Ethnographies of Educational Work and Reform

EPOKE: Education, Policy and Organisation in the Knowledge Economy

EPOKE's site

EPOKE Seminar:

Ethnographies of
Educational Work and Reform
Thursday 18 June, Room D219, DPU, Kbh.

Open discussion of work in progress by three guest researchers

10.00-11.15 ‘From teacher to bureaucrat: Passionate people and dead bodies, an ethnographic study of bureaucrats at work in an Australian state education bureaucracy’
Sarah Robinson, PhD student, University of Western Australia

11.30-12.45 ‘Universities, temporalities and the Research Practices of Sociologists’
Nicola Spurling, PhD student, University of Lancaster, UK

13.00-14.00 Lunch

14.15-15.30 ‘The Class Character of Higher Education Reform’
Elizabeth Rata, Associate Professor, University of Auckland, New Zealand

18.00: Dinner at Restaurant Riz Raz, Kompagnistræde 20, Kbh. K
OPEN TO ALL - Buffet DKK 89,-; to book a place contact
hmiah [at] dpu.dk - Deadline Wednesday 17 June noon

Abstracts
Sarah Robinson’s paper is based on a 10-month ethnographic study of the working lives of bureaucrats in an Australian state Department of Education. Through ethnography, she brings the actors onto centre stage to speak for themselves. They appear as passionate and committed people, who struggle to find a balance between the structural constraints of the bureaucratic world and their own beliefs, values and ethics. sarah [at] sarahrobinson.dk

Nicola Spurling asks: What does the everyday research practice of sociologists entail and how is it enabled and constrained by government policies and universities? Drawing on empirical research, this paper explores the intersections and interactions of policy, universities and the careers and everyday work of some UK sociologists. The paper discusses insights offered by conceptualising sociologists’ research practices from several different socio-temporal and institutional standpoints. n.spurling [at] lancaster.ac.uk

Elizabeth Rata’s new study examines how the reform of the governance and management of knowledge creation and distribution in New Zealand, England and Italy is deeply implicated in restructuring the new middle class. e.rata [at] auckland.ac.nz

Public Seminar - All Welcome

The Danish School of Education
Tuborgvej 164, 2400 Copenhagen NV