TAEDS (Theatre Arts, Education and Deaf Studies) was a unique B.A. degree at the University of Reading, U.K., established in 1996, with the last students graduating in 2018. Originally designed to train deaf people in drama teaching and leadership, deaf and hearing students followed the programme, which featured Sign Theatre, using British Sign Language within theatre. Over the years, TAEDS’ low entry tariff and diverse and inclusive curriculum attracted many non-traditional students, while the proportion of deaf students declined in comparison to hearing. In this study, TAEDS’ development and demise is considered in the context of drama in education in Britain; widening participation; employability and gendered choices in arts higher education. Identity development and issues within deafness and deaf education are also explored. This qualitative case study focuses on the perceptions of TAEDS alumni, from within a socially constructivist perspective. It investigates how alumni experiences before and during TAEDS impacted on their personal and professional identity development and high employability, in particular how drama within this context facilitated academic self-confidence and success. Both the structure of the study and the methodology are framed within the conceptual metaphor of a tree. Methods consist of an online survey; a paper questionnaire; a sample of interviews and a participant ‘TAEDS tree’ visual image. Findings are analysed using the constant comparative method and reveal a distinctive TAEDS graduate identity, within a strong alumni community. This analysis reveals the transformative effects of drama on marginalised students and identifies features of TAEDS which could be replicated in future nontraditional widening participation programmes. Although the outcomes are not generalisable, they contribute to educational knowledge through the particular methodological framework: by showing how the mainly female alumni can transcend gendered habitus; in advancing understanding of the importance of drama within twenty-first century education; in questioning concepts of employability and in raising awareness of TAEDS’ value in contributing to a more democratic society, where the arts and social justice are valued.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the welfare of children, whether they have special needs or health conditions such as ASD, or not (Al-Fayez & Ohaeri, 2011). It is also important to acknowledge that children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and neurotypical children in schools may be affected by low self-esteem, poor physical health, or psychological distress, and this could in turn influence their QoL. For these reasons, it is essential that children’s QoL is measured and understood, as this may give better insights into how their lives can be improved. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the QoL for both schoolchildren with ASD and neurotypical schoolchildren within the KSA school system. This study also aims to increase the validity for a standardised QoL instrument in Arabic for schoolchildren with ASD. Finally, it aims to compare QoL in KSA schoolchildren with ASD with those from Republic of Ireland. In order to achieve the pervious aims, quantitative approach has been employed. The quantitative component consists of the instrument translation and standardised assessment of QoL in KSA schoolchildren. This method is selected due to the need to empirically and objectively evaluate QoL in KSA schoolchildren as well as compare this dataset with pre-existing samples, such as that of the Kidscreen data collected amongst Irish schoolchildren. In KSA, while neurotypical schoolchildren rated their quality of life higher than schoolchildren with ASD, overall the findings of this study suggest that most Saudi Arabian schoolchildren with ASD enjoy a high health-related quality of life. Findings in this study will be of interest to the education sector and to people working with and on behalf of schoolchildren and young people.

This study examined the managerial roles of presidents at the tertiary level within the province of Ontario, Canada in an effort to understand the importance of their position at the apex of their educational institutions, as well as, reveal and substantiate the challenges faced by them within the context of the twenty-first century. In particular, the study aimed to identify the extent to which the new public management ideologies, that impacted over the past decade the area of higher education, influenced their managerial roles. Determining how college Presidents understand their role, particularly how they act in that role, is extremely important since there is evidence that they contribute significantly to the achievement of strategic goals of the colleges. Moreover, there are reasons to believe that the findings of this study will help the Board of Governors in making hiring decisions in the future, as well as, determine if particular training is required for the candidates chosen for such position. Central to this study was the Role Theory. The research model used was based on Mintzberg’s taxonomy of managerial roles. The study used a mixed research methodology for providing answers to the proposed research questions. According to the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the job of postsecondary college presidents has changed in the past two decades or so, to become more managerial in nature.

This study seeks to answer the following research question: ‘To what extent do Omani teachers working in Post-Basic Education Schools (students aged 16-17) perceive their professional learning to be effective in the light of recent educational reforms?’ It aims to contribute to the debate about the tension between the planning and implementation of educational reforms, to improve understanding of the factors that affect implementation and lead to successful change, and to raise implications for the general understanding of the relationship between educational reforms and enhancement in teachers’ learning. This was an empirical, essentially qualitative, multi-site case study using mixed data collection methods that were applied in three sequential phases. The data collection instruments were piloted in phase one, then refined to improve their validity and the reliability of the findings. In phase two, questionnaires were used to gather quantitative data from 12 of the 37 schools in one educational district in Oman. The aim was to understand the bigger picture and identify the main issues needing further investigation. A total of 159 teachers responded, representing an 88.3% response rate, while all 12 school leaders completed their questionnaire. The issues which emerged were investigated in depth and qualitatively in phase three, when 12 teachers, four head teachers and three inspectors participated in semi-structured interviews in four schools. Three theoretical ideas underpinned this study and helped in understanding and interpreting the findings: complexity theory, contingency theory and social constructionism. The findings revealed a mismatch between what was offered and what teachers’ reported benefiting the most from. This divergence was caused by an underestimation of the complex nature of planning for improving teachers’ learning and an oversimplification of implementers’ roles in the change process. The study highlights the consideration that needs to be paid to the variation among schools and teachers and stresses the importance of enabling schools to respond appropriately to their contexts. This study also illuminates the interconnected external and internal factors that influence teachers’ beliefs and practice in relation to change at various levels and identifies the potential negative consequences of lack of motivation, non-adaptive structures and centrally imposed guidelines and regulations on teachers’ willingness to change and on schools’ contingent ability to meet their changing situations.

Highly romanticised images of childhood produce notions of ideal children serenely cared for as they laugh and play all day. However, these conceptualisations do not accurately reflect the multiple realities of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), and the complexity and demands of working with young children and their families. This research focuses on the Key Person Approach, which is a statutory requirement for ECEC practice in the United Kingdom (UK) characterised by close practitioner-child attachment relationships and parent partnerships. This thesis is concerned with gaining deeper understanding of emotional labour in ECEC, and explores the implementation of the related UK statutory duty for all early years practitioners to have regular supervision time for supported professional reflection. An empirical study with a cohort of graduate practitioners presents previously unpublished insights into experiences of emotional labour and supervision within a wide range of early years settings in South East England; thematic analytical processes within a phenomenological approach facilitate the emergence of six analytical themes from focus group and individual interview data. The rationale for the research is such that by exploring this previously under-examined area, a deeper understanding is provided, thus adding to both the literature in this area, while simultaneously contributing to discussion around workforce support and professional education and development needs. The study findings are of direct practical relevance as they inform the authoring of The Emotion Curriculum for The Early Years Workforce; this research output is a briefing document for workforce educators and trainers to support in the design of curricula to foster professional caring dispositions and emotional resilience in preparation to work in the emotionally demanding ECEC sector, and to encourage more consistency in professional supervision practices across the sector.

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As Saudi Arabia strives to position itself strategically in global markets in response to globalization, education has become one of the most important tools to achieve this aim. While demands for reform in Western countries have fostered new notions of school excellence, equivalent concepts have to date received little attention in Saudi Arabia. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring the nature of outstanding schools in Saudi Arabia, and thus claims to be an original and important contribution to the understanding of this phenomenon. A qualitative case-study approach was used drawing on data from three high schools in Saudi Arabia, each having been rated outstanding by the city’s local authority. Principals, Deputies and Social Instructors from the three schools were interviewed (n=9), while group interviews were conducted with the majority of teachers from each school (n=68); 25 out of 26 teachers from school 1; 20 out of 24 teachers from school 2 and 23 out of 28 from school 3. In addition, the daily work of Principals in each school was observed and relevant documents were collected. The resulting data were thematically analysed using a framework based on the inter-related concepts of leadership practices, culture and professional development The findings reveal that leadership practices in these outstanding schools included a number of common features, such as establishing school vision, restructuring the organisation, leadership distribution, effective communication, strategic planning and quality assurance. Cultural aspects revealed the effect of both macro-level cultures: global and national cultures on these schools, as well as micro-scale effects. Professional development was perceived to be important, and both leaders and teachers engaged in training opportunities. While these results cannot be generalised, it is hoped that they will be important to inform practitioners, policy makers and researchers about the nature of outstanding schools in Saudi Arabia.

The primary aim of the study was to explore the teaching and learning of vocabulary through listening among 137 senior secondary school EFL learners in China. A quasiexperimental, mixed method design was adopted comparing incidental vocabulary learning through listening (Control Group) with different types of Lexical Focus-on-Form delivered to three treatment groups: post-listening vocabulary explanations in the L2; codeswitched explanations; and explanations providing additional cross-linguistic information (contrastive Focus-on-Form, CFoF). The second aim of the study was to investigate whether learners’ listening comprehension developed alongside their vocabulary. Finally, the study explored what strategies were used by learners in response to the vocabulary instruction in each of the three experimental conditions. The data collection procedure, involving a classroom intervention, lasted three months. Learners completed aural vocabulary tests at pre, post and delayed post-test and listening assessments at pre and post-test. The three treatment groups also completed an additional final vocabulary delayed post-test. Stimulated recall interviews were conducted finally with twelve learners from the three treatment groups. The findings first indicate that for short and long-term vocabulary acquisition, the three treatment groups significantly outperformed the Control group. Gains for the CFoF group were significantly greater than for the L2 and codeswitching groups. Additionally, the codeswitching group significantly outperformed the L2 group for short-term but not for long-term acquisition. Regarding whether the vocabulary learning varied according to learners’ general English language proficiency, findings reveal that compared with lower-level learners, higher-level learners benefited more from the L2-only and the CFoF vocabulary explanations for shortterm vocabulary learning. Additionally, analysing the learning by word classes and for collocations, results on the one hand indicate that collocations and nouns tended to be better acquired than verbs and adjectives, on the other hand suggest that the learning of collocations and single words by the learners who received CFoF vocabulary explanations was significantly better than those from the L2 and codeswitching group. Furthermore, regarding the impact of different repetitions on vocabulary retention, findings confirm that target lexical items receiving nine repetitions were significantly better retained than those receiving seven, five or three repetitions. Looking at the impact of vocabulary intervention on learners’ listening comprehension, findings indicate that the L2, codeswitching and Control group showed significant pre to post-test improvement in listening comprehension, with most progress for the Control group. However, the CFoF group did not make significant progress and their performance was significantly worse than the Control group’s at post-test. Finally, the qualitative analysis regarding the strategies used in response to the vocabulary instruction suggest that learners used L2 listening comprehension strategies to understand the listening input as well as employing vocabulary learning strategies to guess the meaning of the unfamiliar lexical items and to further remember these items. In addition, in general, higher proficiency level learners tended to use more different strategies than low proficiency level learners. Moreover, although certain patterns of strategy use were shared by both higher and lower proficiency level learners within each treatment condition, higher proficiency level learners tended to use these strategy patterns in a more active way, compared with lower proficiency level learners who employed the strategies in a passive manner. The thesis concludes by discussing these findings in relation to theories of vocabulary acquisition and listening comprehension, as well as their implications for pedagogy, the limitations of the study and areas for future research.

Language learning in UK secondary schools is in sharp decline. Of the three most commonly taught languages, French, Spanish, and German, German uptake is dropping at the fastest rate. Societal attitudes towards languages and the target language communities of speakers are commonly blamed for the decline, however, few previous studies have investigated this area via empirical evidence. The current study explores the relationship between motivation for German learning in adolescent language learners in England, and the representations of German, the Germans, and Germany in private and public UK discourses. Through a mixed methods, cross-sectional research design, private grassroots discourses in a school setting and public discourses in the national press are examined to gain an insight into how beliefs and attitudes around German are constructed and conceptualised, and results are related to the factors that underlie learner attitudes, motivation for German learning and language uptake decisions. The study’s theoretical framework draws on a range of key concepts from second language (L2)-specific and mainstream psychological motivation theories, such as Gardner’s socio-educational model, as well as on aspects of cognitive-situated and self-based models. Main participants were 506 13 to 16-year-old German learners from a range of four secondary schools at the time they were asked to decide whether to continue or drop German. Further respondents included four German teachers and four head teachers from the participating schools. For the school settings strand, learner data were collected via focus groups and a questionnaire combining items which generated quantitative (such as motivation mean scores) as well as qualitative (such as metaphor) data; teacher and head teacher data were collected via interviews. For the public discourse strand, a specialised corpus of 40,000 UK national newspaper articles around German, the Germans, and Germany was compiled, and explored using discourse analysis techniques. Four research questions investigated the motivational dimensions relating to learners’ choices to continue or discontinue with the study of German, how German is represented in discourses of key players in school settings, how German is represented in newspaper discourses in the press, and the relationship between public and private discourses around German, the Germans, and Germany in the UK. Contrary to what is commonly thought about motivation for language learning, results suggest that adolescent learners in England are motivated to continue German not by instrumental rationales, but rather by their enjoyment of the classroom learning situation, and by a sense of personal relevance. The growing elitification in language learning in the UK manifests in the study’s data, in that a higher socio-economic background is associated with continuing German, more conducive attitudes, a higher sense of personal relevance, and a view of language learning as a worthwhile process which requires effort and persistence. In press discourses, German is mainly represented in terms of politics and war, Germans mainly in terms of war, and Germany mainly in relation to other countries and football. The wider discourses in the press are reproduced in a reciprocal relationship with private discourses in the school setting. The study contributes to knowledge by presenting new insights into the motivation of adolescent German learners in the UK, and by validating elements of pre-existing motivation models, such as self-determination and self-worth theory. Furthermore, through its novel design of bringing together private and public discourse domains, it provides empirical evidence for previously unsubstantiated claims of links between the representation of target language speakers and communities in the mass media, and language learner motivation at English secondary schools.

23% of children currently at secondary school have parents who are in one of the armed forces (Goodwill, 2017). In the last eight years these children have been identified by the Government because of their potentially vulnerable nature because of a number of potential issues effecting their progress, including; multiple movements between schools, emotional concerns with parents being posted overseas and trouble with movement of school records. The purpose of this piece of research was to examine the aspirations and career choices of this vulnerable group and to consider the choices they are making. As children from service families have been identified as vulnerable by the government, are included in the pupil premium scheme, included in compact schemes between colleges and universities and are highlighted by Ofsted as they were an important and an underrepresented group in current educational research, this research seeks to make a significant contribution to our understanding of these students by considering whether there is something inherent in being a service family that effects the choices that they make? Does their experience in education as a service child inherently change their future career paths? Using college data and qualitative interviews this research examined what factors effect the post 16 choices that these students make. For example, do these students plan to go onto Further Education, complete other training, join the armed forces or go into other employment? What shapes these ideas and how does being a service child affect their aspirations? The findings from this research indicate that the factors affecting a service child’s aspirations although complex are similar in some respects to non-service children. However, it also highlights some major issues with regards to service children, the careers advice they receive at school and their progression from school, through college and onto University. It concludes, by offering some implications for a number of stakeholders.