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In England between April and June of 2021, 190,271 young people were referred to mental health services, an increase of 134% since June 2020 (Local Government Association, 2022). Since 2014, schools have been expected to support young people's mental health needs (Department for Education, 2014). This qualitative work critically explores the efficacy of a whole school mental health strategy, in a comprehensive academy in England. As participative action research (PAR), this approach involved self-selecting young people aged 16-18 years old to collaborate with me as a young research team (YRT). They worked closely with the study participants, aged 12-15 years, who volunteered from the pupil premium cohort (The Department for Education, 2022). A weekly cycle of meetings between myself, the YRT and participants took place, providing qualitative data. This research focuses on a school mental health strategy and new approaches to young people's participation in school decision-making. My findings and contributions to knowledge are divided into two sections. Firstly, I present findings that indicate a school mental health strategy requires trusting staff / young people relationships to be successful. As a further contribution, I suggest relationships are viewed through a nanosystems lens (Rudasill et al., 2018), so schools can start to address this issue. My second area contributing to new knowledge is how this unique methodology has enabled the development of youth participative dialogic action research (YPDAR). I have discovered how using YPDAR can positively impact young people and school character. YPDAR benefits young people as attachment-like relationships may develop between young researchers and participants. In addition to improving young people's socio-emotional skills, this research can boost their confidence, empowerment, agency and trust in the school. School character also benefits, as YPDAR requires a power shift from school to young people, strengthening relationships and the development of trust between them.

The research reported in this thesis took place at a time of unprecedented challenge and financial uncertainty for universities. Challenges came following the introduction of tuition fees (1998), Brexit, Covid-19 and declining birth rates. Such issues have resulted in the establishment of an increased competitive market that has seen institutions utilise incentives and unconditional offers to students to ensure recruitment targets are met. Against this background, this PhD research concerns student belonging and fit with an emphasis on cultural capital, and the congruency of students' personal values and those of the institution. The enquiry asks whether students considered 'fitting in' when applying to university and ascertained if institutional values matched their own, and so explores areas that have hereunto been under-researched. Unsurprisingly, extant research indicates that students who fit with their university are more satisfied, and conversely, those who do not are more likely to misfit resulting in unhappiness, stress and withdrawal. The PhD had three phases, and incorporated longitudinal and mixed methods approaches. Phase One scrutinised the findings of the UKES survey between 2018 and 2019, which asked students why they chose to attend St Mary's University, a faith-based institution. In Phase Two, 22 students and alumni were interviewed to explore the rationale for student choice; thematic analysis was used to establish St Mary's unique differentiators. Phase Three explored photography within the undergraduate prospectus to establish whether it was representative of students' experiences and how the brand or St Mary's Way was communicated. Drawing on models proposed by Gilbreath, Kim and Nichols (2011), Schwartz, Cieciuch, Vecchione, Davidov, Fischer, Beierlein, Ramos, Verkasalo, Lönnqvist, Demirutku, Dirilen-Gumus and Konty (2012) and generic HR theory, the research culminated in the creation of a Holistic Student Fit Model which highlights the importance of congruent personal and institutional values. Of the many recommendations drawn from the findings, institutions are encouraged to ensure their social environments accommodate the increasingly diverse student population and their expectations. Universities are urged to re-evaluate how they communicate their culture to non-traditional students, allowing these learners to decide whether the institution has similar values to their own. Various examples of how the Model might be used to good effect in these matters are presented. It is also recommended that faith-based institutions articulate to students what a faith-based university is and how they differ from secular universities. Faith-based universities tend to market themselves based on their principles but do not explain how these principles translate into the everyday student experience. Examples of appreciation, mistrust and misinterpretation of St Mary's Catholic ethos, as experienced by students, are presented. Taken together, this research has created new theory in the field of student-fit and presents new realms of future practice for those in student recruitment and retention.

In exploring emerging visions of leadership in contemporary Benedictine school chaplaincy, the research aims to articulate the essential interconnectedness of the following elements: • The Benedictine monastic tradition, its development in education, the distinctive nature of contemporary Benedictine school chaplaincy, and the challenges it faces such as transmitting the Benedictine charism and renewing spiritual capital. • Benedictine leadership: the four Benedictine leadership models of abba, shepherd, doctor, and steward; invitational leadership; and servant leadership, and how lay Benedictines can lead in a way that is discernibly Benedictine. • Emerging visions of leadership in contemporary Benedictine school chaplaincy as demonstrated in the perceptions and experiences of practitioners and leaders in Benedictine education. This involved twenty semi-structured interviews. To ensure triangulation, the research was conducted in three different English Benedictine schools, all participants had direct or indirect experience of contemporary Benedictine school chaplaincy, and all were at different stages of their career. The findings were analysed considering the conceptual framework established in the literature review and using reflexive thematic analysis. This was followed by a chapter in which conclusions were reached structured around the principal elements of the literature review and the empirical research. These conclusions became the foundation for several recommendations which focussed primarily upon the ongoing challenges of providing spiritual accompaniment on the Benedictine path, forming lay chaplains in the Benedictine leadership charism, and renewing spiritual capital in Benedictine schools. The thesis concludes by affirming that contemporary Benedictine school chaplaincy can maintain a distinctive Benedictine ethos if Benedictine habits, and traditions, continue to permeate the lives of the chaplains and the schools; and if these are protected under the guidance of wise trusteeship.

This study explores the nature and scope of headteacher agency for social justice within a neo-liberal political landscape and market-driven education system. It sets out to both expand and disrupt ways in which the possibilities and limits of school leadership agency are understood by examining how headteachers discursively construct social justice and how this influences the way social justice is understood and enacted within two English secondary schools. The findings of the study are based on qualitative research, using data collected from interviews with seven headteachers and an ethnographic study of two secondary schools. Using a post-structuralist lens and drawing on Foucauldian understandings of power, notably theories of 'dispositif' and heterotopia, the thesis interrogates how agonistic professional agency operates within a multi-paradigmatic organisational space of contradictory, nuanced and intertwined axiological discourses. While the interviews with headteachers illustrated tensions between neo-liberal and communitarian visions of school effectiveness, the thesis argues that headteacher agency for social justice cannot be understood as a simple binary between neo-liberal work and social justice work. The ethnographic studies demonstrated how, within the neo-liberal 'regimes of truth' that governed the parameters of their agency, headteachers' personal cultures of social justice had legitimacy and discursive power in shaping distinctive, heterotopic, educational spaces that re-ordered 'the local' and 'the global'. Within these spaces, headteachers preserved, protected, nourished and cultivated a range of social justice practices that contributed to both the affirmative and transformative forms of agency proposed in Fraser's paradigm of social justice (1997). Most notably, in questioning the extent to which the agency of headteachers reproduced or challenged structural inequities within education and wider society, my findings suggest that affective social justice is a pivotal discourse in refusing the dominance of market-oriented subjectification. I hope the study will inform new conversations about headteachers' role as civic and educational leaders who are producers as well as receivers of national education discourse; structural reformers as well as system leaders.

This thesis examines how parent and student educational engagement can be enhanced through meaningful support and communication, focusing on how parent teacher meetings can be reengineered for a more inclusive approach. The research considers how parental academic socialisation enhances engagement, and how the development of student learning characteristics and attributes improve students' scholarly self-regulation. The research draws on previous studies by Suizzo and Soon (2006), Vickers, Minke and Anderson (2002) and the Structured Conversations Strategy by the DfCSF (2009). It considers key theory associated with engagement and student motivation including Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (1997), Goodall (2017) and Grolnick, Ryan and Deci (1991). The research conducted in two Catholic boys' secondary schools took place over two academic years with Key Stage Four students taking GCSE Computer Science. Focusing on the interactions of the participants from a sociological perspective, an action research approach using an exploratory three-phase mixed method design was used to: understand how existing practices engender educational engagement; develop intervention instruments; and evaluate the impact of the instruments on engagement. The methods of inquiry included questionnaires, individual and group interviews and audio recordings of the parent teacher meetings. The findings were presented as key themes to enable accessibility and extrapolate practical advice from the rich data generated. The findings showed that parent teacher meetings were used as reporting exercises, offering a limited purview for educational engagement. Students were either absent or rendered absent by their ambiguous role. Staff training to conduct these meetings tended to be observations of other teachers, often perpetuating the traditional approach, its limitations and equivocal nature. Following the use of the intervention instruments, most participants preferred the reengineered meeting format since it created a meaningful opportunity for formative feedback and action with increased collaboration, student ownership and voice. There were clear, measurable, and communally agreed outcomes to the meeting format. Teachers valued the structured training in active listening and coaching techniques. Students became more self-regulating, developing key learning characteristics and metacognitive techniques. Self-evaluation tools empowered students to develop reflective practices, including accurately identifying their strengths and areas for improvement in the subject. The audits, text messages and toolkits helped parents feel more engaged, educated and confident in discussing pedagogy and the curriculum, resulting in increased levels of home dialogue regarding learning. Online parent teacher meeting software introduced in response to COVID-19 was advantageous for standardising meeting times, reducing home-school cultural barriers and the burden of attending a face-to-face meeting. The research is unique in recognising the meeting as part of a wider engagement strategy using a suite of approaches, many of which are original, to further communication and support. Whilst the inclusive nature of the meeting with adolescent students differs significantly from previous studies, its unique value lies in the review and reporting of learning characteristics as part of formative feedback and action. The approach has the potential to be transformative for educators, having significantly impacted the researcher's own practice. Its ease of commutation, low cost and participant beneficence offers schools a viable strategy for developing educational engagement. Key terms: Reengineered parent-teacher meeting format, student inclusive, support and communication, educational engagement, parental academic socialisation, student learning characteristics and attributes, self-regulation, formative feedback and action, action research and exploratory mixed methods.

Despite increasing awareness and acknowledgement of the benefits of outdoor learning (OL) in the UK, access to progressive OL opportunities remains inequitable. Provision reflects a disaggregated model of delivery that suffers from a lack of coherence, leading experiences to be largely unconnected and dependent on participants' interests and motivations to develop any sense of progression. The majority of research into OL access to date focuses on the challenges of delivering OL in school settings. The lack of other perspectives represents a significant gap in the literature that this thesis seeks to address. Through a case study of the District of Copeland in Cumbria, England, the research explores how OL is interpreted and the degree to which it is accessed by different populations. The research takes multiple perspectives that explore the role of values and context and, through an original application of Access Theory to the field of outdoor learning, provides new insights into how people gain, maintain and control access to the benefits that can be accrued through OL. The research concludes that a participant perspective focusing on individualised autonomy is important when considering the various mechanisms that affect access across the life course. A new progression model based on the development of participant autonomy and an associated delivery strategy based on the concept of an ecosystem is proposed. An OL ecosystem design process is developed through the research and tested to translate the model into practice. Through developing purposeful ecosystems that involve all the key stakeholders in the delivery of OL the models have significant implications for practice as they suggest a more coherent approach that can increase access to OL and its associated benefits.

As an early leader in the development of Forest School (FS) in the UK, I published four books, eight book chapters and three academic papers between 2009 and 2019. This work is set within the context of other research on FS, an examination of which leads to the proposition that what is missing from this whole body of research is a coherent theoretical framework. This thesis draws out that framework and presents it as a systematic and synthesised interdisciplinary whole. I describe my ethnographic journey, and explore the development of FS in the UK through related research. Participant observation, reflective accounts and interactive methodologies have led to an embedded understanding of the theories that underpin Forest School. Drawing on my publications and existing research, my reflective analysis shows how my understanding of the complex theoretical structure of Forest School grew over time, expressed in my published work. Research is included which indicates the benefits of FS to participants: social, emotional and personal growth, a sense of place and time, mindfulness and mental health, practical skills and knowledge, and awareness of sustainability. The existing research shows how academics have considered the theoretical roots of Forest School yet these explorations are incomplete, leading to the need for a coherent theoretical framework to support FS. This framework synthesises pedagogical and practical approaches originating in different academic disciplines to create an interdisciplinary foundation for FS in the UK Theoretical themes form the framework: play, social constructionism and social constructivism, cultural context, attachment and evolutionary biology, which are held together by Six Principles devised by the FS community. These ensure the quality of FS delivery and thus the achievement of the identified outcomes. Lastly, I show the importance of Forest School as an intervention for a modern multicultural society, post-Covid and in a climate emergency.

The rationale for this study is to examine the under-researched area of the relationship between recent national policy reforms around the curriculum and secondary school practice in relation to GCSE mathematics interventions for underachieving students in the UK. This has been an area of concern for some time, especially for teachers, as much previous research has focused on educational outcomes and barriers to learning rather than the learning processes involved. This study involves researching the theme of mathematics intervention provision in one secondary school and will examine school responses, as well as teacher and student perspectives and aims to answer the central research question: given the nature of secondary schools in England, why and in what ways do students underachieve and disengage in GCSE mathematics and what, if any, is the impact of interventions with students and teachers? The research findings in this study will contribute to the disciplines of education and mathematics primarily and several related sub-disciplines. Three socio-mathematical norms, coherency, justification, and computational strategies were identified in the intervention phases. To establish these norms, the teachers, in the study, employed direct prompts and modelling. Therefore, one of the teachers and myself established a conducive environment, systematically taught the students mathematical skills and used practices that built upon each other in our concept-focused use of mathematical tasks. The results of this study offer insight into how mathematical discussions, tasks, and practices can be more optimally conceptualised. They also underscore the importance of the teacher's subject knowledge in enabling these norms to emerge. The literature draws mainly from the areas of education, education policy, secondary education mathematics education, teacher pedagogy, academic intervention strategies and evaluative studies in school and underachievement in them. Key policy documents and scholarly literature at regional, national, and international levels of analysis are reviewed. From this, two divergent models of secondary school intervention approach emerged: the traditional transmission model which links more to an 'outcomes' approach which is exogenously driven by a managerialist state paradigm versus the student-centred connectionist approach favoured for this study driven by the professional approach of the teachers, which is more focused on the endogenous environment of the school. Such approaches to intervention strategies within secondary schools are at the nexus of this debate. One overarching theoretical model which provides a way of conceptualising student mathematics intervention strategies within the complex endogenous and exogenous landscape of secondary education is the Health Promoting School (WHO, 1998) which adopts a school approach to change in terms of the interconnectedness of the curriculum, teaching and learning, environment and ethos but, also, significantly, family and community partnerships. This collaborative working with external stakeholders is a vital aspect in relation to the usefulness of this model for analytical purposes and the interrelatedness of the micro, meso and macro levels. In terms of methodology, this study adopts a mainly qualitative approach in the interpretivist and constructivist epistemological tradition, using an action research approach and mixed research methods. Fieldwork involving a sample of five teacher and ten student participants was undertaken. This included two focus group interviews with students, two semi- structured one-to-one interviews with teachers, and one classroom observation. Data were gathered in Majac Secondary School from students of similar demographics and socioeconomic characteristics, including both high-and low-achieving students. Several additional qualitative and quantitative data collection methods were used, including school institutional documentation review. In addition, data were also gathered in action research cycles evident in the two intervention chapters. Key findings focus on the significant impact of mathematics strategies at the school meso level and demonstrate that there have been many changes in practice at this level, to accommodate changes in policy at national macro level, and, also as a consequence, changes at the student micro level. Specifically, the case study secondary school has engaged in extensive institutional environmental planning and has developed a range of policies, structures and processes for the implementation of intervention strategies in practice. In addition, the school has responded to national policy by adapting or re-structuring curricula and learning opportunities for greater access by underachieving students to interventions and a range of new collaborative partnerships have successfully evolved. These findings suggest that intervention strategies have resulted in a degree of change at the level of the school as an institution, although there was some evidence of continuity of existing and more traditional practices. Hands-on activities, a cooperative environment and teachers' understanding of concepts being taught are cited as the some of the recommendations about the success of interventions undertaken in this research study.

Nowadays, universities are using new technologies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of learning and to assist students to enhance their academic performance. In fact, for decades, new ways to convey the information required to teach and support students have slowly been integrated into education. This development started decades ago with the popularity of e-mails and the Web. A review of relevant literature revealed that learning requires more innovative and efficient technologies to cope with natural learning challenges, highlighting a need for more effective tools to establish the interaction between humans and machines, lecturers and students. In addition, the covid pandemic presented additional new challenges for the collaboration/interaction of lecturers and students at universities. This situation led to a great demand for such tools. Researchers have been trying to develop such tools for decades, and have made good progress, but they are still in their infancy. There has been a significant evolution in computer hardware in the last decade, leading to advances in AI machine learning and Deep Learning which have made tools such as chatbots more usable. However, the efficiency and effectiveness of the chatbot are still insufficient to meet many educational needs. According to our investigation, current chatbots are mainly based on subject knowledge and therefore assist users with answers which take no consideration of their personal circumstances, which is essential in education. This research aims to design a proactive chatbot framework to assist students. The new chatbot framework integrates students' learning profiles and subject knowledge, making the chatbot more intelligent to improve student learning and interaction more effectively. The research consists of two main parts. The first part seeks to determine the most effective students' learning profiles on the basis of the controllable academic factors which affect their performance. The second part develops a chatbot framework to which students' learning profiles will be applied. Due to the different nature of these two endeavours, a hybrid methodology was used in this research. The literature on learners' characteristics and the academic factors that affect their performance was reviewed in depth, and this formed the basis for developing a new PS2CLH (psychology, self-responsibility, sociology, communication, learning and health & wellbeing) model on which an individual's web profile can be built. The PS2CLH model combines the perspectives of psychology, self-responsibility, sociology, communication, learning and health & wellbeing to build a student-controllable learning factor model. This study identifies the impact of students' controllable factors on their achievement. It was found that the model was 94% accurate. In addition, this research raised participant students' awareness of PS2CLH perspectives, which helped learners and educators to manage the factors affecting academic performance more effectively. A comprehensive investigation, including a survey, showed that the chatbot supported by AI technology performed better and more efficiently in various assistant situations, including education. However, there is still room for improvement in the effectiveness of the education chatbot. Therefore, the research proposes a new chatbot framework assistant which will integrate students' learning profiles and develop components to improve student interaction. The new framework uses knowledge from the PS2CLH model AI - Deep Learning to build a proactive chatbot for assisting students' learning of their academic subjects and their controllable factors that affects students' performance. One of the principal novelties of the chatbot framework lies in the communication facilitator between student-lecturer/assistant. The proactive chatbot applies multimodality to the students' learning process to retain their attention and explain the content in different ways using text, image, video and audio to assist the students and improve their learning experience effectively. Furthermore, the chatbot proactively suggests new controllable factors for students to work on, including related factors that influence their academic performance. Tests of the framework showed that the proactive chatbot demonstrated better question response accuracy than the current BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) chatbot and presented a more effective learning method for students.

The mole concept like mathematics has both an abstract and a concrete element, but unfortunately the abstract element pre-dominates the teaching and learning, which poses difficulties to both learners and instructors. These difficulties disproportionately affect learners from low socio-economic backgrounds. The aim of this study is to investigate the mole concept from a sociological standpoint, by exploring the teaching and learning experiences of science students and lecturers, in the context of social justice. The study views the mole as a socially constructed science currency, and thus involved the deconstruction of all its aspects, in order to uncover inequalities embedded within its instruction methods including assessment. Twenty-five science students and three lecturers from London Metropolitan University responded to the questionnaire, which was also used as a recruitment tool. Nine students (5 in a focus group & 4 in a one-to-one) and three lecturers took part in narrative interviews designed to capture their experiences. The students ranged from foundation/access course, BSc to PhD, in subjects such as chemistry, biomedical, forensics, sports therapy, biology, human nutrition, cancer immunotherapy & pharmaceutical sciences. The three lecturers were all academic doctors with varying mole concept lecturing experiences, including post-doctoral work at Manchester, Oxford and Open Universities respectively. Narrative interviews transcripts were analysed through Bourdieuran prism, using an experienced based thematic approach. Four themes were identified: First degree socialisation (primary habitus), Second degree socialisation (secondary habitus), Field operators (actors' input) & Mole conceptual and procedural experiences. The findings indicate that, students from lower-class background find the difficulties pose by the mole concept, much more challenging than the higher-class students. The higher-class learners are better equipped to deal with mole related difficulties because of their superior social context, which also includes the fact that, they had experienced the mole far earlier in their academic carriers, than lower-class students. This study recommends the conceptual teaching and learning of the mole in schools (primary, KS2 or 2nd grade), in tandem with the teaching of the other SI units of measurement (Meter (m) for length, kilogram (kg) for mass, second (s) for time). This will increase mole prior knowledge of all the learners, which is crucial for a broad and balanced science curriculum.

The study explores the construction of the student-consumer discourse in national higher education policy and higher education institutions - in particular through New Public Management policies. These policies were critically evaluated using Foucauldian discourse analysis. To gain an insight into how the academics and students were negotiating the discourse of the student-consumers a qualitative study was conducted and data were collected from twelve separate focus groups of academics and students. A total of 30 academics and 34 students volunteered for the focus groups. To gain a range of student and academic views the institutions were purposefully chosen to be representative of the sector. These focus groups were conducted in six Higher Education Institutes in England, between December 2016 and December 2017. The resulting data were analysed using Foucault's concepts of dressage, surveillance, responsibilisation, the parrhesiastic contract and resistance. The thesis provides an original contribution to knowledge as it finds that, for most students, the discourse of full-fees has been normalised and accepted. However, this acceptance has resulted in a new discourse emerging where student-consumers can be seen to be expecting a service for their money. This expectation suggests some students are adopting a consumerist subjectivity to negotiate the discourse of the student consumer. The study further finds that the management of the student-consumer discourse at the local level seems to give the rise to a schizophrenic environment where academics and students appear pitched against each other. This is due to the inconsistencies in the texts produced by universities which results in confusion about roles and responsibilities. These texts appear to be repositioning academics as service providers whilst at the same time articulating the discourse of the independent learner. In addition this study provides an alternative understanding of how student-consumers can be viewed as either assets or liabilities, and how through constant surveillance universities manage this situation through technology and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies. The study contributes to the literature through the use of Foucault's concept of the parrhesia (truth-telling) and shows what appears to be a wariness on the part of academics as to how truthful they should be with student-consumers due to the influence or requirements of NPM. This is important as it shows a change in the way academics are negotiating the discourse of the student consumer. The research suggests that there are elements of resistance to the student-consumer discourse by both academics and students. From the academics' perspective, this research adds to the literature as it has shown how academics are positioned in a continuous struggle to meet the requirements of New Public Management and the student-consumer. Academics appear to be having to compromise their personal and professional values to ensure positive student-consumer outcomes.

The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which education policy within a diocese in Tanzania influences the way in which mission integrity is promoted in Catholic secondary schools. Grace (2010: 11) defines mission integrity as 'fidelity in practice and not just in public rhetoric to the distinctive and authentic principles of a Catholic education'. Grace (2008) maintains mission integrity means that an organisation and the people within it can be seen to be living and practising in accordance with the principles of Catholic education. It should be evident in an organisation's mission statement and not simply published in a prospectus or in other publicity statements, as an exercise in marketing. Within the context of a Catholic school, the chief guardian of mission integrity is the head teacher. However, if mission integrity is to be achieved, it is important that all academic staff are engaged in the formulation and implementation of mission statements, school policy and practice and, that they together with the head teacher, ensure that every policy in the school is informed by it. Catholic schools specifically must be committed to maintaining the integrity of their mission which, in essence, involves the maintenance of a balance between school effectiveness issues and Catholic distinctiveness or identity. The literature review focuses on some existing education policy of the Bukoba Diocese and then explores the five principles of Catholic education. The concept of mission integrity is discussed particularly in relation to the sacramental perspective and collaborative ministry, especially in relation to working in partnership with parents and the formation of students. Finally, some of the challenges of realising mission integrity in contemporary society are discussed. Little empirical research has been undertaken to explore the extent to which education policy in the context of Catholic secondary schools and specifically in the Bukoba Diocese has encouraged and promoted mission integrity. This is also the case in the Kagera region of Tanzania. In view of the lack of published literature, there is a clear need to extend understanding of how policy influences the way in which mission integrity is maintained in Catholic secondary education. The aim is to create and interpret new knowledge through original research and extend and enhance professional and vocational practice in Catholic secondary education. A case study using a qualitative, inductive design was used to capture how Catholic secondary schools promote, in reality, the practice of the principles of Catholic education as documented in education policy. Data was collected by way of purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with bishops, a priest, head teachers and teachers (n=13) from two Catholic secondary education schools. A period of observation of school assemblies and teaching practice was also undertaken. Document analysis of school policy, literature and the curriculum, was also undertaken. Data was analysed using a modified version of discourse analysis as described by Van Dijk, 1997; Kress, 1985; Brown & Yule, 1983 and Parker, 1992. Three themes emerged from the analytic process: effective Catholic school leadership; attributes of the Catholic educators and dealing with challenges. Effective Catholic school leadership outlines the qualities that are required of competent leaders in a Catholic school. More specifically it identifies the features required of a leader to drive and support the implementation of local policy, the education policy and the promotion and maintenance mission integrity. It describes the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes required of school leaders to effectively translate policy into practice. Attributes of the Catholic educators identifies those required of Catholic educators in the classroom or, more specifically, those required of the educators to promote the education policy in the school curriculum and teaching practice. It makes explicit what defining characteristics teachers need to possess, to promote and maintain mission integrity within the context of Catholic secondary education. Dealing with challenges describes the barriers or challenges that both school leaders and teachers are presented with in respect of policy implementation in the context of Catholic secondary schools. It reveals the barriers that Catholic educators, including school leaders, head teachers and teachers are confronted with, and in particular, the lack of funding received to support policy implementation and staff development. A number of recommendations are made to enable Catholic leaders, Catholic head teachers and teachers to develop and implement effectively Catholic education policy in secondary schools and ensure mission integrity is central to the work of the school and all academic and teaching practice.

Background: People from ethic minority groups living in the United Kingdom face inequalities when using mental health services. Young adults, particularly under the age of 25 years, are also less likely to receive mental health treatment than any other age group. These disparities in accessing and receiving treatment have been explained by a lack of cultural competence in mainstream healthcare services. Cultural values influence how people communicate their psychological distress and knowledge of cultural factors in emotional expression is needed to improve clinical practice. Several cross-cultural studies have described individual constructs of emotional expression, yet the organisation of the multiple emotional expression components remains unknown. This study aims to uncover the organisation of these constructs, clarify the link between emotional expressions and psychological distress, and highlight cultural differences in communicating psychological distress. Cultures that are most prevalent in the UK will be explored in the study. Method: A non-clinical sample of 399 university students (99 in India, 100 in Poland, 100 in South Africa, and 100 in the UK) were investigated. The questionnaires included the Emotional Self-Disclosure Scale, the Distress Disclosure Index, the Emotional Expressivity Scale, the Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire, the Self-Concealment Scale, the Ambivalence over Emotional Expressiveness Questionnaire, and the Clinical Outcomes Routine Evaluation Outcome Measure. Results: An exploratory factor analysis was conducted on 15 emotional expression items and six factors were retained: Disclosure of Negative Emotions, Comfort with Emotional Expression, Expression of Distress, Lack of Affect, Expression of Positive Emotions, and Disclosure of Anger. An analysis of covariance indicated that only Comfort with Emotional Expression, Expression of Distress, and Expression of Positive Emotions significantly predicted psychological distress. Culture did not affect the level of psychological distress. A multivariate analysis of variance demonstrated cultural differences across two emotional expression factors - Expression of Distress and Expression of Positive Emotions. Further, discriminant analysis showed that South African students were significantly more expressive of distress compared to Polish and Indian students, while Indian students were more expressive of positive emotions than British, Polish, and South African students. Conclusion: The findings of this study provide a unique categorisation of emotional expression constructs that adds original support to existing taxonomic studies in a way that examines broad emotional expression dimensions - including verbal, behavioural, and comfort - with expression components. The results also show that ambivalence over emotional expression and disclosure of distress and positive emotions are strongly associated with psychological well-being. Significant differences of emotional expression were identified among British, Indian, Polish and South African participants in this research project. These findings have implications for the need to improve recommendations regarding cultural competency in mental health provision, particularly psychological therapy.

On 16th June 2014, legislation came into force in the UK criminalising the practice of forced marriage. This signified a growing concern regarding this practice involving British citizens. In its policy document for front-line services entitled 'Multi-agency Statutory Guidelines: Handling cases of forced marriage' (2009 & 2014), the government indicated that schools should play a role in the detection and prevention of forced marriage. This study investigates the perceptions and experiences of teachers based in a South London secondary school on addressing in the classroom the topic of FM. The study focuses on qualitative research involving a sample of eight semi-structured interviews with teachers, five semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, and six classroom observations. This study is conceptualised and theorised within a feminist post-structural framework. The study draws upon intersectionality to capture how teachers negotiate their professional and personal identities that they constructed as gendered, racial, religious and cultural subjectivities. A Foucauldian approach to thematic and identity analysis is employed to explore the perception of dominant discourses surrounding FM through its construction as a South Asian, Muslim problem. The key findings were threefold: firstly, teachers constructed FM as a racial and gendered issue; secondly, teachers constructed their identities as professional and personal, with the aim of becoming the 'good teacher' which they associated with professionalism; and thirdly, some teachers revealed that their personal and professional identities were challenged when implementing FM policy. This study unpacks how teachers resist and reproduce gendered and racial discourses to construct FM. These findings support the literature reviewed, in that teachers perform multiple identities which are shaped by three discourses; neutrality, professionalism and political correctness, which are underpinned by emotions. Some teachers suppressed their personal identities to allow their professional identities to prevail. All participants agreed that FM should appear on the national curriculum and, preferably, should be delivered by an external expert, such as the FMU. This study contributes to existing literature surrounding teachers' identities and emotions. The study highlights how FM should be defined through policy as a human rights abuse and exposes inadequate FM training for qualified teachers.

This research investigates the current key issues in the area of e-learning in higher education and focuses on how to provide automatic, effective and convenient online feedback to students in order to support students' learning. In recent years, e-learning has becoming increasingly commonplace in higher education. On the other hand, according to the National Student Survey (NSS) reports (2007-2010), in England, about half of students and 35% of students (2011 -2014), and 30% of students (2015-2016) did not agreed with that: 1, feedback on their work has been prompt; 2, feedback on their work has helped them clarify things they did not understand; 3, they have received detailed comments on their work. These reports reveal that the feedback and its related fields are one of the weakest are as in higher education in England. This research compares and contrasts several methods in order to investigate the effective use of intelligent feedback towards modelling the stages of students'learning. The work explores the potential benefits of integrating an artificial neural network (ANN) into a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) system as a means of identifying grouping together of students who would benefit from the same feedback. It investigates the relative effectiveness of different types of feedback and how to optimize the feedback to maximize the facilitation of learning. It explores the ability of neural networks and data analysis techniques to model the stages of students' learning. The research also assesses the difference in the progress of students' learning with and without using intelligent diagnostic feedback. The E-learning Snap-Drift Neural Network (ESDNN) is evaluated as one of the potential tools for providing diagnostic, and effective feedback. The ESDNN is enhanced following the first trial, and the enhanced ESDNN system is introduced to the MCQs-Online Feedback System (M-OFS). Four hypothesis are formulated as follows: 1, during thetrials, students improved their understanding by reading given feedback; 2, after using M-OFS system, students get a higher mark in a separate paper test than before; 3, the students who used the system gained higher marks in the final examination than those who did not use the system; 4,studentsaresatisfied withthissystem. Severaltrialsare conducted inorderto evaluate theapproach and the system. The findings are analyzed and lead to the conclusion that under certain conditions online diagnostic feedback is an effective means of enhancing student learning across a wide range of subject.

This thesis proposes that the discursive practices of marketisation are transforming and degrading the distinctive educational character, meaning and operations of higher education; that the discourse and habitus of higher educations' constitutive elements are being usurped by an economic ethos and an audit vocabulary. The purpose of the study is to demystify marketisation and explore its implications for the people who work, teach and learn in a post-92 university. An examination of the history of higher education reveals that its nature and purpose have always been closely linked to its funding, but marketisation eschews its traditional nature and purpose and focuses on its funding. It shifts the normative discourse of higher education towards a socio-economic imperative and an audit culture. Marketisation is an epistemological veil for a shape-shifting political neoliberal economic doctrine; an ideology that uses state power to impose market imperatives that serve utilitarian individualism and monetary wealth through the discursive strategies and techniques of New Public Management which reconceptualises higher education in the image of a competitive corporate market. This study adopts a multi-level, multi-method approach and mobilises Critical Discourse Analysis to explore the proliferation, unintended consequences and implications of marketisation in a single university. There is evidence of dissonance, struggle, contradictory and strained life-worlds as the new logics of marketisation displace, subordinate and co-opt existing traditional logics. The findings suggest that the short-term benefits for those in positions of power are outweighed by the negative implications for academics and students. A narrow focus on employability degrades higher education, eviscerates academic professionalism, and damages the soul and sinew of educated society. The recommendations include a change in discursive behaviour so that over time an alternative discourse may emerge and displace the hegemony of the market imperative.

This study seeks to understand teacher's perspectives about online learning technology and to improve their practice through the integration of online learning technology. In an attempt to achieve these objectives five questions were examined, such as how do teachers describe their perceptions about online learning, what impact does the use of online learning technology have on their practice, what impact does online learning have on their student's engagement in learning, how can teachers reduce online learning attrition/dropout rate and how do teachers describe their adoption of PASTOR model into their practice. The data techniques used in the study were interview, observation, teacher reflective diary and questionnaires. The purpose for using multi instruments was to achieve triangulation. Data from the five questions showed that participants had positive perceptions about online learning after they integrated online learning into their lessons. Participants believed that online technology enhances teacher's practice and student's engagement in learning. Results in the study revealed that most participants believed that mentorship is an effective strategy for reducing student's online attrition/dropout. Finally, data showed that participants believed that my PASTOR model was helpful to their teaching practice, especially in their teaching styles and choice of online technology as the model provided them a methodical structure for implementing and examining their teaching and learning process. The PASTOR model with it defined structure guided participants and I throughout the research process making both participants and I to be more systematic and conscious during the data collection, data analysis, and reflection.

This thesis presents an investigation of a bilingual Turkish/English after school club in a UK secondary school. It investigates and analyses bilingual/multilingual students' naturally occurring language use during classroom activities and explores students' strategies while tackling mathematical tasks. It examines how learners construct a collaborative bilingual learning environment and form a community of practice. The study is set in a large mixed comprehensive school in North London where approximately 30% of students are from Turkish speaking backgrounds. Turkish speakers form one of the four largest cthno-linguistic groups in England. The following major strategies emerged from my analysis: translanguaging, activating prior knowledge, employing play frames and learning in a social context. I discovered that translanguaging allowed students to access their own cultural and linguistic repertoire. They worked through mathematical tasks by activating prior knowledge, often using playful language. Through collaborative learning in a social context, they formed a bilingual community of practice. As a result of employing these strategies, mathematical understanding was enhanced, students performed better with improved self-confidence and mathematical problem solving was aided.

The focus of my research is to explore the experiences of female academic staff in a number of higher education institutions in Pakistan. The research looked at female academic staff perceptions in light of their socio-cultural experiences and how societal as well as cultural norms impacted their institutional experiences. It also investigated female academic career progression and work-life conflict which impacts their lives. The research also explored how multiple identities are adopted by these academics in their attempt to adjust to institutional life. A feminist discourse was adopted to understand female academic staff position in Pakistani society. From a methodological perspective, data was generated by conducting face-to-face interviews of 16 female academic staff from the four provinces in Pakistan. Sample was identified by snowballing technique and data was analysed thematically from the transcribed interviews. My findings show that female academics experience significant work-life conflict and career stagnation. Respondents indicated that their treatment was often based on their gender which was historically located and supported by male cultural and societal dominance. There was societal role differentiation with men being the bread-winners whereby women had a domestic role. Domestic responsibilities included women having to look after the home and the extended family. Within the institutions female academics are employed, their treatment was based on institutional ‘maleness’ whereby women were often denied opportunities to develop their careers in par with their male colleagues. Respondents indicated that institutional understanding of equality issues was often limited to policy rhetoric with little sign of policies being implemented. Overall, the findings show that for female academics there are a myriad of issues at institutional and societal level that need to be addressed to improve their overall experiences.

Developmental dyslexia is a common disorder affecting around 10% of the British population characterized by difficulties with reading despite adequate intelligence and education (IDA, 2007). Although most researchers and practitioners would agree that early identification is key in limiting negative consequences of reading problems, this is still difficult to achieve due to theoretical and practical inconsistencies in the field. This thesis focuses on investigating a novel, computer and tablet-based “dot-to-dot” (DtD) task that may aid the process of identification particularly in pre-reading children and English as additional language (EAL) individuals who, by definition, are more susceptible to misidentification. Performance on this task was tested in primary school children (N = 457) and in adults (N = 111) together with a set of dyslexia-sensitive, vision and reasoning tests. Performance on DtD (especially the first sector error) demonstrated significant differences between children at high and low risk of dyslexia (as assessed by Lucid Rapid), as well as between children prospectively identified as poor and typical readers. DtD measures added small but statistically significant unique contributions to the models predicting reading scores and reading level group membership, and DtD measures could distinguish between poor and typical readers as well as between adults with and without diagnosed dyslexia. The findings provide evidence for the DtD test to be a useful addition to existing tests as it presumably relates to a number of mechanisms in line with automaticity and cerebellar deficits theories of dyslexia. It also has a potential to identify a distinct type of dyslexia that is not related to phonological processing which has important theoretical and practical implications.

This thesis examines English teachers’ constructions of creativity in three different schools. The investigation is of interest because of the importance given to creativity by English teachers and the contested, shifting role it plays in English teaching and education as a whole. It differs from similar work because it treats creativity as a material resource that teachers can draw on in different ways and measures. In this, it treats the enactment of creativity as a matter of social justice. The thesis draws on a wide body of literature about creativity. Fundamental to this is an overview of the literature as it relates to creativity and language, with most significance given to Williams’ ideas about the centrality of "creativity and self-creation" to knowledge generation (1977: p.212), and to Freire’s about “problem posing” and “banking” forms of education (1970: pps.64-65). It also draws on recent research into the effect of accountability measures in schools. This research suggests that such measures have considerable influence on how education is enacted in schools, placing limits, for example, on creative practices. The data is qualitative in nature and analysed using a framework of critical discourse theory, exploring patterns and omissions in teachers’ comments and interrogating them within the context of dominant policy, educational and institutional discourses. The research itself gathered data from semi-structured interviews with individual English teachers in three different secondary schools, one private and two state comprehensives. The study found that teachers across all three schools constructed creativity in similar ways in the abstract, but in accounts of actual practice, considerable differences emerged across schools. The most pronounced differences were between responses by teachers in the two state schools compared to teachers in the private one. These differences clustered most significantly around constructions of creativity as it related to accountability measures in schools. The findings are important because they suggest that teachers struggle to draw on creative practices, even as they see them as pedagogically important, because of the restrictive nature of accountability measures. They also suggest that some teachers feel more able than others to enact creative practices, depending on the institutional nature of their school.

This research commences with an exploration of the huge landscape of assessment feedback practices in which a multitude of tools, interventions, theories, experiences, experiments and surveys have been proffered by educationalists and practitioners. A novel taxonomy of feedback is developed which, upon evaluation, not only highlights the gap in feedback provision for the experiential learning area but also reveals the significance of developmental feed-forward guidance with which students are able to self-evaluate and self-regulate themselves. The research goes on to investigate the impact that Work-related learning and developmental feedback can have on students on a degree programme. An intervention consisting of a range of tools, including a customised competency framework, developmental feedback cues and self-evaluation scoring, is developed to engage and motivate students on the Work-related learning module. A study conducted to test the intervention reveals that significant improvements can be seen in students’ understanding and perception of their competencies, but that this improvement is only apparent when both Work-related learning and developmental feedback based on self-evaluation are implemented. The findings from the empirical data derived from the study has enabled the understanding of, through cluster and correlation analysis, the way in which students perceive their own competencies; thereby, leading us to optimise the framework to include the thirteen most significant competencies within the Academic, Workplace and Personal Effectiveness categories. This research contributes towards a better understanding of student perceptions of competency and puts forward a strategy for improving the employment outcomes of graduates through exposure to a customised competency framework, developmental feedback and self-evaluative/reflective practices.

Background: International students (IS) are arguably a population facing both educational and migratory challenges. These are understood within Culture Shock (CS, Oberg, 1960), a process of culture learning. Available literature on IS seems to focus mainly on the phases of CS between the arrival in the host country until adaptation, or at the later stage of returning home. The last part of the IS journey in the host country, before the possible return home, appears neglected. Research suggests that in this period, named the ‘crossroad’ in this study, important decisions could be made, such as whether to stay in or leave the host country. Rationale: Internal struggles, dilemmas and uncertainty can arise due to the possible changes to self that IS can develop while abroad, and could be exacerbated by immigration laws. Thus, the crossroad can be a phase of psychological struggle, which can be of interest to mental health professionals. There is limited qualitative evidence on this sub-phase of CS on IS and this research attempts to address this gap by looking holistically at the subjective experiences of these students and letting their specific psychological needs arise. Methodology and main findings: An interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was chosen for this research, using semi-structured interviews. Three superordinate themes emerged from the analysis of the transcripts: a) Changes to self and identity; b) Uncertainty, temporariness and emotional responses; c) Dilemmas at the crossroad. The crossroad emerged from the results as a phase dominated by uncertainty towards the future, leading to experiencing difficult emotions such as worry, anxiety and low mood. From the participants’ accounts, it seemed that the limitations imposed by the UK immigration law were the main trigger for such uncertainty, and that IS perceived their circumstances as largely out of their control. The IS’ psychological and emotional responses seemed connected with having developed a sense of belongingness to the UK, resulting from a process of changes to self and identity experienced during their time abroad.

Parent-teacher meetings are well-established and attended by a high proportion of parents. This places significant demands on both schools and families. However, little research involving direct observation within secondary schools has been reported. I have investigated parent-teacher meetings at one English secondary school, my aims being to explore the aims of parents and teachers and the nature of their relationships. My findings will be of interest to parents and teachers, as well as researchers and school leaders. I collected audio recordings of parent-teacher conversations over two years and conducted one-to-one interviews with parents, students and teachers. I analysed my data using conversation analysis and interpreted my findings using politeness theory. I found that the aims of parents and teachers can be divided into two categories. Instrumental aims are directly concerned with educational outcomes, whereas interpersonal aims relate to the individual needs of the participants and do not necessarily affect students’ learning. I also found that the behaviour of the participants in my study was not consistent with models based on partnership, opposition, or market forces. My findings do, however, support a model in which teachers assume the role of ‘expert’ and control conversations. For researchers, my findings question the way in which Epstein’s typology is used to classify parent-teacher meetings and suggest that the presence of students during meetings may be significant. My study has also highlighted politeness theory as a useful tool for interpreting parent-teacher behaviour. For families and schools, my research raises questions regarding the use of parent-teacher meetings to influence students. My study also suggests that parents and teachers do not make productive use of their limited contact time. My study provides up-to-date and reliable data regarding a widespread educational practice. My methodology may also provide a useful template for researchers wishing to investigate parent-teacher conversations. Future research involving contrasting schools would indicate whether my findings were context-related or more general. The occupational backgrounds of parents and the roles played by students may also be worthy of further investigation.

Information and communication technologies have been playing a crucial role in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of learning and teaching in higher education. Two decades ago, research studies were focused on how to use artificial intelligence techniques to imitate teachers or tutors in delivering learning sessions. Machine learning techniques have been applied in several research studies to construct a student model in the context of intelligent tutoring systems. However, the usage of intelligent tutoring systems has been very limited in higher education as most educational institutions are in favour of using virtual learning environments (VLEs). VLEs are computer-based systems that support all aspects of teaching and learning from provision of course materials to managing coursework. In this research study, the emphasis is on the assessment aspect of VLEs. A literature review revealed that existing computer-based formative assessments have never utilised unsupervised machine learning to improve their feedback mechanisms. Machine learning techniques have been applied to construct student models, which is represented as categories of knowledge levels such as beginning, intermediate and advanced. The student model does not specify what concepts are understood, the gap of understanding and misconceptions. Previously, a snap-drift modal learning neural network has been applied to improve the feedback mechanisms of computer-based formative assessments. This study investigated the application of snap-drift modal learning neural network for analysing student responses to a set of multiple choice questions to identify student groups. This research study builds on this previous study and its aim is to improve the effectiveness of the application of snap-drift modal learning neural network in modelling student responses to a set of multiple choice questions and to extend its application in modelling student responses gathered from object-oriented programming exercises. A novel method was proposed and evaluated using trials that improves the effectiveness of snap-drift modal learning neural network in identifying useful student group profiles, representing them to facilitate generation of diagnostic feedback and assigning an appropriate diagnostic feedback automatically based on a given student response. Based on the insight gained into the use of this novel method, we extend it to identify useful student group profiles that represent different programming abilities for writing an object-oriented class. The purpose of identifying student group profiles is to facilitate construction of diagnostic feedback that improves the development of basic object-oriented programming abilities. Overall, the main objectives of this research project were addressed successfully. New insights are gained into the application of unsupervised learning in general and snap-drift modal learning in particular. The proposed methods are capable of improving the feedback mechanisms of existing computer-based formative assessment tools. The improved computer-based formative assessments could have a huge impact on students in improving conceptual understanding of topics and development of basic object-oriented programming abilities.

This study traces the professional learning of student teachers who have lived and studied outside the UK, and successfully applied to follow a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course in London to become teachers of mathematics in English schools. It draws upon Bourdieu’s theory of habitus and field to discuss how these student teachers adapt their capitals, as described in migration studies by Erel (2010) and Nowicka (2015) and how, during initial teacher training (ITT), they develop professional capitals for the teaching of mathematics (Nolan, 2012). Recent migration flows have led to a growth of diversity, as measured by countries of origin, in London and other cities around the world, resulting in what Vertovec (2006) has called superdiversity. Through a series of semi-structured interviews with 16 PGCE student teachers hailing from 13 different countries, this study explores the implications of superdiversity for the practices of training teachers. The focus of the research is on the complications of ‘bring[ing] off’ (MacLure, 2003:55) the embodied performance of becoming a teacher, and on how student teachers develop ‘enough’ (Blommaert and Varis, 2011:5) professional capital to pass the course. This leads to a reassessment of the category ‘highly skilled migrant’, which is used to define those who have academic qualifications for teaching from outside the UK. The study uses instead the term ‘highly qualified migrant’, to argue that a mathematical degree needs to be complemented by knowledge of the national mathematics curriculum, national pedagogies and local communicative resources. It shows how London can become an ‘escalator region’ (Fielding, 1992:1), as the student teachers achieve a working life that matches their academic qualifications, and also their own aspirations and those of their families, in the UK and elsewhere. In so doing, they become part of a teaching workforce that reflects the growing superdiversity of the region’s school pupils.

This Covering Document offers a narrative addressing the contributory contexts, thematic coherences, and original contribution to knowledge made by the body of work presented for this award. It discusses the place and importance of critical enquiry concerning childhood and children’s lives in the curricula of Education Studies and cognate disciplinary fields. The body of work comprises eight formal outputs from nearly a decade of writing and publication that, in turn, draw on a longer career as teacher and academic. Its trajectory leads to the proposition that the declaration of The Anthropocene encourages us to reconsider and recast Enlightenment modernity and particularly those constructions of human nature and the natural world that inform commonplace thinking about children and their childhoods which, in turn, justify many of the practices, language and time-space organisation structuring educational institutions. The Anthropocene offers a framework within which to understand the historical provenance of the ideological condition identified as ‘Modern childhood’ and to reflect on its emerging implications for children’s lives in times of technological change, intercultural encounter, globalization and climate change. The Covering Document identifies recurrent topical themes in the body of work and offers a rationale for the historical, spatial, and social modes of analysis that are threaded through it. It also offers reflections on the way that the published material addresses its audience as pedagogically mediated content knowledge. The Covering Document asserts that The Anthropocenic proposition revitalises the place of the New Social Studies of Childhood within Education Studies, thereby offering a coherent and relevant direction for further growth that encourages us all to ‘take a wider look around’.

With ad-hoc application of the traditional element of marketing failing to sustainably cushion institutions against growing competition, universities are frantically searching for ways to differentiate themselves in the long term. This study ascertains the applicability of five empirically established brand equity constructs to Ghana’s university industry. It is underpinned by a pragmatist philosophy - an objective-driven blend between the ontological and epistemological philosophical positions, and adopts a mixed-methods paradigm that combines qualitative and quantitative survey methods of data collection and analysis. For the qualitative part, 22 valid face-to-face in-depth interviews with undergraduate students selected from four universities were used while the quantitative study used 625 self-administered questionnaires from undergraduate students from twelve universities. Thematic analysis was used for the qualitative data while for the quantitative data, the structural equation modelling technique of partial least squares (PLS) was employed to ascertain relationships between the five independent student-based brand equity (SBBE) constructs on one hand, and students’ university brand preference (SUBP) as a dependent variable, on the other. Results of the analysis indicate a positive relationship between most of the SBBE constructs studied and university preference in Ghana. Four SBBE dimensions namely; university institutional reputation (UIR), university institutional image (UII), university graduate employability (UGE) and perceived institutional service quality (PISQ) recorded significant positive relationships with students’ university preference (SUP). Positive relationships were also obtained between university image and university reputation, university identity and university reputation, as well as between perceived institutional service quality and graduate employability. On the contrary, an insignificant relationship was obtained between university institutional identity (UI) and students’ university preference. The correlation analysis also indicates significant positive relationships among all the independent SBBE variables. Cumulatively, the results indicate that the SBBE concept is applicable to Ghana’s university context as the SBBE constructs and university preference are positively related. The prevalence of reputation, image, graduate employability and perceived institutional service quality in the research findings has implications for policy in the university sector. Also worthy of note is the significant positive relationship obtained between perceived institutional service quality and graduate employability; as well as between university institution identity, university institution image and university institution reputation. Much of the existing academic work on higher education branding has concentrated on brand equity’s antecedents and consequences. This study links empirically proven antecedents of university brand equity to university preference. Also, most of existing empirical research on brand equity in the university sector has focused on developed countries whose circumstances are fundamentally different from those of developing economies. This study is a novelty in the sub-Saharan African context where student-focused university branding is uncommon; and so comes as a significant contribution from Ghana, to the growing worldwide debate on university branding. While contributing a survey instrument that enhances SBBE research methodology, theoretically, the unique blend of SBBE constructs employed is unprecedented. Notwithstanding some limitations identified, this study presents an empirical model that stands to guide university management in judiciously dispensing scarce resources.

Parental involvement has underpinned various educational policies and practices in many countries, particularly in "Western developed" countries. Much research suggests parental engagement links positively to children's achievement. Within this discourse, the possibilities for new technologies to enhance parents' engagement with their children's education are widely hailed, yet scantily studied. Scholars have highlighted that the premise of this mediation depends on parents' technological competence, socioeconomic and cultural identities and positions. Minority classed and ethnic parents are often positioned in policy as "hard to reach" or less engaged. However, new technologies are rarely studied in relation to the impact of complex intersecting classed, racial, and migratory identities and the colonial legacy on minority group's ability to participate in education. This study focuses on the impact of subjectification, intersecting identities and post-colonial theory on minority group parents' abilities to engage with schools in their children's education. This study adopts an in-depth qualitative methodology, consisting of 10 months of interviews, observations and recordings (2013-2015) to collect data from 13 parents recently migrated to London from West Africa. Theoretically, the thesis draws broadly from a Bourdieuian theoretical framework of capitals, habitus, and field, from post-colonial theory, and from intersectional theorising to examine how migrant parents in England, who have also experienced schooling in Nigeria or Ghana, engage in their children's home learning and communicate with their schools using technology. Using both class and racial lens, this thesis highlights how a racialised group negotiate complex experiences of subjectification and oppression. It shows the complexity of black ethnicity and the relationships to education through its focus on West African migrants (as distinct from assumptions on aggregating African and Caribbean groups), and advances Erel's (2010) concept of migrating cultural capital to illuminate how a minority racial group's migration and shifting class positions affects their ability to engage in home learning. Migrant parents' accounts show how postcolonial theory can also be used in technology studies to illuminate how seemingly liberating forces such as new technology can inadvertently contribute to oppression rather than alleviate it. This study also demonstrates that informants who belong to multiple subordinate identity groups experience greater discrimination and subjection: intersectionality theory helps explicate their everyday experiences.

This study explores the educational and social experiences of 17 undergraduate lone parent students studying across a wide range of subject disciplines in a post-1992 inner-city university. The study was conducted in 2010 using qualitative, semi-structured, one-to-one interviews. At the time, the number of lone parent households was increasing and the political agenda aimed to reduce welfare dependency and increase lone parents’ employment rate. During this period, New Labour Government policy also emphasised the benefits of higher education and of opening up of opportunities for a new and diverse group of students who traditionally have not attended university, with lone parents among them. Posited within a social justice framework, this study seeks to identify the factors that motivated lone parents to become higher education students and examine their perceived (re)constructed future identities. The study draws on feminist theoretical perspectives on the intersectionalities of gender, class and ‘race’ and Bourdieu’s conceptual tools of habitus and economic, social and cultural capitals to examine how social backgrounds, educational history and the structures of the academe influence and shape the lived experiences of lone parent students. The number of academic studies on the educational experiences of ‘non-traditional’ mature students has increased considerably, with parent students becoming a growing subject of interest for academic research. However, few studies have focused on lone parent students in higher education as a distinct group, let alone the differences among the lone parent students themselves. This study seeks to address this absence. The key findings of the study reveal that the majority of the lone parent students were resisting the social stigma of their lone parent identity and had chosen to enter university to form new social networks, new identities and new futures. However, despite the lone parent students’ resilience, the structural demands of the academy (such as course timetables, assessment deadlines and subject requirements) together with the university culture presented considerable challenges to their ability to manage childcare, employment and study, as well as their changing habitus.

When they have the opportunity to repeat a pedagogic task, learners speak with a higher degree of fluency during the second or subsequent performance. The impact of repetition on learners’ fluency on entirely new tasks, however, is less clear. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of two inherently repetitive pedagogic task sequences on short-term fluency and also the extent to which any increased fluency in the short-term was maintained on a new task (i.e. a ‘transfer effect’). One of these task sequences involved repetition of the same task (TR) and the other engaged learners in repeating the task procedure but with new content (PR). 64 ESL students were divided among three groups: Task Repetition (TR), Procedural Repetition (PR), and Control (C). Participants in all three groups were recorded speaking during a pre- and post-test stage. In addition, the two experimental groups (TR and PR) took part in a training session between pre- and post-test which was also audio-recorded. For the TR group, the session involved performing a narrative task three times. For the PR group, the session required learners to perform three different narrative tasks of the same type (i.e. picture narrative). Participants’ oral performances were analysed in terms of a range of fluency measures, representing different aspects of fluency (i.e. speed, breakdown, repair) at pre-test and post-test and also during the training session (i.e. all three performances for both experimental groups). The findings revealed that oral fluency increased during the training session only for the TR group and between pre- and post-test only for the PR group relative to the control. These findings are explained in terms of the different sorts of ‘practice’ which the two task sequences provide and the different ways they impact upon the speech production process. The methodological and pedagogic implications of the study’s findings are also discussed.

This thesis explores the social construction of classed, ‘raced’ and gendered identities of Bengali female learners of ESOL (English for Speakers of other languages) from a post-structuralist feminist position. My research is conducted within the post-compulsory educational context, exploring how Bengali women construct identities in relation to educational experiences of learning English as a second language, and considering how Bengali women are positioned, in turn, by contemporary popular, academic and political discourses. This study is intended to contribute to creating ‘a third space’, within which shifts in cultural meanings that occur through colonialisation and diaspora, offer possibilities for reworking and resisting notions of passivity, inactivity and docility assigned to women within popular and some white academic discourses (Hall, 1992; Khan, 1998; Gilroy, 1992; Spivak, 1999). To open up spaces for non-hegemonic readings of Bengali femininities I identified discursive strategies actively employed by Bengali women to trouble/unsettle dominant discourses that reduce Bengali women to ‘docile bodies’ (Foucault, 1979). Applying a feminist post-structuralist framework has illuminated differences and similarities between, and within, Bengali women’s accounts of ESOL education, to substantiate the view that there is no one truth and no unitary subject. I also draw upon post-colonial, black feminist perspectives to argue that the voices from the margins that have traditionally been excluded from the knowledge making processes can bring into dispute the current discourses about ’race’, class, gender, culture, religion, patriarchy and femininity. The research was undertaken at two educational sites in East and central London over five years. In total, 20 Bengali female learners of ESOL participated in life history interviews over the period of 2 years. The sample was diverse in terms of age, class, education, employment, marital and maternal status. In addition, I also conducted one-to-one interviews with two members of teaching staff per institution. I do not present my interpretations of Bengali female accounts of employment and education as ‘truth’ since post-structuralist approaches challenge the notion of singular truth for all South Asian women. Rather I present these accounts as alternative truths which expand and challenge deep-seated inequalities that position South Asian women as passive victims within existing, dominant oppressive discourses.

This study explores students’ sense of belonging through the accounts of nineteen undergraduate students studying at an inner city post-1992 university. Participants' accounts were obtained through semi-structured interviews conducted at three key points during their first year of study. The resulting analysis is influenced by Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, field, capital and knowledge of the rules of the game, which are used to explore the impact of student dispositions on their experiences and perceptions of belonging. The study shows that university can be a particularly challenging place for students from non-traditional backgrounds and it questions the view that belonging is about individual student commitment to institutional values. Belonging is conceptualised in a more nuanced multi-dimensional manner reflecting institutional habitus such as a 'one size fits all' approach to both induction and social provision. The study argues that the onus is on the university to overcome inherent inequalities making belonging easier by encouraging student voice; providing care through help, support and guidance; examining the benefits of small group teaching and paying particular attention to the needs of clearing students. Further, strategies built on unproblematised views of elearning and the independent learner need to be reviewed as participants, especially nontraditional students, articulated both as evidence that the university did not validate them as individuals.

This ethnographic study explored how Black Ugandan British parents support their children’s learning in England. It is important to study this group because the parents in this study are Black migrants from Uganda and have an asylum seeking background, thus adding to our knowledge of asylum seeking and education. Moreover, little attention has been paid to this particular group before. The study comprises ten Black Ugandan British families with refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds in two London boroughs. Adopting an ethnographic and an interpretive approach allowed me to explore how Black Ugandan British parents supported their children’s education over time through data collected via long-term interactions, observations and semi-structured interviews with the ten families in their natural home environment settings. I adopted Yosso’s concept of community cultural wealth to analyse data from my study and the data was theorised using Critical Race Theory. Through this theoretical framework, I challenge the traditional interpretations of cultural capital, particularly in relation to educational support or provision, by highlighting various and different forms of capital Black Ugandan British parents use to support their children’s learning, which are unknown. This thesis contributes to knowledge by highlighting the different nature of parental educational support, educational strategies and the underlying factors that inform Black Ugandan British parents’ nature of parental educational support and educational strategies. I argue that Black Ugandan British parents’ culturalistic approach towards their children’s education within their homes and communities and additionally, the contribution they make towards their children’s learning are unrecognised in English schools and English education policy. Further, this thesis highlights class complexities and contributes to debates on class. The study found that Black Ugandan British parents with middle class backgrounds from Uganda, but positioned as working class parents in the UK, bring their Ugandan middle class backgrounds to supporting their children’s education in the UK, which calls for the need to understand Black Ugandan British parents’ middle class backgrounds and the influence they have on their ways of supporting their children’s education. My study shows that Black Ugandan British parents’ cultural, employment, educational and class backgrounds have a huge influence on how they support their children’s education. My study illuminates how class, ethnicity and culture shape Black British Ugandan children’s learning, and makes an original and important contribution to knowledge in this field.

This thesis is a cross disciplinary consideration of the philosophical, psychological and pedagogical debates on the construction of place. This place discourse is interwoven with an investigation of the historical and current social, cultural and scientific representations of the unique and significant place of Antarctica and school research. Through the paradigm of critical educational research it relates this place discourse to the pedagogy of place. Classroom research, using an integrative mixed methods approach, was undertaken in an English, comprehensive, secondary school with mixed gender and ability 11-18 year old English students. This case study examines how representations influence English school students’ place perceptions of the Antarctic continent. Analysis of the classroom research with qualitative software identifies the key components and differences of the imaginations and the ‘realities’ of the students’ perceptions of Antarctica. The research establishes what and how varied representations influence the students’ place perceptions of this distant continent. It explores how digital representations across the continuum of the concept of place, a film place matrix and dialogical discussion could be employed to challenge and change student perceptions of place through critical reflection. The research brings the secondary students’ voice to the discourse of place construction. The findings suggest the teaching of place needs to move beyond the socio constructive approach to a social realist understanding of place and to adopt a holistic pedagogical approach. The thesis highlights how students need to make conscious their unconscious perceptions of place and to critically engage with the place representations they encounter if they are to develop a deep sense of distant place.

Women constitute more than half of the teaching force in primary schools in Greece but men are more likely than women to achieve headship. In other countries (e.g. in the USA, in the UK and in other European countries) women are represented in educational leadership in disproportionately low numbers, too. The aim of this thesis is to cast light on the neglected phenomenon of women’s relatively low participation in Greek primary school leadership and to explore the constructions of men and women head teachers and teachers regarding headship and gender. More specifically, the research offers insights into women’s and men’s experiences of progressing to and experiencing primary school leadership in Greece; examines whether and to what extent these experiences are gendered; and maps the participants' constructions of primary headship. In addition, I explore the future for women in educational leadership in Greece. The study is underpinned by a feminist social constructionist paradigm, involving a qualitative analysis of 40 semi-structured in-depth interviews with women and men head teachers and teachers. The findings suggest that women teachers in primary education in this sample, were generally less leadership-oriented than men and followed relatively unplanned occupational trajectories compared with men. Both men and women appeared to need encouragement from colleagues, superiors and family to enhance their confidence and set them on the pathway to headship. Gendered processes in relation to the recruitment and selection of head teachers, as well as traditional 'masculine' stereotypes of leadership, are challenged by the research. It is argued that both men and women participants construct accounts of approaching leadership in a fluid way, reflecting time, place and situation, rather than primarily gender. Finally, implications for theory, policy and practice are discussed and recommendations for future research are proposed.

This thesis investigates how adult learners continuously negotiate their relationship with schoolroom mathematics through discourses akin to being ‘more’ or ‘less’ able to ‘do’ and ‘be’ mathematical. It argues that mathematical identities are politically and socially constructed, and that available forms of knowledge inscribe particular mathematical practices on the individual in the classroom. By paying attention to the precarious and contradictory productions of the self, and investigating the allure of undergoing a transformation of the self, I contribute to critical understandings of the psychic costs of re-engaging with learning mathematics as an adult learner. This analysis is a critical narrative inquiry of stories of adults (not)taming mathematics. As an iterative study into identity formation it puts theory to work in unusual ways. In bringing together internal and external processes (and the intersection of biography, aspiration and discursive practice), I unmask how participants underwent what Mendick (2005) calls “identity work”. Working with a Lacanian psychoanalytical through a Foucauldian tradition, I navigate the construction of selfhood during processes of reinvention as (non)mathematical subjects, experiencing ‘success’ (and alienation) through models of collaborative learning, in the contemporary mathematical classroom. The study examines the lived experiences of 11 adult learners using a range of qualitative methods. I actively seek the complexities within various types of provision (including adult education, further education, work-based learning, and community outreach programs) and the multiple forms of knowledge available (or not) through authoritarian discourses of education. Engaging a mobile epistemology, this thesis connects subject positions, techniques of power, psychic costs of reinventing the self, and how the processes of visceral embodiment of mathematics affects learning in the classroom. It argues that mathematical identities are discursively constructed, and the relationship between selfhood and ‘being’ and ‘doing’ mathematical-ness is told as much through narratives characterised by affection as by fear. Rather than provide answers or ‘best practice’ for the collaborative classroom, I conclude with an explanation of why I question common sense assumptions, such as that adult learners want to be placed in a hierarchical positions and judged as independent mathematical thinkers in class, and the practical implications for this in the classroom.

Human resource development, specifically workforce training and talent development in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and its outcomes are the main goals of this study. This research investigation has focused on selected aspects of public policy strategies for workforce and human capital development in the UAE. More specifically, this investigation is aiming to investigate the effectiveness of various UAE Scholarship Programmes on workforce development. The research addresses how human capital development strategies for UAE Nationals, with specific and primary reference to university scholarship programmes, have had positive impacts on the development of those Nationals who successfully completed their programme within the last decade. Additionally this study asks what correlations there might be between the scholarships’ specific skills enhancement and the nature of the work in which alumni are presently engaged; and in what ways UAE Nationals believe their careers have developed as a result of the successful completion of their university scholarship programme; also to what extent UAE Nationals believe they have been able to impact positively on the institutions and organisations they work for. And indeed how do those participants who took part in this study feel about improvement of such programme for scholarship winners in the future? A mixed method design approach which integrated both quantitative and qualitative data was used. The quantitative data were collected through a survey, and qualitative data were collected from both the survey and through more in-depth individual interviews and focus group discussions with both alumni and public sector managers. The sample of the present study comprises a total of 206 alumni of both genders with (a 78% response rate) who participated in this study; and additional sample of 33 alumni also included, as well as three public sector mangers who had in=depth interviews. Using Kirkpatrick’s four level criteria of evaluation of alumni learning experience abroad. That is reactions and satisfaction, learning of the intended knowledge and skills, creation of behaviour change among participants and resulting in tangible impact on organisation as well employing other indicators which compared responses before 2006 and after 2006, the present research work indicated majority of participant’s alumni were very positive about their study experience aboard; participants claimed they have gained a wide range of skills and experience. Their future influence could include areas of high priority for development and leadership, including education, health and governance. Further results also showed that over 90% of alumni respondents have successfully completed their programmes of study; hence returned home and currently are working in the UAE. Majority of the participants also claimed that their programme contributed to international collaboration and partnerships. Overall evaluation and main outcomes of this study did not offer tangible evidence that scholarships are having a significant impact on institutional performance. There was also no noticeable difference between those institutions which had received relatively larger numbers of scholarships (Management, Biology, Engineering and Computer Sciences), and those who had received few. However, further in-depth assessment of individual institutions might be necessary in future to elicit such evidence and/or relationship links. Some results suggested that the scholarships offered by different ministries and departments will enable the transfer of skills and knowledge not only to individual award holders, but also to employers and relevant institutions. Finally, the main findings of the study lead to a number of recommendations to better support not only the integration of scholars in their workplaces but also the achievement of effective workforce plan to achieve the objective of Emiratisation Scheme and strategic vision on this important field of study which has been acknowledged at all UAE governmental levels.

Normative conceptions of age, as with other social markers such as gender, inform how persons are perceived by self and others. This thesis provides a critical view of ways in which age intersects with gender in the context of higher education in Britain. Located with the backdrop of discourses such as 'successful' or 'active' ageing and ‘Lifelong Learning’, experiences of older age are explored in the context of undergraduate study. Drawing on the accounts of twenty-one undergraduate students and six recent graduates, the thesis explores social constructions of older people, and of undergraduate students, and how these constructions play out in participants’ subjective experience of higher education. All (27) participants were aged over forty and twenty were aged over fifty. Foucault’s notions of Technologies of the Self , including his concept of power, is used here to explore how participants are positioned by, and also resist, normative discourses of age and gender. Judith Butler’s concept of performativity is mobilised to explore how performance of age varies according to gender and between subject roles such as student, friend or partner. I argue that the performativity of age is exposed within undergraduate courses. I contend that the presence of older undergraduate students disrupts constructions of what undergraduate study is, and should be, what it means to be a student, what it means to be a mature student and what it means to be older. The data are organized in three chapters: starting university, being at university and, then, life outside of university. The study reveals how older students’ claimed space in the university. I show that neoliberal imperatives, such as are contained in discourses of ‘Lifelong Learning’ and 'Active Ageing', become the standards by which individuals are measured and measure themselves. I find that participants’ age-associations, and identity-conceptions as an undergraduate student, have implications for relationships outside of the university and involve changed and changing identities. The participant's stories reveal varied experiences of student life, and thus unsettle notions of the 'traditional student' in new ways, calling attention to the complexities of what being an undergraduate student is like in contemporary Britain. In uncovering links and contradictions between old age and undergraduate study, I seek to illuminate the experiences and concerns of older undergraduates and to contribute to debates in both the sociology of education and social gerontology.

This thesis explores constructions of masculinity, deviancy and educational failure through an examination of policy and the discursive accounts provided by teenage boys, all of whom had been excluded from school, and educational practitioners working with such boys. This topic is of interest because the exclusion of boys with behavioural problems has been of significant concern to schools and policy makers for some time. Although the numbers of exclusions has reduced recently it remains a significant social justice issue because permanent school exclusion is directly related to deviancy and unemployment and disproportionally affects those who are already disadvantaged, such as the poor working-class and those with special Educational Needs. This thesis contributes to understanding how boys’ peer interactions contribute towards perpetuating particular myths about masculine behaviour and its domination over females and alternative masculinities. It shows how some boys through drawing on discourses of hegemonic masculinity and gender binary asymmetries construct themselves in ways that contribute towards school confrontation. The voices of practitioners show how they contribute towards tensions and how education policy is considered as prohibiting staff from working effectively with some boys. Consideration was given to literature discussing the social construction of parenting, childhood, and children’s "needs". Literature regarding the persistence of the role model discourse as both a cause and solution to boys’ problem behaviours in school is also investigated. Literature examining hegemonic masculinities was drawn on to further understand how it is performed and enforced through peer interaction, resulting in problematic behaviours which dominate particular constructions of masculinity. The theoretical framework used for this study draws on the work of Foucault (1970, 1977, 1980) who theorised that people construct truth through the dominant discourses which they draw on. It also explains how and why power is afforded to one discourse at the expense of another. The methodology adopted for this research utilizes this theoretical framework. 35 narrative interviews were undertaken and examined using discourse analysis as discussed by Gee (2011) and Taylor (2001). The data collected was contrasted with literature to further understand the discourses respondents employed in their discursive constructions. This thesis exposes the challenges that boys and practitioners face as they negotiate the dominant masculine discourses at large in both school and home. It also shows that respondents’ understandings of masculinity rely on outmoded discourses of masculinity, essentialist gender binaries and constructions of childhood, which contribute towards problem behaviours in school. Tensions in school are also exacerbated by policy discourse and practitioners’ constructions of childhood. However, these normative discourses are challenged by respondents’ acknowledgment of alternative versions of masculinity and the coexistence of gender heteroglossia.

The goal of the Ph.D. research was to develop an empirical foundation suitable for designing educational interventions and programmes aiming to improve students' learning. In order to achieve this a series of studies was conducted that supported the development and test of a comprehensive, chained mediation model of academic performance. The proposed chained mediation model comprised of adaptive-positive and maladaptive-negative submodels. The adaptive-positive submodel hypothesised firstly that trait intrinsic motivation and adaptive metacognition would facilitate the use of creative cognition in studying (first-level mediator). Secondly, the mediator hypothesised that the use of creative cognition in studying would lead to the experience of positive affect in studying, and to the development of adaptive approaches to studying (second-level mediators). Finally, the submodel hypothesised that positive affect in studying and adaptive approaches to studying would facilitate academic performance. The maladaptive-negative submodel hypothesised firstly that trait intrinsic motivation and maladaptive metacognition would lead to evaluation anxiety (first-level mediator). Secondly, the model hypothesised that evaluation anxiety would lead to the experience of negative affect in studying, and to the development of a maladaptive approach to studying (second-level mediators). Finally, the model hypothesised that negative affect in studying and the maladaptive approach to studying would undermine academic performance. A total of five studies were conducted employing 2140 university students.

This thesis begins with the question of whether socially and ethnically mixed schooling leads to mixed friendships. Located within a policy agenda promoting community cohesion and the benefits of mixed communities, this thesis examines the urban school as a key site of social mix, critically exploring mixing amongst urban youth. Challenging policy rhetoric's static concept of mixing and cohesion, a key contribution of this thesis is to explore mixing as a social process, attending to social class and gender as well as race in shaping young people's evolving friendship-making. Drawing on small-scale, discursively informed, interview-based, research with 16-19 year aids in two socially and ethnically mixed London schools, this thesis aims to examine the patterns of young people's friendships. This thesis investigates the socia-spatial, institutional and discursive processes which lead to differentiation, stratification or mixing in these friendships. The overarching contribution of this thesis is to understand friendship-making as a classed process. I argue that social mixing is a form of social capital/resource accumulation, a process in which some classed, raced and gendered bodies have more exchange value than others. To begin, I show how different demographics of schools constrain and enable the discursive production of the school as space for social mixing, and moreover how this is intimately connected to academic inclusivity or exclusivity. I then show how urban school-based subcultures are implicated in the production, maintenance and regulation of gendered, classed and racialised identities, which constrains the possibilities for mixing. Exploring the located, micro-politics of social mixing in urban schools - of those who mix across borders and boundaries of class and race- I show how certain favoured learner identities allow the acceptable minority ethnic Other more easily into privileged White middle class friendship groups in the school, while Black working class students are more constrained in sustaining White middle class friendships and hence, the promise of social mobility. Finally, through analysis of the 'misfits' -students who are outside of subculture in the school- I argue that, while a space of exclusion, this is a space of non-normative productions of race, gender and social class and is the hidden space where there is potential for 'real' mixing to take place. Here, I propose that, in this transgressive space of mixing, use-value comes to the fore, and has potential for the production of an alternative kind of self.

This thesis is set against a twofold background: national identity as a source of public resistance towards the deepening of European integration; and the possible role of education in enhancing support for the process, as endorsed through the European dimension in education, In particular, through an empirical investigation, it examines the extent to which lower secondary education in Slovakia promotes the idea of a post-national Europe or whether, by contrast, it reinforces a more nationalist approach and therefore takes an instrumental outlook on European integration, To this end, a double-structured analytical model has been created, This draws on insights from the scholarship of nationalism captured under the umbrella terms of primordialism, constructivism and ethno-symbolism and also on the academic debate on European integration, summarised in this thesis as supranationalism and intergovernmentalism, In applying it, the thesis analyses the interpretation of the nature of nations and European integration in the most recent curricula and textbooks of history, geography and civics, It also examines teachers' and students' views through a qualitative research method based on interviews and discussions, As the findings indicate, the conceptualisation of national identity within lower secondary education in Slovakia remains dominated by the academically most controversial notion, primordialism, which regards nations as unique and immutable, Particularly in the case of textbooks and teachers, this does not necessarily lead to an interpretation of European integration as an instrument of interstate co-operation (intergovernmentalism) nor to a complete rejection of an eventual post-national transformation of Europe (supranationalism), However, students' views display a higher degree of polarisation in these respects, leading to a clear opposition to supranationalism, Overall, the thesis concludes that lower secondary education in Slovakia does not demonstrate support for a genuine post-national Europe, Unaffected by scholarly advances in the study of nationalism, it remains rooted in traditional misconceptions in relation to national identity and promotes values-based coexistence and co-operation between nations and nation-states in Europe, The research is original in two ways, Firstly, it is innovative in adapting and applying the insights of the scholarship of nationalism and European integration within the context of a case study on secondary education, Secondly, it provides substantial new knowledge of learning, teaching and attitudes on these issues in Slovakia, Although the conclusions are country-specific, they have a wider significance and the thesis identifies some avenues for further research and areas for practical application of the findings within and beyond the frontiers of Slovakia.

This research uses a case study approach to examine the learning experiences of mature non-specialist first year undergraduate university students studying mathematics as an ancillary subject. The challenges faced by such students taking mathematics as a subsidiary subject within their main degree have not been adequately addressed in the literature: this study seeks to address this gap. The research took place in a UK inner-city post-1992 university which has a very diverse student intake. A qualitative data set was generated from in-depth and focus group interviews of 22 mature students, the majority of whom were non-specialists taking mathematics as a required ancillary subject. An additional quantitative data set was derived from a questionnaire distributed to 250 students taking first year mathematics modules, either as an ancillary or as a specialism subject. A small number of mature students specialising in mathematics in both the interviews and the survey were included in order to compare the experiences and views of the both specialist and non-specialist groups. The Mixed Methods Research Design adopted combined results from the qualitative and quantitative analyses, and was accompanied by a post-structuralist theoretical framework which examines the discursive practices students were exposed to in relation to their construction of mathematics as a subject and their experiences of learning mathematics. The study shows that the major perceived factors that affect mature non-specialist students learning of mathematics include the pedagogical model that is used; the attitudes and beliefs of the learners; the support available to aid learning; and the prevalent discourses about the learning and perceptions of mathematics. These findings have a number of important implications for policy and practice for teaching mathematics to such students, for our understanding of student identities and for widening participation. The evidence from this study suggest that there should be a shift of government policy on access and financing for mature students; a review of mechanism of financial support for mature students; changes in the organisation and resourcing of small classes; a review of curriculum and pedagogy to fit the diverse background of learners; and the development of mathematics support provisions that are embedded in courses that require mathematical skills.

Decisions about different educational pathways have been linked extensively with inequality of outcome and explaining this link has been a focus of much recent research. The emphasis for such research has largely been at key transition points such as secondary school choice and entry to Higher Education. A key question has been the extent to which decisions are influenced by the structuring effects of social class and cultural background or individual agency. This study examines the educational decision-making of graduate student teachers in relation to whether or not to take Masters level credits on courses of Initial Teacher Education. It uses a mixed methods case study approach to collect data from the staff, student teachers and documentation within an Initial Teacher Education department of a Higher Education Institution. The study draws upon a Bourdieuian theoretical perspective to understand the individual nature of the decision-making process and how it led to patterns of inequality. The process of decision-making is considered through the interrelated dimensions of agency, contexts and values. The study reveals that the student teachers' decision-making was multifaceted, and demonstrates the different ways in which important factors were linked and dependent on the overlapping influences of socio-cultural background. The majority of student teachers decided not to take Masters level credits, in many cases seeing the Masters level pathway as too risky. The major influential factors included concerns about time and workload and fear of failure with perceptions of level of academic skills contributing towards this. For some student teachers the perceived value of Masters level for teaching and aspirations for personal progression were also important factors. The study also demonstrates that inequitable patterns of outcome related to student teachers' characteristics could be aggregated from individual decisionmaking. The study draws the conclusion that the introduction of differentiated educational pathways should be accompanied by careful monitoring to ensure that the aims of widening participation are not compromised. Recommendations are made for the types of support that could accompany this particular case of educational decision-making and lessen any stratifying effects. These recommendations could be transferrable to other situations where decisions have to be made about a particular educational pathway.