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This dissertation centres on a school facing challenging circumstances in Norfolk. The school has a poor reputation locally and low examination results compared to national figures and other local schools, but, despite this, the school is a welcoming and pleasant place. This dissertation explores this apparent paradox between the schooPs reputation and measured performance and the lived experience of staff and students by asking participants to use photographs to talk about what they thought was 'special' about the school. Twenty seven Year 8 students and seven teachers were involved as participants in this research. Student participants were asked to create individual mind maps about the things they considered 'speciaP about the school, then in six self-selected groups they were asked to photograph these 'special' aspects. The students were later interviewed in their groups with their mind maps and photographs to elicit their views. The teacher participants took photographs and were then interviewed individually. All participants were asked not to take photographs of people. It was found that the differing methods of research sometimes produced contrasting ideas, however; 'people' were identified most consistently as being a 'special' aspect of the school. Students valued their friendships while teachers valued the support of their colleagues both past and present. There was some contrast, however, in how students and teachers viewed the relationships they shared with each other; teachers tended to view these more positively. Other aspects of the school that were considered 'special' were: sport, school meals, the success of students, although this was not always measured conventionally, and aspects of the environment in which the school was set. Photographs were found to possess a powerful duality in enabling participants to talk about both what was visible in the images and also what was invisible. This was enhanced by some participants who developed creative and inventive ways of representing people in their photographs without transgressing the 'no people' rule imposed by the researcher. In addition to this there was an undercurrent of non-vocalised data, which indicated the effort and commitment some participants gave to this research. This dissertation ends with a consideration of the research methods and their effectiveness in exploring some of the more intangible aspects of this and other schools facing challenging circumstances.

The issue of early school leaving is currently viewed as a particular concern in Galway City, Ireland. Despite national policy and numerous programmes, early school leaving continues to be prevalent. The central focus of this study is to critically examine government policy addressing early school leaving. Through qualitative methodologies, primary data was collected from students, teachers, principals and education personnel. The student voice was viewed as a significant source of data within the study. Thirty-two semi-structured interviews were completed; sixteen of which were with early school leavers. These early school leavers, defined as having left the school system prior to completing the Leaving Certificate, were aged between fourteen and twenty-one. Sixteen professionals, including teachers and principals, working with schools in Galway City were interviewed. The study identifies disaffection and early school leaving as significant issues within the Irish education system. Disaffection, while complex, is identifiable among students through aggressiveb ehaviour,d isrupteda ttendancep, oor relationshipsw ith teachers, lack of interest and non-engagemenint academicp rocesses. The researchp rovides evidence that in some cases the education system, rather than alleviating disaffection, is actively perpetuatingd isaffectionw hich contributest o early schooll eaving. Furthermoret,h rough the implementationo f GroundedT heory, the contextuali ssueso f socio-economicw ithin families and communitiese merged. The researche stablished that current policy aimed at tackling early school leaving is working on the periphery of schools rather than affecting change within schools. The research also highlighted the existence of two original factors which are contributing to the issue of disaffection: 1) Tensiona mong key constituentso f the educations ystema nd 2) A `culpability culture' among those who contribute to disaffection and the issue of early school leaving. Recommendationasr e outlined, including the need for a greatere mphasiso n inclusive policy and practice within the Irish education system.

This thesis aimed to explore the affect of combining two models of learning styles (VARK, and Honey and Mumford) in terms of students‘ learning gains and satisfaction. VARK focuses on how the students perceive learning, while Honey and Mumford examines how an individual would like to learn. A web-based educational system was built to test the combination of the two models of learning styles. A study to examine the feasibility of the system was carried out on 129 participants to explore whether the system presented tutorials according to their individual learning styles. A second study to investigate learning gains and user satisfaction was carried out on 149 participants. Satisfaction was divided into three main concepts: usability, preference and perception of learning. Learning gains were tested by giving participants a pre-test, a post-test and a confirmatory test. Participants were divided into four groups and had the lesson presented according to one learning style of either the VARK or Honey & Mumford model, both of the participants‘ learning styles or with no personal customization. The results found that participants who used the two models of learning styles showed higher learning gains and had higher levels of satisfaction across all three factors; compared to those using only one or no learning style. Furthermore, those using only one learning style showed higher learning gains and had higher levels of satisfaction than those with no learning style. The application of these findings would be of benefit to educational institutions‘ decision makers, educators, students and e-learning designers. Adaptation is a key feature of the system of research. It is intended for future work; preliminary research has shown that the users profile and learning item will change over time. This important finding is worth exploring in future research.

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