'Invisible and uncertain: postdoctoral researcher careers in Irish universities'

Dr Michelle Share | Prof Andrew Loxley

'Invisible and uncertain: postdoctoral researcher careers in Irish universities'

In an Irish Higher Education (HE) context the careers of postdoctoral researchers (PDRs) have received little research attention. Within the international HE policy context they are positioned as important contributors to Higher Education Institutions’ (HEIs) mission to be engines of the ‘knowledge economy’. Yet, despite their importance to HEIs, PDRs experience uncertain career paths and challenging workplace conditions. This study aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of the working lives of PDRs in Irish HEIs. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 postdoctoral researchers. Interviews explored their pathways to employment, work practices, relationships and conditions in the workplace and the challenges and opportunities experienced. Complex and conflicting ideologies surround the role of PDRs in Irish HEIs. Though largely positive about their work practices, their lives are framed by fluid contractual relations that impact personal and family life and their career advancement. This study adds to the limited research on the working lives of postdoctoral researchers in Irish HEIs and contributes to the wider debate on best practice in postdoctoral employment. Suggestions are offered for how career development within HEIs might be enhanced for those who pursue a career as a researcher in academia.

Dr Michelle Share is a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin and a member of the Cultures, Academic Values in Education Research Centre. She has made contributions to the field of education in research on the PhD viva experience and doctoral writing practices in Irish higher education institutions. She has also collaborated with Trinity’s Centre for Academic Practice, actively facilitating programmes aimed at enhancing higher education practice in Ireland and India.

Professor Andrew Loxley has been in the School of Education Trinity College Dublin since 2002. A sociologist by trade he teaches in the areas of research methodology and education policy. Amongst other activities, he established in 2005 (and still co-ordinates) the professional doctorate in education and has undertaken research and written on doctoral education, higher education policy and the Irish knowledge economy. He previously worked at the University of Leeds, the Open University as a research fellow and Oxford Brookes University also as a researcher.

'The increasing use of private special schools: A policy gap for inclusive education'

The increasing use of private special schools: A policy gap for inclusive education

Prof Andrew Loxley | Gary Thomas | Graeme Dobson

There have been significant increases in the number of children sent to non-maintained special schools in recent years. To assess the extent of this trend and its probable consequences, Freedom of Information requests about spending on private special schools were sent to a stratified sample of 24 local authorities in England. The responses indicated substantial rises in spending recently, with very substantial spending on certain kinds of provision in the private sector—spending of up to £0.3 million per child per annum. We argue that the increasing reliance on private special school placement carries not only potential risks for the education, care and wellbeing of the students placed in often distant schools, with recent evidence of cases of serious neglect and abuse in such schools, but also threats to the development of inclusive practice. Current policy and its associated funding mechanisms incentivise separation and are inimical to the development of inclusive solutions to children's and young people's problems at school. We argue that systems need to be developed which enable the substantial sums currently spent on private special schools to be re-deployed to cultivate imaginative inclusive responses to the difficulties experienced by some children at school.