University of Warwick Press: Journals
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Comunalidad, Development and Indigenous Rights in Oaxaca, Mexico
Get PDFIn the 1980s, in the Southern State of Oaxaca in Mexico, a group of civil society organisations, anthropologists and indigenous intellectuals posed a challenge to state-led development. They engaged with the long history of colonialism and injustices faced by indigenous Mexicans, analysed the changing nature of the relationship between local indigenous and rural communities and the state, and proposed a renovation of communal practice and the development of autonomous government based on consensual decision making as a basis for an alternative anti-poverty strategy. They called this Comunalidad, and supporters of Comunalidad engaged with the emerging indigenous rights legislation. Comunalidad can be understood in the context of the Latin American anti-development, anti-capitalist tradition. The movements and projects established as part of the movement have been effective in developing community identity and defending the cultural autonomy of communities in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca. Understanding Oaxacan Comunalidad is important for getting at the \u27narrative behind the numbers\u27 of contemporary development policy. Comunalidad anti-poverty strategies revolved around community development rather than economic development and serve as a useful example of a local approach to development
Lessons learnt from Degree Apprenticeship’s Design and Development Practice at WMG
Get PDFDegree apprenticeships (DAs) are a new educational route that combine work-based learning with academic study. They offer the opportunity to gain an undergraduate or postgraduate degree while working towards a professional qualification. This paper shares the lessons we learnt during the course conception, design, and delivery of Undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) Degree Apprenticeship (DA) programmes at WMG. The focus will be on the aspects of quality assurance and student experience. The quality of the learning and teaching process is essential for the success of DA programmes.
This practice report explores the development and implementation of DA programmes at WMG, focusing on quality assurance and student experience. It discusses the unique challenges and considerations in designing apprenticeship curricula that meet both academic and industry standards. The report emphasises the importance of putting students at the centre of education, establishing policies for teaching quality, and maintaining effective processes to ensure programmes success and continuous improvement
The future of project management simulation exercises
Get PDFIn recent times project management has become among the most popular post graduate courses at UK Universities particularly for international students. Students consider the skill set useful for employability and transferable for a wide range of future avenues helpful in an uncertain world. However, many start this course with no workplace experience and many of the project management concepts are difficult to grasp or cannot be fully tested except within a realistic project situation. Hence project management simulations or games have become increasingly popular to help resolve this issue.
This research study focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of a project management simulation exercise used by a leading UK University within their project management teaching programme at post-graduate level. A review of the literature included recent studies of simulation, the development of project management education thinking, experiential learning theory and the skill set required from modern project managers from the perspective of professional bodies, industry groups and academics. This produced a list of 17 skills or competences or knowledge areas including both hard skills such as schedule management and risk management and soft skills such as communication, collaboration, and innovation.
Students from the 2021-22 academic year produced quantitative data via a survey relating to their self-perception of their skill level before and after the simulation. Tutors were interviewed to obtain a deeper insight into the mechanisms of learning, the conditions required and their thoughts on future simulation design development. This qualitative data was used to develop a conceptual model for future project management simulation design.
The results show that from the student perspective this learning approach is highly effective with in almost all cases the level of competence started at below average and ended at above average after the simulation. Students consider this approach memorable and enjoyable, were fully engaged and would recommend to their peers. The problem of self-assessment was discussed but a link between student confidence and employability proposed. The conceptual model developed from the qualitative data includes not only simulation design but also game management and tutor skill development. Collaboration between industry partners, game developers and educationalists is proposed to develop the next generation of project management simulation exercises.  
From Formation to Evaluation: Optimising groupwork in STEM Degree Apprenticeships
Get PDFEngineering degree apprenticeships provide three to six years of job opportunities and training that lead to university qualifications up to and equivalent of a postgraduate degree. Within an apprentice’s time in higher education (HE), many are required to complete groupwork projects which bring several benefits and some challenges. This paper explores the effects and limitations of group work in the context of degree apprenticeships whilst discussing a plethora of group selection and assessment method solutions. This includes student self-selection methods in comparison to teacher-selected and randomisation for group selection; a suitable method of selection should be unbiased and optimise advantages of collaborative working. Through understanding the most effective form of assessment for apprentices, an academic policy can be adapted and influenced – acknowledging the learning differences between undergraduate students and degree apprentices.
As part of this work, a comprehensive literature review was carried and a survey was conducted and completed by the Bsc Digital and Technology Solutions students, BEng Applied Professional Engineering Programme students among others at the University of Warwick. The results of the survey provided quantitative and qualitative data surrounding group work.
Furthermore, the paper suggests appropriate solutions to group work issues surrounding the effectiveness of group work for degree apprentices, optimal group selection-methods, group performance, ensuring equal contributions and assessment and grading methods. The paper addresses some of the problems encountered by apprentices during their studies such as the free-rider problem and unequal division of work - providing solutions towards minimising such problems, including the integration of web-based tools such as MS Planner
Bringing Project Management to life: The value of experiential learning through Virtual tours and engagement with Project professionals
Get PDFThis study explores the significance of experiential learning in project management education by utilising virtual tours and engaging with industry professionals. In collaboration with an external organisation, we developed a virtual tour video that showcases real world project management practices. The video provides a comprehensive view of a major project, featuring insights from more than 40 professionals. Inside the classroom, we combined this virtual tour with direct interactions with project professionals from the organisation. Students gained firsthand perspectives on how to apply theoretical concepts in practice. Feedback indicated that the virtual tour and engagement with professionals provided valuable real-world context, effectively bridging theory, and application. Students appreciated the interactive and well-structured experience. To enhance its impact further, we suggest diversifying perspectives, extending its duration, and striking a balance between theory and practical content
Pushing the Boundaries of Reflection: The Answer’s on a postcard
No full textThis article presents a correspondence project completed during the 2019-2020 academic year. To encourage reflection and create divergent modes of expression, teaching staff paired undergraduate students across modules and gave them a blank postcard each week. The students’ brief was an open one - to reflect on their educational experience surrounding the modules with textual and visual representations. The emotionality and expressions of identity that flowed through the postcards were striking. This lent itself to a personally impassioned criticality, meaningful dialogue and more holistic observations on how learning took place
Postdisciplinary Knowledge, Edited by Tomas Pernecky
No full textWhere does postdisciplinarity stand in relation to the other forms of non-disciplinarity? What critiques of academia does it launch? Postdisciplinary Knowledge edited by Tomas Pernecky, aims to theorise postdisciplinarity as a rebellious and subversive movement. This article reviews this work with the aim of finding out what makes postdisciplinarity unique and whether there is a need for it? It also provides an evaluative description of the individual chapters of the book. I conclude that the input of postdisciplinarity is a necessary contribution to discussions surrounding the nature of academia and the university.
Exchanges Discourse Podcast
Postdisciplinarity, Ontologies & Futures: In Conversation with Liam Greenacre [12:58
‘A Particular Kind of Job’: The Programme for Reform of the Law on Soliciting and the British Women’s Liberation Movement’s stance of sex work
No full textThe Programme for the Reform of the Law on Soliciting (PROS), active between 1976 and 1982, campaigned for the legalisation and destigmatising of sex work in Britain. Their campaign started, and thus centred on Birmingham and the Midlands, but quickly expanded to Britain’s major cities, including Bristol, Manchester, and Sheffield. This article examines their grassroots organising for political and legal change, effected most obviously in 1979 when PROS were consulted by the House of Commons Expenditure Committee. PROS negotiated not only cultural prejudices against sex workers but the illegality of soliciting, demonstrating their ability to work across a large section of society, gaining support from a number of organisations, whilst including lawyers, social workers, and probation officers alongside sex workers on their committee. Their focus on improving sex workers’ rights also led them to a contentious relationship with the British Women’s Liberation Movement (BWLM), and although sex work was not considered a high priority by the movement’s socialist-feminist strand, this article argues that PROS engaged with the BWLM at certain strategic points to improve their campaigning position, and thus the legal status of sex workers, at a provincial, grassroots level.
Funding Acknowledgement
This research was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (Grant number: AH/R012776/1)
On the Doorstep
No full textI discuss the disjuncture between supervising generations of students in the Warwick History Department who used the Modern Records Centre collections for research, and finally using the University archives myself for the purposes of researching how social history came to Warwick. I reflect on the role of administrative records - the University of Warwick’s own administrative records sequence (the ‘UWA’) held at the MRC in particular - and the role and identity of the worker within them. I further explore the relationship between Thompson and his research assistant E. E. Dodds, illuminating the ‘making of history’ through the use of paid work, which comes to light through the correspondence between them held as part of the University’s administrative records
Reimagining Peer Review Needs Publishers and Institutions to Collaborate More
No full textCollaboration between academic institutions and publishers is essential for advancing ongoing peer review reform. Despite being an important process in scientific publishing, the flaws of the current models of peer review used by most publishers are increasingly recognised, and include inefficiency, inconsistency, bias and a lack of transparency. Fortuitously, numerous journals and related organisations have leveraged the transformative potential of preprints to already initiate positive changes. However, active support from academic institutions, influential in shaping researchers’ careers and cultures, is crucial too. This potential collaboration would offer mutual benefits, foster more responsible research assessment, help reimagine peer review, and ultimately promote a healthier research culture