Action research was carried out in one secondary school to investigate the nature of emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD). Prior to the action research, a survey on staff views of pupils' emotional and behavioural difficulties was carried out in one local authority to inform the local authority's behaviour support plan and staff in one secondary school expressed particular concerns regarding pupils' behaviour difficulties. This secondary school agreed to become the focus of the action research project on behaviour difficulties. Three action research cycles were used to investigate the nature of pupils' behaviour difficulties. The first action research cycle focused on senior staffs' perceptions of pupils' behaviour difficulties and Year 7 groups were perceived by the special educational needs co-ordinator (Senco) as particularly challenging. The second action research cycle included classroom observations of Year 7 groups, meetings with school staff and a further series of observations with particular attention to two subject areas in which contrasting teacher/ pupil behaviour was observed. Feedback on the classroom observations was given to each class teacher and one teacher who was observed to be particularly successful in engaging pupils in the curriculum was interviewed. The third action research cycle focused on staff focus groups with the aim of generating solutions to problem behaviour across the school. Focus group meetings were provided for staff to talk about issues openly and promote opportunities to share good practice. The behaviour of Year 7 pupils' was observed to vary considerably in different lessons. Unsuccessful strategies in encouraging pupils to focus on curriculum tasks were identified as well as strategies and teaching practices which appear to help reduce or overcome behaviour difficulties.

The main aim of this thesis is to problematise discourse relating to adolescent boys in order to gain a better understanding of the persistent practice of exclusion and to seek to highlight examples of how discourse can position boys in ways that are more inclusive. In doing so this work is an attempt to theorise my practice as a researcherpractitioner educational psychologist, to be reflexive and to raise my consciousness of the means by which professionals, parents and I can both liberate and limit the ways in which the identity of excluded adolescent boys becomes discursively constructed. Taking a predominantly relativist and post structuralist position I propose a model based on Lacanian theory integrated with methods of analysing discourse, 'a critical discursive psychology' which frames and guides the research process throughout. As the thesis unfolds my initial intention to pursue the research topic from a linguisticdiscursive perspective becomes influenced by a psychoanalytical dimension as the limitations of a purely discursive approach become apparent. My attempt to take a psychoanalytical reading of the discourse data draws attention to unconscious processes that may influence the signifying of some adolescent boys as either pathological or deviant and enables me to speculate as to why such discourses persist whilst others are repressed. However, and most importantly to this study, by exposing through the discourse analysis how discourse constructs the identity of some adolescent boys at both a societal and individual level, I am able to reveal that discursive constructions of the identity of adolescent boys are also open to resistance and change. This in tum provides rich possibilities for future research and practice.

No description available.

No description available.

Research on men and masculinity has boomed in the past two decades, due largely to the insights and progress made by feminist theorists. Mainstream education has emerged as one of the most widely studies areas of society for examining issues of gender and masculinity, but relatively little has been discussed concerning men in other educational contexts. My research focuses on semi-structured interviews with young men from a variety of educational contexts outside mainstream schooling: Sociology Undergraduates, B.Ed Students and 'Powerhouse' Complementary Educational Project users. This thesis charts my movement of thinking about the 'making of men' in each of these contexts, and the increasing influence of poststructuralist theory as a means of understanding the formation of masculinities, and of considering my own influence and role in the research. By means of introduction, I give a brief 'intellectual biography', to illustrate how I arrived at my initial thinking about masculinities, before demonstrating the increasing influence of poststructuralist theory through the course of the thesis. I proceed to illustrate how various academic discourses on gender impinge on the masculinities in the interviews and contribute to a complex set of factors affecting my developing understanding of gender. I interviewed 30 men in total, and I my discontents with various methods of analysing the 'data' led to the development of a different method of analysis than I had originally intended, presenting 'stories' which focus on one man in particular from each cohort. As I interviewed participants in both group and one-to-one contexts, there are also contributions in these 'stories' from several of the other young men. These 'stories' where were then developed further by the addition of a second 'story' column, written a year after the first, which both interrogates and elucidates on the first in an attempt to deliver a 'polyphony' of voices concerning the masculinities in the interviews. I conclude by suggesting that researching masculinities is problematic due to the assumptions and definitions that the researcher brings into the fieldwork, but by analysing the transcripts with multiple readings, we can allow for a greater understanding of the men and masculinities involved. I then proceed to debate the how emancipatory aspirations of traditional feminist research can be applied to my study, and how poststructuralism troubles the notion of 'validity' involved with such research. I point towards the possibilities of future research on masculinities that incorporates feminism and poststructuralism, allowing for a 'movement' between the 'paralysis' and 'Iiberatory' aspects involved, explicitly discussing the role of the self in the research and the dynamic nature of the production of masculinities, in order to produce gender research that is pertinent for the 21 st century.

No description available.

This qualitative study assesses the use of narrative therapy with self-cutting adolescents. The researcher, formally trained in narrative therapy, delivered a six to eight week narrative intervention separately to two self-cutting adolescent girls referred by their schools to an Educational Psychology Service. The study addressed four research questions. Pre- and post intervention self-report measures and parental reports were used to investigate research question no. 1: 'What effect does narrative therapy have upon the mental health of self-cutting adolescents?' Pre- and post-intervention narrative assessment interviews, and information from the intervention session transcripts, were used to compare the adolescents' pre- and post- intervention 'self-stories' and address research question no. 2: 'How does narrative therapy affect the self-stories of self-cutting adolescents?' The adolescents' views of the helpfulness, or otherwise, of several narrative practices, including outsider witness groups, were elicited using a post-intervention semi-structured interview and questionnaire. Narrative processes were explored and the adolescents' responses mapped using maps of narrative practice (White, 2007) to address research question no. 3: 'What narrative therapy practices do self-cutting adolescents consider to be helpful?' The study also examined how the researcher, working as an EP, used narrative therapy. This information was used to address research question no. 4: 'How might EPs use narrative therapy in their work?' The study findings indicated that narrative therapy may be a promising intervention for improving the mental health and emotional well being of self-cutting adolescents. A model for the use of narrative therapy by EPs is proposed.

This thesis, discusses the implications of the social and private constructions of dyslexia for the individual with dyslexia and the dyslexic identity. In view of the difficulties inherent in higher education this study interviews people with dyslexia who successfully entered degree courses at university. It explores their experiences in an effort to gain an understanding of how people with dyslexia form an identity. Issues surrounding 'dyslexia' have increasingly focused on its credibility as a 'genuine' medical and disabling condition. The social expectations of the condition and the differing social and medical models of conditions warranting the label 'disability' have complicated issues further. Thus far, research into dyslexic issues has mainly focused on the causation and remediation of the condition and although studies have exposed certain tensions surrounding social expectation of those with conditions deemed to be disabling, how people who describe themselves as dyslexic identify with their dyslexia as adults has been largely ignored. In view of the tensions surrounding social expectations of and certain official definitions associated with dyslexia, this thesis explores how individual's identify with their dyslexia in view of dominant perceptions of dyslexia, which is further identified through media portrayals of dyslexia and their own experiences of living with this condition. The study consists of a discourse analysis of the representations of dyslexic issues in newspaper articles. Findings discuss how representations of dyslexia are described within the context of 'inability' and how individuals are often identified as 'victims' of the condition. The onus was often on finding a 'cure'. However, the study also includes accounts of individuals who referred to social barriers which had impacted on their learning. The study carries out a discourse analysis of semi-structured interviews with students who are attending university and describe themselves as dyslexic, and investigates public representations of dyslexia informed through newspaper articles which refer to dyslexia and those labelled dyslexic. The findings reveal that media portrayals of dyslexia often associate it with inability or a lack of ability to achieve in reading and writing skills. However, many of the participants believed their dyslexia to be a benefit or gift, yet were often hesitant to disclose these beliefs to public scrutiny. The study also found that some of the men and women in the study often interpreted their experiences differently from each other and this pronipted an investigation into how social constructions of gender can provide insight into how some individuals with dyslexia re-form their identity with this condition.

In the UK foreign language learning at school and university is in decline. There is general agreement that there exists a widespread perception that foreign languages are neither useful nor profitable for English mother-tongue speakers. However, the European Union and the UK Government promote the idea of multilingualism and linguistic diversity in an attempt to maintain the capacity in the population. Nevertheless, one has to be motivated to expend effort for an outcome which generally is poorly rewarded. It is interesting, therefore, to know why certain adults learn or improve their competence in a foreign language when Europeans are increasingly learning English as a lingua franca. What is the motivation of such learners? The research investigates the motivation of 1,000 English mother-tongue speakers who are enthusiastic learners of various European languages. The study seeks to discriminate between the micro-level (i.e. individual learning), meso-level (i.e., educational infrastructure) and the macro-level (i.e., the influence of Europe and globalisation). The data acquired reveals the very complex reasons for this learning. Drawing from previous studies of motivation in industry, educational research and other psychological investigations, the inquiry takes a fresh look at diverse variables suggesting that certain factors and trends are evident which will be of use to language policy makers in the European Union, Canada and the United States as they attempt to maintain diversity within the foreign language curriculum. What are the reasons for language learning and are there certain profiles of language learners?.

No description available.