Abstract
This chapter argues a particular disciplinary positioning for sociologists in negotiating our professional practice as higher education teachers in the neoliberal academy. It conjectures a need to decompartmentalise the equality-focused vales underpinning the research interests of many sociology academics, from our everyday teaching practices. Understanding of the often-unspoken value-orientation of knowledge including that imparted in HE teaching, and the mechanisms of power and privilege of which we are all part, locate a particular responsibility not only to remain attuned in our own practice but also to take an active role in our institutional cultures. Evidence from research and teaching experience demonstrates the complex interplay of policies, cultures, and both intentional and unintentional dimensions of interactions between individuals and groups in perpetuating prejudice and marginalisation in HE contexts. Evidence of the un-belonging experienced by marginalised minorities including within the university sociology classroom identifies a need for us to reorient our critical gaze closer to home, to the classroom and wider institutional culture as the locus of activity in which so much of our professional lives are spent.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Reproduced with permission
References
Ahmad, A. (2015). ‘Call out culture’: The case of Ableist language. Feminist Philosophers. https://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/call-out-culture-the-case-of-ableist-language/.
Ahmed, S. (2012). On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life. Durham: Duke University Press.
Ashwin, P. (Ed.) (2015). Reflective teaching in higher education. London: Bloomsbury.
Baca Zinn, M., & Thornton Dill, B. (1996). Theorizing difference from multiracial feminisms. Feminist Studies, 22(2), 321–333.
Ball, S. (2012). Performativity, commodification and commitment: An I-spy guide to the neoliberal university. British Journal of Educational Studies, 60(1), 17–28.
Barnett, R. (1997). Higher education: A critical business. Buckingham: SRHE/Open University Press.
Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity. London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Bidwell, L. D. M. (1995). Helping students develop a sociological imagination through innovative writing assignments. Teaching Sociology, 23, 401–406.
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Burke, P. J. (2012). The right to higher education: Beyond widening participation. London: Routledge.
Burke, P.J., & McManus, J. (2011). Art for a few: Exclusion and misrecognition in art and design higher education admissions. Higher Education Academy. https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/naln_art_for_a_few.pdf.
Callender, C. (2008). The impact of term-time employment on higher education students’ academic attainment and achievement. Journal of Education Policy, 23(4), 359–377.
Collins, P. H. (1990). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness and the politics of empowerment. Boston: Unwin Hyman.
Connor, H., Tyers, C., Modood, T., & Hillage, J. (2004). Why the difference: A closer look at ethnic minority students and graduates. Research report no. 552. London: DfES.
Cotterill, P., Jackson, S. & Letherby, G. (Eds.) (2007). Challenges and negotiations for women in higher education. Dordrecht: Springer.
Crenshaw, K. (2003). Traffic at the crossroads: Multiple oppressions. In R. Morgan (Ed.), Sisterhood is forever: The women’s anthology for a new millennium (pp. 43–57). Washington: Washington Square Press.
Crombie, G., Pyke, S. W., Silverthorn, N., Jones, A., & Piccinin, S. (2003). Students’ perception of their classroom participation and instructor as a function of gender and context. Journal of Higher Education, 74(1), 51–76.
Crozier, G., Reay, D., & Clayton, J., et al. (2008). Different strokes for different folks: Diverse students in diverse institutions – Experiences of higher education. Research Papers in Education, 23(2), 167–177.
Danvers, E. C. (2016). Criticality's affective entanglements: rethinking emotion and critical thinking in higher education. Gender and Education, 28(2), 282–297.
Danvers, E., & Gagnon, J. (2014). Is ‘student engagement’ just a mirage? The case for student activism. Student Engagement and Experience Journal, 3(2), https://doi.org/10.7190/seej.v3i2.89. ISSN (online) 2047-9476.
Devine, P. G., Forscher, P. S., Austin, A. J., & Cox, W. T. L. (2012). Long-term reduction in implicit race bias: A prejudice habit-breaking intervention. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(6), 1267–1278.
Duckworth, V. (2013). Learning trajectories, violence and empowerment amongst adult basic skills learners. In Research in Education. London: Routledge.
Equality Challenge Unit. (2013). Unconscious bias in higher education. [online] http://www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/unconscious-bias-in-higher-education/.
Evans, M. (2004). Killing thinking: The death of the university. London: Continuum.
Fenwick, T., & Edwards, R. (2013). Networks of knowledge, matters of learning and criticality in higher education. Higher Education, 67, 35–50.
Gagnon, J. (2016). ‘Born to fight’: The university experiences of the daughters of single mothers who are first-generation students in the United Kingdom. Doctoral thesis. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/59847/1/Gagnon%2C%20Jessica%20Dawn.pdf.
Grauerholz, L., & Bouma-Holtrop, S. (2013). Exploring critical sociological thinking. Teaching Sociology, 31(4), 485–496.
Haggis, T. (2006). Pedagogies for diversity: Retaining critical challenge amidst fears of ‘dumbing down’. Studies in Higher Education, 31, 521–535.
Halsey, A. H. (2004). A history of sociology in Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Herrnstein, R. J., & Murray, C. (1994). The bell curve: Intelligence and class structure in American life. New York: Free Press.
Higher Education Academy. (2011). UK Professional Standards Framework. [online] https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/recognition-accreditation/uk-professional-standards-framework-ukpsf.
Hinton-Smith, T. (2012a). Lone parents’ experiences as higher education students: Learning to juggle. Leicester: Niace.
Hinton-Smith, T. (Ed.) (2012b). Widening participation in higher education: Casting the net wide? London: Palgrave.
Hinton-Smith, T. (2016). Negotiating the risk of debt-financed higher education: The experience of lone parent students. Br Educ Res J, 42, 207–222. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3201.
Houston, M., & Lebeau, J. (2006). SOMUL Working paper 3: The social mediation of university learning. [online] http://www.worldcat.org/title/social-mediation-of-universitylearning/ocle/50038383415.
MacDonald, R. (2013). Underemployment and precarité: The new condition of youth? Lifelong Learning in Europe (LLinE). The article is available here: http://www.elmmagazine.eu/articles/underemployment-and-precarit-the-new-condition-of-youth/
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1844). The economic and philosophic manuscripts. This edition (1959). Moscow: Progress Publishers.
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1888). Theses on Feurbach. Marx/Engels Selected Works. This edition (1969). Moscow: Progress Publishers.
Mclean, M., Abbas, A., & Ashwin, P. (2015). Not everybody walks around and thinks “That’s an example of othering or stigmatisation”: Identity, pedagogic rights and the acquisition of undergraduate sociology-based social science knowledge. Theory and Research in Education, 13(2), 180–197.
Moreau, M.-P., & Leathwood, C. (2006). Balancing paid work and studies: Working (-class) students in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 31(1), 23–42.
Morgan, H., & Houghton, A.M. (2011). Inclusive curriculum design in higher education. Higher Education Academy. [online] https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/inclusion/Disability/Inclusive_curriculum_design_in_higher_education.
Morley, L. (1999). Organising feminisms: The micropolitics of the academy. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Morley, L. (2013). The rules of the game: Women and the leaderist turn in higher education. Gender and Education, 25(1), 116–131.
Morley, L., Eraut, M., Aynsley, S., MacDonald, D., & Shepherd, J. (2006). Needs of employers and related organisations for information about quality and standards of higher education. London: Higher Education Funding Council for England.
Moss-Racusin, C. A., Dovidio, J. F., Brescoll, V. L., Graham, M., & Handelsman, J. (2012). ‘Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for the United States of America, 109(41), 16474–16479.
Murray, C. (1999). The underclass revisited. Washington: American Enterprise Institute.
Oliver, M. (2013). The social model of disability: Thirty years on. Disability & Society, 28(7), 1024–1026.
O’Shea, S. (2015). Avoiding the manufacture of ‘sameness’: First-in-family students, cultural capital and the higher education environment. Higher Education, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-015-9938-y.
Pantea, M. C. (2012). From ‘making a living’ to ‘getting ahead’: Roma women’s experiences of migration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 38(8), 1251–1268.
Patai, D., & Koertge, N. (2003). Professing feminism: Education and indoctrination in women’s studies. Plymouth: Lexicon.
Purcell, K., Elias, P., & Atfield, G. (2009). Analysing the relationship between participation and educational and career development patterns and outcomes: A new classification of higher education institutions. Futuretrack Working Paper 1, IER/HESCU. Warwick: University of Warwick.
Reay, D. (1998). ‘Always knowing’ and ‘never being sure’: Familial and institutional habituses and higher education choice. Journal of Education Policy, 13(4), 519–529.
Reay, D. (2003). A risky business? Mature working-class women students and access to higher education. Gender and Education, 15(3), 301–317.
Reay, D., Crozier, G., & Clayton, J. (2010). ‘Fitting in’ or ‘standing out’: Working-class students in UK higher education. British Educational Research Journal, 36(1), 107–124.
Read, B. & Francis, B. (2003). University lecturers’ constructions of undergraduate writing: a gender analysis. Investigations in university teaching and learning, 1(1), spring pp. 59–62. ISSN: 1740-5106 available online: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/36771644.pdf.
Venkatesh, S. (2008). Gang leader for a day: A rogue sociologist crosses the line. London: Penguin.
Wynne Davies, P. (1993). Major to stress ‘core value’ of education to nation’s well-being: ‘Back to basics’ campaign drops attack on single mothers. The Independent. [online] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/major-to-stress-core-value-of-education-to-nations-well-being-back-to-basics-campaign-drops-attack-1504401.html.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hinton-Smith, T. (2018). Sociology, Inequality and Teaching in Higher Education – A Need to Reorient Our Critical Gaze Closer to Home?. In: Matthews, C., Edgington, U., Channon, A. (eds) Teaching with Sociological Imagination in Higher and Further Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6725-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6725-9_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-6724-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-6725-9
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)