Evaluation of non-formal learning in short-term programmes which offer opportunities for youth participants to develop aspects of intercultural competence has proved problematic, (Ilg, 2013, p. 190). This thesis compares the outcome of youth participant use of a Predictive and Reflective Questionnaire (PaRQ) with records of learning made by their adult group leaders. Simultaneously, it explores the use of this purpose designed, dual format, questionnaire, strategy as a potential tool for evaluation of non-formal learning in other situations. The 36, teenaged participants completed questionnaires at the beginning and end of their three week, international, Summer Camp. Each youth participant noted their predicted rating at the beginning of the programme and reflective rating at the end of the programme, in addition to their current position, on indicators of aspects of intercultural competence. Comparison of beginning and end scores for individual participants showed re-adjustment of perception of starting scores, similar to the score “re-calibration” noted by Thurber, Scanlin, Scheuler, & Henderson (2007). These changes, supported by learning outcomes suggested in participants’ narrative spaces, indicate that they may have reported inflated perceptions of competence on several items at the start of the programme. It is suggested that such re-adjustment supports the reflective strategy employed in this new evaluation tool. Comparison is also made between youth participants’ scores and programme leaders’ assessment of participant achievements, and discussion of discrepancies is provided. Parallel work included informal interviews with the nine group leaders focussed on use of the existing, competence based, Programme Director’s Planning and Evaluation Form (PDPEF) in both the current and any previous programmes in which they were involved. Recommendations are provided for further investigation of the potential of PaRQ as a tool to measure movement towards stated objectives in other programmes of non-formal learning, and for improved use of the CISV PDPEF.

This thesis explores how international education rights obligations are reflected in the contested curricular subject of citizenship education in the two divided jurisdictions of Northern Ireland and Israel. Given the difficulties faced in developing and delivering a common citizenship curriculum to a diverse group in each jurisdiction, where conceptions of citizenship vary, this empirical research explores the unifying potential of an approach to citizenship education based on internationally agreed human rights law on education. The research builds upon the citizenship education typology of knowledge, values, skills and participation and overlays it with a 2-A framework for education rights in citizenship education of 'acceptability' and 'adaptability', to provide a provisional literature-based conceptual framework . Data is approached from an interpretative perspective which involves consideration of policy and curriculum documents, qualitative semi-structured interviews with policy-makers and teachers of citizenship education, and focus group sessions with students of citizenship education in both jurisdictions. Analysis reveals that interpretations of education rights made by citizenship education stakeholders and found within key documents can be oriented around three themes - minority group representation, dealing with difference, and preparation for life. Locating these themes within the 2-A framework proves problematic, and reveals wide and sometimes conflicting variety in interpreting the framework. Questions are raised regarding the 'universality' of international interpretative frameworks for education rights, and therefore the workability of such frameworks in the national and divided context. The original contribution to knowledge of this thesis relates to how its combination of the disciplines of education and law, and comparison of two divided jurisdictions, illuminate this interpretative variety, offering a critique of the international human rights system of interpretation, and proposes the notion of 'interpretative communities' as a way of conceptual ising the variety of understandings. It also underlines the complexity of delivering a common citizenship education curriculum in a divided society.

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This study researches the problem of gender stereotypes that Spanish language undergraduates uphold against Hispanics and develops critical pedagogical approaches through the reading of a literary text for the deconstruction of such stereotypes so that students can think and act in less biased and prejudiced ways. This thesis develops the argument that stereotyping is a form of oppression, and through empirical research in three case studies, this research demonstrates that stereotypical oppression can be addressed by Critical Pedagogyfor the development of „critical cultural awareness‟. This thesis provides answers to three operational sub-questions addressed in each of the three case studies, which contribute to answering the main overarching question in this study of how can Critical Pedagogy help in the deconstruction of stereotypes for the development of „critical cultural awareness‟. This study found that a literary text can bring stereotypical thinking out to the fore for analysis and reflection, and that a reader-response approach to literature can trigger past experiences that reveal essentialising discourses of otherness. The research reviews the effectiveness of the use of an „identity-focused‟ critical pedagogical intervention for the development of a „self-regulation strategy‟ as a mental reasoning exercise to control bias and stereotyping. The results indicate that students tend to transpose stereotypical binaries and create new ones, whilst developing further views of cultural realities as being fluid, dynamic and contradictory, constantly being reconstructed and renegotiated. However, the findings indicate that a „self-regulation strategy‟ may be insufficient to appreciate the oppressive nature of stereotyping. Therefore, a Critical „Pedagogy-of-the-Oppressed‟ intervention is implemented, whereby students describe and „name‟ their own experiences of suffering stereotyping during their year-abroad experiences with narratives of stigmatisation, discrimination, exclusion and marginalisation. A tentative pedagogical model, a teaching tool and a „grammar of interculture‟ emerge from this study for the deconstruction of stereotypes in the development of „critical cultural awareness‟ for practical teaching practice and classroom use.

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Introduction: In 2001, the year before citizenship education became a statutory subject in England there were disturbances and violence ‘involving large numbers of people from different cultural backgrounds’ (The Cantle Report, 2001). That same year the attacks on the Twin Towers rocked the world and in 2005 so-called ‘home-grown’ extremists bombed London killing 52 people. Reports were commissioned to explore the reasons behind these events and to suggest recommended ways forward. Concerns were raised about intuitional racism, internal security, a lack of a sense of Britishness and extremism. All prompted an education response. From 2002 teachers had to cope with more and more education initiatives and directives which addressed key issues and concerns, with citizenship education in particular being seen as playing a key role in bringing about the necessary societal change. The aims of this research are to show how teachers, student teachers and tutors say they are responding to the many top-down initiatives related to citizenship education, and reveal the mechanisms that impact on the ways in which educators say they are responding to the top-down initiatives related to citizenship education. Methodology: The research uses a qualitative research design which is underpinned by critical realism. Critical realism helped to provide the necessary methodological framework to reveal the generative mechanisms which might be working to influence educators’ responses (tendencies) to top-down initiatives; and how and why these tendencies occur in some settings but not others. The empirical research has been generated over a ten year period and I employed a variety of data collection tools including questionnaires; semi-structured interview; focus group and participant observation. Findings: The number of top-down initiatives that have been introduced by the government has seen some very different responses from educators. Some educators are able to interlace different agendas and weave varied themes together in creative ways as a means of addressing different demands. For others the initiatives seem to be source of pressure which sets up a tendency to interpret the initiatives as something more, something additional that has to be managed, particularly in the case where educators are having to address different priorities such as raising or maintaining results. This in turn helps to create further sets of tendencies and tensions with some educators employing teaching and learning processes which are incompatible with citizenship education. Conclusion: While there are a number of mechanisms which seem to be particularly significant to tendency generation including school context and appropriate training, highly significant mechanisms for generating educators’ responses are personal commitment and motivation, and the ability to think creatively. It is possible that, through appropriate training, educators can acquire skills in creative and critical thinking. However the passion and motivation to teach citizenship education is much harder to impart. The majority of educators who were committed to citizenship, and in particular those committed to teaching for diversity and dialogue, had had some kind of personal experience which had not only provoked commitment but also provided a personal resource for educators to draw on in the classroom, which in turn helped to increase educators’ confidence to address potentially highly controversial issues. The potential for innovative educator training to capture and transmit the feelings that personal experience can inspire is thus an area that would benefit from further research.

This is a qualitative case-study of the Centre for Humanistic Education (CRE), an educational institution located in the Western Galilee region in northern Israel. CRE engages its Jewish and Arab teenage participants ~ an interpersonal and intergroup dialogue based on critical study of history and social values. The case of CRE portrays an ideological educational institution, working towards personal and social goals heavily challenged by deeply-rooted socio-political factors which dominate the surrounding reality. The thesis examines two major questions: 1. What are the nature and purposes ofCHE? 2. What is the impact ofCRE on participants, based mainly on their reflections? The study broadly illuminates CRE as a distinctive educational institution which integrates in its work three domains. These are historical education, focusing on the Holocaust; moral education, focusing on democratic and humanistic values; and peace-education, focusing on narrative-based dialogue. These are set in the context of the seemingly intractable historical, socio-political Jewish-Arab conflict.

Initially introduced in June 2005 by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), the 'Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning' (SEAL) initiative is a curriculum based resource with the aim of 'developing all children's social, emotional and behavioural skills' (DfES 2005, p.6). At present, much of the research regarding SEAL has overlooked how all the staff members within the 'whole school' understand and make use of the scheme. Drawing on concepts of emotional intelligence, school culture, staff member role and identity, and the notion of a whole-school approach, this thesis explores how primary schools and the staff members within them interpret and use SEAL. A three phase empirical study, comprising of questionnaires, focus groups and semistructured interviews was employed to aid this task. The questionnaire, completed by 402 staff members from 38 primary schools, examined how the scheme was being interpreted and used across the town. Issues relating to staff members' perceptions of the motivations for using SEAL, its purpose, how the school and individual staff members used the scheme, and how it was appraised, were explored using focus groups and individual interviews with staff members at four case study primary schools. The findings suggest that the interpretation and practice of SEAL is situated within each staff member's individual role, and within each school's individual culture. It was discovered that management/teaching staff and non-teaching staff held differing opinions in relation to the scheme, and a number of variables were identified as causes of this disparity. Additionally, it is argued that each school's individual needs, shaped by the perceived inadequacies taking place in the home and amongst the pupils' parents, influenced how SEAL was utilised and, as such, the interpretation and use of the scheme varied between schools. The implications of the study's findings for schools, policy and future research are discussed.

In this thesis I examine two citizenship education teachers' critical thinking in relation to the texts of "Education for Democratic Citizenship" (EDC) programme. I examine - how their critical thinking defines their teaching practice. Based on the relevant literature pertaining to the concept of critical thinking, I argue that critical thinking is an intersubjective and meaning making process which aims at the restoration of truth. I inform this view with the Critical Realist philosophy and its dialectics of truth according to which truth has a world reporting meaning and that knowledge comprises a 'truth-talk'. Hence, I view the EDC programme textbooks as a 'truth-talk' . about the social and political reality, having at its core the concept of citizenship. I regard the EDC programme textbooks as an 'interlocutor' within the educational process who holds a superior epistemological position in comparison to the teacher and exerts power on her. Based on case studies, I examine how two citizenship education teachers in Greece, interpret the EDC texts, process the meaning and proceed to critical thinking constructing their subjective versions of truth about the political and social reality. I record the way they structure and manage a discussion in the classroom and I conclude that their teaching practice is defined by their subjective versions of truth which are nevertheless objectively false. I emphasise the power relations in the classroom where teachers hold a superior position to the students and I conclude that teachers comprise the [mal 'truth-tellers'. I thus stress teachers' ethical obligation regarding what kind of 'truth' they import in the classroom. This involves both the EDC programme knowledge of citizenship - which I evaluate as a pseudo 'truth talk' - and their own 'truth-talk' consisting of knowledge, discourses, ideological, philosophical and theoretical trends which do not enable them to effectively restore the truth. Consequently, I argue that teachers should be in constant evaluation of their critical thinking processes and I suggest the concept of the 'Sociology of Critical Thinking'.

Is it possible to educate for capability as a goal, not a by-product, of education? This thesis addresses this research question by presenting a model to support the implementation of a person-centred approach to teaching and learning in post-compulsory humanities education. This is based on a new methodological framework employed within the Project module in the Philosophical Studies programme at Newcastle University. Here, learners apply a project-based, context-driven approach to develop an understanding of conceptual themes set out in lectures within the context of a personal interest (the Project). The model puts the learner at the centre of the process and develops students' knowledge and understanding of course content alongside the development of individual competences; that is, a capacity for learning. The model is based on my own experience of the methodology as a learner and tutor, as well as practical research and delivery. It draws on Problem-Based Learning theory to offer a vocabulary to support dialogue between students and tutors to enhance the learning experience. The model of Project Practices seeks to bridge the gap between the personal and private with the academic and theoretical, by supporting a dual approach to learning. It may be used to enhance the delivery of the context-driven methodology and its effectiveness in supporting skills development alongside knowledge acquisition by acting as a planning and dialogue tool. It may also offer the potential to apply the object-based context driven project methodology in other educational contexts or levels where appropriate. Placed within the context of the growing literature on this subject, this thesis offers one alternative to traditional approaches to teaching and learning which is grounded in and responds to the increasingly complex nature of life and work in the twenty-first century. This model responds to the research objective by integrating a person-centred approach to teaching and learning alongside traditional delivery methods in order to educate for capability. It offers an original model to support person-centred learning alongside traditional delivery methods within Higher Education.