WOMEN & PROFESSIONAL DOCTORATES IN EDUCATION: Feminist Knowledge in the New Knowledge Economy?*

ESCALATE CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION DOCTORATES: JULY 1ST 2003 at Regents College, London PROFESSOR MIRIAM E. DAVIDUNIVERSITY OF KEELE Email: m.david@keele.ac.uk  * from M.E. David (2003b) Feminist Contributions to Doctoral Education in Britain: Feminist Knowledge in the New Knowledge Economy, published in (ed) Erica McWilliam The proceedings of the 4th International Biennial Professional Doctorates Conference, held at University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, December 2002..

Introduction to Women and Professional Doctorates in Education:

    

 

Contribution and critiques of women and feminists as academics My book Personal and Political: feminisms, sociology and family lives

(David, 2003) Contexts of changing forms of social, economic and neo-liberalism. Changes in labour markets, the economy, information technology, global

transformations Moves towards a new knowledge economy but contested concepts

(Blackmore, 2002; David, 2003 and Peters, 2001)

Introduction to Women and Professional Doctorates in Education 2:

Focus on expansion or ‘massification’ of doctoral education in UK over the past 30 years

Concern with feminist critiques of pedagogies and practices in higher education Study of assessment of research doctorates (with Leonard & Morley 2002) Professional doctorates in education. Case study of first EdD in UK on Gender and Education Management

(GEM) Explores feminist knowledge and feminist pedagogy.

Account for developments in pedagogy and practices in doctoral studies Relation of ‘new’ knowledge economy to feminist knowledge and pedagogies.

Background Contexts of Liberalism and Changes:

Contexts of different periods of liberalism: from social, to economic to neo-liberalism. Emphasis on neo-liberalism and what has been called ‘new public management’

contradictory trends towards equity and diversity linked with a consumer culture and the development of quality assurance least three strands to developments in doctoral education and training viz

traditional research PhDs, ‘new route PhDs’, professional doctorates, especially doctorates in education

 

      

 

Context of Women’s Changing Involvement in Higher Education:

Review women’s involvement in higher education over 3 periods involvement in labour markets and education women’s involvement in the academy changing practices and involvement of women in higher education at all levels

– as academics, teachers, researchers and students, especially as doctoral students

contributed to doctoral and professional education (Leonard, 2001). feminist knowledge and feminist pedagogy  

Hallmarks of Feminist Knowledge and Pedagogies:

Feminist perspectives focus on centrality of women’s experience. Feminist pedagogy involves

exploration of personal experiences and reflections narrative or biographical accounts of professional and personal

developments Feminist challenges to knowledge and research methodologies (Oakley,

2000). critiques of approaches to social scientific knowledge and methodologies from positivism towards experiential and ethnographic approaches Notions of objectivity versus subjectivity including as a methodology. The notions of subjectivity, biography and narratives drawn from the social

sciences (Chamberlayne, Bornat and Wengraf, 2000).

The era of social liberalism and rise of women’s movement in the 1960s and 1970s:

Economic growth, social change and educational expansion Women’s increasing involvement in labour markets Women’s involvement in higher education as both students and academics

(Arnot, David and Weiner, 1999). Social movements, such as the women’s movement Developments of political ideas not ‘knowledge’ (David, 2002a; 2003).  

 

Social Liberalism and elite higher education:

Modest expansion of new universities in the early 1960s Reformulation of policy through the Robbins committee on higher education

(1963). Binary policy of higher education (1966) and creation of polytechnics Transformation of higher education for economic and technological

developments.

Social Liberalism and women’s involvement in the academy:

Civil rights and engagement with liberal and socialist politics (Rowbotham, 2000).

The women’s movement emerged in Britain associated with student politics Challenge to patriarchy Political ideas to transform women’s positions in social and public life, Questioned women’s traditional confinement to the private family. Key writings written outside of the academy (eg Beauvoir 1953, 1960)

Generation of women entered academy as researchers and teachers (David and Woodward, 1998).

Notions challenged traditional academic disciplines (Bird, 2001).

 

Notions of ‘the personal as political’ as feminist pedagogy and feminist thought

The notion of ‘the personal as political’ key to the women’s movement (David, 2003)

Introduced into academic discourse but highly contested. Women’s studies as either a discipline or subject. Term ‘feminist’ not in the lexicon of academe until the 1970s, But used as a political notion in the late nineteenth century.

Social Liberalism and women in the academy in late 1960s and 1970s:

Not appointed to teach or research in either women’s studies or feminism, To traditional academic disciplines, most usually the social sciences. No body of knowledge to build upon for critiques and embryonic theories. Knowledge ephemeral (Bristol Women’s Studies Group 1979). As feminists - new knowledge base for feminist thought.

Challenged forms and content of academic disciplines and subjects Contested knowledge base, particularly in the social sciences and

humanities New academic knowledge and subjects, such as women’s studies

Pedagogies of women’s experience, drawing on the ideas of the women’s movement.

The era of economic liberalism and transformations in the academy in 1980s:

In Britain, economic liberalism and its political challenges to higher education in 1980s.

The political backlash of the New Right as feminists got foothold in academia Successfully challenged traditional knowledge for feminist knowledge and

pedagogy. Thatcherism as a political force scapegoated education for inability in

economy. Make Britain more internationally competitive. Contradictory ideas of central control Introduction of market forces into public services, including higher education.

Economic liberalism and expansion or the ‘massification’ of higher education:

All forms of higher education expanded including into new subject and disciplines

Needs of a changing economy based upon ICT information and computer technologies

Expansion not students from working class but expanding middle class families

Move from an elite to a mass system of access to undergraduate education Postgraduate courses in a variety of subjects and disciplines Given notion of markets in higher education, women’s studies accepted in

curriculum: undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the social sciences and

humanities.

Economic liberalism and managerial changes to control of the late 1980s and 1990s:

New measures of control, through financial resources and fiscal management Universities and polytechnics more autonomy Subject to new regimes of quality control.

Policy documents and research studies on the PhD. Focus on poor submission and completion rates of doctorates Action to introduce financial sanctions on institutions with poor completion

rates

Flowering of a diversity of perspectives and theories around feminist thought.

Feminist theories and practices expanded throughout academic life. New bodies of feminist knowledge developed on an international

basis, Yet wider political climate of hostility to women’s changing lives in

public and family. Thatcherism witnessed transformation in women’s lives but was

committed to the re-invigoration of traditional ‘family values’ (Arnot et al, 1999).

Neo-liberalism, ‘new public management’ and diversity in doctoral ‘education’:

During the 1990s neo-liberalism characterised by more 'deregulation' Rise of ‘new managerialism’ in UK higher education

Market forces within public institutions New regulatory procedures New forms of private management of public institutions

Influenced 3-fold developments in doctoral education in Britain.

Neo-liberalism and developments of doctorates:

Expansion of traditional PhDs - a quarter of all postgraduates, with overseas students.

Postgraduates about 40 percent of all students in higher education. The growth of professional doctorates, especially but not only in education. Contradictory developments in doctoral ‘education’ versus ‘training’

For traditional PhDs ‘research training’ rather than ‘education’ Taught courses/programmes prior to research thesis as full-time

study. ‘new route PhDs’ on North American experiences

Harmonisation of European postgraduate studies through the Bologna agreement

Professional doctoral education modelled on Commonwealth particularly Australian experiences. Mainly part-time with blocks of teaching usually in cohorts.

Key features of the transformations in doctoral education for the traditional PhD:

Drawing on a recent study with Leonard and Morley (2002) as feminists 2001 over 101,000 doctoral students in UK universities. 10,000 started PhDs in 1998-1999 versus 3,000 in 1992 Massification of doctoral studies led to possible women as doctoral

students But limited the further creation of feminist knowledge.

A highlight of neo-liberal approaches is quality assurance procedures for consumers.

Not focussed on assessment of doctorates and the viva voce. procedures for realising quality, or equality and fairness not addressed no records kept of vivas and the Higher Education Statistics Agency

(HESA) does not record statistics of outcomes by university, discipline, gender or race.

Feminist critique of New Labour and new managerialism in UK higher education:

Transformed the priorities, culture and practices of the academy Quality Assurance Agency’s publications of Improving Standards in

postgraduate research degree programmes (HEFCE, 2003) No influence on quality assurance of oral assessment of doctoral degrees

New Labour’s evidence-based policy and practice (David, 2002b) Evidence base for policy changes sparse: rather inadequate statistical

records, self-report studies, documentary analysis and narratives. New forms of management and forms of reflective feminist practice Developments contribute to equity procedures within universities but

removal of research degree awarding powers as a criterion of university status key feature of proposals on the future of higher education (White Paper, 2003).

Professional Doctorates in Education: the case of feminist knowledge:

Contradictory and challenging features of professional doctorates Draw on international experiences in Anglophone/Commonwealth

such as Australia and New Zealand (Middleton 2001; Green, Maxwell and Shanahan, 2001).

Opportunities of professional doctorates in education for insights of feminist knowledge.

Reflect on my experiences in feminist fashion (David 2002a): the professional doctorate in education on gender feminist knowledge and pedagogy.

Variety of professional doctorates especially around practice-based perspectives:

Massive growth in professional doctorates Education doctorates in particular over the last decade.

Over thirty-five professional doctoral programmes in education in Britain, First at the University of Bristol in the early 1990s.

Key features: taught elements or coursework units prefigured research training for PhD? mainly on a part-time basis; cohort basis for groups

Criteria for participation in a professional doctorate:

Involvement in a professional activity Majority of students are mature, Process of lifelong learning Continued professional development.

Key features of Education Doctorate:

Particular market of students - professional educators teachers either in schools, further or higher education, administrators, policy-makers and/or leaders and managers.

From the evidence of women’s involvement in education as professional work a majority of students on doctoral programmes in education are women

school-based education local management and administration expanding sectors of further and higher education.

The case of the education doctorate at Keele University:

Market niche for the doctorate in education Market for studies that made explicit issues of gender. Majority in professional education were likely to be women.

women in education administration in the new forms of higher education, particularly the new universities new subject areas such as nursing and para-medical areas required a doctorate for professional development.

Mini survey of doctorates in education: gender of current students and graduates:

Survey of current doctorates in education in UK (plus asked Australians) Evidence confirms presupposition of majority of women:

14 UK universities replied (out of about 30 questioned) Differences not as stark as presupposition

56% females vs 44% males enrolled currently 53% females to 46% males Doctors of Education Lincoln 32% of EdD graduates female.

Speculate that it depends on orientation of EdD.

WOMEN VS MEN AS STUDENTS AND AS DOCTORAL GRADUATES

Key features of Keele EdD (EPP/GEM) in terms of gender of students:

The majority of our students are female: administrators from FE or HE administrators, education managers or advisors from LEAs academics

from Keele itself or post-1992 universities subjects from business studies to nursing, physiotherapy or

psychology.

Key features of the Keele pedagogy and perspectives:

Unique in the UK, (although not in Australia, New Zealand or Canada) Feminist knowledge through feminist pedagogy Feminist perspective threaded through substantive units and research

‘training’ Reflective practice, reflexive researchers and experiential perspectives

(Deem, 1996; David 2003) Feminist, critical, post-structuralist theories and methodologies (Drake and

Owen, 1998) Feminist and social science methodology through biography, narratives

and voices (eg Pitt, 2000; Britzman, 1998) Critical and/or feminist ethnographies (St Pierre and Pillow, eds 2000).

Critique post-structuralist ideas about gender, masculinities and femininities. Whitehead’s (2002) pro-feminist work.

Reflections on our pedagogies and practices:

GEM is by far the more popular strand, students transferred in from EPP, so strands

Each course unit has been evaluated very highly by students part of quality assurance.

Preparations for the first GEM thesis proposal conference on July 3rd/4th

The first part of formal and summative assessment, mix of written and oral presentation

The idea of an oral presentation and assessment Critiques of the viva voce More transparent and open the procedures for assessment. Preparation for the viva - remains the form of assessment of UK thesis.

Conclusions:

Massification of doctoral education over the last 30 years in British higher education

Context is changes in forms of liberalism – social, economic and neo-liberalism

Technological and labour market changes and the new knowledge economy. Constraints on equity, originality and creativity through quality assurance

mechanisms Opportunities for women’s involvement as students and academics - feminists Development of feminist knowledge as part of the new knowledge economy

(Blackmore, 2002). Feminist knowledge prefigured doctoral education developments in

knowledge economy Feminist pedagogies contributed to innovative practices in professional

doctoral education.