The faith school debate in Scotland focuses almost exclusively on Catholic schools because they are the predominant form of faith schooling. Historically, the Catholic schools have had strong links with the Catholic Church and the wider Catholic community – a post-Reformation Catholic community that has a variety of national–cultural expressions but, ultimately, has strongest roots in the critical mass of immigrants who were part of the Irish Famine Diaspora. This Scottish-Irish Catholic Church and community, in some periods of history, have been subjected to structural and attitudinal sectarianism and appear to continue to be viewed with some ambivalence, and some suspicion, in contemporary Scottish society. This ambivalence often extends to Catholic schools, despite recent (widely publicised) educational success and perceived ‘social and moral’ success. This thesis seeks to understand this unique situation from an academic perspective. The history of Catholic schools and the Catholic community are examined using a variety of conceptual tools (primarily ‘postmodern critique of historiography’, ‘insider stories’ and ‘immigrant typology’). The postmodern critique of historiography is used to construct smaller narratives which also help to clarify the strengths and limitations of previous research and scholarship. The identification of the insider status and insider stories of the academics engaged in this debate enables insight into the emergence of a variety of histories and stories of a historically marginalised group. The application of immigrant typology provides frameworks to explore both the generic and unique nature of the experience of the Catholic community in Scotland. The thesis contextualises contemporary Catholic schools in Scotland within two major academic discussions: (1) the faith school debate in England and Wales (arguing that the debate in Scotland lacks the scope and conceptual sophistication of the debate in England and Wales) and (2) the key Catholic Church teaching and Catholic academic insights into Catholic schools. Adopting the qualitative method of expert interviews, the thesis maps out the contemporary debate concerning Catholic schools in Scotland. The debate is re-conceptualised using a uniquely constructed spectrum of views and the projected future of Catholic schools in Scotland is discussed within this spectrum.

This study examines the policy change and continuities in the delivery of public education services both preceding and following the election of the Labour government in 1997. These involve the changing relationship between local and central government and the development of an enhanced role for the private sector in the management and delivery of education services. The study considers the limitations and possibilities of these developments and their implications for governance and performance through critical policy analysis and consideration of key texts, government publications and contemporary interviews with individuals within the policy process. The study is divided into chapters dealing with the context of the research in key literature and issues of change and continuity in national education policy. It includes a critical description of the approaches to the inspection of local education authorities and an illustrative example of government intervention in an LEA leading to the outsourcing of services. Through interview material, the policy analysis is grounded in the experience of individuals who are enacting ‘modernisation’ and also commenting on its effects. There is also a consideration of the evidence of the impact of outsourcing on school performance in a number of authorities. In addition, the study considers the implications of these developments for future strategy in relation to the development of local authorities in the light of the Children Act (2004). It suggests that the readiness of local authorities to adopt the changes needed to enact the Children Act (2004) forms a contrast to their limited adherence to the local government reforms prefigured elsewhere by central government. This reflects the strength of concepts such as the well-being of children as agents of change, in contrast to the diffuse theoretical underpinnings of the third way.

<p> This study examined the historical and contemporary debate among music educators in U.S. public secondary schools over the viability of the large ensemble paradigm&mdash;choirs, bands, orchestras&mdash;and its valorization of European classical music, versus the introduction of popular music and its attendant mode of informal learning in small groups. Using theoretical and historical concepts from the work of Michel Foucault, this study established the concern for social order in the Progressive Era, the simultaneous interest in elite European culture as a regulatory device, and the emergence of the comprehensive high school as the framework in which the large ensemble paradigm was constituted. It contrasted this paradigm with the contemporaneous proliferation of African American-originated dance-musicking, which derived its popularity, in part, as a participatory form of musicking, and which destabilized dominant constructions of class, race and gender/sexuality through its practices&mdash;above all, its integration with dancing. This genealogy of the oppositional relationship between the two types of musicking provided the foundation for a critical analysis of music education discourse, based on key 20th-century texts produced by the National Association for Music Education that defined the large ensemble paradigm and articulated its rationale. This analysis revealed that many of the beliefs, assumptions, and practices of music education as defined in the US in the first half of 20th century still constrained the debate over the use of popular music in secondary schools in the 21st century by inhibiting a full appreciation of the kinesthetics of African American-originated dance-musicking. </p>

Previous studies of students’ higher education choices have been mainly examined in the US, European and Australian context, with few related empirical research studies in the context of China (Hemsley-Brown and Oplatka, 2015). Although there is no lack of various online surveys about the reasons driving students towards postgraduate education in China, little is known about how far their decisions were shaped by their specific circumstances which is the purpose of this study, which investigates the main factors influencing students’ decision-making about postgraduate education at G University in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. To achieve this aim, three main research questions were asked: what motivated students to undertake PG education, why did they choose their particular subjects for PG studies, and why did they choose G University as their place of study? This study employs an-in depth case study approach. The research was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, questionnaires were distributed among the first-year postgraduate students at G University to get a general idea of what motivated them to undertake PG education and why they chose their particular subjects and place of study. In the second stage, 30 students who indicated their willingness in the questionnaires to participate in follow-up interviews were interviewed to explore the responses to the questionnaires in greater depth. The findings of this research were analysed from the theoretical aspects of human, cultural and social capital, as well as the related Chinese concept of guanxi. The findings indicated that students’ decisions to undertake PG education was mainly to enhance their employment competitiveness and to gain jobs with higher salaries and better advancement opportunities. In addition, the findings indicated that personal interest influenced either by their family's education or school teacher’s instruction constituted the main reason for choosing their specific fields of study. The findings also showed that family social capital and the social capital formed in the school context exerted great influence on students’ choices of postgraduate education. Further, students chose G University as their place of study mainly for its academic reputation, the quality of its faculties and resources, and its convenient location. The data indicated that students’ choices of postgraduate education were influenced by their individual economic, social and cultural backgrounds, or the interplay between human, cultural and social capital from the theoretical aspect. Enquiring into the students’ choices of postgraduate education in the specific Chinese social and cultural context contributes to the literature on students’ choices of higher education. It is hoped that the findings will provide some informed knowledge for students who plan to invest in their future employability through postgraduate education in China, as well as for the Chinese further and higher education system, which may gain a better understanding of its students and so be able to provide a better service to them.

<p> This historical study explored and chronicled the history of institutional responses to underprepared students at the University of Georgia including its two primary historical branches, the State Normal School and the State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, from 1801 to 2001. This study examined the evolution of responses to underprepared students at the University of Georgia with a view to how these responses reflected the larger social, economic, and political context of Georgia history. Archival research was conducted at University of Georgia Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library in Athens, Georgia, the State of Georgia Archives in Atlanta, Georgia, the Georgia Historical Society Library and Archives in Savannah, Georgia, and other archives or document repositories identified during the research phase of the study. The study revealed significant efforts throughout the history of the University of Georgia in support of underprepared students.</p>

This study introduces the occupational dimension into the study of strategy-making, with particular reference to Higher Education in the UK. The concepts of occupation and self- and social identity are deployed to explore the relational dynamics amongst the occupational groupings in higher education in the context of the increasing marketisation of the sector. The personal identity work of the university employees is analysed contributing to the study of the occupational aspect of self-identities of the members of the three higher education occupational groupings: academics, manager-academics and non-academics. The concept of ‘occupational connectivity’ is introduced and developed to reveal the tensions amongst the occupational groupings and to explore the nature of these tensions in relation to the student experience initiative in a university context. University practices of strategy-making associated with the organisational approaches aimed to respond to the student experience initiative are seen as arenas where the occupational interests are acted and negotiated. A framework of four occupation strategies, representing a nexus between the levels of uncertainty and the ease of the access to economic and social opportunities, is developed. This is proposed as a useful conceptual development in the study of work and occupations due to its potential for revealing the strategies of occupational groupings in any given organisational setting. Note on redaction: Copy lacks acknowledgements only.

Teachers are required to be reflective practitioners: that is, they must constantly assess and evaluate their performance, and its effectiveness. In addition, of course, they come under external scrutiny from government and parents. However, what of the way the public look at teachers? Teachers and schools may be read about in newspapers, comics and journals, discussed on television and the radio; they may even fall foul of social networking sites on the Internet. Popular films may be regarded as ninety-minute essays, presented dramatically for the entertainment of their audiences; the teacher or school film has been a staple of popular cinema in this country for almost eighty years. Moreover, the representations of teachers in British films have tended to retain a continuity of message despite the many changes that have taken place in education over this period. This thesis looks at those representations, and changes in education, and attempts to make connections, backed up with a philosophical approach that seeks to explain the visual turn in terms of successive orders of simulation. My hope is that new generations of teachers may reflect on the cultural heritage of which they, and their chosen profession, are very much a part.

An analysis of Gandhi’s ideology and educational aims and processes, emphasising the role of the mother. The central feature of education as envisaged by Gandhi is that it should be through a productive craft.

No description available.

The aim of this work is to elucidate changes in the function and position attributed to the general reading and writing instruction. The studies focus on the description and the analysis of the content and form of this instruction as they are expressed in texts for the educational practice during the period 1842-1982. It is also the aim of this historical study to try to contribute tò a greater understanding of the inadequate skills in reading and writing observed among Swedish pupils. Theoretically, the work is based on a structural point of view and on a materialistic outlook on history. Education is regarded as a matter of social and cultural reproduction. Reading and writing are regarded as social and cultural phenomena. The function and position that, explicitly or implicitly, are attributed to the general reading and writing instruction are also regarded as important factors. The empiric material includes, inter alia, Riksdag documents, official curricula, readers, teacher's manuals and school inspector reports. These texts are analyzed in the light of educational and societal conditions and changes. The study presents a survey of the general reading and writing instruction during the aforesaid period. The report provides many examples of how economic, political and ideological conditions in society are expressed in texts for the educational practice. It also shows the influence of the dominating class of society on the prescribed content and form of this instruction. The study shows that the function and position attributed to reading and writing instruction have varied over time. A qualifying and an ideological function can be discerned and a subordinate and a dominant position can be observed. The report shows the changes in the emphasis on function and position and in the prescribed content and form of the instruction. The problem of the pupils' inadequate reading and writing abilities has recurrently been brought up during this period. One aspect of this problem concerns the skills that the pupils are supposed to learn. The second aspect concerns the demands that can be made on their ability. / digitalisering@umu