This paper illustrates how critical use of Basil Bernstein's theory illuminates the mechanisms by which university knowledge, curriculum and pedagogy both reproduce and interrupt social inequalities. To this end, empirical examples are selected from the findings of the ESRC-funded project "Pedagogic Quality and Inequality in University First…

Systems designed to ensure that teaching and student learning are of a suitable quality are a feature of universities globally. Quality assurance systems are central to attempts to internationalise higher education, motivated in part by a concern for greater global equality. Yet, if such systems incorporate comparisons, the tendency is to reflect…

Examines experiences of part-time teachers and the meanings they attribute to them. Draws on data from contact with university sociology departments (n=12). Concludes that academic sociologists should take a moral and practical interest in part-time teachers because they are implicated in the reproduction of sociology and sociologists. Provides…