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This paper reports research into a project to encourage KS1 and KS2 pupils to eat more healthily by supporting their families to grow their own fruit and vegetables at home. Participants were recruited through a Primary School Trust comprising four primary schools in the North West of England. They were given practical support to enable them to grow fruit and vegetables. The findings of pre-programme focus groups with parents/carers suggested families tended not to eat the daily government-recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables; cost, time and knowledge being the main inhibitors. With resources, knowledge and support most participants were enabled to grow their own fruit and vegetables leading to increased consumption. Availability to and familiarity with fresh fruit and vegetables by tending and growing them first-hand was shown to increase their consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The ‘achievement gap’ – the term typically used to refer to differences in pupil attainment associated with social class, ethnicity and gender – remains an enduring obstacle to government goals of creating a socially just society. This article explores the nature of the achievement gap and some of the mechanisms that serve to perpetuate disadvantage in education systems providing a context in which to consider the appropriateness of government policies aimed at addressing the gap. Accessing predominantly English research but also consulting studies conducted in other education systems including the US and elsewhere in the UK, we argue that in contrast to its noble rhetoric, government approaches to addressing the achievement gap are preoccupied with standardised assessment and accountability (such as the latest attempt at raising pupil standards in England, the introduction of Academies) while paying little more than lip service to the persistent, underlying roots of inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper provides an overview of a PhD pilot study which aimed to develop innovative, exploratory research strategies for harnessing the pupil voice of children with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties (BESD). The paper highlights how a PhD pilot study engaged young people in novel data collection methods. The main aim of this paper is to locate the pupil at the heart of the data collection and to examine how specific turning points can impact upon the educational experiences of young people with BESD. An overview of the methods employed in the research are offered here; these included activity sessions that involved role play and games in order to facilitate an exploration of pupils' responses to their different experiences of BESD provision. Following on from the activity sessions, interviews were conducted to gain a more detailed insight into pupils' educational experiences. The methods employed throughout this paper were interactive, with emphasis placed on engaging and involving the young people in the research process. The paper ends by offering a discussion of the preliminary findings from the pilot study and the researcher's experiences of engaging young people with BESD in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With teachers under pressure to meet curriculum targets, responsibility for including students with behavioural emotional and social difficulties (BESD) in mainstream schools falls heavily on non-teaching staff. In this article, semi-structured interviews were conducted with special educational needs coordinators (SENCos) and support staff in a small sample of secondary education settings in England, to examine their perceptions of their role, their relationships with students with BESD and their parents and their ability to facilitate inclusive practice. Despite both SENCo and support staff roles having been regarded as low-status roles in the past, findings reported here depict a set of highly skilled workers crucial to the inclusion of students with BESD. Through the creation of a nurturing environment combined with caring attitudes and accessibility, these staff were able to form positive relationships with these students and their parents. Implications regarding staffing, resources and inclusion are further discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summer 2009 saw the introduction in England of the Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL). Funded in full by the Training and Development Agency for Schools, the MTL aims to improve the quality of teaching and to raise standards in schools. In this paper we discuss what the MTL might mean both for in-service teacher education and initial teacher training. We explore issues relating to the structure and delivery of MTL including the tension between standardisation and personalisation of its content as well as the lack of focus on research and the costs of this to its reputation and appeal of the qualification. Furthermore, we question the extent to which newly qualified teachers are ready to benefit from undertaking the MTL and consider how availability criteria may give rise to equity issues. With these concerns in mind we discuss the future of the MTL and whether this Labour initiative will have a chance to prove itself under a Conservative-led coalition government at a time of severe austerity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents initial findings from a consideration of early years Labour government policy from 1997 to date and from a case study of an early years leadership journey. The article explores the social policies underlying early years initiatives that have impacted upon early years leadership journeys and roles. The challenge of the role is highlighted through the first author's (Lesley Curtis) leadership experiences and we suggest that limited support for leaders of integrated centres has been available to date. The case study questions and explores whether Curtis is a naive change agent or a canny political collaborator as she travels on her leadership journey and discovers new insights into the nature of her early years leadership role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years the UK secondary educational landscape has witnessed significant change, with the introduction of an ever-extending spectrum of competing government initiatives and policies. This has resulted in the steady erosion of the traditionally recognised role of headteacher. This paper presents the results of a practitioner-based study centred on the professional career journeys of a selected group of senior incumbent headteachers from across Liverpool, United Kingdom. The purpose of the research was to consider key features of difference in the headteacher role over a 30-year period. Five heads were interviewed about how they rose to headship and the influences and events that guided their career choices. Findings include acknowledgement of the requirement for self-directed career development, paucity of skills in preparation for headship, transformation in leadership models and the changing skills, qualities and qualifications required of contemporary and emergent headteachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has been produced from the work of a research project conducted in the context of a city-wide education service in the United Kingdom. This was the Liverpool Learning Networks Research Project, which began in July 2005. The researchers carried out semi-structured interviews with education practitioners - learning network coordinators - who have strategic responsibility for the development of school networks in Liverpool. The role of these practitioners represents a confluence of two significant agendas. The first is that of social inclusion, with 'the school' being seen as a key vehicle of policy delivery. The second is that of a shift towards the model of 'the school network', aimed at improving pupil learning. What emerges from the interviews is that social inclusion is central to these key practitioners' understanding of the learning networks for which they are responsible. Despite a strong local emphasis on 'learning', then, in the presentation of the learning networks, within the city the focus on what happens in the classroom has become blurred by a far wider, social notion of how learning should be understood. The authors argue that this represents a significant tension for how learning networks will actually develop. Whilst in a perfect world a focus upon pupil learning in the classroom on the one hand, and on child social welfare on the other, may complement one another, in reality this is not the case. In the real world of government priority, resource commitment and time-bound policy delivery, one or other focus will win out. The emphasis placed upon social inclusion by these senior education officers suggests that this is what will ultimately shape the direction and destination of these 'learning' networks. If so, the legacy of such networks may prove to be government-driven social reform rather than the pioneering of 'networked learning' that was their original promise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK higher education sector is grounded in an academic culture protective of its autonomy in the exercise of academic judgement within a flexible and internally validated tradition. However, the socio-political demands placed upon this sector articulate an outcomes-based, transparent and consistent model of higher education provision, as defined within quality assurance processes. Aspects of this national perspective may be manifest within higher education provision within other countries and contexts. Delivering upon the demands of this 'transparency agenda' presents challenges to a sector grounded in a tradition of 'flexibility' and the application of autonomous discretion. This paper articulates a conceptual model within which institutional frameworks (regulations, processes and systems) can be strategically positioned to balance internal and external priorities. Issues are raised about organisational cultures, the diverse nature of higher education provision, 'academic discretion' and the complex interdependency of processes for the consideration of institutions prior to employing the framework for implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws upon the work of two researchers who facilitated practitioner research with school professionals in Liverpool. The researchers themselves had not been involved in practitioner research before. In this account, the researchers reflect critically upon their own experience. The discussion presents the learning curve that the researchers underwent as well as what they discovered about the relationship between practitioners and researchers when engaged in school-based research. Crucially the issue of practitioners' understandings of what constituted 'good' research emerged as a significant issue. In particular, positivist notions of research that drew from popular scientific understandings, as well as the culture of numerical targeting in the schools system, seemed to shape these practitioners' sense of what was expected of them as practitioner-researchers. The article finishes by reflecting upon the possible lessons that this work presents for education managers considering practitioner research approaches for continuing professional development (CPD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade international discussions of pedagogy have increasingly clustered around a few ubiquitous and popular ideas drawn ostensibly from psychological research. The internet has been a powerful force in disseminating and globalising pedagogically relevant research into such matters as metacognition, multiple forms of intelligence, learning styles, learning preferences, thinking skills, brain functioning, emotional intelligence and neuro-linguistic programming. This article explores the extent to which moulding pedagogy from a superficial reading of psychological ideas is educationally viable and suggests that pedagogical research is becoming increasingly self-referential. The widespread acceptance of such ideas and their apparent validation within government documentation are examined. England will provide the case study for this examination since its government actively sponsors particular pedagogical approaches, packaging them currently under the now familiar label ‘personalised learning’, a term elaborated by government think-tank adviser Charles Leadbeater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines how a group of primary school teachers from a cluster of nine schools in a networked learning community enquired into their classroom teaching. The teachers each identified an area of practice that they were developing in their classroom and wanted to evaluate, such as the benefits of pupils working in teams, or the creation of role‐play areas. They decided what evidence they needed to collect and how to collect it. They met as a group and also individually with a mentor several times to share experiences and to discuss progress. At the end of their projects they presented findings and their analysis to each other. Their evidence and conclusions were also presented to other teachers at their school and sometimes at other schools within the cluster. The article considers whether, in the light of critiques of other similar teacher researcher projects, these data gathering and analytical activities may be legitimately described as research. The authors conclude by suggesting that the investigative processes carried out by these teachers constitute an effective form of professional learning. The authors contend that it is the systematic collection of evidence and the critical examination of the teachers’ own practice that characterise such enquiry as research notwithstanding the emergent, rather than well‐developed, use of traditional research conventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the important part that practitioner research can play in the professional development of teachers. The case study illustrates how a teacher's interests encouraged her to investigate particular areas of her practice. She read literature about emotional intelligence and devised strategies to enhance her classroom teaching. She collected data through her own research diary, pupils' thinking diaries and a self-esteem questionnaire. The results were shared and discussed with colleagues. Though aspects of her research methodology can be criticised, the article shows how this teacher is developing her teaching and research skills through reflective practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Revelation of criteria implicit in setting policy is addressed in a political economic framework that includes identification and estimation of unknown parameters in the presence of multiple sources of uncertainty. Policy formation is viewed as an optimization process under which the government maximizes a criterion function subject to market constraints. A method for estimating political criterion function weights and their associated standard errors over multiple time periods is presented. The approach is illustrated with an empirical example from Japanese rice and wheat trade policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article practitioner research is contextualised in relation to education policy in England. The Best Practice Research Scholarship scheme is identified as playing an important part in the United Kingdom Government's agenda of promoting the professional development of teachers. However, the type of research encouraged is positivist and the professionalism restricted. The cases examined show the problems that adopting a narrow approach to research cause to questioning practitioners. The article concludes by suggesting that, paradoxically, a scheme designed to create, what are in effect, restricted professionals may inadvertently encourage a more questioning approach to teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In classical Athens, the graves of the dead, and their accompanying memorials, were sited upon either side of the main roads into the city, where all passers-by must see them. This very public placement contrasts oddly with the private and familial virtues depicted upon these memorials, as has often been noted. In particular, the high proportion of gravestones for women and the types of virtues ascribed to them by grave inscriptions indicate that in memorials, at least, women had a status close to that of men. Women's prominence in this area is all the more paradoxical in that the virtues celebrated in the images and texts belong to private life, one of the areas in which women were more consistently subordinate to male authority. This incongruity can be resolved by a closer look at the evocation of women's role in the family on gravestones, which implicitly places them within a wider city ideology, by emphasizing the private virtues of women as essential for the stability of the household, the maintenance of citizenship, and therefore for the continuity of the community as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study which examined the changing role of the university tutor within one secondary partnership scheme. Examination of the reality of evolving conceptions and practices wherein the nature of partnership, mentors' motives for involvement are fundamental; Questions about the extent to which school mentors can be trained as teacher educators and university tutors as mentor trainers; Conclusion.

In the rush to identify the tasks of school mentors in school‐based teacher training the changes to the role of the higher education tutor have been neglected. It is argued here that the role exists in an organic relationship with school mentors and intending teachers, within evolving teacher education partnerships. A call is made for a shared understanding of that role to be circumscribed by a model of teacher education which prizes the reflective practitioner and school and university mentor roles be complementary within the implementation of this model, it is argued that the recognition of this will enhance the quality of school‐based teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]