This study investigates the social psychological factors that determine why some teachers are more committed to teaching environmental education (EE) than others. A mixed methods approach was adopted to explore and test these determinants and to offer an insight into the meanings of these determinants as perceived by teachers. In the quantitative phase, a revised Model of Environmental Education Commitment (MEEC; Shuman & Ham,1997) which is largely based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1991; 1988) was explored using structural equation modelling techniques. Data were obtained from a sample of 182 primary school teachers in Scotland. The hypothesised model was tested to identify the significant determinants of commitment, relationship between these determinants and the utility of the MEEC in explaining teachers' commitment to EE. The qualitative phase involved in-depth interviews with 8 primary school teachers based on a framework of Soft Systems Methodology (Checkland & Scholes, 1990) to expand understanding and explore strategies for increasing teachers' commitment to EE. The results confirmed that the MEEC provided a significant explanation for why some teachers are more committed to teaching EE than others. Overall, teacher autonomy and perceived control in terms of the flexibility or inflexibility of the curriculum appeared to be the most significant influence on commitment. However, the findings showed a complex interrelationship between the factors that influence commitment. Teacher autonomy for instance was significantly dependent on the influence of referents and life experiences connected to environmental issues. The study recommended that these interrelationships should be taken into account in any attempt to improve the level of commitment. Findings from the study contribute significantly to understanding teacher commitment to EE by providing theoretical and statistical support for previous qualitative findings on the significant life experiences that influence commitment to environmental issues. Recommendations for future research are also discussed.

The aim of this study has been to investigate the position of women teaching in English universities, in terms of both their objective status and their subjective views of their place in the profession, Recent studies made in other countries, such as Germany, have shown that 'the female don' has not as yet gained equal recognition as a member of the academic world. Information on the situation in Great Britain has not heretofore been available. Especially since university teaching in this country is on the threshold of a great expansion, with concomitant structural changes, it has seemed worthwhile to explore the occupational image and reality of the academic women in England. The present empirical study, carried out in 1964, included interviews with 100 women engaged in full-time teaching at eight selected universities. The sample was designed to include approximately equal numbers of married and single women because special attention was to be given to the problem connected with the 'dual role' as mother and professional woman. In order to test and supplement the present sample, and also to provide comparisoxs between women and men in the profession, the data derived from the sample have been compared with available national figures based on the University Teachers' Survey of the Committee on Higher Education. The present study describes English academic women in terms of various social and family characteristics, educational and professional attainments, career and recruitment patterns, and perceived motivations for becoming a university teacher. In addition, opinions are analyzed as expressed by the respondents on such topics as preferred or disliked aspects of their work - e.g. teaching as against research and administration -, the respective amounts of time devoted to such activities, promotion prospects, notions of discrimination, and other views of their position in the academic world. With regard to the present shortage of academic staff, there is need for a recruitment policy taking into account the special situation and needs of married women who comprise a potential source of prospective teachers.

Two studies are reported in this thesis that were designed to examine the concurrent and longitudinal relationships between psychosocial factors (trust beliefs, loneliness, social integration provisions and negative life events) and academic achievement during the first year of study at Keele University. Three mechanisms were examined: (a) the transfer of knowledge comprising trust beliefs as a factor promoting the acquisition of knowledge and thus academic achievement, (b) peer integration and support comprising trust beliefs in peers as a factor promoting social integration/support and thus academic achievement, and (c) trust beliefs as a buffer to stress comprising trust beliefs as a buffer to life stressor which fostered academic achievement. In the first pilot study (Study 1) 133 undergraduates and in second main study (Study 2) 331 undergraduates completed measures of trust beliefs in peers, trust beliefs in lectures (Study 2 only), generalised trust beliefs, loneliness, social integration provisions and life events. The students' academic achievement was assessed by marks and withdrawal. The measures were administered to the undergraduates, in part, or in total, across two times during the course of the first year of university. The findings of Study 2 demonstrated that, in support of the transfer of knowledge mechanism, trust beliefs in lecturers were concurrently associated with marks. Gender moderated the longitudinal relations found in Study 2. Consistent with the peer integration and support mechanism, females' trust beliefs tended to predict increases, social integration predicted increases. and social loneliness predicted decreases, in marks and withdrawal from university. Males tended to show contrary patterns, however, including the finding that their trust beliefs in lecturers predicted decreases in marks. The fmdings failed to yield clear support for trust beliefs as a buffer to stress mechanism with marks, however lower generalised trust and negative life events did predict withdrawal from university. Consistent with previous research, loneliness predicted withdrawal from university. The findings yielded evidence that trust beliefs and other psychosocial factors (e.g., social integration for females, and global loneliness) potentially affect academic achievement in the first year of university but that trust in a particular target (i.e., lecturers) by males may undermine academic achievement.

This project attempts to make queer theory practicable for young people of secondary school age in England and to identify any barriers as to why this might be difficult to achieve. It hopes to encourage young people to interrogate their viewpoints, beliefs and values around gender and sexual identities and to discover how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer-identifying students might best be protected and fostered within English secondary schools. Data was gathered from questionnaires, interviews and workshops, and from observation of and participation in internet forums and Personal, Social and Health Education lessons in a secondary school in Middlesex. The thesis concludes there are some benefits in the short term for utilising a human rights approach to equality but demonstrates how this might be problematic for some identities that have little specific legal protection, and argues instead that a more radical queering of the educational system is necessary. This would need to include the need for improved teacher training and changes to the national curriculum.

Taking a Rational Choice Institutionalist approach, this thesis argues that the Single Member Plurality (SMP) elections have contributed to the thriving of electoral one-party state in Malaysia. Analysing six consecutive elections from 1982 to 2004, it examines the implications of the electoral system for the formation of party system in West Malaysia - the political core of Malaysia- from four aspectsr: eductiono f nationalp arties,r eductiono f constituencyp arties, programmatic competition and particularistic competition. Based on Cox's "M+1" rule of party reduction, it explains the under-reduction of national parties and over-reduction of constituency parties. While the winner-takes-all character of SMP electionsn ormally forcesp olitical playerst o coalescein to two camps,M alaysiah adt wo oppositionp arties- representingth e Malays andn on-Malaysr espectively- for most of the years. The winner-takes-all character of the electoral system had been so strong that the opposition saw no prospect of winning the executive power and no incentive to form a coalition. Meanwhile, at the constituency level, ethnically-mixed constituencies often returned the ruling coalition candidates with large margin, resulting in monopartism rather than bipartism. Until the majority is larger than two-third to ensure a united minority cannot emerge as the plurality winner, driven by ethnici nsecurity,t hey would ratherc oncentrateth eir voteso n onec andidateth at represents their ethnic interests. SMP elections are often credited for middle-ground politics but the divided opposition parties in Malaysia often occupied the flank positions. An analysis into party manifestos shows that political parties did indeed move to the centre as they form coalition, but only when the opposition could see the prospect of winning. Lastly, this thesis tries to assess the significance of particularistic competition but cannot find evidences for phenomena like personal vote and incumbency effect. This is perhaps because particularistic competition in Malaysia is more party-based than individual-based.

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