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The study aimed to gain an understanding of the purpose of education as understood by first generation Slovak-Roma young people (YP), Luka & Peter and their parents Frank & Mary (pseudonyms used). The study surfaced experiences that facilitated a positive encounter in their UK school, as well as the experiences that acted as barriers to a positive encounter with the school. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used as an approach to make sense of the experiences of the participants via in-depth interviews. YP conducted Photo-elicitation to guide their interview and parents had non-structured interviews. All interviews began with the same question: ‘Tell me about this place?’ The research results provide an understanding of education through the following five superordinate themes that emerged through the voice of the participants: basic human needs, cultural aspects of education, society equality and the future, learning and school staff practice. Theory and pertinent studies have provided further insight into these areas. The implications for educational psychologists, schools and educational practitioners will firstly include creating an understanding through the voice and feelings of the participants in the study. This information will be delivered the form of training, conferences, and publications. This can impact on school and educational psychology practice to best support Slovak-Roma pupils in the city from classroom to structural levels through consultation between schools and educational psychologists. At national levels local authority consultation and sharing information could be conducted across cities. This study can also provide insight for working with other newly arriving communities that have entered the country and aid to the understanding of Roma/ migration. Recommendations for future research have additionally been presented which can provide further insight.

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This thesis examines the experiences of professional staff, other than academic staff, working within Irish higher education while pursuing a doctorate in education. The research question is “To what extent do the narratives of professional staff working in Irish higher education reveal their motivations for pursuing a doctorate in education?” The study employs narrative inquiry both as the methodology and the phenomenon under observation as it examines the data derived from the narratives of five higher educational professionals working in different Irish higher education institutions. The conceptual framework for the study was based on Connelly and Clandinin’s approach to narrative inquiry which in turn is grounded in a Deweyan theory of experience. The data was presented in two parts. The first part made visible different aspects of individual experience by presenting a storied account of each research participant using their own words as illustration. The second part presents six main themes and a further twenty-four sub-themes which emerged during the interviews and analysis of the life grid responses. The six main themes were: previous experiences of education; motivations for undertaking a doctoral qualification; relationships; identity; support networks; and after the doctorate. The reasons for doctoral study are complex and individuals choose it for multiple reasons. I would argue that all of the themes and sub-themes are relational in terms of motivations for undertaking doctoral research and that stories that people live and tell, matter.

The primary aim of this study was to develop an in-depth understanding of Transnational Higher Education (TNE) in Oman by investigating the implementation of TNE programmes hosted by two Omani private colleges. TNE in private Higher Education (HE) is the outcome of government policy requiring all private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to establish collaborative partnerships with credible international universities; the latter being responsible for awarding the degrees. With the private HE sector in Oman currently accommodating about 50 percent of the new students entering the national HE system, it was important to examine issues around the nature of institutional partnerships; curriculum development; academic impact (teaching and learning, and quality of education) as well as problems or challenges faced in the delivery of TNE programmes by private local HE colleges. By recognising the dearth of research in this area, this qualitative study focused on the perceptions and experiences of academic staff regarding TNE in Oman. It also examined the policy drivers for TNE in Oman and its implications at the national and institutional levels, in order to understand the political and economic context in which these institutions were operating in. Data were generated primarily through the use of semi-structured interviews carried out with 27 academic staff from two selected private colleges. The data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis which enabled the identification of various key themes from the data. The study confirmed that the provision of TNE by private colleges is driven by government policy which seeks to accelerate the building of national capacity through the provision of good quality HE. The academic staff were generally satisfied with the provision of TNE programmes, however, the study highlighted that the implementation of TNE programmes was affected by a number of factors including,financial constraints; socio-cultural challenges; and ineffective communication among key stakeholders. The thesis further investigated participants‟ views regarding the ways in which the implementation of the existing TNE programmes could be improved. Participants identified that enhancing the role of the local colleges in the development of a quality culture and rethinking of the role of the foreign partner Universities and the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) in the development of TNE programmes were key areas for policy and academic action.

This piece of research seeks to understand the concept of professionalism in relation to trainee teachers currently undertaking Initial Teacher Training (ITT) within Further Education (FE). In particular, it focuses on their reasons for undertaking a teaching qualification at a time when the sector is undergoing yet another period of political intervention with the deregulation of the FE workforce. The onus has been firmly put at the feet of employers to determine appropriate teaching qualifications for their employees. At the start of my study College A was requiring its staff to have a teaching qualification, but, by the time this study was coming to an end, this was no longer the case. I adopted a case study approach to interview both trainee teachers and senior managers within my own organisation to ascertain whether having a full teaching qualification is seen as both necessary and more importantly fundamental to making an FE teacher ‘professional’. The findings reveal that the concept of professionalism is complex, and that there is a wide range of both definition and meaning. Using life histories, I was able to identify the impact of experience and other factors which contribute to the life trajectory of trainee FE teachers, and which determine their own view of what it means to be professional.

Formative assessment (FA) has been a popular topic of study in education since the 1990s (Black & Wiliam, 1998a; 1998b). In China, the New English Curriculum for primary education in 2011 stressed the importance of FA in language classes (Ministry of Education, 2011). However, empirical studies investigating FA in China are generally lacking (Liu & Xu, 2017). My concern lies in the use and the impact of FA in English language learning in primary schools in China. In that context, this study seeks to identify and scrutinise effective FA strategies that can motivate learners and improve their achievement. The relevance of FA to English language learning lies in its interactive and dynamic approach, aimed at improving learners’ English by offering different strategies for enhancing learning. The FA strategies in my study include sharing learning aims, feedback, questioning, peer-assessment and self-assessment. They were selected from previous works on FA frameworks (Heritage, 2009a, 2009b, 2010; Torrance & Pryor, 2001; Wiliam & Thompson, 2007). I summarised seven motivation theories and three motivation frameworks in language learning (Dörnyei, 1994; Williams & Burden, 1997; Dörnyei & Ottó, 1998) in order to draw up a new framework of motivation in language learning that can be applied in this study. Mixed methods were used. Data were gathered via quantitative questionnaires for learners exploring motivation, use of FA and attitudes towards FA; quantitative English language quizzes to measure student achievement during the fieldwork; and qualitative interviews with teachers and students regarding their perceptions of FA. Two teachers and 196 11-year-old students from four classes in Jiangsu Province in China took part in the study for two and a half months. The results showed that FA strategies have valuable application in this context notwithstanding the prevailing exam-oriented education culture in China. FA use was significantly positively correlated with students’ motivation and achievement, strikingly so in girls in the lower achievement bracket. There is a need for well differentiated FA due to the varied impact of FA strategies in different student groups. As a lighthouse, FA is not merely an assessment in class, but also a learning habit that guides both teacher and student in teaching and learning. With the findings, this thesis contributes an empirical research study in English of the impact of FA in an underrepresented education sector: primary education in China.

This qualitative case study was designed to investigate how the roles of cooperating teachers who participate in the practicum programme of the Centre for Education Programmes University of Trinidad and Tobago (CEPUTT) are perceived by those involved. Semi-structured interviews were carried out and data collected from three sets of significant stakeholders regarding the perceptions of the role of the cooperating teacher. The participants included six cooperating teachers (classroom teachers who accommodate student teachers during practicum) from primary schools in Tobago, six student teachers (prospective teachers currently enrolled at the CEPUTT pursuing a Bachelor of Education to become qualified teachers), and three university supervisors or practicum advisors (instructors who teach content courses at the CEPUTT and are charged with the responsibility of supporting and assessing student teachers during practicum). The results of the data analysis and the emergent themes indicated that the cooperating teachers perceived their roles in relationship to the student teachers as: willing to accept student teachers, establishing good relationships, mentoring and modelling for student teachers, observing and evaluating and socializing student teachers into classroom practice. Cooperating teachers reported that they lacked training for these roles and relied on their own teaching experiences in dealing with student teachers. They identified training as a need. Cooperating teachers suggested better collaboration with practicum advisors and that they be provided with guidelines and expectations of what they are required to do to fulfill their roles as cooperating teachers. Student teachers perceived the roles of the cooperating teachers to be: keeping up current educational practices, establishing collegial relationships with the student teachers, giving student teachers feedback, and contributing a grade to the student teachers’ assessment. The practicum advisors suggested that the role of the cooperating teachers should be: to build student teacher confidence, socialize student ii teachers into school and classroom context, mentor student teachers and contribute to student teachers’ assessment grades. Results from the interviews suggest the need to include cooperating teachers in the practicum triad and recommendations included proper selection and training for them particularly in developing mentoring skills and assessment procedures to help in better preparation of student teachers entering the teaching profession.

In this thesis, you will find an account of a narrative and auto/biographical inquiry into the experiences and perceptions of persons involved in creative education in 21st century Caribbean/OAS contexts. I wanted to elicit stories about creativity in education from a range of participants in postcolonial spaces. This is premised on my belief in the notion - expounded by people such as Ken Robinson (2001) and Rex Nettleford (2009) - that creative approaches are needed to foster creativity to help people/countries function as effectively as possible within the current global climate. As a creative practitioner, I am also interested in the distinction made by persons such as Anna Craft (see Craft et al. 2001), between creative teaching and teaching for creativity. Here, too, I critically examine my personal and academic journey and the process of my narrative inquiry which involved forty-eight participants, using semi-structured, open-ended individual and group narrative interviews. These narrative interviews were ‘thematised’ and compared using an eclectic, theory-based axiological lens comprising perspectives on creativity in education, critical pedagogy and transformative learning. Moreover, this thesis highlights new understandings that emerged from the narrative data about definitions of creative education; initiation into creative education, memorable experiences, challenging experiences, perceptions about the impact of creative teaching and values in creative education in the research contexts. Based on insights gained from the narrative interviews of the participants, this thesis suggests a re-visioning of creative education as ‘critical-transformative pedagogy for creativity’ that aims to empower learners for creativity learning outcomes through creative education that is aligned to ethical principles. As such, this thesis also makes a recommendation for the practical application of the knowledge gained from this inquiry to the conceptualisation of a hybrid model of creative education as a core-curricular, creativity-focused pedagogical construct.