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Handbook on Academic Freedom (2022)
Book
Watermeyer, R., Raaper, R., & Olssen, M. (Eds.). (2022). Handbook on Academic Freedom. Edward Elgar Publishing

Disabled students doing activism: Borrowing from and trespassing neoliberal reason in English higher education (2022)
Journal Article
Raaper, R., Peruzzo, F., & Westander, M. (2023). Disabled students doing activism: Borrowing from and trespassing neoliberal reason in English higher education. Power and Education, 15(2), 132–149. https://doi.org/10.1177/17577438221117772

The neoliberal rationale in English higher education promotes institutional and individual competition for economic success, often at the cost of equity and universalism. Within such context, there is a tendency to formalise student voice, for exampl... Read More about Disabled students doing activism: Borrowing from and trespassing neoliberal reason in English higher education.

Physical Separation, Social Distance, and Kinship Sentiments: An Exploration of Rural Parent–Teacher Relations in China (2022)
Journal Article
Xu, J., & Raaper, R. (2022). Physical Separation, Social Distance, and Kinship Sentiments: An Exploration of Rural Parent–Teacher Relations in China. Rural Sociology, 87(3), 1088-1110. https://doi.org/10.1111/ruso.12441

Research from various national contexts has shown that less privileged parents face various barriers when developing relationships with teachers compared to their more privileged counterparts. Chinese rural citizens have been disadvantaged within the... Read More about Physical Separation, Social Distance, and Kinship Sentiments: An Exploration of Rural Parent–Teacher Relations in China.

The changing role of students in British higher education governance: Partners, consumers and digital users (2022)
Working Paper
Raaper, R., & Komljenovic, J. (2022). The changing role of students in British higher education governance: Partners, consumers and digital users

This working paper discusses the changing role of students in British higher education governance over the three societal periods: the welfare state, the market society and the digital economy. Within the past three decades, the student has shifted f... Read More about The changing role of students in British higher education governance: Partners, consumers and digital users.

Student support as social network: Exploring non-traditional student experiences of academic and wellbeing support during the Covid-19 pandemic (2021)
Journal Article
Raaper, R., Brown, C., & Llewellyn, A. (2022). Student support as social network: Exploring non-traditional student experiences of academic and wellbeing support during the Covid-19 pandemic. Educational Review, 74(3), 402-421. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2021.1965960

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a global crisis in higher education, affecting all aspects of university work and practices. This article focuses on student experiences in particular by problematising academic and wellbeing support available to non-... Read More about Student support as social network: Exploring non-traditional student experiences of academic and wellbeing support during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Doctoral students navigating the borderlands of academic teaching in an era of precarity (2021)
Journal Article
Rao, N., Hosein, A., & Raaper, R. (2021). Doctoral students navigating the borderlands of academic teaching in an era of precarity. Teaching in Higher Education, 26(3), 454-470. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.1892058

Neoliberalisation of academia has led to an increasing recruitment of doctoral students in teaching roles. Whilst there is evidence of doctoral students being engaged in teaching roles and the reasons for doing so, there is a pressing need to underst... Read More about Doctoral students navigating the borderlands of academic teaching in an era of precarity.

Student Politics: Resistance, Refusal and Representation (2020)
Book Chapter
Raaper, R., & Burke, C. (2020). Student Politics: Resistance, Refusal and Representation. In M. Murphy, C. Burke, C. Costa, & R. Raaper (Eds.), Social theory and the politics of higher education. Critical perspectives on institutional research (187-197). Bloomsbury Academic

Social Theory and the Politics of Higher Education brings together an international group of scholars who shine a theoretical light on the politics of academic life and higher education. The book covers three key areas: 1) Institutional governance, w... Read More about Student Politics: Resistance, Refusal and Representation.

Students as ‘Animal Laborans’? Tracing Student Politics in a Marketised Higher Education Setting (2020)
Journal Article
Raaper, R. (2021). Students as ‘Animal Laborans’? Tracing Student Politics in a Marketised Higher Education Setting. Sociological Research Online, 26(1), 130-146. https://doi.org/10.1177/1360780420952810

This article examines the widespread policy discourses that have constructed the notion of student as consumer in English higher education, and it questions the implications of such fabrications on students’ political engagement. In particular, it ex... Read More about Students as ‘Animal Laborans’? Tracing Student Politics in a Marketised Higher Education Setting.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the dissolution of the university campus: implications for student support practice (2020)
Journal Article
Raaper, R., & Brown, C. (2020). The Covid-19 pandemic and the dissolution of the university campus: implications for student support practice. Journal of Professional Capital and Community, 5(3/4), 343-349. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpcc-06-2020-0032

Purpose: This paper problematises student support in higher education during the Covid-19 crisis and proposes an original approach of social network analysis for developing effective support for students from different socio-economic backgrounds. Des... Read More about The Covid-19 pandemic and the dissolution of the university campus: implications for student support practice.

Assessment Policy and “Pockets of Freedom” in a Neoliberal University. A Foucauldian Perspective (2019)
Book Chapter
Raaper, R. (2019). Assessment Policy and “Pockets of Freedom” in a Neoliberal University. A Foucauldian Perspective. In C. Manathunga, & D. Bottrell (Eds.), Resisting neoliberalism in higher education. Volume II. Prising open the cracks (155--175). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95834-7_8

Guided by a Foucauldian theorisation, this chapter conducts a discourse analysis of assessment policy documents in one neoliberalised UK university. Furthermore, it traces the ways in which academics and graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) as assesso... Read More about Assessment Policy and “Pockets of Freedom” in a Neoliberal University. A Foucauldian Perspective.

Constructing Political Subjectivity: The Perspectives of Sabbatical Officers from English Students’ Unions (2019)
Journal Article
Raaper, R. (2020). Constructing Political Subjectivity: The Perspectives of Sabbatical Officers from English Students’ Unions. Higher Education, 79(1), 141-157. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00400-9

Informed by policy sociology and a Foucauldian theorisation, this article explores how a selection of sabbatical officers from English students’ unions formed their political subjectivity during the policy consultation processes leading to the Higher... Read More about Constructing Political Subjectivity: The Perspectives of Sabbatical Officers from English Students’ Unions.

Students as consumers? A counter perspective from student assessment as a disciplinary technology (2018)
Journal Article
Raaper, R. (2019). Students as consumers? A counter perspective from student assessment as a disciplinary technology. Teaching in Higher Education, 24(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2018.1456421

The notion of students as consumers who exercise educational decisions based on economic self-interest leads to interesting questions about their perceptions of current higher education assessment practices. Guided by a Foucauldian theorisation and t... Read More about Students as consumers? A counter perspective from student assessment as a disciplinary technology.

Students’ Unions and Consumerist Policy Discourses in English Higher Education (2018)
Journal Article
Raaper, R. (2020). Students’ Unions and Consumerist Policy Discourses in English Higher Education. Critical Studies in Education, 61(2), 245-261. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2017.1417877

This article centres on the recent Higher Education and Research Act 2017 in England and the consultation documents leading to the legislation. I will start by arguing that the reform promotes consumerist understanding of students. Guided by Fairclou... Read More about Students’ Unions and Consumerist Policy Discourses in English Higher Education.

'Peacekeepers’ and ‘machine factories’: tracing Graduate Teaching Assistant subjectivity in a neoliberalised university (2017)
Journal Article
Raaper, R. (2018). 'Peacekeepers’ and ‘machine factories’: tracing Graduate Teaching Assistant subjectivity in a neoliberalised university. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 39(4), 421-435. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2017.1367269

Guided by a Foucauldian theorisation, this article explores Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) experiences of their work and subjectivity in a neoliberalised higher education environment. By drawing on a research project with GTAs from one UK universi... Read More about 'Peacekeepers’ and ‘machine factories’: tracing Graduate Teaching Assistant subjectivity in a neoliberalised university.

In Conversation with Mark Olssen: On Foucault with Marx and Hegel (2017)
Journal Article
Raaper, R., & Olssen, M. (2017). In Conversation with Mark Olssen: On Foucault with Marx and Hegel. Open review of educational research, 4(1), 96-117. https://doi.org/10.1080/23265507.2017.1334575

It is challenging to define who Michel Foucault was, whether he was a theorist, a philosopher, a historian, or a critic. In many of his books, and essays, Foucault denied being a philosopher or a theorist, nor did he want to be called a writer or a p... Read More about In Conversation with Mark Olssen: On Foucault with Marx and Hegel.

Tracing assessment policy discourses in neoliberalised higher education settings (2016)
Journal Article
Raaper, R. (2017). Tracing assessment policy discourses in neoliberalised higher education settings. Journal of Education Policy, 32(3), 322-339. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2016.1257160

This article explores assessment policy in two European universities with different political, historical and social backgrounds: the University of Glasgow and Tallinn University. The University of Glasgow is a well-established Russell Group universi... Read More about Tracing assessment policy discourses in neoliberalised higher education settings.