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Young men face a heightened risk of material hardship (McDowell, BonnerThompson and Harris, 2022), and struggle to find secure employment in contemporary service-dominated labour markets following shifts in the UK economy (Nixon, 2018; McDowell, 2020) despite their best efforts (Roberts, 2018). Although these conditions are documented, young men have not been a predominate and specific empirical focus of studies on the socio-economic implications of austerity and longer-term shifts in labour market opportunities (Raynor, 2017). Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data, this mixed methods research investigates and compares young men's perceptions and experiences of local labour markets in light of recent skills policy changes that have aimed to improve young people's employability, foster economic growth and stimulate demand for skills (e.g. Scottish Government, 2018; HM Government, 2017). The sample was recruited from Glasgow and Liverpool, two similarly depressed labour markets with comparable histories and economic trajectories (Doucet, van Kempen and Weesep, 2011) and which have demonstrated the plight of young men resulting from deindustrialisation and periods of decline. Located within two member nations of the UK, namely Scotland and England, each regarded as subject to different national policy objectives, this research examines the impact of skills and training initiatives that have aimed at addressing cohesion between skills and sustainable jobs. This thesis uses a theoretical framework that draws on the Risk Society thesis (Beck, 1992), the Age of Chance gambling theory (Reith, 2002), the Zones of (in)security conceptual lens (Furlong, et al, 2018) and the theory of Surplus Labour (Marx, 1976). The strengths of these theoretical lenses used in combination provide the explanatory power to inform new understandings of contemporary labour market conditions and the unique perspectives of young men who are navigating a multitude of complex structural circumstances. The findings from this research show the interconnections between those structural circumstances experienced by the young men and their agentic responses where they are required to engage as responsible economic subjects and autonomous agents (Rose, 1999; Roberts, 2018). The findings suggest that the individualisation of the young men combined with the unpredictability of employment outcomes has resulted in them being pressurised into engaging in labour market behaviour that is akin to gambling. This research concludes that to address the 'gamble' in the move from education to work, more investment is required to increase the quantity of high-quality employment opportunities for young men on both sides of the border. To achieve smoother transitions into such sustainable jobs, more employer-led training provision and stronger links between education and training providers and employers is required alongside parity of esteem for non-university pathways and the encouragement of skills utilisation by employers.

The present study investigates the presence of visual deficits in students with developmental dyslexia as well as their emotions in relation to their reading performance. Dyslexia occurs in approximately 4% of the population (Simmons & Singleton, 2000) and concerns difficulties in reading and spelling for both L1 and L2 learning. One of the most common difficulties of dyslexic individuals has been noticed in stress errors (Paizi, Zoccolotti & Burani, 2011). However, the Greek and English language present differences regarding the visual information that entails stress pattern (such as the diacritic mark in Greek language). Additionally, emotions significantly affect students' performance whether they are positive or negative (Pekrun et al., 2017). In this mixed-method research, 110 Greek students with dyslexia participated in a training program with pre- and post-phase. The training was assessed through visual and auditory stimuli to observe differences between these two sensory abilities. Moreover, questionnaire, interview and observational data were collected to examine the emotional impact. Results indicated an improvement in the stress pattern assignment of the Greek language after visual training while no improvement was observed in the English language since the stress pattern is not marked. The evidence supports the findings that visual impairments do play a role in the reading performance for both L1 and L2 learning. In addition, both positive and negative emotions were found to play a particular role in students' performance but the extent of which positive emotions would lead to a positive outcome and negative emotions to a bad outcome was questioned. Nevertheless, anxiety was found to play a crucial role in students' overall performance.

Universities in the UK have seen a remarkable increase in the number of autistic students. These students can receive funded Specialist (Autism) Mentoring to "remove barriers to learning". A thematic analysis of 264 papers in a systematic review of the autistic experience of higher education, revealed barriers, challenges, and cultures of success that autistic students encounter. Only six papers addressed Specialist (Autism) Mentoring. It is reported to be a valued support, but academic reflection on the profession is scant. This thesis seeks to widen this lacuna through the development of a framework for practitioners by considering, not only the prevalence of mentoring as a support, but by developing grounded theory that may suggest what makes such support effective. A mixed method iterative project contextualised Specialist (Autism) Mentoring within university contexts, before turning to the more substantial element of developing grounded theory from analysis of diaries, interviews and forums from mentees and mentors. A Freedom of Information request was made to Student Finance England, UK universities were surveyed for provision data via their Disability Offices. 1:240 UK students are in receipt of Specialist (Autism) Mentoring, but this is only 55% of autistic students. This is provided for by around 660 mentors, with a yearly turnover of 10%. Paucity of centralised data lends these numbers a wide margin of error. A participatory paradigm was developed in which questions posed by fourteen mentees as autistic hypothesisers became the keystone of the guided diaries that were solicited from mentors at reading weeks and end of terms. Twenty-eight mentors, of whom ten themselves were autistic, kept diaries over the academic year 2020/21. 116 diary entries were gathered over four tranches. Diaries were thematically analysed. Analysis was critiqued and refined both through online interviews with mentees and by an autistic majority forum of master mentors. Autistic and allied mentors reported very similar experiences. The phenomenon of Specialist (Autism) Mentoring was described as a holistic, backstage negotiation. A process of framing and reframing was identified as a key pillar of mentoring autistic students. This process can be considered through three interleaved domains. The mentoring process permitted students to diagnostically consider structural barriers and challenges. The mentee and mentor together consider the outplay of these structures to develop strategies to ameliorate limitations and promote flourishing university encounters. Finally, the mentor has a particular role in gently encouraging students through being a trusted and steadfast authority. These elements of diagnostic framing, prognostic framing, and motivational framing positions in Specialist (Autism) Mentoring are akin to the frame alignment of social movements. Whilst a neurodiverse paradigm was evident in the autistic majority master mentor forums, mentoring with this model can be adapted to future emancipatory movements. It is posited that the nurturing of advocacy in autistic students challenges the idea of mentoring as inducting into an institutional culture; mentees are being equipped to better the intuitions where they belong. The Framework for Reframing (p.iii) proposed asks mentors to reflect on five areas: The knowledge and understanding of diverse student experience. Operationalising the mentoring role. The craft of framing and reframing in the three domains; diagnostic mentoring in which students lead in questioning social structures both on campus and beyond; prognostic mentoring in which mentee and mentor develop strategies not simply for surviving, but flourishing; and motivational mentoring, in which the mentor provides gentle affirmation and encouragement throughout mentees' time at university. Whilst this novel framework was developed for mentoring autistic students, it is suggested that such a schema would have value - as an outworking of autism gain - for mentoring in multiple other educational contacts, and perhaps beyond.

Gifted students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are an underserved and under-researched population. Insufficient research has been conducted on this exceptional group of learners with an emphasis on the educational provisions that they are offered in mainstream school settings. With a geographical emphasis on the Middle East, this pragmatic, qualitative study explores the educational provisions on offer for gifted learners with ASD in Dubai mainstream schools. Furthermore, students' lived experiences and recommendations on such school provisions are captured and presented in this research. The research questions of this study are (1) what are the provisions on offer for gifted students with ASD in Dubai mainstream private primary schools? (2) how do gifted learners with ASD perceive the current offered provision in school? (3) what is recommended by gifted learners with ASD in terms of provisions offered in school? Following a qualitative research approach, semi-structured interviews, survey, and document analysis were used to obtain data. Four gifted students with ASD and six educators (including school leaders, subject teachers, and SEN teachers) took part in semi-structured interviews while twenty-one educators from a variety of Dubai schools participated in the survey. Interviews were transcribed and qualitatively analyzed using coding and thematic analysis. Findings from both the survey and interviews demonstrated insufficient and inappropriate educational structures for this group of twice-exceptional learners. Common themes from educators' interviews and survey included confusion, uncertainty, and inability to serve such students. Themes from student interviews include misidentification, feelings of frustration, and social challenges. Accordingly, recommendations on the enhancement of educational provisions are proposed as per students' and educators' responses. Finally, being the first to investigate the educational provisions of gifted learners with ASD in Dubai mainstream schools, it is hoped that this study will act as a first step towards change in the education of such exceptional learners in the country.

Formal coach education is an important part of a sport system that aspires to offer coaches the opportunity to learn and develop new processes relevant to their own context. Previous research on formal coach education mainly focuses on observations of on-course pedagogic practice to evaluate its effectiveness. This thesis extends this research by offering a novel examination of wider coach education policy. A collective case study approach was taken in collaboration with The English Football Association (The FA). The aim of this research was to critically explore the creation, dissemination and implementation of a formal coach education policy. This research focused on two FA grassroots courses which were released in August 2016 (i.e., level 1 and level 2 courses). Framed by an interpretivist paradigm, three studies were conducted, that included semi-structured interviews with policy makers, course designers, full-time and part-time coach developers, as well as document analysis and on-course observations. A theoretically informed thematic analysis procedure was adopted, connecting the data with the work of sociologist Basil Bernstein. Findings from the three studies bring to the forefront: 1) the processes of a wider system at play when creating coach education policy, 2) how personnel work within a system, 3) 'what' content knowledge goes into a curriculum, 4) wider consideration of relevant and applicable curriculum models and 5) empathy towards the role of coach developers in the current formal coach education landscape. This extends existing literature by providing a significant socio-pedagogical analysis of coach education policy. Here, education is not reductively divorced from social and political influences, but considered as a complex system. Recommendations include frameworks for research and evaluation that appreciates the complexity of coach education which is influenced by a range of powerful stakeholders. This thesis therefore offers an original outlook by repositioning coach education as a wider system.

Higher Education Institutes in the twenty-first century find themselves subject to global economic forces which have reoriented the purpose of a tertiary education towards employment, with an objective of producing graduates to meet the demands of the workplace. Central to this, graduate attribute frameworks set out each institution's version of the skill set which the employable graduate should possess. However, these idealised visions may often fail to adequately account for the diversity of the student body and their applicability to their future employment contexts is questionable. Where international students are enrolled on vocationally oriented postgraduate programmes, it is unclear what such frameworks may mean for them. Drawing on phenomenographic interviews with twenty international students from a Second Language Teacher Education programme at a Scottish university, this study shows that there is limited alignment between the student and institutional conceptualisation of graduate attributes. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the students' development of any such attributes is both constrained and enabled by the navigation and membership of a complex landscape of both academic and professional communities of practice.

Modern leadership and management have multiple methods and facets, focusing as a whole on introducing advanced concepts for dealing with the administrative work system. Among these concepts, old in their inception but new in their application, is the concept of empowerment, a concept that a number of organisations have begun to adopt to enhance institutional quality. This concept is derived from the word 'power', and if translated it into Arabic the meaning of empowerment is maintained. In considering empowerment as an administrative concept, most definitions agree that empowerment is concerned with granting employees higher levels of authority related to their work and issues within their job specialisation, liberating them from the control specified by instructions and granting them more freedom to take responsibility for their own opinions, decisions, applications, and actions. This power takes several forms, according to the specialisation in which it is applied, and in the science of management there are a group of elements that can be considered aspects of strength that enable the employee to perform their work better, such as authority, responsibility, knowledge, appearance, technology, relationships, money, and charisma. But the process of empowerment is far beyond the process of giving the employee authority, as it covers a wider circle that includes knowledge, technical level and self-confidence, and these self-skills, if put in the right mould, will provide the organisation with the best results in terms of work outcomes . As a result, some countries around the world have tended to reform their educational and administrative systems to improve educational system quality and, in light of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's orientations toward developing education systems, empowerment emerged as one of the most important objectives of the 2030 development plan and vision. Hence the importance of this study, which is in line with the Kingdom's Vision 2030 and which, according to the researcher's knowledge, is the first and only study that deals with the concept of empowerment in the education system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the trend towards decentralisation. This study also opens new horizons for researchers to conduct more studies on the empowerment approach and its effectiveness through its recommendations and results that may support policy and decision- makers in education, whether in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or globally, in order to achieve the desired goals of implementing the empowerment approach in order to achieve greater participation and a role for all members of society. the educational system in making decisions, solving problems, assuming responsibility, and developing work methods. Based on the above, the main objective of this study is to explore the concept of empowerment and the possibilities of education system enhancement from the application of an empowerment approach in relation to the revision of school leadership within Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030. The research sought to investigate the understanding and perceptions of key stakeholders. In this research the data were collected by quantitative and qualitative methods using three types of research tools: questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions. These tools were simultaneously applied in order to produce a data set that could be explored in answering the questions driving this project in relation to the concept of empowerment and its potential for improving the educational system. Participants' perspectives were explored using semi-structured interviews (conducted with eight officials from the Ministry of Education and school principals). Focus group discussions were conducted with four groups of teachers from secondary schools in different regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A questionnaire was distributed electronically to 200 secondary school teachers. The study discovered that there is a widespread belief that the empowerment approach can be of great value in the education system, and that the Ministry of Education must take a strong stance in spreading the culture of empowerment and increasing participation in achieving its implementation measures.

Student engagement is, today, a topic of importance in Higher Education research. Previous studies have mainly discussed the impact of student engagement on different aspects of the academic context. For example, Trowler (2010) states that universities should invest their resources and efforts in enhancing student engagement and improving the quality of learning outcomes. Zepke (2016) describes student engagement as an important research topic linked to student success and the quality of learning and teaching in Higher Education. Kahu and Nelson (2018), authors I shall draw on extensively in this thesis, state that student engagement has become important in discussions of student retention and success in Higher Education. However, research on promoting student engagement in language learning settings is relatively sparse, particularly with regard to Higher Education in Saudi Arabia. This PhD aims to add insights to enhance student engagement in Saudi Higher Education by exploring participants' perspectives on the English learning in a Saudi Arabia university's Preparatory Year Programme and it draws on Kahu and Nelson's (2018) Conceptual Framework of Student Engagement as a theoretical framework to explore student engagement. This study was built on qualitative research methods to address and answer the research questions. This approach explores responses from the study's participants to investigate student engagement and its enhancement and to examine the main issues around student engagement and English learning in the Preparatory Year Programme (hereafter PYP) at Saudi University. Data was obtained through face-to-face semi-structured interviews as the primary tool to collect data from 30 participants: 18 students (PYP students and PYP graduates), and 12 teaching staff (from the English Centre and the College staff). The responses from the data of this study revealed a number of factors that might influence student engagement. For example, students' expectations are likely to affect student engagement and meeting these expectations might lead to several academic outcomes such as student motivation, knowledge, success, and retention. This study notes that learning and pedagogy practices are expected to impact student engagement in the PYP. The data revealed student motivation, curriculum and pedagogical issues, such as teaching methods, and these also may be key factors influencing student engagement. The study's data also pinpointed several challenges that may decrease student engagement in the PYP including issues related to promoting the learning environment in the PYP include a lack of involving students in making decisions about their learning and the lack of a thorough introduction to various university activities. Using English as a Medium of Instruction is another challenge highlighted in the data by the participants that may potentially affect student engagement. The responses from the data suggest that students' low proficiency level and a lack of English learning supporting resources and environment are key factors that led to challenges in using English as the Medium of Instruction. Drawing on engagement theory of I suggest that these challenges might impact students' self-efficacy, emotions, sense of belonging and well-being. As a result of this impact, students may experience difficulties improving self-confidence, communication skills and personal growth. The participants in this study suggest various measures to enhance student engagement and English learning in the PYP. For student engagement, the data suggested that PYPs might need to encourage students to use self-learning, autonomous learning strategies, and that increasing student partnership might also promote student engagement. For English learning and teaching, the data suggested that the PYPs need to improve the curriculum, adding multiple learning levels and different learning paths and developing assessment methods in the PYP. Additionally, I propose a model to enhance student engagement in the PYP based on the study's findings and informed by Kahu and Nelson's (2018) student engagement conceptual framework. It is hoped that this might contribute to facilitating student engagement through English learning in the Saudi PYPs and similar educational programmes.

This research aimed to explore how adolescent females (aged 11-25) perceive their lived school experiences and how these experiences and their diagnosis shapes their identity. The topic of female attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a rapidly growing area of study. Past research suggests that the under-representation of females in ADHD research leads to barriers in individuals accessing appropriate support and that teachers who support pupils who have ADHD feel under-confident. This research is therefore informed by an idea from the disability rights movement: "nothing about us, without us" (Charlton, 2000) which proposes that the voice of people with disabilities should be at the forefront of research. Using an interpretivist approach, qualitative data was gathered through individual, face-to-face, unstructured interviews with each participant. This data was then analysed for each participant by applying the procedure set out within an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) framework. Findings suggested that there were several common themes across individual experiences. Participants' school experiences were shaped by implications of social construction of the ADHD label and internal cognitive impairment of skills relating to executive functioning (EF). It was found that participants' experiences had implications for participants' self-esteem and identity formation. To attempt to implement suggested changes from this research into school and local authority practice, implications for provision for adolescent females who have ADHD have been recommended.

Inclusive education is simultaneously an elusive and ubiquitous term. For decades, the field of inclusion has been dominated by theoretical justifications of this concept. Yet, the field lacks a consensus on its conceptualisation and the practices associated with its implementation. The purpose of this study was to explore universalist teaching approaches that address the needs of diverse learners in a mainstream primary level classroom. Through a comparative case study design, this thesis examined inclusive practices and attitudes towards inclusion in England and Bahrain. Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory was used as the theoretical lens for this cross-cultural comparison. Methodological triangulation was utilised for three data sources which were interviews, classroom observations and teacher questionnaires. The results indicated that perspectives of inclusive education were vital to determining its implementation. The national focus in England on special educational needs (SEN) provision shaped schools' practice to be consistent with that view, while in Bahrain participants were lacking knowledge on the national inclusion agenda. Schools in England and Bahrain emphasised community engagement and an inclusive school ethos. The England case study suggested that staff describe positive attitudes towards inclusion in the questionnaire, but this is less evident in the teaching practice they were able to implement. In the interviews, the participating teachers in England and Bahrain both conveyed negative attitudes towards inclusive education, and SEN centric views of inclusion. Participating schools in England predominately enacted inclusion through the use of differentiated instruction within ability groups and teacher's choice of student task, whereas participating schools in Bahrain utilised peer collaborative work and student-centred learning. An operational definition of inclusion is proposed which specifies principles of inclusive practice, and the inclusive practice continuum.

There is a lack of research on why a gap exists between the verbal and cognitive abilities of autistic young people and their level of independence skills. Literature suggests that relative to their non-autistic peers of a similar age and intellectual ability, many autistic adults fail to achieve desired outcomes in various areas of independent living. They often lack friends, have lower rates of post-secondary education, are seldom in full-time employment, and continue to live with their parents. A recent report by the Office for National Statistics in the UK (2021) revealed that only 22% of autistic people were in employment - the lowest among other special needs groups, and 75% still lived with their parents. The literature revealed a need to explore the views of key stakeholders on what supports the development of independence skills. This study was conducted in Malta and gathered the views of autistic young people, their mothers and fathers, and professionals who specialised in autism. They were asked which daily living skills (DLS) should be prioritised and what they felt the main promoters and barriers to developing such skills were. A convenience sample of 34 participants was recruited, 9 autistic young people aged between 16 and 30 years, with good spoken language and cognitive abilities, their mothers (n=9), their fathers (n=7), and 9 autism professionals. Q sort methodology was used to identify the views of the participants on what helps or hinders the development of DLS. In-depth interviews were carried out with eight participants, two from each of the four different groups. A DLS checklist consisting of 50 items was developed and used to identify which DLS participants believed were high or low priority for independence. Personal hygiene, money and budgeting skills, and household safety were rated high priority by all stakeholders. Driving their own car, and skills related to this, were rated low priority by the young people and fathers. Mothers, fathers and professionals all agreed that caring for clothes was also a low priority relative to other areas. The Q sort revealed 7 distinct subjective viewpoints, four for the Promoters, and three for the Barriers - two of which were bi-polar. The dominant Promoter Factor was that parents should teach DLS, despite the challenges, and have professional support. The dominant Barrier Factor was related to parents' beliefs, attitudes and fears, and the fact that DLS were often not taught through direct teaching. Interview data revealed that DLS acquisition is not merely about skill building, but many other factors affected this, such as their experiences since childhood, particularly feelings of failure. These findings suggest that more communication is needed between stakeholders to identify their different perspectives and to develop a consensus on what might be worked on and how. Recommendations are made on the basis of this study to support the development of DLS in young autistic people. These include teaching Executive Functioning (EF) and DLS directly and from a young age, addressing their past negative experiences, acknowledging the culture, beliefs and attitudes of the family system, and helping the young people to embrace autism as part of their identity. Recommendations for the future include developing methods to reach a consensus among stakeholders; examining how DLS are best taught and developed; and longitudinal studies following up young autistic people into adulthood to find out which DLS they still need support with and from whom, and which skills they can do unaided.

This thesis asks who benefits from peace education in Colombia and how. Asking this question does not mean evaluating the success, or otherwise, of teaching an individual peace education course. Instead, this thesis takes inspiration from the critical and post-critical peace education literature to explore how the teaching and learning of peace education is capable of reproducing or challenging unequal power relations in society. I argue that using Bourdieu's theoretical toolkit of habitus, field, capital, doxa and symbolic violence to identify who benefits from peace education can prevent the individualised and decontextualised analysis that critical peace education scholars have warned against. Interviews I conducted with academics, policymakers and NGO workers identified three forms of capital structuring the field of peace education in Colombia. They are developing the capacity to feel empathy for others, educating for an expanded understanding of peace and relating personal experiences to historical and contemporary events. Case studies undertaken in schools that represent the socio-economic inequality partly responsible for Colombia's history of conflict identified which students can accumulate these forms of capital. I found that the students attending private schools have an advantage over the students from state schools and so peace education contributes to the production of symbolic violence in Colombia. However, I also explore how designers and practitioners of peace education courses can avoid this outcome by increasing the resources available to state schools and changing the dominant form of capital within the field to ensure it is more favourable to the habitus of students from state schools. Employing Bourdieu's theories about power relations to explore who benefits from peace education in Colombia therefore leads to practical suggestions about how peace education can address the conditions responsible for conflict within society.

This study focused on a summer Internship programme operated by the Careers and Skills department in a university. The main data set was the interns' reflective blogs written with the guidance of a learning and development plan over the duration of their participation in the Internship. The data set covered three iterations over a three year period. Through the use of genre analysis, qualitative content analysis and online email interviews it has explored the following research questions: 1. How are reflection and personal development portrayed through the process of participation in an Internship programme within a higher education careers setting? 2. How does the reflective writing produced for a higher education Internship evolve through this research project and how does the technology affect this? 3. What do the above two questions tell us about career-focused reflection as a genre? This research highlighted how the employability agenda in HEIs and the focus on what skills a graduate must possess (Cook, 2006), has become the centre point of reflective writing in this careers context. Students are being guided to focus on skills and strengths they are developing and how these transfer to the workplace (Bridgstock 2009; Small, Shacklock and Marchant, 2018; Fotiadou, 2020). They are being encouraged to use reflective writing to do so, so that they will be successful in articulating these traits to prospective employers. The key findings were that through the provision of frameworks, features of reflective writing and Personal Development Planning in an HE careers context were seen in the data set. Analysis showed that socially constructed reflection is possible if the appropriate framework is put in place. This included time to reflect and document those reflections, paired with time to consider this face to face with a careers mentor. This scaffolding ensured that the interns engaged with the process of reflection, rather than the production of a final product. Furthermore, the use of ePortfolios and Virtual Learning Environments allowed for a very dialogical type of reflection, something that is unique to using web 2.0 technologies for this purpose.

Qualitative literature exploring the mental and emotional wellbeing of children and young people (CYP) in gangs (also referred to by the UK slang term 'on road') is sparse, despite current literature suggesting detrimental impacts of gang involvement upon the mental health of members. This research explores the lived experiences of CYP 'on road,' including how CYP describe the impact of these experiences on their emotional wellbeing, and how CYP describe coping and support mechanisms in relation to their wellbeing. Interpretative Phenomological Analysis was used to analyse semi-structured interview data from three male CYP who were actively involved in or had previous involvement with life 'on road.' Findings suggest a short-term fulfilment of the psychological needs of participants comes at the cost of detrimental and potentially long-lasting negative consequences to their emotional wellbeing and life outcomes which may be challenging for others to support. This research offers a unique contribution to current literature. Insight into difficulties recruiting participants from this population are explored, with implications for Educational Psychology practice also discussed.

The present research aimed to explore how exclusions and children at risk of exclusion are constructed in the discourses of educational professionals within primary school settings in North-West England. The research topic was influenced by a continued gradual increase in the rate of exclusions and suspensions across the country and different educational settings (Department for Education, 2022a). The specific research aims of the study were developed in light of available literature which demonstrated shifts in discourse of education and exclusion in educational policy, including recent contradicting discourses of inclusion and exclusion within national policy. Academic research exploring exclusionary practice demonstrated variation in practice and perceptions of exclusion by a variety of stakeholders. Nonetheless, the present research, sought to explore how exclusions and children at risk of exclusion were constructed as objects in discourse, how subjects were positioned and any contradictions between discourses. Based on a social constructionist epistemology and the theories and seminal works of Michel Foucault, the research also explored how such constructions influenced practice in primary education. Five educational professionals, who worked within a primary school setting at the time of their involvement, were interviewed. Each interview was transcribed and analysed using Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (Pearson, 2016; Willig, 2013). The interpretation of the data generated in this research highlighted the complexity of discourses around school exclusions and children at risk of exclusion, which are inextricably linked to contradictory constructions of education and schooling. Juxtaposing constructions of exclusions as being punishment and supportive were evident, along with the positioning of school staff and children at risk of exclusion as being 'unable to cope'. The dominance of individualised discourses, with a discourse of abnormality were also highlighted. Subsequently, implications for the practice of educational psychologists (EPs) were shared, with particular regard to their role in challenging discourses which oppress children within the education system. Finally, recommendations into further research of the constructions of exclusions and children at risk of exclusion within different contexts were made, before reflections on the quality of the research and concluding thoughts were shared.

This linguistic ethnographic study explores the literacy practices of Nepalese children in the UK. Nine children (age 8-13) were observed over the course of one academic year, in their Nepalese complementary school (NCS). Three of these children were also observed in their mainstream school (MS) and homes. Data collected through participant observation include field notes, audio recordings, interviews, photographs, copies of children's work and other documents. Data are analysed using thematic analysis and the study draws on the theoretical concepts of artifactual literacies, multimodality, translanguaging and authenticity to discuss literacy practices and ethnic and learner identity construction. Discussion centres primarily on the NCS, with additional analysis from the MS and homes in chapter 5. This empirical study extends understandings about literacy practices within minority language communities, in particular highlighting the use of culturally relevant semiotic charts in early literacy learning, and translanguaging as a valuable tool in the teaching and learning of Nepali Devanagari script. Furthermore, as literacy practices are different across the three sites of study, findings suggest potential benefits of increased dialogue between the three sites.

For over a decade, research has indicated that sexual violence amongst the student population is a sizeable and persistent problem. At present, however, there exists little research concerned with students' attitudes towards sexual behaviour, heterosexuality, and socio-sexual norms more broadly. This thesis begins to fill this gap. This thesis investigates what student attitudes towards sexual violence are in within elite university communities. Then it considers how we can best understand these attitudes in relation to existing socio-sexual norms pertaining to gender and heterosexuality. Finally, it explores the possibilities these attitudes bring in the context of bringing about behavioural change in the elite university environment. Using quantitative data from students across 24 universities and qualitative data generated from fieldwork within three elite university communities, this thesis argues that current understandings and theoretical frameworks found in existing literature over-simplify the problem of sexual violence in universities. It demonstrates the ways in which student attitudes and behaviours are complex, fluid and context specific. It highlights complicated relationship between gendered behaviours and attitudes which has been missing from existing scholarship and current preventative training measures undertaken by institutions. Importantly, it does not seek to provide a new theoretical framing for understanding sexual violence in these communities, but rather highlights the impossibility of utilising a single framework to understand, tackle and prevent the problem. Instead, it advocates for scholars, institutions, and future preventative training measures to account for the nuance and complexity of the attitudes collected and lived experiences of students within the elite university community. The thesis concludes by offering an alternative way of approaching sexual violence prevention in the university context. Although it does not offer a detailed blueprint, the thesis makes clear that elite institutions could, with long-term investment and training provisions driven by student voices and experiences, bring about meaningful behavioural change.

Sierra Leone has been regarded as one of the successful countries with regard to peacebuilding mandates. Peace education focuses on the importance of self-development and building interpersonal relationships, instilling peace-related ideas in the recipients. With the purpose of identifying the role of peace education in the immediate aftermath of the civil war, this research focuses on: 'the role of peace education in post-conflict Sierra Leone since the 2000s'. Particular attention was given to understanding and evaluating the contribution of peace education in promoting peace during the past two decades. Meanwhile, this study also focused on the limitations within peace education itself and its practices. Other research questions, including the explanations across education, conflict, and international relation studies for the cause of the outbreak of the civil war, have been discussed as part of the background to the study and as an original contribution to theorising peace education. Methodologically, with the purpose of exploring the nature of peace education and the role of peace education from the perspectives of the literature and informants through their experiences, a social constructionist approach was adopted as the main approach to analysing and interpreting findings generated from academic literature, primary documents and interviews with key informants. The findings of this study focus on the relationship between the combination of formal and non-formal peace education approaches in Sierra Leone and inequalities that could lead to further grievances. The data suggest that peace education challenges the elitist nature of education by introducing free access to educational opportunities. This study also highlights those structural inequalities, such as underdevelopment in general infrastructure, cannot be fully addressed by peace education. Finally, this study contributes to further peace education and other peace-related practices by offering a rich set of evaluations and analyses on the role of peace education.

This thesis charts and analyses a longitudinal action research project to design and run a mentor development programme for novice mentors within a university MA TESOL programme. This involved students on the MA who were already experienced teachers mentoring their pre-service peers and using the process for their own development. The mentors collected audio recordings of their pre and post observation interactions and were supported to reflect on their practice in a data led, collaborative manner (Mann and Walsh, 2013). Feedback from the stakeholders and analysis of the mentors' interactions in addition to my own reflections, were used to develop the programme over a five year period. Recorded interactions of the mentors with their mentees were also analysed with two case studies used to investigate and illustrate the discourse of novices developing their mentoring skills. Finally, a wider view of the mentors' informal and more formal reflections were used to investigate common issues for novice mentors on the programme. The main findings suggest that such a programme was well received and can be of benefit to all stakeholders, particularly the novice mentors. In addition to this, analysis of the data shows three overlapping and complementary areas of mentoring; emotional support, support with pedagogy and support with reflection. Tensions between these three areas were found to be the main causes of difficulties within the relationships and a heuristic was developed to aid novice mentors to conceptualise these. The insights gleaned from the research were distilled into an open access, video based online resource that it is hoped will potentially be of use to university tutors wishing to set up a similar scheme but in a more general sense, provide food for thought to mentors in diverse contexts who wish to develop their practice. In addition, the research provides robust evidence that a data led, collaborative approach to development (Mann and Walsh, 2013) within a framework of Legitimate Peripheral Participation (Lave and Wenger, 1991) has value for a wide range of mentors from diverse backgrounds and with varied levels of experience.

Whilst the literature around Distributed Leadership (DL) is immense, with some 720,000 articles being written between 2002 and 2013 (Tian, Risku and Collin, 2016), little research was found to have been carried out on DL in special education. Using data gathered through semi-structured interviews and observations, this multiple case study explores school leaders' perceptions and experience of distributed leadership, against a background of change and school improvement, in three special schools. The findings show DL to be a multi-faceted concept, which is manifested differently in each school. The research highlighted that the nature of distribution is determined by the interplay of four key themes. First, school context, which includes the career path of the Headteacher and other leaders, alongside ongoing change within the school, notably rising pupil numbers. Second, the role of the Headteacher as strategic and moral leader who empowers, supports and develops leadership in others whilst reserving the right to say 'no', is crucial. Third are school cultures, which are characterised by positive relationships, teamwork, collaboration, including multidisciplinary partnership and teacher leadership, and are shaped by the Headteacher and staff within the school context. However, a fourth factor, which runs across the above themes, is critical in determining the nature of DL, namely the growing number of pupils with Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities (CLDD). Pupil needs drive school improvement, underpin moral purpose, and leads to the internal recruitment and training of leaders, which ensures that leadership is founded on an understanding of this fourth factor. In meeting the needs of these pupils, for whom tried and tested strategies no longer work (Champion, 2005), collaborative practice and teacher leadership are fundamental. Thus, it is argued that DL has a significant role in underpinning this process in special education. The research also highlights participants' perceptions that DL has a positive impact on school improvement, through the building of leadership capacity, motivating teachers, reducing staff turnover, and improving teaching and learning by the creation and sharing of new knowledge. Most participants feel that this impacts positively on pupil outcomes, although they recognise that whole school data does not evidence these perceptions.

The following thesis uses a qualitative primacy, sequential mixed-methods approach, employing the principles of participatory research, to explore the significantly under researched phenomenon of self-identification of autism. Evidence is gathered through semi-structured interviews and an online survey. These are reinforced with autistic narratives, both book based and via online blogs. As such, they provide a unique element to the exploration of available literature and reinforce the data collected through this research. In total, one hundred and thirty-five individuals participated in this study, spanning all adult age ranges, seven genders, nine ethnicities, eleven religions and twelve countries. This study is significant, as it shows there is a sizable population of people that self-identify as autistic and that they have more negative life experiences than their diagnosed counterparts. Self-identification was seen as a process of claiming back an identity, from the deviant one placed upon them by others, or the 'self' presented through adaptive morphing undertaken as a security mechanism driven by fear of negative attention. The process of self-identification is a modern phenomenon facilitated by the growth of social media and the global community. Importantly, the data indicates that regardless of diagnosis, the autistic identity cannot be built in isolation. The experiences shared provide clear evidence that because the individual's journey begins with being labelled as deviant, both externally and internally, the autistic identities are reduced to a politicalised static identity, as the need to validate themselves from the perspectives of doubt and prejudice of others becomes more important than embracing the plurality and fluidity of their autism. Both the necessity of adaptive morphing and then politicalising their autistic identity has long term implications on the individual's mental health and sense of self. The results of this research significantly indicate that this often results in a diagnosis being sought as a means of biocertification, more for the benefit of others than the individual. The 'spiral of self-identification of autism' is developed to represent the way in which the individual is trapped in a vicious cycle, unable to effectively facilitate the autistic identities into their nexus of identities, which has a significant impact on their long term, mental well-being. The experiences shared through this research indicate that the autistic individual is often dominated by the powers of others, which the 'spiral of self-identification' seeks to demonstrate. It is through discourse that power can be challenged, and therefore this thesis has enabled a discourse, and in turn has provided recommendations for change, to break the spiral and enable the autistic individual to hold their own power. Recommendations are given to changes required in the way society values diversity, with a specific focus on reducing the 'them and us' atmosphere that the medical model, social model and neurodiversity continues to promote. Changes to the education system is proposed, to move away from the 'factory model' of education, as this is where the participants reported significant trauma. An urgent call for action is also presented to provide much needed support for those seeking diagnosis or newly diagnosed, to enable them to understand the autistic identities, build positive peer-to-peers relationships and support structures, which in turn would reduce significant mental health challenges.

Adult education for migrant populations in a globalised economy is gaining relevance as a conduit to facilitate social cohesion and integration. For this reason, adult education is becoming part of the policy agendas in many countries. Different research projects have been launched by international organisations, governments, and higher education institutions to explore the effects of adult education on well-being and development. Nevertheless, there is still much to be studied about the implications of such interventions. This thesis draws on a realist evaluation of the programme "Education Model for Life and Work" (MEVyT) for migrant adults in the city of Los Angeles, California. This programme is operated transnationally by the National Institute for Adult Education (INEA for its acronym in Spanish), a Mexican agency providing literacy and basic education for adults who have been left out of the formal education system and have migrated to the United States. The objective is to identify if the programme improves the student's subjective well-being whilst fostering the creation of social capital. Moreover, through the realist evaluation, this research identified the context-mechanism-outcome pattern configurations that allow this programme to produce positive effects.

The rapid development of the Chinese economy has strongly coincided with Chinese cultural expansion around the world in the last decade. The most significant aspect of China's cultural promotion is the establishment of the Confucius Institute (CI) overseas by Hanban (Confucius Institute headquarters) of the Ministry of Education in 2004, which is mainly responsible for Chinese language and cultural exchange activities. As overseas organisations funded by the Chinese government, Confucius Institutes (CIs) have seemingly received continuous suspicious views and criticisms particularly in political studies in the West. However, although concerns about CIs have been raised in the West for a number of years now, there arguably remains a lack of related evidence, especially given the dearth of empirical studies that examine what really happens in the day-to-day life of CIs. Whereas a political discussion of CIs cannot be ignored in studies of CIs, there is arguably also a need to adopt a broader view to examine CIs so as to better understand the actual activities and operations of CIs. By focusing on intercultural engagement through the activities offered by CIs in Britain, this study represents a first attempt to provide a more comprehensive picture of the activity of the CIs in Britain. To address its three research questions, the study employed a mixed-methods approach comprising: a) eighty-two online surveys with activity participants; and b) thirty semi-structured interviews with activity participants and Chinese staff. By comparing the intercultural experiences between activity participants and Chinese staff, potential areas of concordance and discordance of their experience were examined. By investigating the CI activities from a critical intercultural communication perspective, the complex interplay of the power struggles from the macro context were explored to explain varying reasons behind e.g. selection of CI activities. By acknowledging the capacity of self-problematisation, self-transcendence and pluralisation with the critical cosmopolitan perspective from a personal and interpersonal level, this study has examined the self-transformational moments and individual levels of cosmopolitan competence from the activity participants and Chinese staff in the process of critically and reflectively understanding of Self, Other and World. In the end, my study proposes a possible route to cosmopolitan competence through intercultural engagement in Confucius Institutes model. This model is intended to inspire the creation of similar practical models in future studies in other contexts in the field of intercultural communication. This study presents a significant shift from the emphasis of prior research on political discussion of CI studies to the intercultural communication studies of CIs. In my research, the political dimension is regarded as one of many possible variables from the macro context, rather than as the starting point in my research. Meanwhile, this study focuses on person-to-person level communication and no longer views activity participants and Chinese staff as two distinct groups, but as comprising independent individuals. This shift, in turn, avoids methodological nationalism and moves to a broader paradigm, i.e. methodological cosmopolitanism.

This study investigates the lived experiences of Black parents caring for a child with autism. Their experiences were examined alongside familial, contextual and systemic contexts that intersect to influence parents' psychological wellbeing. The study expanded upon Corbett and Perepa (2007) who investigated cultural influences in autism and Heer, Rose and Larkin's study (2012) on contextual factors that influence Black and minority ethnic parents of children with learning disability. Since then, there has been minimal research on the role of culture on Black parents' experiences of autism, so this study aimed to begin to address this gap in research. A qualitative approach was adopted using in-depth interviews with participants across England and a hermeneutic phenomenological method provided breadth and depth of findings on experiences from an often-marginalised group of people at the intersection of race, gender and disability. Following an ecological framework, the research findings identified factors at individual (i.e., mothers as primary caregivers, isolation), community (cultural beliefs and cognitive dissonance, lack of autism knowledge, stigma) and structural levels (institutional racism in education, housing; lack of cultural sensitivity during and after diagnosis) that negatively influenced parents' experiences of autism and their wellbeing. An intersectional lens provided insight of how multiple identities converge in various contexts. The findings revealed that in addition to challenges associated with autism, Black parents experienced distinct and nuanced difficulties associated with race, culture, gender and socio-economic status. Parents' multiple and intersecting identities shaped their experiences of autism and their psychological wellbeing in the face of racism, unequal division of labour and oppressions from structural barriers in the home, community and organisations in wider society. The findings of the study showed that mothers' primary caregiving role negatively affect their quality of life (isolation, financial hardship) and psychological wellbeing. Culture influenced gender roles and perception of autism, which impacted the family structure and subsystems. However, mothers recounted the valuable nature of their coping strategies including spiritual beliefs, cognitive appraisal and resilience. This study revealed the multi-level intersection of race, culture, gender and disability and provides relevant information for mental health and social practice, policy, and research.

This thesis investigates the impact of a pedagogic journal club (PJC) for teaching-focussed staff at a research-intensive UK university in light of sector-specific drivers such as the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) and the United Kingdom Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF). A three-year cycle of action research was undertaken and the impact of the PJC on individuals who attended examined: with reference to teaching practice; promotion and professional recognition; confidence; identity, and pedagogic engagement with literature (PedEL). The impact on the wider university community in terms of module and course design, interdisciplinary collaboration and networking, as well as how the dissemination of new knowledge affected the perceived value of teaching-focussed activity, is discussed. Conducted within a pragmatist paradigm, data were gathered at regular intervals via memoing, mixed method questionnaires and participant unstructured interviews. Interrogation of the literature problematised 'scholarship of teaching and learning' (SoTL) and the difficulties faced when engaging staff in it. Differences between 'professional learning community' and 'community of practice' were expounded demonstrating the paucity of research concerning theoretical understanding of communities in HEIs. Professional development was explored, focusing on its often-ineffective design, as well as highlighting issues that teaching-focussed professional development can face in a research-intensive institution. The conclusion of this thesis primarily concerns the creation of the pedagogic journal club (PJC) as a vehicle for dialogic pedagogic engagement with literature, which was found to engender an effective professional development community in an HE setting. Guidance on how to create a PJC is provided for HEIs to explore in their own settings. Conclusions are also made around the reconceptualising of SoTL with pedagogic engagement with literature (PedEL) sitting between the two established forms of SoTL: pedagogic development (PedD) and pedagogic research (PedR). Thus, creating a new definitional framework that HEIs can adapt to their own context and practices. Creation of a new context specific Higher Education Community of Practice (HECoP) is also reported on with respect to membership, leadership, organisational culture and knowledge sharing. Participants and the researcher became boundary spanners 12 within the institution and time is devoted in this publication to the reflexive nature of action research. Knowledge generated by the participants changes practice and policy and this publication contributes a required, robust record of action research methodology.

This research explores how National Research Centres in Higher Education systems can offer dynamic views of ways network-like organisations emerge and self-organise in institutional environments. My thesis considers the interplay between institutional and more network-like forms of organising by exploring the Australian Research Council's (ARC) Centres of Excellence (CoE) Programme as a complex system of science. I provide a foundational review of the changing relationship between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Research Centres to highlight the perception that today's science endeavours form part of a larger global research ecosystem. The thesis applies these perspectives to propose that CoEs can be conceptually viewed as a 'Janus object' in this complex space - that is, that CoEs occupy and can take views across both institutional and network-like environments. The research integrates three studies to provide this more detailed 'view from the CoE.' The first study mobilises two bodies of literature to provide a foundation for the research approach. The first, from neo-institutional theory, considers how the CoE, as an informal organisation, might relate to the HEI through a form of 'collective rationality.' The second, from the field of network science, explores how network-like organisations can emerge with different properties of robustness and information exchange. I also respond to calls from empirical studies of research systems to consider how the 'self-organisation' of science might offer wider value to inform an understanding of complex systems of organising. The second study explored how research professionals engaged in Research Centres interact within the HEI environment. This informed the third study which details a qualitative, exploratory study of the Australian CoE Programme. Contributions from 22 Research and Professional Leads, which covered three cohorts of the Programme funded in 2011, 2014 and 2017 also represented an overview of 'life spans' of the CoE. CoE participants identified characteristics of emergence consistent with organisation in complex systems. Firstly, shared narratives from a high proportion of participants note a paradoxical environment of 'odd encounters', rather than formal interactions, with the HEI. Narratives also revealed highly effective forms of co-leadership roles between Research and Professional Leads which align closely with descriptions of 'authority' in network science. This suggests effective CoE leadership is via people acting as shared information exchange hubs. The contributions also allow a view of the CoEs through their lifespan in relation to the HEI. From these I develop a set of 'network narratives' which demonstrate the pluriform nature of CoEs as an example of emergence. The narratives also reveal CoEs have potential to become highly autonomous, but return value as an important intermediary between the 'highly localised' institutional research environment and the global research system. A strong volunteered narrative on gender and diversity policy also demonstrates an unexpected case of network-like 'percolation.' This paradoxical finding suggests policy formed within the CoE may be adopted by the institution which may in turn allow the institution to co-evolve. This suggests a potential for true, if less tangible, ecosystem effects as a result of the CoE Programme. In integrating findings across the three studies I contribute to theory by proposing a new open architecture for institutional theory in response to long standing work by Scott (2004; 2008). This aims to realign network considerations inherent within neo-institutional theory with more recent phenomenological findings in network science. In illustrating examples through network narratives, I also extend the work by Watts (2004) to close the gap in the vocabulary between network science and institutional theory in ways that can support studies which explore institutional perspectives of network-like forms in complex systems.

In the academic year 2019/2020, 6,500 children and young people (CYP) were permanently excluded from school; almost one-third of this population were identified with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs (Department for Education [DfE], 2021a). For many, this disciplinary sanction leads to academic, social, health and financial disadvantages in addition to exacerbating their mental health needs (DfE, 2021a; Ford et al.,2018; Gill et al.,2017). The responsibility for decisions made to permanently exclude rests mainly with school leadership (DfE, 2012, 2017; Kulz, 2019). Therefore, this research explored the views and practices of senior leadership teams (SLTs) concerning the inclusion and permanent exclusion (PEX) of students with SEMH needs, using focus groups from three mainstream secondary schools in a local authority (LA) with a high PEX rate (DfE, 2016a, 2021b). A thematic analysis identified the overarching theme that 'SLTs grapple with their sense of agency over the inclusion and PEX of students with SEMH needs'. The discussion has been framed within Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological systems theory and has highlighted the tension between performativity and inclusion at various levels in the ecosystem. Within the macrosystem and exosystem, inclusion is inhibited by academic pressures, covert deficit discourses of disability and limited distribution of LA funding. Nevertheless, members of SLTs seek to promote inclusion within the mesosystem and microsystem by pursuing collaborative inter-organisational relations and facilitating containing relationships between the young people (YP) and significant others. Implications highlight that complex interactions within the ecosystem affect senior leaders sense of collective agency to promote the inclusion of students with SEMH needs, contributing to PEXs (Bandura, 1985, 2018). Recommendations include the DfE to perhaps acknowledge the systemic causes of PEX then provide policy and funding to support inclusion. At the school level, SLTs may wish to share effective strategies and utilise educational psychologist support for training, supervision and the development of inclusive systems.

This doctoral thesis aimed to explore how dimensional, co-occurring models of ADHD behaviours, Autistic traits and attachment characteristics relate to the academic self-concept and general self-esteem and how teachers' interviews on their perception and management of ADHD behaviours, Autistic traits and attachment characteristics may illuminate the relation. To evaluate the relations between ADHD behaviours, Autistic traits, attachment characteristics and the academic self-concept and general self-esteem, a three-phase, mixed-methods study was conducted. In the first phase, the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale v.1.1 (ASRS; Kessler et al., 2005), the Autism Spectrum Quotient 10 (AQ-10; Allison et al., 2012) and the Adolescent Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ; West et al., 1998) were revised and validated through cognitive interviewing and confirmatory factor analyses. Validation of the AAQ was based on a sample of 303 adolescents aged 12-16 collected from one school whereas validation of the AQ-10 and ASRS took place concurrently using a sample of 296 adolescents collected from three schools and four sixth-form colleges in the UK. These measures were then used in the second phase of the study. This used latent-interaction structural equation modelling to assess the relations between ADHD behaviours, Autistic traits, attachment characteristics and the academic self-concept and general self-esteem of 564 sixth-form students aged 16-19. The sample came from five sixth-form colleges in the UK. Finally, the third phase of the study used snowball sampling to generate a group of 12 UK secondary school teachers who were interviewed on their perception and management of behaviours, associated with ADHD, autism and attachment disorders. Data collected from the interviews were analysed using inductive, semantic thematic analysis. The subsequent thematic analysis of the teacher interviews suggests that teachers' responses to and management of these behaviours were informed by their experiences and educational guidance. Seven themes were identified. They were resilience, enthusiasm, individual adjustments, behavioural management, classroom dynamics, teacher support and time. Interviews highlighted that teachers approach and manage ADHD behaviours, Autistic traits and attachment characteristics through individual adjustments or behavioural management strategies. Teachers also appeared to consider all behaviours they were interviewed about to be indicative of SEND, despite this not being referenced in the interview questions. The findings of the thematic analysis were then applied to the findings of phase two of this PhD project through critical realist retroduction to determine how teacher responses may explain the relations demonstrated in phase two. Synthesis of the quantitative and qualitative results suggests that there is an unexpected, potentially adverse element to the positive adjustments made in line with statutory professional principles set out in the Teachers' Standards. As the self-concept is informed by feedback, this could be construed as highlighting differences and deficits or that the teachers have less confidence in the student's ability. This could explain why ADHD behaviours, social and communication traits of Autism and attachment characteristics were found to negatively predict both the academic self-concept and general self-esteem of students. However, further research is needed to test and confirm this hypothesis.

Tablet devices, such as the iPad, have emerged among the most essential educational tools due to features that facilitate the learning and teaching process without the limitations of time or location. Tablet devices and their range of applications (apps) can potentially improve both the teaching and learning processes and the communication between teachers and students. However, there are concerns about the benefits of using tablet devices and their different apps in the learning process, including the extent to which students actually use them for educational purposes. Therefore, this study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of iPad usage, including various applications, in terms of improving students' mathematics achievement and motivation based on accomplishing the goals of mathematics lessons in a 10th grade secondary school in Saudi Arabia (SA). To achieve this, iPad devices were deliberately introduced to support teachers and students in the teaching and learning of mathematics. The study also sought to evaluate the impact that iPad usage and the various applications would have on mathematics teachers' perspectives regarding the teaching of mathematics concepts in the same secondary school in SA. While there are now many opportunities for technology to be used in the education sector, there is still a need for a better understanding of how and to what extent iPad devices and the various dedicated education apps can be integrated in teaching and learning in secondary schools in SA, particularly with regard to mathematics education. This is an important matter, as it has several wider implications for curriculum design, classroom practice, teacher and student education, and the development of greater understanding of learning and cognition in technology-enhanced learning settings. To generate insights into the effectiveness of introducing iPad devices and various apps related to teaching and learning mathematics in Saudi secondary schools, the study used a logical model design for program evaluation based on a mixed-method approach. A quasi-experimental design was applied as the primary quantitative approach, while the secondary qualitative approach was carried out simultaneously. The quasi-experimental period stretched over two months. In the first month, class A was the treatment group and pupils in that group used iPads and relevant apps to learn mathematics, while class B was the control group, with the pupils using traditional methods based on using books, paper, and pencils. The treatment was switched between the two classes in the second month. Data were collected from a pre-test and two post-tests (quantitative data), semi-structured interviews, and a focus group interview (qualitative data). The participants in this quasi-experimental study included 50 students from two classes in the 10th grade (25 participants in each class), as well as four teachers who took part in the interviews. The focus groups comprised eight groups of six students, four groups from each class. The quantitative data were analysed using a multi-statistical method in IBM SPSS and the qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. The study uncovered a wide range of evidence indicating encouraging results for the integration of the iPad and relevant applications in the process of teaching and learning mathematics in educational systems, particularly in Saudi Arabian secondary schools. The findings of the quantitative data showed that the iPad devices and the applications used significantly improved students' achievement in the period during which they were encouraged to use these devices to learn mathematics, with better results than when they used the traditional methods (books, paper, and pencils). However, this improvement might not occur if the students or teacher are not trained to use the device and the various educational apps employed in this quasi-experimental study. The findings of the students' focus group interviews revealed largely positive views towards the use of the iPad device and its apps, such as education platform apps and various communication apps. This device and its apps promoted students' performance in mathematics by providing immediate feedback, improving their mathematical skills, helping them to prepare for tests, and assisting them to search for information, thus equipping them with a better understanding of the content. The majority of students also found the use of these devices to be a source of motivation and they encouraged them to learn mathematics and achieve the goals of the lesson plans to a greater degree than when working with conventional methods. Moreover, the students were dependent on this device and its apps for their learning and viewed is as a useful and supportive educational tool for facilitating their communication and enhancing their collaboration, as well as organising their time and studies. However, while most of the students believed that the iPad and its apps encourage them to study mathematics, some students reported that they were not inclined to use this device to learn mathematics. They stated that their preference was to handwrite notes or complete mathematics activities using paper and pencil because they found it difficult to write certain symbols on the device. They also reported encountering several obstacles, such as interrupted or slow internet connection, low battery level, difficulty recharging the battery, some apps hanging during use, and the iPad screen breaking easily. The findings of the teacher interviews showed that, in general, the perception was that both teachers and students benefitted from the use of the iPad, and the apps were deemed useful tools for facilitating and improving the in-class teaching and learning processes. They believed that this device assisted them in achieving the lesson objectives faster than previous teaching methods. It also helped them to immediately ascertain their students' academic level, improve their students' performance, motivate their students to learn mathematics, and provide instant feedback for their students. The findings also demonstrate that iPads facilitated collaboration and communication among students, as well as developing their creativity, critical thinking, and self-reliance skills. However, the results also illustrated that there are several elements that make both teachers and students in SA public schools unwilling or unable to use the device and its apps. For instance, the infrastructure of schools may not be equipped to integrate the technology, especially so in the case of iPads. In addition, teachers were afraid to integrate iPad use in the classroom because they lacked the knowledge to use this device and its apps for educational purposes. They also faced continuing obstacles and limitations in using the iPad and its apps in the classroom environment. These obstacles were mainly associated with technical issues, such as lack of connection to the internet or battery problems. Other issues included students forgetting to bring their iPad device or using non-instructional apps in the classroom. The study, therefore, proposes some solutions to these obstacles, which could be beneficial for schools to consider before deciding whether to integrate iPad devices and their various apps in the classroom. Therefore, this study helps provide insights and evidence regarding iPad usage with various educational apps in the classroom. The implications of these findings are considered in relation to students' development, teachers' development, and the educational technology and school development curricula in SA secondary schools. Some suggestions regarding future research based on this are also offered.

This comparative case study explores the perceptions of caregivers and professionals, regarding the repetitive behaviour (RB) in their 4-to-13-year-old children/ students with vision impairment (VI) or with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study was conducted in Greece, as no related research has been conducted in the country. Research questions: This research aims to address the types of RBs observed by adults in children with VI or ASD, the explanations the adults employ to interpret these behaviours and the impact RBs have on the child, the caregiver, the professional and society. The underlying reason for this is an attempt to discover any potential differences between two different disabilities in a comparative fashion. The research questions that support the study are: 1. What are the RBs that caregivers and professionals observe in children with VI and children on the ASD? Does the child's individual characteristics such as their age or ability have an impact on their behaviour? 2. What explanations do caregivers and professionals attribute to these behaviours? and 3. What is the impact of these behaviours a) on the child, b) on the caregiver/ professional, c) on others? Design: This study is based on interpretivist paradigm and followed a qualitative approach. A comparative case study design based on the ecological systems theory (EST) was adopted. 35 caregivers and accredited professionals were recruited (17 for the VI group, out of whom 8 were caregivers and 9 were professionals, and 18 for the ASD group, out of whom 9 were caregivers and 9 were professionals). Following the completion of a pilot study, all participants were interviewed regarding one specific child - their own child/ student - via semi-structured interviews. During the interviews, the researcher used a research diary as a methodological tool and video elicitation as a facilitation tool. A cross-case analysis was conducted and data was analysed according to the method of thematic analysis. Results: A link has been indicated between VI and ASD, which concerns perceptions about the socially constructed manner in which an RB is perceived. ASD is perceived by the participants as a disability with challenging characteristics, such as an RB. The ASD group perceived RB as linked to ableism, social stigmatisation and taboo, in contrast to VI, where the existence of RB seems to be a consequence of sensory loss. Bi-directionality of EST seems to have been lost completely and the macrosystem seems to drive the interactions between the ecological systems. School policy and practical implications are discussed.

This thesis explored the roles and responsibilities of Teachers of the Deaf (ToDS) in Saudi Arabia. It draws from the experiences ToDS, Head Teachers (HT), and Educational Supervisors (ES) to understand their role's nature, scope, requirements, competencies and skills, and views of their students' needs. The study was located in three schools in the Qassim province, including a specialised school for the deaf for primary and intermediate students, a mainstream primary school, and a mainstream high school. A total of 25 participants took part in the study: 25 ToDS, three Head teachers and two Educational supervisors. The research adopted a qualitative design and methodology and was guided by Bronfenbrenner's ecological system model. Focus groups, semi-structured interviews and observations were employed as the methods of data collection. The findings suggested that ToDS, HT and ES were doing their best to meet the needs of Deaf Students (DS) but were doing so within systemic and organisational limitations without the necessary authority and resources. Although the curriculum looks good on paper, it is unfit for teaching deaf students and requires lots of work from ToDS to adapt to deaf students' learning needs. However, data indicated that ToDS were not adequately trained for such responsibility. Also, the lack of systemic and organisational support for ToDS diminished accountability and reflexive practice, which was evident in how ToDS acted as professionals and met or failed to meet DS' learning needs. ToDS felt let down by the educational system as there were no accountability systems. ToDS were left on their own to make a professional judgment about their jobs. The limits of ToDS' motivation uncovered a need for institutional arrangements that consider the voice of the teachers and provide support to them to perform their roles effectively. The ministry of education needs to support and institute in-service training programmes that can enable ToDS to gain the required skills and competencies for their roles, curriculum development and tailored assessment to address DS' performance. Additionally, there is a need to ensure that ToDS are represented in the decisionmaking team, especially in curriculum enactment and revision as well as in other educational issues in Saudi Arabia. Lack of teaching materials and resources for teaching deaf students also limits not only what but how ToDS teach the students and invariably affects deaf students' learning experiences. Therefore, this study recommended modifying the curriculum for the deaf that will enable teachers to utilise visual materials rather than hearing ones as this will facilitate effective deaf students' learning. Teacher education programmes also need to be improved by incorporating more targeted programs in sign language and lesson planning to allow ToDS to gain the required skills for their roles.

This thesis has evaluated the impact of a social emotional learning intervention (SEL) on students' wellbeing and classroom behaviours. This single embedded evaluative case study designed research is focused on evaluating the impact of the SEL programme on a public preparatory school for girls in Qatar. The study involved three main sequential stages. The first stage involved a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) of pre-assessment of students' mental wellbeing level using the Warwick- Edinburgh Mental Well-being scale (WEMWBS) for an intervention (n=81) and a control group (n=82) of students aged (13-15) years. Then, the intervention group was provided with the programme's sessions on a weekly basis. Each session was conducted once a week over one hour. The second stage involved assessing students' wellbeing levels using the WEMWBS scale in both groups to compare and evaluate the impact of the social emotional intervention. This stage was followed by the third stage, in which interviews were conducted with students, teachers and social staff to evaluate the impact of the programme based on their perceptions and experiences. Furthermore, during each session, observation was conducted to evaluate and understand the programme's dynamics, content, instructional approaches and students' engagement. This observation was conducted to identify factors that can hinder or facilitate the SEL programme's success in school settings. An Effect Size calculations (EF = 0.60) revealed that social emotional intervention in this study had increased students' wellbeing levels in the intervention group when compared to the control group. In addition, this study highlights the importance of looking at the SEL intervention as an integrated process in which the content of the programme, the approaches of implementation, the instructor's characteristics and the study's context can facilitate or hinder the programme's success.

This research is aimed to examine game-based motion detection technology in helping slow learners' children to improve and enhance their levels of attention and concentration while learning mathematics. The study also aims to explore that game-based motion detection engage slow learners' children while learning mathematics. Additionally, the current study examined the role of game-based motion detection in improving the attention and concentration of slow learners' children as compared to normal healthy students, in terms of learning mathematics and the educational outcomes of such classes Slow learners are considering a wide different range of students who are not performing well in their study. These group could be including ADHD, Autism, impulsive students, inattention and many more. In this research, I have designed and developed a motion-based mathematic game using Kinect Xbox to test and check the effectiveness and efficiency of slow learners' students in compare with normal students. For the above purpose, the game has been designed based on several learning theories such as Mayer Principles of learning, Kolb's Learning style and Piaget Theory for K5 and grade 6-8 years old. In experiment design, I have used System Usability Scale (SUS) to rate the features and PACES, Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale have been used for experimentation of the participants. For testing, both qualitative and quantitative model have been accomplished. Qualitative model was based on the feedback from expert teachers who are observing the students and quantitative model was based on demographic analysis, normality test, reliability analysis and validity test. The outcome illustrates the value of game-based instruction, in specific physical activities and their impact on children's mathematics. The current study findings highlighted the suitability, needfulness, attention, and enhanced learning through game based instructional design for slow learners. The study answers the advantages of using game based instructional design for the slow learner students.

Youth unemployment is a crucial issue in many developing countries. The issue is more concerning for rural youth, as they face more information friction regarding jobs, which are mostly located in the urban areas. To improve the employability of rural poor youth in India, the Ministry of Rural Development launched a job linked national vocational training program, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushal Yojana (DDUGKY) in 2014. DDUGKY is a public-private partnership scheme that targets poor rural youth between the age of 15-35 years, provides them skills-based training for three to 12 months and places them in formal salaried jobs. However, the scheme has a high rate of training and job dropout. Previous research revealed that a lack of awareness about prospective jobs (salary, benefits, nature of work, job location) among the trainees could be the most important underlying reason for much of the dropout. This thesis using a randomised controlled trial design investigates whether providing detailed information about training and post-training placement jobs can improve the training outcomes of those enrolled in DDUGKY program. The thesis finds that the treated trainees were more likely to stay in the placement jobs. There was, however, no significant change in the likelihood of training completion and job placements for the overall sample. The thesis also explores heterogeneous treatment effects on dimensions of gender, caste, education, and expectations. The Heterogeneity analysis showed that the informational intervention had a stronger effect on trainees from disadvantaged sub-groups. The thesis contributes to the so far limited empirical evidence on the effectiveness of training programs in developing countries. It is one of the few studies to evaluate the effect of information intervention in vocational training. The study has significant policy relevance, especially in the context of developing countries where the information gap is a significant problem in delivering effective public service.

In England, every school is required to have a named and trained "Special Educational Needs Coordinator" (SENCO) whose function is to coordinate educational provision for children with special educational needs. In spite of this, little empirical research has been undertaken to explore what motivates existing teachers to take on this important role. This study examined why teachers become SENCOs through a series of interconnected studies. The first qualitative study involved generating reasons for participating in training from a cohort of SENCOs currently training (n = 88). These reasons were then explored further through a national survey of SENCOs (n = 618). Between the qualitative and survey studies, an analysis of Department for Education data was undertaken to establish the characteristics of the SENCO population. The SENCO workforce was found to be largely female and white with a high proportion working part time. Most SENCOs are in the middle or second half of their career, and they are employed on the class teacher rather than the leadership pay scale. Only a minority hold a full master's level qualification (other than compulsory qualifications associated with teaching and the SENCO role). The initial qualitative study identified different drivers for those training to be SENCOs which were further organised in an ecological fashion. These drivers were used to develop a structured questionnaire which was the basis of the national survey. An exploratory factor analysis identified four motivational factors: two outward-facing factors (SENCOs commitment to 'inclusion' and 'high quality provision') and two inward-facing factors (SENCOs interest in 'educational and professional development' and 'leadership voice and status'). Overall, the outward-facing factors were viewed as more important to respondents than the inward-facing factors. There were also some specific motivational differences between sub-groups. Younger SENCOs and those engaged in training were more motivated by 'educational and professional development'. SENCOs holding school leadership contracts were more motivated by developing 'leadership voice and status' compared with their classroom teacher peers. Moreover, there was a significant overall difference with women reporting a higher interest than men across all factors. Key recommendations include the need for policy makers to understand and define the SENCO role in greater detail. In the SENCO recruitment process, schools and teachers must be cognisant of each other's expectations of the role to ensure a good fit. Both policy makers and schools must understand the interests teachers express in the role and nurture them to prevent attrition from the profession. Further research is recommended as are suggestions for using the methodological approaches in this thesis for understanding interest in a range of other teacher roles and occupations.

Through an exploration of their creative contemporary text-making, the aim of this study was to gain insight into the nature of a group of 11 and 12-year-old pupils' textual construction processes when they had access to mobile digital devices during their schooled literacy lessons. A qualitative multiple case study design was developed which comprised of a pupil questionnaire, pupil discussions and digital text production. This study implemented a constructivist interpretivist theoretical approach in its exploration of the meaning constructed by the pupils in their digital texts, and was underpinned by a multimodal multiliteracies theoretical framework which guided the design of the collection and coding of the data from the pupil discussions. Its potential to recognise the sophisticated text-making that happens when writing is no longer central to the text-maker's mode of communication was revealed through a comparative analysis of the data collected in which key findings were identified and insights formed. This study has focused on three key areas of interest. Firstly, it has sought to develop an understanding of the nature of multimodal text construction that is integral to contemporary text-making. Through a coded analysis of the digital texts produced by a group of 11 and 12-year-old pupils in their literacy lesson using 1:1 iPad devices, this study has exposed not only the range of modes they were using, but also a knowledge of text-making that was not taught in school. Through uncovering these pupils' sophisticated responses to their meaning-making and revealing their spontaneous conceptual knowledge, this study has made visible their skills as both users and producers of digital texts. Secondly, as the pupils voiced their own interpretations of their meaning-making recorded during digitextual discussions, this study was able to expose the richness of the pupils' meaning-making choices and home-grown skills they were drawing on as they expressed their ideas using a metalanguage that was familiar to them. Through detailed descriptions obtained from the pupil discussions, this study was able to identify explicitly where there were gaps in the pupils' knowledge of the metalanguage of contemporary text-making. The final area of interest, although not the primary focus, centred on the potential conflict of interests between a formal education initiative to deploy 1:1 iPads and established literacy practices. This was considered principally in relation to the school in this study and its context. However, in terms of the wider issues facing formal education's approaches to teaching literacy, through highlighting the tensions that exist between the formal written assessments in the school in this study and the multiple modes available in contemporary meaning-making practices, this study has drawn attention to a need to review established literacy curricula and pedagogy. With digital devices now a ubiquitous part of young people's everyday textual experiences and increasingly deployed in educational contexts, through its exploration into the nature contemporary text-making, this study has implications not only for classroom digital text-making, but also for formal education approaches to teaching literacy.

The purpose of this research is to analyze and experiment with the pedagogical method effectiveness of Traditional Learning (TL) as a control condition and Collaborative Learning (CL) innovative method as an experimental condition in teaching science courses while examining the effect of students' gender and the impact of these selected teaching approaches on students' attitudes and achievements toward science courses in a unique context of science education in Kuwait in introductory biology and physics classes. Student achievement data were collected applying pre-test, post-test, and the total course assessment. In addition, attitude data were collected using online surveys sent to the students by email. Data were analyzed using SPSS. There was a significant gender difference in the attitude of biology students between female and male students; in general, females had a more positive attitude towards biology than males in both TL and CL P < .05. Male students tend to have a more positive attitude towards physics than females in TL and CL P <.05. Males and females had a positive attitude applying CL compared to TL teaching methods in biology and physics classes, where the effect size value indicated that CL improves males' attitudes and achievements more than females toward biology and physics classes. In general, males and females feel less anxious and enjoy and believe in their ability to learn biology; males experience greater satisfaction and trigger their desire to collaborate better. Females outscored male students in biology implementing TL and CL method, were males outscored females in physics applying to implement TL and CL method; Both females and males benefit from CL; However, comparing the effect size d value between CL vs TL teaching methods, male benefit more implementing CL than females. There is a strong correlation and connection between students' attitudes and the course achievement for both females and males in biology and physics classes. This meant that students' more positive attitude towards physics and biology also increased in knowledge and achieved a higher grade in physics and biology courses. This implies a direct relation between students' attitude and class achievement; the more positive the attitude toward the subject, the higher the student achievement. Regression analysis displays interesting findings showing that students' attitudes toward science could significantly predict students' science achievement. Furthermore, an interaction effect demonstrated that the teaching pedagogy's impact on students' attitude and achievement toward biology and physics and students' gender had been the most influential factor. These findings suggest that there is a need for developing gender-specific and context-specific learning pedagogies. Thus, this study can be an eye-opener for academics. At the same time, it encourages new discourse to understand further the context and gender-specific pedagogies for teaching science subjects for better outcomes. It suggests a need to develop gender-specific and context-specific learning pedagogies in teaching biology and physics to improve students' attitudes and achievement toward the subject.

Post-secondary education (PSE) is an important opportunity for young people with intellectual disabilities (ID), though it is not widely available, especially in Saudi Arabia. The current study investigated the PSE opportunities available to young adults with ID, the support they received to transition to these opportunities, and associated challenges for stakeholders using an interpretative paradigm, with qualitative data collected via two main stages. First, a systematic review of the literature was completed. Stakeholders (PSE staff, students with or without ID and their families) reported educational benefits as well as gains in social skills and independence. Reported barriers included difficulty understanding the PSE system for parents and a lack of training in appropriate teaching methods for staff. Stage two was a case study with four different sources of data. The first element analysed Individual Education Plans (IEP) for students (N=10) who had completed their final year of high school in Riyadh. This analysis showed poor collaboration between stakeholders, minimal post-school goals, and that the teaching and training the schools provided did not meet Ministry of Education (MoE) standards. The remaining elements were interviews with those participating in a PSE programme called the Next Generation Programme (NGP). The lack of transition planning negatively impacted the progression to this programme for the young adults with ID (N=7), their guardians (N=7) and PSE staff (N=5). Despite this, the experiences of stakeholders were generally positive. These insights regarding the importance of post-school transition planning should aid in developing best practice methods for students with ID. Findings from both stages showed that involvement in PSE for young adults with ID improved all stakeholders' perceptions regarding their personal, work, and social skills, and future outcomes, which may be relevant to not-for-profit organisations operating in disability services, educational institutions, and prospective employers.

This study explores the concept of school electronic leadership (e-leadership) by investigating headteachers' perspectives on technology and its use within their schools. Technology is another layer being added to school leadership with studies mainly focusing on educational and emotional leadership. In view of this this study addresses the electronic aspect of school leadership. A new definition of e-leadership for school settings is provided, focusing on the range of tool-use and their purposes. The study involves interviews with 18 headteachers in middle and secondary state schools in Malta to investigate their individual experiences and interaction with these digital tools. Based on the findings of this thesis, technology was used extensively and seamlessly for daily managerial tasks, leading to greater efficiency. It was also noted that headteachers tended to delegate the use of digital tools for teaching and learning. Although these tools were considered essential for accomplishing managing and leading goals, they were leading to a significant intensification of work as instant communication increased expectations from all stakeholders. In effect, one of this study's recommendations reflects on the issues of well-being and impersonalisation created through the use of digital tools and encourages leaders to consider this factor in their staff's context. Furthermore, it was noted that digital tools were used erratically to lead the school vision, with technology mainly being used to communicate with educators and staff regarding processes and procedures. Thus, it was concluded that e-leadership should cover a blend of online and face-to-face interactions with a mix of tools for general purposes and school use. Following this study, recommendations of both an academic and practical nature are made. Action research in school e-leadership and blended research, and extended use of digital tools for educational leadership are suggested.

This thesis adopts an interdisciplinary approach to topics which have traditionally been studied individually, examining the communication opportunities Shakespeare's work can offer for marginalised people. It considers the way Shakespeare can be used by and with incarcerated people, people with mental health issues, people with learning disabilities and people who have experienced homelessness, all fields in which academic enquiry is usually isolated to one single type of marginalisation. The thesis is structured around a framework which draws on the work of spatial theorists, such as Lefebvre, Foucault, Soja and Bourdieu and builds on existing research in marginalised theatre as well as detailed ethnographic study and a significant core of research as practice. My central hypothesis is that Shakespeare can be used to affect the spatial constraints of people who feel imprisoned, whether literally or metaphorically, enabling them to speak and to be heard in ways which previously may have been elusive or unattainable. The read-across for those who are marginalised is significant with many people experiencing multiple issues of marginalisation and it is therefore vital that research moves from the current siloed approach and embraces this intersectionality to enable it to represent the reality of life for those on the fringes of society. This thesis aims to begin this work with the hope the dialogue across these areas continues to expand as a result of the foundations this work provides and the legacy which has begun to be created through the establishment of permanent, collaborative in-prison theatre companies and the annual Applying Shakespeare Symposia which draw together practitioners and academics. The thesis is structured according to spatial activities; considering the creative, performative, reflective and mediated spaces in which Shakespeare can both be used and also have the effect of manipulating and altering the space in which the activity takes place. My research as practice embodies trauma-informed principles, examining the ways in which consistency, longevity, trust and collaboration enabled the development of personal resilience, positive autonomy and stronger communication skills. Through analysis of a wide-range of UK and international initiatives this thesis demonstrates the ways in which Shakespeare's work can be used to alter and remove communication constraints. Space can be created for people to find their own way of expressing themselves in a way which mainstream society can understand, whilst at the same time challenging society to 'see better' and to hear better. This is not a process of social homogenisation but about encouraging positive interactions and removing the stigma of marginalisation.

Mathematics anxiety is a widespread problem that inhibits learning, despite it being preventable and manageable. This thesis reports a study which developed an intervention to support learners directly in the recognition and management of their mathematics anxiety. The research was conducted in two phases. Firstly, the existence of a substantial level of mathematics anxiety was established in eleven-year-old pupils in a Midlands comprehensive school, through an adapted mathematics anxiety scale. Secondly, pupils from this group with the highest levels of mathematics anxiety were offered the opportunity to take part in an intervention, and 13 pupils agreed. Three Design-Based Research cycles generated 32 clinical interviews which were delivered, recorded and analysed. The thesis supports the literature in that mathematics anxiety is negatively correlated to mathematical achievement, and more common in female learners than male learners. Qualitative analysis of the intervention found it to be efficacious. The thesis develops the Growth Zone Model introduced by Johnston-Wilder and Lee (2010) through the application of psychological strategies to reduce general anxiety and introduces a dynamic view of the model that is based in learner autonomy. Implications for future research and practical applications in school settings are discussed.

Globally, young people's mental health difficulties are on the rise. The gap in well-being (i.e., mental well-being [MWB] and school experiences) between children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families and peers from socioeconomically advantaged families has increased. Within policy circles, parenting has been seen as a key mechanism to narrow this gap. Over the last two decades politicians in the UK, from New Labour to Conservative governments, have increasingly attributed children's well-being to what parents do for their children, rather than acknowledging the role of parents' socioeconomic status in shaping adolescents' well-being and school experiences. This research study investigated how socioeconomic factors, gender, and parenting contribute to the mental health and school experiences of adolescents, with and without SEN. By examining adolescents with and without SEN, this study revealed differences between SES, gender, parenting and adolescents' well-being and school experiences, beyond those usually seen for children without SEN. A mixed research methodology is used. Associations between family socioeconomic status and gender and parenting, and the well-being of children with and without SEN were examined using data from the Millennium Cohort Study, focusing on 11 and 14 year olds. In addition, semi-structured interviews with eight parents, four of whom have children with SEN, offered rich data to examine in depth aspects of the quantitative findings. The findings revealed associations between non-optimal parenting, socioeconomic disadvantages, mental health difficulties and negative school experiences among adolescents with and without SEN. While parents in poverty were aware of optimal parenting behaviours, due to economic hardship and lack of quality time to spend with their children, they had difficulties enacting them. The findings opposed the stigmatization of non-optimal parenting with poverty culture explanations. Namely, non-optimal parenting was not a cultural reflection of parents in poverty but a consequence of the socioeconomic constraints and limited affordances of parents in poverty. The findings showed the cumulative and unique contributions of socioeconomic factors, parenting, and gender to adolescents' wellbeing. Namely, adolescents with and without SEN in poverty were more likely to have mental problems and negative school experiences, and in all socioeconomic levels, girls were more likely to have internalizing problems while boys were more likely to have externalizing problems. The findings also showed that because, for adolescents with SEN, parenting and fulfilling the pre- and mid-adolescents' needs require extra time and economic resources, poverty affects the well-being of pre- and mid-adolescents with SEN more than that of prexi and mid-adolescents without SEN. The findings stress how vital economic well-being is to parenting to assure adolescents' well-being, and suggest that policies aimed at improving parenting and the policies related to adolescents' mental health and SEN should be comprehensive to include improvements to the socio-economic well-being of families and also to take on board gender inequality.

Early support constitutes a range of support provided during early childhood (0-6 years), including specific interventions and programmes to improve child and family outcomes, and contact with services across education, health, and social care. While it is important to ensure families of children with suspected or diagnosed developmental disabilities (e.g., developmental delay, intellectual disability, autism) are able to access early support, research indicates disparities in access. This thesis sought to examine access to early support for children with developmental disabilities and their families. In Chapter 2, a conceptual framework mapping the process of access to early support across three key phases (recognition of potential need, identification or diagnosis, and early support receipt) was proposed. A narrative review identified several factors that affect access to early support for each phase across multiple factor levels (family, service, intersection, and contextual). In Chapter 3, data from a UK survey of parental caregivers (N = 673) of children with developmental disabilities was presented, providing a comprehensive description of participants' access to early support (professionals, services, intervention programmes), in addition to perceived of ease of access to early support, unmet need for early support, and barriers and facilitators of access to early support. In Chapter 4, multiple regression analyses were conducted to identify predictors of access to (and perceived unmet need for) early support. Cumulatively, this research has led to substantial increased understanding of the complex multifactorial nature of access to early support for families of children with developmental disabilities. Key selected factors include family socioeconomic status, nature and severity of need, formal identification of need, service coordination and collaboration, and the nature of service delivery in relation to family factors. The contribution of this research is invaluable for identifying potential policy and practice investments and directions for future research to improve access to early support.

Arts and cultural education is often seen as a practice that can resolve inequalities. This research argues that whilst well-meaning, cultural education can often establish and exacerbate these inequities, create spaces of embarrassment and shame and become another source of capital to be competed for in the educational field. Using Stan's Cafe, an international theatre company as a case study, this thesis explores social and political change through arts education practices following over eighteen months of ethnography in primary and secondary schools in Birmingham, England and establishes critical avenues for change within contemporary education.

This thesis explores the family as a gendered site where young people's access to higher education (HE) is negotiated. The study is located in Haryana, a north- Indian state exhibiting high incidence of sexism and violence against women, along with a relatively developed economy. Haryana also reports a relatively high and gender equal HE enrolment rate within India. State-funded government colleges provide low-cost HE and are often the principal option available to students in rural and semi-urban areas. The study examines how local patrifocal gender regimes operate through and within families to influence access to these institutions. The intersectional analysis of gendered access to higher education and the significance of the family in this thesis is based on a theoretical framework which understands family as a site where contextual and culturally specific gendered regimes are reproduced and changed over time. These gendered regimes influence how families and individuals are able to access and mobilise different kinds of social, economic and cultural capitals as they make decisions regarding HE. The thesis traces these gendered dynamics within the family through educational narratives about decisions and choices regarding HE. The empirical study used individual and family group semi-structured in-depth interviews with full-time undergraduate students and their families from three colleges located in different districts of Haryana. The study shows that different family members simultaneously perform gendered roles of supporting, informing, inspiring and steering young people's educational choices. While making HE decisions, different family members exercise their individual agencies which are shaped by their gender identities and family norms. This is also influenced by intersectional factors such as social class and caste. Decisions about HE are not individual, but a group decision made by families within their particular intersectional contexts. This thesis unsettles individualised conceptualisations of educational choice, widening participation and access to HE.

This research explores why language teachers use ICT in their teaching and learning. This is a case study in one university in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The study involved the use of quantitative and qualitative methods: a questionnaire survey of teachers (n=111); interviews (n= 21) and observations (n=7 lessons). The study was carried out between 2017 - 2021, with data collection taking place in 2019. The case study explored use and perceptions of ICT. Three different types of ICT users were identified. Low level users found the use of ICT difficult and limited to use to personal interests. Middle level users felt they had reasonable skills and saw themselves as confident in using ICT in teaching. They tended to use ICT for routine practices, administrative purposes and lesson preparation. They might encourage students' use of mobile phones in the lessons they tended not to promote the use of ICT outside lessons. High level users were confident in their ICT skills and in addition to routine use were looking for more creative use of ICT in and out of the lesson. They had strong beliefs around the impact of ICT use and had strategies to get around the limitation of access. Findings from different sets of data showed that in general teachers had positive attitudes towards ICT use. Teachers` personal feeling about ICT were important but were not fixed; they could change because of the environment. Encouragers of ICT use were beliefs in ICT`s impact on students' learning and engagement; support from managers; departmental evaluation, and ICT discourse. Discouragers were linked to the lack of ICT resources, limited support and too few training opportunities. The study argues that teachers` perceptions need to be analysed in a holistic way and a model for understanding ICT use is provided. This model draws on ecological frameworks which combine personal characteristics, institutional arrangements and wider environment. This research contributed to an under researched area language teachers ICT use perceptions in HE in the context of Kazakhstan.

This is a study about learning online outside school. It examines participation in IGGY, an international network for high achieving students aged 13 to 18. IGGY was hosted by the University of Warwick and ran from 2012 to 2017. It had around 7,000 registered members though not all were active. IGGY was designed to support young learners through access to enrichment academic materials and to open debates on everyday and academic topics. There is much public and academic discussion of online social networks for young people but much less is known about social networks with educational aims such as IGGY. This study focused on describing this particular learning context, elucidating its value and discussing its feasibility. The study employed a mixed methods approach to explore the case of participation in IGGY. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with IGGY members (n = 12) and IGGY mentors (n = 2), content analysis and visualisation diagrams of 20 conversations from the debate forum. Quantitative data were collected in the form of online surveys (n = 161) and data on posts obtained from the online archive and the IGGY team. The different sets of data allowed the analysis of participation both as it was perceived by the research participants and as it was borne out by actual online activity. Although this study set out to be an inquiry into different experiences of participation, its focus shifted to the more active members. These members accessed learning resources related to what they were taught at school and content that was not covered in the school curriculum. They interacted with others in the forums where they discussed a variety of topics, ranging from ones characterised as fun and social to more in-depth and academic ones. Discussions were constructive and meaningful, and marked by respectful understanding of each other's positions. Through their social interaction members felt connected and formed friendships that they valued, albeit of different depths and types. Active members would also take part in educational activities either collaboratively or as individuals. Participation in IGGY was motivated by intrinsic, environmental and extrinsic factors. While members were self-directed, the distinct character of the network, the people who made up the community, the technology used to build the network and events outside the network had an impact on their engagement with it. Participation in the network brought about personal, social and cognitive benefits. Members were able to extend their social networks, to communicate with people of like mind and experience feelings of belonging, to increase their self-esteem and sense of identity, to receive peer and expert support and to access useful resources for studies and career. They viewed IGGY as enhancing their school performance but also as expanding their knowledge and skills beyond the formal curriculum. The study offers a vision of how young learners can engage in an exemplary form of argumentative discourse that is valued and often asked for by teachers in classrooms. Debates in IGGY were characterised by commitment to justification of opinions and ideas, openness to different beliefs, kindness and tolerance of others. In light of the above, this study provides a model of an educational network that bridges older and newer perceptions of learning i.e. the conventional understanding of formal learning and the contemporary understanding of learning-as-participation. It highlights the significance of members; mentors; technology; outside factors in sustaining a network. The study contributes to an under-researched area, that of out-of-school education networks. The findings of this study fit into a more positive view of communication technology, however, it does not offer an over romanticised view. Participation in networks with educational objectives has limits and the study brings those to light. The study also shows the value of a mixed methods research design that draws on person-focused and message-focused approaches and exploits the opportunities afforded by each to better and more fully understand online participation and learning.