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This paper contributes to the literature on complementary schools as sites of learning and social and cultural identification. We draw on a small-scale multi-method qualitative study conducted in Albanian and Bulgarian community schools in London to explore the agendas of "new" Eastern European complementary schools with respect to learning and heritage and their impact on migrant students' identities and experiences with education in the UK. Findings demonstrate that different models of complementary schooling and students' experiences of mainstream education affected students' views in different ways. The paper explores how the "hard" and "boring" culture of Bulgarian complementary school resulted in students' expressions of greater liking for learning in mainstream school and valuing of its multiethnic context. It further examines how practices in another complementary school and students' wider social experiences resulted in a stronger sense of Albanian heritage identity in students, but in more problematic views of UK cultural diversity. In elaborating these themes we seek to draw some implications for policy and practice.

This paper attempts to identify leadership practices of school principals as they engaged in exploring and exploiting possibilities in and around the school contexts to develop school capacity for change. Based on interview data of school principals, this paper shows that the capabilities of school leaders to perceive and exploit situated possibilities to build school capacity are one of the key factors differentiating different levels of implementation efforts. Three school capacity-building practices are found to constitute efficacious principal leadership in contexts of educational change, namely fostering teacher learning in communities of practice and teacher participation in decision-making; promoting school-community connections to facilitate student learning through participation; and aligning external demands and schools' internal circumstances. Implications for developing efficacious principal leadership in school capacity building are discussed.

This paper examines an initiative promoting collaboration between schools located in a city setting in Northern Ireland, which is broadly divided along ethnic and political lines. The schools involved, like the vast majority of schools in Northern Ireland, educate Protestant and Catholic children separately. This presents particular challenges for school collaboration as it implies the establishment of new, connected relationships in an education system, which is historically and contemporaneously more characterised by division. Since 2007, the schools in this study have been involved in an education initiative which promotes cross-sectoral shared learning in core areas of the curriculum with a view to promoting school improvement; the additional, indirect goal is also about improving community relations. However, over this period, the relationship between the institutions has deepened, leading schools to examine how they can sustain partnership and evolve collaborative practice. This paper explores how the partnership has evolved and assesses its effectiveness as a collaborative enterprise. The paper concludes by demonstrating how effective collaboration between schools in Northern Ireland mitigates the potentially negative impacts of educating children separately, but also how effective models of school collaboration are capable of providing enhanced learning opportunities for pupils and are also capable of developing the communities in which they are located.

Currently, in England, there is widespread concern that careers education (information, advice and guidance) is relatively poorly resourced in schools and there is much debate about its current effectiveness. In this paper, we investigate students' views on careers education provision and their satisfaction with this provision. The work draws on data collected via a national survey of over 13,000 Year 11 students aged 15/16 years and in-depth longitudinal interviews conducted with 70 students from this cohort (aged from 10 to 16 years). Our findings show that there is clear student demand for 'more and better' careers education and we conclude that some schools may not be meeting the statutory requirement to provide impartial careers support for all students. Moreover, our quantitative analyses indicate that provision of careers education in England is currently patterned in ways that may be working to promote inequalities relating to gender, ethnicity and social class. Findings from our interview data offer insight into possible influencing factors and suggest that the majority of careers support is provided via a 'self-referral' system, which disadvantages those who, arguably, might benefit most. We conclude by discussing the implications of these patterns and suggest some potential, more equitable, ways forward for schools and teachers. Specifically, we recommend that targeted resourcing is needed for schools and teachers to engage and support disadvantaged students, and suggest greater monitoring of participation (not just provision).

This paper reports on the findings of a qualitative interpretive study that was undertaken to determine how in-service teachers at Great Zimbabwe University were able (or not) to translate a theory that they were exposed to into practice during history lessons. Drawing on a range of data, the study explored how the teachers, who were purposively sampled, reconceptualised curriculum through their pedagogical practices during lessons. Teachers' utterances in the interviews helped clarify their notions of history teaching in terms of the theory they were exposed to. The study found that while the teachers could articulate the theory, they faltered and hesitated to draw on it when reframing their pedagogical practices. The paper argues that this is not because of exposure to bad theory. Rather, it reflects the need for teachers to be assisted to weave together curriculum theory and curriculum practice into one coherent interdependent landscape that reflects praxis and its dialectics and thus make the theory-practice gap difficult to perpetuate.

It is generally accepted that education has a significant role to play in any society transitioning from conflict to a more peaceful dispensation. Indeed, some have argued that the education system potentially represents the single most effective agent of social change with the capacity to bridge ethnic division in conflict affected countries. Despite the potential, educational policy-makers grapple with the dilemma as to precisely how school systems can best facilitate this agenda. This paper thus attempts to shed light upon the dilemma by exploring pupil identity and associated intergroup attitudes across various school types in Northern Ireland. Five schools were selected for the study with each one representing a particular sector within the Northern Irish education system (maintained grammar, maintained secondary, controlled grammar, controlled secondary, integrated). This led to a total sample size of 265 pupils. The main findings show that children across separate Catholic, separate Protestant and mixed Catholic and Protestant educational contexts construct and interpret identity differently. At the same time, our data suggest that no one school setting has supremacy in promoting social cohesion. The implications of these findings are discussed.

A central issue in the class size debate is that while cutting class size might lead to improved teaching and learning, it is also possible that it may not if teachers do not seek to exploit the advantages of a smaller class size through an alternative pedagogy. Research suggests that teachers do not change their pedagogy when moving from large classes to smaller ones. This paper focuses on pedagogical practices in large and reduced-size secondary school classes where the teacher is the same in both contexts; a research design that has not been employed in previous class size studies. The paper explores the relationships between class size and the pedagogical practices adopted by four experienced teachers in Hong Kong who are each responsible for one large and one reduced-size English language class of the same grade level. Drawing on mostly qualitative data, this study's findings show that teachers "did" vary their teaching from one class to another with important differences noted in teacher-student interaction patterns, classroom organisation, the establishment of classroom rules and the teacher's use of humour. At the same time, interview data reveal that teachers could not always explain or theorise their pedagogical decisions. Implications for professional practice are presented. (Contains 1 table.)

This paper addresses some particular aspects of the complex intersections between race and social class. It is based upon data collected as part of a two-year Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project exploring the "Educational Strategies of the Black Middle Classes" (BMC). ("The Educational Strategies of the Black Middle Classes", ESRC RES-062-23-1880). The project as a whole focuses on the educational perspectives, strategies and experiences of Black Caribbean-heritage middle class families in England. Little research attention has been given to the growing BMC, despite the massive interest in the educational decision-making of White middle class families. The assumption perpetuated in media coverage of issues like educational achievement is that Black children are working class. Here we consider the role of ethnic and social class mix--within school choice and within children's friendship groups as these are inflected by the concerns about racism and educational achievement articulated by BMC parents. The paper indicates different degrees of importance given to social mix in relation to school choice and in the making and monitoring of friendships among the families in the sample and some of the issues of strategy, risk and identity that are embedded in their thinking about and planning for social mix. Some gender differences are also signalled and their intersection with race and class is discussed. (Contains 13 notes.)

Much research has suggested that focusing on the determinants of female enrolment and dropout tells us little about girls' experiences of schooling in developing countries and cannot explain variation in their educational trajectories. This paper draws on quantitative (n = 1177) and qualitative data (n = 15) collected by "Young Lives" in Ethiopia to explore the educational experiences of girls aged 11-15 living in five rural and urban communities. It focuses on the diversity in girls' experiences and outcomes that can be obscured by simple quantitative measures and aggregated data. As this diversity is often attributed to individual motivation or "culture", the paper investigates the relationship between accounts of local norms and individual aspirations and experiences. Finally, it uses a comparative case study of two urban schoolgirls to contextualise educational outcomes and explore the processes behind them. The paper concludes that even when measured outcomes are expanded to include "student engagement" the methodological focus on the individual neglects the social, material and political-economic factors that shape their educational trajectories. This makes it more difficult to understand girls' aspirations and experiences or support their schooling. (Contains 6 tables and 18 notes.)

This research investigates how three Government-funded Normal Students constructed and reconstructed their identities in a pre-service teacher education programme in China. Drawing upon data from interviews, field observation and the pre-service teachers' written reflections, the study explores the cognitive, social and emotional processes of their teacher identity construction. The findings of the study suggest that pre-service language teachers develop and modify their identities through engaging in cognitive learning, interacting with different socialising factors and experiencing various emotions in university coursework and teaching practicum. The paper concludes with some implications for language teacher education and pre-service teacher education.

In the name of curriculum breadth and raising standards, recent government policy in England has removed a large number of non-academic qualifications from the list of those that secondary schools can count in league tables, discouraging their use. Most of these were vocational qualifications, but they also include skills-led qualifications. This paper reports mixed methods research investigating the relationship between mainstream secondary school qualifications in England and a specific, widely used skills-led qualification: the Certificate of Personal Effectiveness (CoPE). Neither academic nor vocational, CoPE requires learners to assemble a portfolio of evidence in response to "challenges" negotiated with the teacher. It is designed to promote a reflective learning orientation and to develop (and assess) skills that underpin learning and future employability. We use a combination of regression analysis, pseudo-experiment and qualitative case study. Our research shows that CoPE is associated with improved outcomes in the "mainstream" academic qualifications often regarded as the benchmark for the quality of schools and much of what goes on in them. Thus, we argue that certain reforms designed to raise standards are likely to depress attainment in the very qualifications deemed as core indicators of educational standards.

This paper reports on a year-long research study: four teachers of English, their Year 8 (13-14 year old) classes (110 students) in urban, secondary schools and a university teacher educator investigated the contexts for students to develop dialogic, exploratory talk in small groups. Assuming a Vygotskyan perspective, the study adapted a pedagogic model from an earlier project, endorsing a structured approach to talk, with "ground-rules" and reflection. The study investigated how this guided model might intersect with other aspects of classroom culture, practice and identity to effect sustained development in students' use of exploratory, dialogic talk. The project involved research collaboration cross-school, including students exchanging formative feedback on videotaped talk. Qualitative research methods comprised comparative discourse analysis of audio and videotapes of representative group talk; semi-structured lesson observations; and sequential teacher and student interviews. The study concludes that practising a structured model and reflecting on discourse had a liberating effect on the majority of students, enabling experimentation with different forms of dialogic talk and identities. Shifts in discourse, confidence and identity positioning were particularly marked in "lower-attaining" students of lower socio-economic status. Teachers' metadiscoursal reflection resulted in changes in teacher-student relationships and classroom talk characterised by tentativeness, permitting knowledge to be contested.

Two departments in a secondary school in England participated in "lesson study" projects over a five-month period to explore its usefulness as a vehicle for professional development. Through a cycle of two research lessons, conducted separately in each department, teachers identified challenges that inhibited the learning of their students and collaboratively prepared innovative approaches to address the learning challenges. The process yielded multiple sets of data: DVD-recorded lessons, lesson plans and resources, transcripts of preparation and evaluation meetings and individual interviews at the end of the project. This paper draws principally on detailed qualitative analysis of end-of-project interviews about teacher experiences of learning and practice development in the two contexts. While the teachers encountered some logistical challenges to the implementation of lesson study, a number of important gains were reported: collaboration in lesson study reduced feelings of professional isolation; teachers reported a sharper focus on pupil learning and more confidence to take risks with approaches to teaching, which led to greater opportunities for pupils to engage in interactive activities, for example, involving problem-solving and peer teaching in groups.

Based on a qualitative analysis of classroom discourse in Italian primary schools, this paper analyses the micro-processes that are emergent moment-by-moment in the unfolding interactions between teacher and pupils. More in particular, our purpose is to identify the conditions under which the interactive orientation of a sequence changes. We argue that unpredictable emergent contributions function as turning points, re-directing and changing the sequence's orientation. The results show that the turning points introduce changes in the sequences as far as three discourse characteristics are concerned: (a) communicative pattern; (b) lesson objective; and (c) role of primary knower. The discussion points out the importance of these results for the teachers' work and training. (Contains 1 note.)

This article reports on the results of a qualitative case study that addresses recent calls for greater attention to clinical aspects of practice and experiment in teacher education programmes. Grounded in the notion of approximations of practice, this study uses the analytic lens of teacher identity to understand how one group of preservice teachers in Hong Kong negotiated boundaries between opportunities for practising teaching within their university classroom and the classrooms of their practicum placement schools. Through in-depth interviews and classroom observations, this paper explores relations between opportunities to practice instructional routines and teacher identity construction within and beyond the university classroom. The data suggest that preservice teachers can face considerable challenges in constructing identities as they move between opportunities for practice available in coursework and engagement in the practices and activities of teaching within schools. These challenges include negotiating competency and gaining legitimate and legitimising access to practice as they confront relations of power within schools and teacher education programmes. Implications for the organisation of teacher education programmes that promote teacher agency and for future research are discussed.

This paper explores cultural inclusion--the extent to which schools accommodate the needs and experiences of minority cultural groups to make the schools equally welcoming--and optimal learning places for all children, specifically through the curricular and pedagogical practices which contributed to the secondary school experiences of Ethiopian-Australian students in Melbourne, Australia. The study utilised a qualitative methodology, using interviews as a major data collection tool, and employed secondary school students, their teachers and parents as informants for the study. A total of 59 participants were interviewed. After the transcription and coding of the interview data, thematic analysis was used. Findings within the Australian context were compared with Ethiopian educational histories and practices to explain how students, parents and teachers felt the Ethio-Australian students were being culturally acknowledged and included within school practices where cultural acknowledgement referred to understanding and appreciating cultural diversity. The findings indicated that on a general policy level, schools were acknowledging students' cultural backgrounds; however, at the classroom level, it was very much dependent upon the individual teacher. Participants believed that the curriculum failed to consider the students' home culture at all levels. Mismatches between Ethiopian students' expectations and excepted pedagogical practices within their new learning contexts were also evident. Most students were found to be more comfortable copying lessons down from the board, reading comprehension questions, working independently, in pair or in small groups, and wanted to get comments as a correction response for their work. However, the majority of the students were not comfortable with large group and whole-class discussions, conversation and speaking in front of class. The findings indicated a need for greater curriculum and pedagogical consideration for immigrant students such as these at the classroom level. (Contains 1 table.)

This paper draws on some of the findings from a research study which examined the current structure of assessment for citizenship in secondary education in England and considers the rationale for the assessment of citizenship. The research included an empirical evaluation of citizenship assessment from the perspective of the key user groups, teachers and pupils and comprised a mixed-method approach. A questionnaire survey was sent to teachers and pupils in secondary schools across England and interviews were conducted with pupils (Years 9-11) and teachers in 18 schools around England. The data were analysed using both quantitative (descriptive and univariate statistics) and qualitative methodologies. The findings suggest that the way in which citizenship is delivered has an effect upon the means by which it is assessed and has some impact upon the way that the subject is valued. Some teachers were reluctant to use unfamiliar modes of assessment, particularly formative methods which did not result in a grade, because pupils were sceptical of the value of any subject which does not provide a "final" mark. The creation of ideal-type teachers facilitated a deeper investigation of the way in which teachers assess citizenship and how they perceive their pupils' attitudes towards the subject. Teachers and pupils demonstrated generally positive attitudes towards citizenship education. However, their responses suggest a pervading educational ethos which values only the things that can be measured and some reluctance to believe that it is worthwhile to develop skills or abilities which do not generate a "grade". (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

The aim of the present study was to focus on how students articulate and discuss what factors influence students' decisions to defend or not defend victims when witnessing bullying. In this unique qualitative cross-collaborative study, where two research teams collected interviews from two cultural contexts, eighty-nine students with an age-range from 9 to 14 years old participated. Participants included 43 Swedish students and 46 US students (50 girls, 39 boys). The interviews were analysed through a collaborative qualitative analysis aimed at constructing shared concepts of our data as a whole. The results revealed five broad factors among the students when they reasoned about how they act as a bystander in bullying situations: (a) informed awareness, (b) bystander expectations, (c) personal feelings, (d) behavioural seriousness, and (e) sense of responsibility. The results indicated that each of these considerations could make the students more or less likely to defend as well as to defend in a certain way. According to these five broad factors, students seemed to adjust their bystander acts, which suggests that students' bystander acts vary depending on situational factors that influence bystanders' interpretations of bullying and decision-making about how to respond to observed bullying.

This article arises out of an initiative to implement a curriculum designed to enhance the literacy learning of elementary school children in Portugal. Researchers explored students' perspectives about the experienced curriculum through the enactment of group interviews. Thematic analysis of the conversations revealed positive opinions and feelings about the learning experience. It further showed students' representations about the experienced curriculum, namely their acute awareness of the specialised dimensions of language that shaped the learning content and the importance of such learning. The analysis unveiled the key role students attributed to situated playful practice in the learning process, side by side with agency, collaboration and ICT mediation. Explicit learning, transformed practice and formative forms of assessment were other valued pedagogical dimensions. On the whole, this research brings empirical support to a sociocultural understanding of a literacy curriculum for elementary grades, an original contribution made from the perspectives of learners themselves.

This article reports the results of a qualitative study investigating the experiences of five former English language teachers in Hong Kong during their initial years of full-time teaching and the reasons for their permanent departure from the profession. Guided by a theory of teacher identity construction, the study employed a discourse analytic approach to understand the participants' perceptions of their professional identity construction in discourse and practice. The results of in-depth interviews provide detailed descriptions of the ways in which the former teachers perceived the constraints and enablements to their professional identity construction within the context of their ultimate decision to leave the teaching profession. The findings problematise rigid divisions between different types of teachers and suggest the need to establish new spaces for identity construction that allow for the meshing of different teacher identities.

The aim of this study is to gain better understanding of the dynamics of the social support system adopted in teacher education and its significance for the student teachers' experienced well-being. The focus was on exploring the extent to which empowering "emotional," "informational" or "instrumental" support is enabled for student teachers during their studies. Altogether, 40 student teachers were interviewed, and the data were subjected to content analysis. The results showed that the student teachers faced both empowering and burdening experiences involving social support, or lack of it. Informational support was the most frequently reported. Further, most of the informational and emotional support was appropriate and was received from both peers and teacher educators. Conversely, a lack of or inadequate support was experienced burdening. However, active efforts to develop a more supportive social environment--i.e. offering or giving social support for others--were rarely described.

Motivating adolescents to participate in exercise and physical activity is becoming increasingly important due to a rise in obesity but can be prevented through Physical Education. A quasi-experimental design, grounded in the Self-determination theory, was utilised to assess the impact of an intervention using wrist-worn digital physical activity monitors to provide individual feedback to participants. Within the context of K secondary school, a sample of 10, male Year 10 students (aged 14-15-year olds) were divided into experimental and control groups. Over a period of six week, the experimental group received feedback on their exercise levels after PE lessons, while the control group did not. Three quantitative research questions in this pilot study were analysed using independent and dependent t-tests and correlations were run to understand the interaction between motivation and exercise. Results indicated that students in the experimental group showed a statistically significant increase in identified regulation. Furthermore, exercise levels increased significantly from week 2 of the intervention to week 6 in both groups. This pilot study suggests providing specific digital feedback to individuals based on their exercise levels in PE can increase students' motivation to exercise which in turn increases their levels of exercise in PE.

Motivation in science in school is a national issue but is often overlooked in educational reform (Usher, A., and N. Kober. 2012. "Student motivation -- An overlooked piece of school reform". Centre on Education Policy, Graduate School of Education and Human Development. The George Washington University). Despite new curriculum content reforms in England to promote education and uptake, science remains an area of concern (Department for Education. 2015. 2010 to 2015 "government policy: school and college qualifications and curriculum". Accessed October 27, 2016 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2010-to-2015-government-policy-school-and-college-qualifications-and-curriculum/2010-to-2015-government-policy-school-and-college-qualifications-and-curriculum; Department for Education. 2016. Revised A level and other level 3 results in England", 2014/2015. Accessed August 15, 2016 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/502158/SFR03_2016__A_level_and_other_level_3_results_in_England_SFR_revised.pdf. This article explores students' lack of motivation towards studying science and strategies to enhance motivation in a secondary school academy with students aged 14--15 years of age. The quasi-experimental research design used qualitative and quantitative methods analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings suggest that the motivational factors most lacking in students are task value, self-efficacy and self-regulation. The intervention programme had significant impact on the students involved in the study and suggests the need to move towards a growth mindset style of teaching that makes science relevant to everyday life.

Research has shown mathematical anxiety impacts on mathematical confidence and attainment, leading to avoidance of mathematics and mathematical careers. This research investigated if an intervention with peer mentors could help reduce students' mathematical anxiety. It took place at a Secondary School (11-18 years) in the South West of England, which has been rated as "Outstanding" by Ofsted. Five female students (aged 11-15 years) identified by their teachers as mathematically anxious were paired with peer mentors (female, aged 16-17 years) to receive four one-hour intervention sessions over six weeks. The purpose was for the mentors to provide encouragement and demonstrate skills to cope with being "stuck", thus building the students' mathematical resilience and reducing their mathematical anxiety. The students' mathematical anxiety and attitudes were measured with a questionnaire before the intervention and again after all four sessions. The qualitative data collected from the questionnaires was reported alongside data provided by semi-structured interviews, which was coded and analysed for common themes. Three out of four participants reported reduced mathematical anxiety and all four students demonstrated a positive attitude to the intervention. However, the findings were inconsistent regarding improved mathematical resilience and its effect on reducing mathematical anxiety.

Children experience numerous types of learning transitions throughout their educational lives physically (changing schools) and substantively (moving through different key stages in school), and daily (in moving between subjects). One transition that is frequently overlooked within the British education system is that from the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) usually completed at the age of 16 to Advanced Subsidiary Level (AS Level) usually completed at the age of 17. This case study addresses this issue by focusing on students' perceptions and experiences of the transition between GCSE and AS Level mathematics. It involves a small qualitative study of 28 students from a post-16 college in the UK and uses questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to ascertain students' views of their transition in studying mathematics at a higher level. The evidence suggests that many students struggle with the transition from GCSE to A Level making AS Level Mathematics inaccessible for many students. Ways of addressing the difficulties experienced by students are discussed with implications for teachers, students and policy-makers in the hope of supporting smoother learning transitions to advanced level study for all.

Inactivity amongst children and adults in the UK is currently of great concern. Attitudes towards physical activity develop during childhood and may influence physical activity patterns in later life. This research investigated the experiences and perceptions of physical education (P.E.) amongst primary school pupils. The study established overall attitudes towards P.E. amongst 296 primary school (age 5-11) pupils (male = 150; female = 146) in an affluent U.K. primary school. Following completion of a simple questionnaire, 50% of pupils indicated a very positive attitude towards P.E. and just 1% indicated a very negative attitude towards the subject. A progressive focusing approach was used to examine individuals reporting negative attitudes towards P.E., with the aim of establishing how and why these attitudes had developed. Several factors were identified and those most regularly cited were: a lack of self-efficacy, a lack of perceived autonomy, family and peer factors and individual physical and personality factors. A set of ten guidelines was produced with the aim of promoting positive P.E. experiences for all pupils; these included a focus on enjoyment of P.E., development of an environment where pupils have a sense of autonomy and developing self-efficacy amongst all learners.

The aim of the present study was to examine and categorise teachers' strategies for feedback in day-to-day communication in primary school. The different feedback categories constructed and grounded in data are applicable to feedback on learning and knowledge as well as on behavioural skills. Qualitative classroom observations were conducted in 4 primary school classrooms, including a total of 4 teachers and 75 students. A constructivist grounded theory approach was used throughout the analytical process. The analysis of the field data generated five main categories of feedback focuses: expecting, emotionally responding, normalising, steering and deliberating. The categories are all broad, yet with subcategories specific and nuanced, presenting concepts by which we can verbalise and communicate teachers' feedback strategies. The categories place teachers' feedback actions in a landscape, not on a linear axis. The complexity of feedback, as it is shown in the present study, challenges a dichotomisation of feedback and captures more of a complexity of classroom assessment.

The aim of this qualitative longitudinal study is to create a more in-depth picture of the emergence of team learning behaviours throughout the lifespan of temporary project teams. In order to grasp the emergence of these behaviours, three project teams were followed from the start until the end of their project during a period of three months. Three team meetings spread over time were audiotaped and coded using a coding schema set-up to identify individual verbal behaviours and transform them into team learning behaviours. During the analysis, attention was given to the differentiation in the occurrence of different types of basic and facilitating team learning behaviours and in the occurrence of topics of learning behaviour (task--process--social) over time. Overall, no time-related patterns in terms of occurrence of type and topic of basic and facilitating team learning behaviours were found over the three meetings and across the three teams. The main driver for the occurrence of different team learning behaviours could be attributed to be the scope of the meeting during which they occur.

This article describes a qualitative study into the occurrence of the side effects of school inspection through in-depth interviews in five case schools. The study investigates the extent to which strategic activities, disturbing effects and emotional side effects occur in the case schools. The study also aims to understand features that may explain these side effects. Most research to date has been conducted in England, which is considered a "high-stakes" inspection context whilst "low-stakes" inspection contexts are generally regarded as causing fewer undesirable side effects. This hypothesis, however, is not confirmed by the results of this study. Although the Flemish education context provides a "low-stakes" inspection context, schools in this study engage strongly in strategic activities to produce a better image of the school and school staff members suffer from severe emotional side effects due to the inspection. By contrast, only limited disturbing effects on normal school life were observed. These side effects are affected by principals' attitude towards the inspection, by schools' perception of inspectors' behaviour and by the inspection judgement. The article includes a discussion of the impact on side effects of several particularities of the Flemish education context, such as the absence of central examinations.

This qualitative study explores teachers' perspectives on learner motivation for English in Chilean secondary schools. Drawing both on motivation theories and on concepts related to teacher cognition, autonomy and agency, the analysis of 19 semi-structured interviews with Chilean English teachers sheds light on the difficulties that many teachers have in motivating their students so that they engage in classroom activities and learning. Findings show that teachers with a developed sense of agency report higher levels of learner motivation. Salient features of their accounts are classroom practices that grant students immediate positive experiences while learning English, rather than referring to future benefits. Other features are autonomous learning tasks, and a context-appropriate, empowering selection of cultural contents. The discussion suggests that teachers need to develop a sound sense of agency to identify "spaces to manoeuvre" between external constraints, such as curricular policies or lack of parental support, and possible internal constraints, such as paralysing beliefs about their own competence or a limited cultural repertoire to draw on in order to make English lessons motivating and meaningful for their students. For improved learner motivation and meaningful learning, research needs to support teachers' autonomy in times of increasing curricular regulation and standardisation of knowledge.

This study examines the impact of dialogic teaching as core pedagogy in the higher education context. It investigates how instructional design informed by Alexander's dialogic principles and educational linguistics encouraged pre-service teachers and in-service teachers to develop professional capabilities to first recognise and then harness the power of talk for reflective learning. A discussion-based pedagogic strategy called Literature Circles was used to help reframe critical understanding of literary texts and prompt meta-awareness of dialogic teaching. One group of participants in the study was a final year cohort of pre-service teachers in a Bachelor of Education (Primary) degree at an urban university in Australia. Another group of participants were teachers in a primary school who were reviewing their use of Literature Circles. The third group of participants the school students who took part in the Literature Circles. Qualitative data from video interviews and/or focus group discussions with the three groups of participants were triangulated. Coding of data was achieved by content analysis, cross-correlating close linguistic analysis with an analytic framework based on Alexander's five principles to create categories for the identification of perceptions about dialogic teaching. Findings from the study show that the linguistic lens provided new insights to dialogic teaching at all levels of education.

This article draws on data from a national study, involving an experimental intervention with 54 schools across the country, in which teachers were mentored in a pedagogical approach involving explicit attention to grammatical choices and which advocated high-level metalinguistic discussion about textual choices. The research focused upon primary children aged 10-11, and in addition to statistical analysis of outcome measures, 53 lesson observations were undertaken to investigate the nature of the metalinguistic discussion. The data were analysed inductively, following the constant comparison method, with an initial stage of open coding, followed by axial coding which clustered the data into thematic groups. The analysis demonstrates the potential of metalinguistic talk in supporting young writers' understanding of how to shape meaning in texts and the decision-making choices available to them. It signals the importance of teachers' management of metalinguistic conversations, but also the role that teachers' grammatical subject knowledge plays in enabling or constraining metalinguistic talk. The study highlights the importance of dialogic classroom talk if students are to develop knowledge about language, to become metalinguistically aware, and to take ownership of metalinguistic decision-making when writing.

This article reports the results of a multiple qualitative case study which investigated the challenges that seven early career English language teachers in Hong Kong confronted as they constructed their professional and personal identities. A series of in-depth interviews with participants during the entire first year of their full-time teaching experience provided a longitudinal perspective on the teachers' experiences of becoming teachers. A contribution of this study is to examine such experiences using the analytical lens of teacher identity. The case studies illustrate that these teachers faced considerable challenges in constructing teacher identities as they negotiated the dominant discourses of teaching and learning within individual Hong Kong schools. It is argued that school-based support for early career teachers should include the problematisation of the identity positions available to all teachers within the profession as a whole in order to support the construction of the professional and personal identities that these teachers place a premium upon. Implications for teacher education and future research are also discussed.

This article addresses the issue of university teachers' emotions generated through teaching and interacting with students. While research on school teachers' emotions is on the increase, interest in the significance of university teachers' emotions is still limited. In light of the growing attention given to the quality of university teaching around the world, and evidence of the impact of emotions on school teachers' well-being and teaching practice, a better understanding of the origin and nature of emotions experienced by university teachers is needed. This article presents the findings of a small longitudinal study with 15 university teachers from two public Australian universities. Two in-depth interviews with each teacher generated rich accounts, examples and reflections on their emotional experiences during teaching. The qualitative analysis revealed the range of positive and negative emotions triggered in specific teaching-learning situations. Three major themes related to the emergence of emotions were identified: first, the importance of the intrinsic value and social nature of the professional practice of teaching; second, the criticality of the degree to which expectations of students' engagement were fulfilled or not; and third, the realisation that the professional practice of teaching was only partly controllable. The findings are discussed with reference to previous research, limitations are addressed, and directions for future research are proposed.

"Effort" and "ability" (understood as potential, intelligence or achievement) are concepts widely used in the everyday language of schooling in Britain but each term lacks clear definition of its use in the school context. Meanwhile, the assessment of effort, alongside that of achievement, remains widespread. This article reports on an exploratory case study of conceptions of effort among three major actors in an English secondary school. Qualitative and quantitative data from questionnaires and interviews with teachers, students and parents at an English comprehensive school were collected. Analysis reveals that understandings of "effort" are not uniform. Rather, "effort" is a shorthand term, which can be used variably, therefore can be construed as a tool of negotiation, or a form of investment in a set of aims distinctive to each group or individual case. There is a strong case for more sustained research into the operationalizing of such key concepts in schools and other professional and workplace settings.

The aim with the present study was to investigate bystander actions in bullying situations as well as reasons behind these actions as they are articulated by Swedish students from fourth to seventh grade. Forty-three semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with students. Qualitative analysis of data was performed by methods from grounded theory. The analysis of the student voices of being a bystander in bullying reveals a complexity in which different definition-of-situation processes are evoked (a) relations (friends and social hierarchy), (b) defining seriousness, (c) victim's contribution to the situation, (d) social roles and intervention responsibilities, and (e) distressing emotions. There are often conflicted motives in how to act as a bystander, which could evoke moral distress among the students. Our analysis is unique in that it introduces the concept of moral distress as a process that has to be considered in order to better understand bystander actions among children The findings also indicate bystander reactions that could be associated with moral disengagement, such as not perceiving a moral obligation to intervene if the victim is defined as a non-friend ("none of my business"), protecting the friendship with the bully, and blaming the victim.

The aim of this study was to investigate how individuals;who had been victims of school bullying; perceived their bullying experiences and how these had affected them; and to generate a grounded theory of being a victim of bullying at school. Twenty-one individuals, who all had prior experiences of being bullied in school for more than one year, were interviewed. Qualitative analysis of data was performed by methods from grounded theory. The research identified a basic process of victimising in school bullying, which consisted of four phases: (a) initial attacks; (b) double victimising; (c) bullying exit; and (d) after-effects of bullying. Double victimising refers to a process in which there was an interplay between external victimising and internal victimising. Acts of harassment were repeatedly directed at the victims from their social environment at school -- a social process that constructed and repeatedly confirmed their victim role in the class or the group. This external victimising affected the victims and initiated an internal victimising; which meant that they internalised the socially constructed victim-image and acted upon this image, which in turn often supported the bullies' agenda and confirmed the socially constructed victim-image. The findings also indicate the possible positive effect of changing the social environment.

This qualitative study examines the perspectives of eight exemplary African-American science teachers toward No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and their outreach to families and communities in the context of the USA. Data revealed that whereas these exemplary teachers applauded the general intent of NCLB, they were concerned with its overemphasis on testing and the limited resources provided to support quality science instruction. To address these challenges, these teachers looked for ways to reach out to families and communities, with particular emphasis on working with communities. Data further revealed that their outreach efforts to families and communities corresponded with three dimensions in Boykin's Afrocultural Ethos (harmony, communalism and orality), thereby suggesting that there is a need to reexamine school-family-community partnerships when working with students and families from diverse backgrounds, and particular with predominately African-American communities.

In 1989, the progressive introduction of a National Curriculum of subjects to all maintained schools in England and Wales brought compulsory science education into the primary sectors of these two countries for the first time. Such was its considered importance, science was placed alongside English and mathematics in what became known simply as "the core". As a result of its elevated profile and an immense amount of hard work and effort by teachers and other professionals responding to requirements, science education provision appeared to benefit enormously. Successive revisions of the national primary science curriculum have brought about many changes, however, each impacting on the primary profession individually in different ways and as a whole. Findings from a recently completed "preparation to teach" survey across several geographically distinct regions of England are presented here which contribute to our ongoing understanding of the overall status of science teaching within primary schools. Twenty years on from when the national primary science curriculum was first introduced and independently evaluated, attention is drawn to the continued progress being made at the "chalk-face" and to those factors widely perceived as continuing to inhibit delivery. (Contains 3 tables.)

Alternative curricula at Key Stage 4 have been implemented to help young people who may be disaffected from school to re-engage with learning. Skill Force is one example of an alternative curriculum. Skill Force is a Ministry of Defence (MoD) sponsored youth initiative which offers 14- to 16-year-old students a key skills based vocational alternative to the traditional curriculum. This research explored pupils' perceptions of participation in Skill Force and the perceived impact on their motivation, attitudes to school, attendance, exclusions, behaviour, and attainment. Seven hundred and ninety-five Skill Force students completed a questionnaire which explored aspects of their experience using open questions and rating scales. Visits were made to six projects where interviews were undertaken with students. The qualitative data were used to provide in depth insights and support the questionnaire data. The findings demonstrated that the programme was successful in meeting the needs of many disaffected students, improving their motivation, confidence, communication and social skills. It reduced exclusions, improved behaviour, attendance, attitudes towards education and attainment and also provided students with a range of practical, vocational qualifications. The discussion considers the implications for mainstream education. (Contains 14 tables and 1 note.)

This article provides an introduction to the TLRP Learning How to Learn Project and a context for the articles that follow in this special issue. The origins of the research, in a concern to investigate the organizational and network conditions that support innovation in teaching and learning, and in a perceived need to align research on pedagogy and assessment with research on school improvement, are described. Details of the overall development and research design are given as well as an explanation of the ways in which different forms of quantitative and qualitative data analysis are being integrated to interrogate a "logic model", both at whole sample level and in case studies. (Contains 2 figures, 1 table, and 8 endnotes.)

An approach to the development and evaluation of six short, school-focused inservice education and training (INSET) courses on special educational needs combined quantitative and qualitative techniques to evaluate the courses and provide feedback for course tutors to assist in course development. (Author/CB)

The vignettes approach has emerged as a popular tool in quantitative and qualitative research. It has proven to be particularly effective in measuring sensitive topics. This paper focuses on the construction and validation process of questionnaire-based vignettes, which were used as an instrument to examine Omani secondary school girls’ cultural tolerance pre- and post-implementation of a school-based intervention. A total of 241 girls completed the vignettes-based questionnaires, of whom 116 were in the experimental group and 125 in the control group. This was followed by a semi-structured interview. The interview was conducted before and after the intervention with 16 participants, of whom eight were from the experimental group and eight from the control group. The study shows that vignettes are useful in generating a sophisticated understanding of abstract concepts. Vignettes offer the possibility of investigating tolerance in a context-related situation, eliminating possible misinterpretation of the questionnaire statements. Future research should be directed towards examining the effectiveness of different types of vignettes and the efficacy of vignettes as a research and teaching and learning tool. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An exploration of the significance of ability beliefs in four case study schools in contrasting systems (independent and state comprehensives) provides a foundation for this paper. Through four delimited case studies using observations, semi-structured interviews, telephone interviews and multiple perspectives, rich data emerged. Subsequently, drawing on dynamic concepts of identity, consideration was given to the ways in which teachers in case study schools reflected dissonance in their beliefs and actions. These dissonant moments were captured and analysed in relation to the many narratives helping to shape teacher identity and consideration was given to a sense of belonging to community and educational values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the extent to which diversity in the backgrounds of students and diversity in the forms and characteristics of universities combine to produce diversities in learning experiences and outcomes. It draws on a recent major national study in the UK which has been investigating how student learning is mediated by a series of social and organisational factors. Fifteen case studies of student experiences in different universities lay at the heart of the study and provide extensive qualitative and quantitative evidence about the realities of diversity in UK higher education. The paper reports both diversities and commonalities in the student experience and its outcomes, some of which challenge the predominantly hierarchical and reputational conceptions of diversity and differentiation currently dominant in debates about UK higher education. The student 'voice' on these matters as reported here does not fully coincide with current policy priorities and 'voices'. Student perceptions of the ways in which they have changed as a result of the experience of higher education embrace a range of factors within which the social and the personal are at least as important as the academic. Although the focus in this paper is on student learning on undergraduate degrees in the biosciences, business studies and sociology, a model of university learning contexts and settings is presented which may have wider applicability to achieving a better understanding of higher education's increasing diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2016, the Chilean Ministry of Education implemented the new School Admission System (SAS) designed with the goal of equalizing access to schools for the most disadvantaged families and reduce educational segregation. Yet it is not clear if the SAS is sensitive to socio-cultural minorities and their particular conditions. Hence, in this article we explore the school choice experiences of parents from three socio-cultural minorities under the new SAS: Mapuche – indigenous families, Latin American migrant parents, and parents with children with disabilities. Using an intersectional theoretical approach and a qualitative research design, we show that while in some cases the implementation of SAS impedes previous discriminatory processes, in others this new system alone has not yet overcome long-established and inherent educational inequalities in Chilean education. Besides, SAS has also resulted in new challenges in the school choice processes of these parents. Their experiences with the SAS express the intersection of different axis of inequality, according to the conditions and historicities of each group of families. Finally, we reflect on the challenges that the policy faces in regard to develop an educational policy that is fairer to all families, in the context of the unequal and marketized Chilean educational system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a qualitative analysis of classroom discourse in Italian primary schools, this paper analyses the micro-processes that are emergent moment-by-moment in the unfolding interactions between teacher and pupils. More in particular, our purpose is to identify the conditions under which the interactive orientation of a sequence changes. We argue that unpredictable emergent contributions function as turning points, re-directing and changing the sequence’s orientation. The results show that the turning points introduce changes in the sequences as far as three discourse characteristics are concerned: (a) communicative pattern; (b) lesson objective; and (c) role of primary knower. The discussion points out the importance of these results for the teachers’ work and training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the careers guidance and career decision‐making processes associated with the introduction in Britain of a new, voucher‐based training scheme called Training Credits (TCs). Initially, we set the context for this pilot scheme in relation to other literature about the school‐to‐work transition and outline briefly the nature of the scheme and the particular case study under investigation. Following this data are provided from the first sweep of a longitudinal study of TCs in action, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. This is an interpretative investigation, focusing on the meanings given to TCs by different stakeholder groups engaged in the operation of TCs. The data are presented in the form of ‘collective stories’ of three groups of stakeholder involved in the careers guidance process. These were the pupils themselves, their careers teachers and careers officers responsible for giving guidance. These collective stories are presented as thick description, predominantly in the interviewee's own words, to allow readers to make their own interpretations of the data and to minimize oversimplification through our own interpretations as authors and researchers. These stories are followed by a discussion of some key theoretical issues that arose from the data. We identify technically rational approaches implicit in the introduction of the TC scheme as a whole and in the guidance processes supposed to operate within it. These are contrasted with a culturally based, interactive interpretation of the ways in which the different stakeholder groups made sense of the initiative. Our analysis suggests that official guidance processes were at odds with the ways in which pupils actually made career decisions, and that the success of the TC pilot scheme under investigation may be jeopardized by its failure to involve the careers teachers in the development of the scheme in ways which might give them a sense of ownership or at least shared involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article describes a qualitative study into the occurrence of the side effects of school inspection through in-depth interviews in five case schools. The study investigates the extent to which strategic activities, disturbing effects and emotional side effects occur in the case schools. The study also aims to understand features that may explain these side effects. Most research to date has been conducted in England, which is considered a ‘high-stakes’ inspection context whilst ‘low-stakes’ inspection contexts are generally regarded as causing fewer undesirable side effects. This hypothesis, however, is not confirmed by the results of this study. Although the Flemish education context provides a ‘low-stakes’ inspection context, schools in this study engage strongly in strategic activities to produce a better image of the school and school staff members suffer from severe emotional side effects due to the inspection. By contrast, only limited disturbing effects on normal school life were observed. These side effects are affected by principals’ attitude towards the inspection, by schools’ perception of inspectors’ behaviour and by the inspection judgement. The article includes a discussion of the impact on side effects of several particularities of the Flemish education context, such as the absence of central examinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]