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This qualitative study employed an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis approach to explore nine international postgraduate students' experiences of independent learning. Participants were studying at either Masters or PhD level, across a range of courses at one higher education institution. Lifeworld interviews were used to explore the lived, everyday world of the participants (Brinkman & Kvale, 2015). The participants described a wide range of experiences that impacted on their engagement with independent learning as they adjusted to a new country, unfamiliar language and teaching and learning approaches. This resulted in feelings of isolation, frustration, feeling lesser and othered. Findings indicated that engaging with independent learning demands adjustment and can feel emotional and overwhelming if not introduced with care and guidance. However, a small amount of change in practice between previous and current study forms appear to lead to fewer emotional issues. Independent learning can be experienced as unbounded and hard to grasp and has been likened to a journey. Feedback and guidance from tutors support students in arriving at their destination quicker, avoiding hazards along the way. Independent learning is also more manageable when working in proximity to student peers. Finally, there was an appreciation of liberation through independent learning, with participants recounting successes and achieving agency. Utilising Bronfenbrenner's (2005) PPCT model the research demonstrates that higher education institutions cannot begin to understand how international students experience independent learning without first coming to know how relationships and interactions within contexts affects that experience. It was evident that there was a mismatch between educators' understandings of independent learning and international students' experiences of engaging with it.

As an autistic student, researcher, and lecturer, I am alarmed to see the acknowledgment within literature, that autistic students are the most likely of all students to fail at university. This is despite autistic students being categorised as high achievers within education. This raises an important question, why are autistic students who are considered academically able, still not graduating? To investigate this, seven autistic students (including myself) engaged in emanciparticipatory research to explore our experiences as students who identify as autistic in Higher Education (HE). The emanciparticipatory approach taken for this study was developed during and for this research, as a means of addressing the issues with traditional participatory and emanciparticipatory research. Emanciparticipatory is a flexible methodology that aims to develop engagement through accessibility and addressing the researcher-participant relationship, whilst being achievable within the constraints of academia. To do this each student engaged via a means that suited them, they were given as much control as possible and engaged as much or as little as they chose. The research produced a wealth of data some spanning over four years. Analysis of this data identified five key themes: control of label, sociality, wellbeing, academic supports and additional labour of being a disabled autistic student. These themes revealed how hostile the 'whole university experience' can be, with student goals switching from academic success to surviving in the face of multiple barriers. Yet, the students did not face a complete onslaught of challenges, at times for some, the practice that they encountered from staff and the adaptions to the environment, learning and peer-to-peer relationships promoted a healthy environment where students could engage and indeed succeed beyond their expectations. From these experiences we then make a number of recommendations to promote good practice and challenge poor practice both within university and research.

This research project sought to understand as far as possible what meanings the period of development termed as ‘adolescence’ meant for a small group of young men on the autism spectrum, as interpreted by the parents and staff who support them. The focus of my enquiry was an exploration of interpretations of behaviour; specifically ‘sexualised behaviour’ and how these interpretations might enable or disable people on the autism spectrum. In this study accessing the ‘meaning of experience’ for the young men within this group, as interpreted by the participants, was mediated through a supported process of reflection in which the participants challenged their initial interpretations and understandings of what the behaviours might mean to the young men. The method used was a series of individual and group interviews with the people who lived and worked with these young men, and used Ashworth’s eight ‘fractions’ of the Lifeworld as starting off points from which to begin framing the examination and interpretation of the participant’s experiences and perceptions. Throughout this research my aim and intention was to challenge some of the canons of autism in relation to sexuality and sexualised behaviour. In doing so I wanted to identify how a supported reflection might move parents and staff towards new ways of interpreting the behaviour of people on the autism spectrum, so that more appropriate and sensitive measures can be formulated in order to bring about positive sexual identity formation during adolescence.

Not all community child health teams carrying out preschool autism assessment have nurses as part of the team. The stimulus for this study was the need to make plain to commissioners and managers in one NHS Foundation Trust what nurses bring to the multidisciplinary assessment process which is unique to the nursing profession. It is known that the process of assessment and diagnosis of preschool children for autism can be difficult for parents. Parents have described the kind of professional care they find helpful during the process. The aim of the study was to define the particular role of the nurse in preschool autism assessment. This interpretive, hermeneutic study included all six nurses involved in preschool autism assessment as part of community teams in the Trust. They each generated texts for analysis by writing a reflective account of an episode of care, and by transcripts of one to one and group discussions with the researcher. Kim's (1999) critical reflective inquiry method was adapted for this study by including the researcher as participant. The beliefs and values which underpin the practice of these nurses and some dissonance between their ethical intentions and their actions in practice were made explicit through analysis of the texts, informed by relevant literature around autism, models of disability and models of nursing. This is a study of nurses, by nurses and for nurses. It contributes to nursing knowledge in four ways: by examining the beliefs and values which inform the practice of the nurse participants; by analysing the source of dissonance between the nurses' intentions and actions in practice; by defining the unique role of the nurse in preschool autism assessment from a nursing perspective; and by showing that the beliefs and values espoused by the nurses in this study motivate them to deliver care with the particular characteristics which parents find helpful. The findings are that these nurses hold in common a set of beliefs, values and intentions which, combined with a breadth of knowledge and clinical skills, prepare them to deliver, as part of an assessment team, the quality of care that parents have said they need.

This dissertation is an account of a phenomenological investigation which was undertaken with a group of teachers working in primary schools in one locality in England. It examines their perspectives of the process of inclusion for children with the label of autism, as for many of these children inclusion into mainstream schools can be a problematic process. The study has as a central focus the impact of the individual and social models of disability on how these teachers conceive of their practice. The teachers were participants on a module on a university based professional development programme. Data were gathered from discussions between the teachers and from weekly reflective logs which were written by the teachers as part of their participation on the module. The teachers engaged in a process of reflection on their practice and the discussions in the module sessions were constructed as ‘conversation research communities’ (Dadds 2005). Teachers find themselves affected by existing political developments, pulled between the competing agendas of performativity and inclusion which have conflicting relationships with the individual and the social models of disability. It emerged that for the teachers in this study, the agenda of performativity has a limiting effect on inclusive practice, affecting as it does the formation of a teacher’s professional identity and also their ability to act as an agent of change. In addition, the fact that these teachers did not readily name or identify the social model of disability as an influence on their practice, despite evidence that it does have an impact, illustrates the need for more overt debate about educational inclusion in a wider social and political context. It is argued in this study that there should be wider opportunities for teachers to engage with debate about the social model of disability as a platform for them to be able to interrogate educational policy development and to explore their own professional identities. In this way teachers may be better enabled to develop inclusive professional identities and to act as agents of change. It is also argued that one way towards articulating a model of inclusive education is for teachers and education researchers to work together in conceptualising practice.

Background and aim: The introduction of higher fees within HE may well impact on part-time provision from 2012. Potentially fewer students applying for courses may mean that university income will become reliant on students completing courses and so retention will assume greater significance. At the university at the centre of this research 62% of all withdrawals on part-time foundation degrees occur within the first six weeks. This study explored how nine part-time mature students experienced entry into HE to develop knowledge and understanding of the range and nature of that experience, and the reasons why withdrawal may occur. Design: Using lifeworld the study captured the lived experience of nine students. The participants were interviewed after they had completed six weeks of their various courses and then again six weeks into their second semester. Results: The lived experience of these students evidences the complexity and individuality of returning to education. For some of the students, entering into study brought the present, past and future intensely into focus. Some questioned their own presence in HE while managing feelings of anxiety and inferiority. Established individual lifeworlds were challenged as integration into the social and academic communities of the university were negotiated. Enabling strategies included peer support within the classroom and securing confirmation that they were working at the correct academic level. Conclusion: This study shows that the lifeworld experience of these beginning students is rich and diverse and cannot be encapsulated within a collective account of the student experience. For university engagement with students to be meaningful the findings of this study suggest that it needs to take account of the range of mature students’ experiences including expectations, approaches to study, motivation, their past and aspirations, to develop courses that will retain students. The accounts of these students indicate that if appropriate support is given during the transitional period to enable feelings of acceptance within the social and academic environment then this can make a major contribution to retention.