct practice (74.3%) and community and administrative practice (16.6%). Students also differed in their level of interest in participating in international exchange programs (χ² = 9.6, p = 0.047). Discussions address specific and unique interests categorized broadly as ‘globalized social worker,’ ‘humanitarian social worker,’ and ‘policy social worker,’ each of which requires specific skillsets and advanced behavior skills.     

‘Building Bridges’

Abstract

‘Building bridges’ is a metaphor we have used to describe a collaborative research process involving social work academic and senior practitioners from government and non-government child protection and family service organizations in Victoria, Australia. The purpose of the research was to develop a ‘practice-generated approach to policy implementation’ in child protection practice. The research sought to explore the appropriateness of social constructionist approaches for child protection practice that might enhance the existing risk paradigm. This article aims to critically evaluate the process of ‘building bridges’ and its outcomes, by focusing on how potential and actual differences between organizational contexts, namely universities and various service-providing organizations, may influence relationships between theory and practice. We critically reflect on our research process comparing it with idealized forms of collaborative research discussed in the literature.     

Backing Australia's Future: Teaching and Learning in Social Work

Abstract

It is universally expected that universities will strive for quality in teaching and learning. Over the past 25 years, massive changes to higher education have impacted on these institutions. We now have a mass higher education system, a knowledge-based economy, increased technology, and the internationalization of education accompanied by increased student enrolments and political expectations of enhanced graduate outcome measures. These changes pose challenges to developing, updating, and improving the quality of teaching and learning. This new policy environment confronts social work educators as they determine how best to deliver quality professional education. The present paper discusses the concepts underpinning the Australian government's paper Our Universities: Backing Australia's Future as a background to exploring the tensions arising in current professional expectations and criteria for social work programs as they make the transition from old to new paradigms in classroom teaching and field education.     

Aggression in the academic workplace: a psychodynamic analysis of social work

Abstract

Aiming to promote quality collegial relationships in tertiary education, this theoretical study draws on the peer-reviewed literature to provide a psychodynamic analysis of workplace aggression in the social work discipline. Because the study assists academics to identify their aggressive practices and the aggressive practices of their colleagues, the findings can be of relevance to other practice-based disciplines. Elaborating on the causes and effects of the disciplinary, institutional and individual forms of aggression, this study identifies the avoidance of the emotional pain in work with clients as the main reason behind the active or passive–aggressive behaviours in the discipline. Academics act out this defensive manoeuvre through denying the existence of knowledge gaps in the discipline, denying the inextricable link between empirical research and theories of practice, teaching exclusively theories unsupported by empirical studies, and resisting to set boundaries on active and passive aggression. The study proposes the advancement of research-into-practice mindedness in social work schools, the requirement that prospective social work academics gain considerable practice experience before entering academia, the need for academic leadership positions to require peer-reviewed publications in both teaching and practice and the need for Schools to publish a volume of empirical research to be accredited as providers of social work education.     

Social work: 'The appliance of social science' - a cautionary tale

With the expectation that research be relevant to users and that teaching ensures that graduateness involves teaching people to be fit for a purpose, social sciences in British universities are being encouraged to interact with employers, politicians and policy makers. This paper was presented at an ALSISS/ESRC1 conference on Interactive Social Sciences and argues that social work educators have a great deal to teach their colleague academics about interactivity, but that that very interactivity has led to their place in the academy being placed under threat.     

“I had to get married to protect myself”: Gay academics’ experiences of managing sexual identity in China

Drawing on interviews with 40 gay academics, this article explores their experiences of managing sexual identity in Chinese universities. Three strategies of identity management are identified: passing via marriage or heterosexual relationships, self-distancing from people on campus, and demonstrating outstanding professional performance. This article argues that Chinese universities are heteronormative spaces in which queer identities are excluded. By highlighting gay academics’ transgression of heteronormativity within the closet, this research also unpacks gay academics’ expression of agency in subtle forms.     

Domestic Work and the Wage Penalty for Motherhood in West Germany

Previous research suggests that household tasks prohibit women from unfolding their full earning potential by depleting their work effort and limiting their time flexibility. The present study investigated whether this relationship can explain the wage gap between mothers and nonmothers in West Germany. The empirical analysis applied fixed‐effects models and used self‐reported information on time use and earnings as well as monthly family and work histories from the German Socio‐Economic Panel (1985–2007, N = 1,810; Wagner, Frick, & Schupp, 2007 ). The findings revealed that variation in reported time spent on child care and housework on a typical weekday explains part of the motherhood wage penalty, in particular for mothers of very young children. Furthermore, housework time incurred a significant wage penalty, but only for mothers. The authors concluded that policies designed to lighten women's domestic workload may aid mothers in following rewarding careers.     

Involving Service Users in Social Work Management Education: What Makes it Meaningful According to the ‘Experts’?

Course leaders have adopted a relatively cautious approach to involving service users and carers in Post-Qualifying (PQ) social work management education programmes in the UK, looking for opportunities in which it ‘makes sense’ for them to be included. Whilst there is, to a certain extent, the belief that involving service users and carers in PQ social work education is ‘a good thing’, it has proved challenging to implement. This research study sought to explore, through interviews with ‘experts’ in the field, why this process had proved so challenging. A term which emerged during the research was the importance of ‘meaningful involvement’. The research explored what ‘meaningful involvement’ might mean for managers, for academics and also for service users and carers; what it looks like and how might it take forward the understanding of and the preparation for PQ social work management education.     

Marginal Man: The Identity Dilemma of the Academic General Practitioner*

The study of the relationship between group membership and identity has been central to symbolic interaction. This paper describes one instance of problematic identity, that experienced by members of the newly established academic discipline of general practice. ¹By outlining their dilemma as ‘marginal men’ to both service doctors and other academics within the medical faculty,² attention is focussed upon the strained intraprofessional relationships when core tasks—in this case teaching and service work—are allocated very different values.     

No finish line: How formalization of academic assessment can undermine clarity and increase secrecy

This article analyses how formalization of promotion criteria and procedures influences clarity and transparency of academic assessment. Based on a longitudinal, structural micro‐study of a new tenure track system in a Swedish higher education institution, we find that inequality was reproduced through the choice of explicitly gendered metrics across all areas of assessment (research, teaching and service). We further demonstrate how the formalization of a ‘good enough’ standard, in addition to a standard of ‘excellence’, reinforced the scope for interpretational flexibility among assessors. This combination of explicitly gendered metrics and dual standards of performance gave gatekeepers broader discretion in hiding or communicating failure, with gendering effects. Finally, we conclude that the choices made about how to formalize assessment work placed a small group of senior academics firmly behind closed doors, thus ensuring that gatekeepers’ discretion and power were entrenched rather than restricted by formalization.     

Enough Time for Housework? Low‐Wage Work and Desired Housework Time Adjustments

Although studies examine preferences for hours spent in paid employment, little attention has been given to preferences for hours spent in unpaid household labor. This study examines the extent to which women working in low‐paid retail jobs would prefer to spend more or less time on household work and how alignment between preferred and actual time on housework is related to characteristics of paid work. Using original survey data and company records on a sample of women working at a U.S. retail firm (N = 277), the authors found that mismatch between preferred and actual time on household work was common. Roughly 42% wanted more time on household work and 18% wanted less. Working multiple jobs, work schedule unpredictability, and nonstandard work timing contributed to wanting more time on housework. Findings add to understanding of how low‐wage, precarious employment shapes workers' ability to attend to necessary tasks of household management.     

Living with the h‐index? Metric assemblages in the contemporary academy

This paper examines the relationship between metrics, markets and affect in the contemporary UK academy. It argues that the emergence of a particular structure of feeling amongst academics in the last few years has been closely associated with the growth and development of ‘quantified control’. It examines the functioning of a range of metrics: citations; workload models; transparent costing data; research assessments; teaching quality assessments; and commercial university league tables. It argues that these metrics, and others, although still embedded within an audit culture, increasingly function autonomously as a data assemblage able not just to mimic markets but, increasingly, to enact them. It concludes by posing some questions about the possible implications of this for the future of academic practice.     

Learning Through Teaching: A Study of Social Work PhD Students in Their Roles as Educators and Learners of Research

PhD social work education programs train students to become effective researchers. Less recognized are the potential opportunities for PhD students to develop in their role as educators and the possible benefits of honing doctoral students’ knowledge of research through their role as educators. This study explored these opportunities for social work PhD students who taught an introductory research methods course to MSW students. Findings suggest that potential strong, mutual benefits for PhD and MSW students exist, and institutional supports improved PhD students’ confidence as educators and researchers. Finally, integration of Kolb’s experiential learning theory and Feynman’s mental model in the doctoral social work curriculum may enhance the profession’s development of future leaders.     

Gender and New Public Management: Reconstituting Academic Subjectivities

This article is located within the context of British Higher Education. It examines the ‘radical reforms’ of New Public Management (NPM) (marketization and managerialism) in the management of university organizations. The article has two main aims. First, to explore the extent to which NPM initiatives have influenced individual women academics’s day–to–day experiences of the gendered academy and their professional identities. Second, to understand individuals’ active responses to NPM to develop theorizing of individual resistance in public service organizations. Adopting a Foucauldian feminist framework, it is suggested that the introduction of NPM presents a site for political struggle for women academics. The article explores the gendered nature of NPM, to determine how, in three individual universities, different women academics have responded to the ‘managerialist challenge’. Finally, the article focuses on the ways in which different women academics might accommodate, resist, or transform the discourses of NPM, the factors facilitating this, and the material outcomes.