Although statistics imply that youth crime is falling, fear of crime amongst young people is prevalent. Young people living in high crime neighbourhoods are more likely to become involved with crime - as victim or offender - and to experience increased psychological stressors such as fear. Even though schools have almost universal access to young people, in the UK their role in crime prevention is in its infancy. In contrast, the positive impact of crime prevention interventions in countries including America and Australia are well documented. By analysing the perspectives of a range of young people and adult stakeholders in an inner-city community, this study contributes to knowledge about how to strengthen the role of the school in youth crime prevention. A qualitative mixed-methods design was used to allow full exploration of the topic. Young people in Years 5-9 took part in mixed gender, school-based, focus groups. Adult stakeholders, including primary and secondary school staff, the police and youth workers, shared their views in semi-structured interviews or focus groups. Each participant lived or worked in the research ward. Each interview and focus group was transcribed and analysed along three thematic analyses; ‘context of crime for young people’, ‘context of youth crime for adult community stakeholders’ and possible future ‘ways of working’. Various themes and subthemes allowed for further exploration of the topic. The findings highlight how regularly young people in high crime inner-city communities are exposed to crime, and how aware they are of it. Participants report that young people are not getting enough crime prevention support in school, and that schools could and should be doing more. The limited support available to young people is piecemeal, and tends to be reactive not preventative. This study highlights the need for increased joined-up working between youth services and education. There is also a need for a wider range of provision and better use of existing resources in such communities to better meet the holistic needs of young people and protect them from crime. Although there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution to improving crime prevention support in schools, the findings can be applied to other contexts. The study outlines the implications for professionals in these communities, including the possible role for educational psychologists.

This small-scale, narrative study explores two concepts that aid understanding of the school experiences of young people who have offended. The first focuses on the concept of borders between the multiple worlds that the six young people in this study live within and between (Phelan, Locke-Davidson & Cao-Yu, 1993). This is combined with the concept of complementarity between Illeris’ (2007) learning dimensions (content, incentive and interaction) in order to explore the narrative co-constructions of the school experiences of these young people who have offended, and the strength of their self-identities in relation to learning across time and context. The study draws on Hiles and Čermák’s (2007a) Narrative Oriented Inquiry methodology and employs a three-step analysis of the six interview transcripts in order to carry out a categorical content and form analysis of the interview data. The concepts of borders and learning dimensions were common across the unique stories of the young people interviewed, and enabled the development of a typology of narrative resources, including an Instability Narrative, an Incompatibility Narrative and a Reformation Narrative. A typology renders orderly what initially seems chaotic (Frank, 2013) and can demonstrate how people are enabled to create, strengthen and weaken their learning identities by utilising available narrative resources. This typology provides an alternative method of understanding how young people actively choose, or not, to adopt canonical, institutional narratives within the education and youth justice systems they are part of and in the process of doing so strengthen or weaken their self-identities in relation to learning. The implications of this are discussed in terms of how Educational Psychologists might support professionals working with young people who have offended in developing an active approach to listening to the complex, eco-systemic narrative threads running through the stories they tell of their experiences, in order to facilitate strengthened learning identity and engagement in learning.

Despite growing evidence informing educators for effective reading comprehension (RC) teaching, it is unclear how extensively this evidence base is implemented in practice and teacher self-efficacy can have a role to play. Recent estimates suggest about 15% of U.K. students are below expected levels of attainment by the end of KS2. While Educational Psychologists can support the implementation of evidence base in classrooms to raise literacy standards, there is a lack of U.K. studies that examined the extent that the evidence base in RC instruction is implemented in practice and how confident teachers feel about implementing them. The aims of this study were three-fold. Firstly, to explore the extent that U.K. teachers used evidence-based practices when teaching RC. Secondly, to investigate teacher confidence levels in using them. Lastly, to examine the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and the extent they used evidence-based RC instructional practices. A mixed methods non-experimental fixed research design was used. The questionnaire sent out to 379 KS2 teachers resulted in 29 responses (i.e. 7.7% response rate). A subset of nine teachers participated in the systematic classroom observation of their RC lessons and a further subset of three teachers participated as case studies in follow up interviews. The results indicated that some evidence-based practices were incorporated in KS2 RC instruction and teachers generally felt confident about their implementation. However, the range of evidence-based practices used was limited and it was not always practices with the strongest evidence base. A positive relationship between teacher self-efficacy and the extent that teachers incorporated evidence-based RC instructional practices was observed, although this relationship appeared complex. The findings from this exploratory study contributed towards the existing gap in research on implementation of evidence based teaching practice for RC instruction in U.K. schools. Implications for professional practice and recommendations for further research are considered.

Since 1990 the Education for All (EFA) movement has acted as a worldwide commitment to the delivery of primary education as a basic human right. Reducing inequalities in terms of school access and academic achievement became a major concern in developing countries where education reforms were inspired by the EFA initiative. This was the case in Kenya and Mauritius, although evidence from the SACMEQ I (1995) and II (2000) survey studies reveals that these two countries presented the highest incidence of private tuition in the southern and eastern Africa region. In turn, such findings raise concern because they appeared to challenge the EFA objectives of quality and equality. The aim of the present thesis is to examine the phenomenon of private tuition in relation to the provision of primary education of good quality to all pupils (EFA initiative) in Kenya and Mauritius. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s theory on the ecology of human development the micro, meso and macro systems are examined as the three levels of the ecological environment of private tuition. In this way, attention was focussed on two critical points: (a) the position of parents in relation to the provision of paid extra lessons and (b) the potential tensions between the different ecological levels regarding the notion of educational equality put forward by EFA (the macro level), the national educational policies implemented for primary school (meso level) and the pupils’ school context (micro level). Survey data from Grade 6 pupils who participated in the SACMEQ III (2007) study reveals that paid extra lessons are delivered inside public (government) schools by pupils’ school teachers outside official hours. In addition, interviews with a sample of sixty parents reveal that in Kenya, private tuition is perceived not only as an important academic support but also as a safe environment where pupils are supervised by responsible adults, whereas in Mauritius private tuition is perceived as crucial for academic advancement. In conclusion, it was found that in both countries private tuition represents an integral component within their mainstream education systems.

This study explored the educational inclusion of Gypsy/Travellers (G/Ts) in a Local Authority (LA). Using a qualitative design, underpinned by a transformative ethos, it employed unstructured interviews to gather the perspectives of Irish Traveller (IT) parents and School Staff (SS) on the barriers and opportunities for inclusive education (IE) in the local context. Thematic analysis carried out separately on both data sets revealed that similar topics were raised by both sets of participants, which can be understood within three overarching concepts (‘over-arching-concept’s); Discriminatory Attitudes, Achieving Education for All and Creating Welcoming Communities. However, critical differences between how similar issues were understood emerged. These related particularly to understandings of equality and equity and the responsibility for inclusion. These ‘over-arching-concept’s are discussed in relation to how they create a story of exclusion from, rather than inclusion in education for these communities. The study concludes that in order to redress the historical and ongoing discrimination and exclusion experienced by these communities, a positive action approach to developing policies and practices, which complements a more equitable understanding of IE among educational services in this context is needed. Implications for Educational Psychology (EP) practice to support the development of IE in targeted areas within Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) eco-systems are suggested.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the processes of formulation and implementation of policies regarding the integration of disabled children in the mainstream schools of a Brazilian South-eastern State Capital. The investigation was carried out through a documentary analysis and through the application of a questionnaire and an interview to 25 head teachers of the primary State schools of VitOria. The intention was to identify gaps between what is mandated by laws or suggested by other relevant documents and what is actually reported as practice by the head teachers, and how integration was being interpreted and defined at the school level in that Capital. In doing so it was hoped that some of the problems in making integration policies would be identified and practical suggestions for their solutions would be likely to be provided. The study also included a comparative part in which integration policies of four European countries (Spain, Denmark, Holland and the U.K.) were analysed and differences and similarities were highlighted in an attempt to further illustrate and discuss some of the main issues of policy-making in and practice of integration which at the time were being debated world-wide.

This dissertation aims to describe the provision of adult basic literacy education (ABLE) in Barbados and examine the extent to which ABLE provision has been guided by the goals of participants, institutions which offered it and the government which required it. The empirical research study which constitutes the basis of the dissertation is located within the general field of adult education and the particular area of adult literacy. The data is related to both fields by a review of the literature on ABLE theory and practice from international, Caribbean and local perspectives. Focus is placed on the nature of literacy, as has been conveyed by definitions; and values attached to its acquisition, as have been indicated by declarations of its potential benefits. The descriptive component of the dissertation includes profiles of participants and practice of three ABLE programmes operating in Barbados between 1990 and 1993. The descriptive data was obtained from the responses of students and tutors to structured questionnaires and informal discussions; and from classroom observations made by the researcher from the perspectives of both passive and participant observer. Participants' profiles include personal details; information about their motivation, beliefs, attitudes, expectations and previous learning experiences; and the outputs they claim for the provision. The Profiles of practice cover instructional and interactive aspects of the teaching-learning process including the selection of materials, methods and strategies; type of classroom management and the nature of the relationship among participants. The evaluative component comprises an analysis of the data within a framework of national, institutional and personal goals, a focus informed by the importance which educators have attached to goal-setting in educational provision. The main findings of the research are that in most cases, local ABLE provision was not informed by the goals of the three interests and that ABLE practice often appeared to be directed towards outputs opposed to those goals. The main conclusion is that the impetus of the ABLE programmes was not goals but an internal dynamic informed by local attitudes to education in general and beliefs about literacy in particular.

Reading comprehension in pupils in Years Four and Five was investigated in a series of experiments predominantly using error detection in short, narrative passages. The claim that readers of this age may exclusively accept decodability as sufficient to judge text as non-problematic was investigated. Little evidence was found in support of this claim. However evidence was obtained that consonant strings were more often detected than nonsense words and more nonsense words were detected than real words of inappropriate meaning when they were substituted into the same passages at the same points. Fewer real words of inappropriate meaning were detected when they were the same part of speech as the word they replaced than when they were a different part of speech. No evidence was obtained that significant numbers of children exclusively detected only nonsense words. However decreasing the readability of the passages significantly reduced the detection rate for real words of inappropriate meaning while the detection rate for consonant strings and nonsense words remained both higher and more stable. It was suggested that children who are asked to read passages of too low a readability for them may be more likely to exclusively employ a lexical standard of comprehension. No evidence was obtained that asking children to read or listen to a passage a second time before completing an error detection task improved their performance. Moreover no difference in semantic comprehension monitoring was found to be dependent on whether the material was presented orally or visually. Better comprehenders were better than less good comprehenders on both error detection and doze tasks. However there was no difference in the relationship between performance on prompted e.g. doze, as compared to unprompted e.g. error detection, comprehension tasks between better and less good comprehenders. Both groups performed better on the prompted comprehension tasks. Better performance was maintained on doze tasks even when the subjects were not only alerted to having to read the passage for meaning but knew they were to be asked questions on it. The extensive use of unprompted comprehension tasks with feedback was proposed as a method of closing the gap between students' performance on unprompted as contrasted with prompted measures of comprehension. Better comprehenders were better at sequencing sentences to make a story but did not perform better than less good comprehenders at recognising sentences from stories they had just read. Both better and less good comprehenders were less good at rejecting as having just been read sentences semantically congruent with the stories as contrasted with sentences semantically incongruent with the stories. This was consistent with most readers engaging in constructive processing of short stories. The results of this series of experiments were compatible with and discussed in terms of comprehension involving the construction of a mental model of what is heard or read while listening to or reading short stories. Suggestions for further experiments were made.

This thesis examines discourses around reading and reading instruction, with particular reference to children. The argument is that literate practices are crucially involved in the formation of that child. Psychology, when it establishes itself as the science which has the measure of the individual, becomes intertwined with literate practices and illuminates the relation between reading and the child in a new way. This thesis suggests that to understand the interrelations between reading, psychology and the child in our culture, one must pay attention to problems connected with the government of that culture, and, more specifically, to what Foucault has termed `governmentality'. Nowadays, literate practices are fundamental to the construction of citizens fit to take their place in society; this has not always been so. This thesis writes a genealogy of how a cognitive maximisation of literacy skills became a social imperative. It examines a series of crucial historical moments in this transformation. First, a set of reorganisations in the philological world in the middle of the eighteenth century enable the reader to become, for the first time, a problem. Second, the nineteenth-century reappraisal of the transformative effects of education makes literacy for the lower orders desirable. Experiments in techniques of schooling allow for the formation of certain sorts of individuals. The thesis examines these processes of formation and analyses the contemporaneous reorganisation of the teacher-pupil relationship. Third, the beginning of our century sees psychology take an interest in literacy and the child. Psychology colonises such discursive processes and provides techniques for making new aspects of the literate child visible. The child is scientifically made subject to a set of practices which aim to calculate and administer.

Purpose: This study aims to explore the similarities and differences of perceived risk and protective factors to school adaptation as experienced by children living in army compared to non-army families to inform educational psychology practice. Design/Method: This study followed a qualitative design. Parents of 3 and 4 year olds, attending a maintained nursery, in a specific Southern East England area, which is host to an army base and where children experience a relative number of disadvantages were contacted through a research leaflet and a family information questionnaire. 6 parents each from army and non-army families, and 4 practitioners who talked about 3 children in their classes, participated in semi-structured interviews. The transcripts were subjected to a thematic analysis. Findings: Unique risks, such as deployment and parental absence, are experienced by children living in army families, and they emotionally affect children. However, as well as adapting well to difficult situations, unlike children living in non-army families, these children benefit from community cohesion and social and familial support. Children living in army families are also exposed to unique risks such as army culture, possible bereavement and injury, post-deployment reunion, transitions and relocations. Despite experiencing these risks which have the potential to be extreme, proactive systemic planning is at the forethought of familial and school systems, whereas children living in non-army families experience many risks at family and school levels, such as parenting difficulties, parental mental health difficulties, conflict-based familial relationships and divided school systems. Implications for EP practice: EPs are well placed in implementing systemic support strategies at familial and school levels to help parents and practitioners at a crucial time in their children’s educational career, and promote school adaptation. Originality/value: This study uniquely contributes to the limited literature on risk and protective factors experienced by children from army families in the UK. The comparative nature of this study provides suggestions for EP interventions.