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The notion of social justice in education involves examining how experiences are shaped in schools through interconnecting systems of socialisation. The focus of this inquiry centred on exploring mechanisms which challenge trainee teachers’ normalised assumptions of equality. Using a case study approach I investigated whether experiences prior to the training process or the instructional pedagogies employed had the greatest influence in the shaping of socially responsible teachers. The study was carried out on a primary PGCE programme with a total of fifteen participants over two years. Through an interpretative paradigm the cyclical hermeneutic was employed to analyse participants’ critically reflective responses to their teacher development. Participants’ prior experiences were captured and coded to determine an awareness of the ‘Other’, related to visible and invisible identity salience, and of equality issues. These data were available in the form of a semi structured questionnaire and autobiographical accounts. Throughout the programme participants’ narrative reflections of the instructional pedagogies employed for social justice encounters were also coded to determine participants’ capacity to integrate the instruction in terms of considering the pupils they will teach. Further critical reflections identified which participants were capable of countering deficit stereotypes of pupils during teaching practice. In contributing to knowledge in the field this study identifies that it is possible to predict ITT candidates’ propensity for social responsibility in the classroom. The analysis of data revealed that a trainee’s sense of responsibility towards ‘the other’ coupled with the level of criticality employed in their reflective practice is directly related to their capacity to become a socially responsible teacher. Coherent guidance and expectations employed through the instructional programme encouraged socially aware trainees to act upon this when teaching. This study confirms the need to closely examine the coherence of ITT programmes in guiding trainees’ social justice awareness.

This study examines the quality of students' performance between teachers/departments within the same Higher Education (HE) institution in terms of both "raw and Value Added" (V A) approaches, and seeks potential explanations to any observed differences using mixed-methods methodology. The study was informed by several issues including increasing student enrollment in Higher Education (HE) and current quality demands brought about by the new Polytechnic Act (2007). The study draws on School Effectiveness Research (SER) theories, conceptual models, methodologies and approaches given that, evidence from the research field links quality education with institutional self-evaluation, particularly studies that use the "V A" approach and multileve1 statistical techniques. Although SER studies do 'not provide a blue-print for effective institutions, this study explores the utility of the valuable insights provided by SI?R as used by various stakeholders to design and to improve policies and practices aimed at improving the overall quality of student performance within institutions. The input-process-output-context framework presented in the Global Monitoring Report (2004) was utilised in selecting appropriate issues and variables for the study. Overall, the study focused on five generic student outcomes (African Studies, first and second semester Communication Skills and Computer Literacy), using two separate cohort datasets (2009 and 2007-2009) and interview data obtained from four academic Deans and two servicing Heads of Departments (HoDs). The datasets (2009 and 2007-2009) were created using data from different sources including secondary data, administrative records and data collected via a student/teacher survey. The 2009 dataset (about 1,800 students) included additional information on students' SES and I , . student/teacher survey not available for the 2007-2009 dataset (about 6,000 students). The quantitative and qualitative data were respectively analysed using MLwiN and thematic analysis, The 2009 dataset was used in (a) examining the extent and size of the variation in "raw" student perfonnance, (b) "V A" progress made (adjusting for prior attainment measures only), (c) teacher/department effects (adjusting for prior attainment, background, SES and department context in the fonn of mean prior attainment) and (d) the relevance of teacher-inputs, and student/teacher views about classroom/department processes. ANOVA and descriptive statistics based on the 2009 dataset were further used to surnrnarize typical classroom/department activities that occurred consistently or were significantly different between the three courses - African Studies, Connnunication Skills (CS) and Computer Literacy (CL). The stability of the students' perfonnance over time was also examined using the 2007-2009 data set and the linear approach. The face-ta-face interviews with the servicing HoDs and the academic Deans, on the other hand, focused on typical servicing department/faculty processes that may potentially explain the quantitative fmdings in particular and the students' perfonnance in general Overall, the study indicated that teachers/departments were to an extent different in promoting the . students' "V A" perfonnances though no teacher/department appeared consistently effective in promoting the students,' performance in all five outcomes. Another key fmding was that prior attainment, background, SES and mean prior attairunent measl!Ies may not be as insightful in understanding students' performance at the tertiary le~e1 as they are at the pre-tertiary level. Key input and process factors identified to have influenced the students' performances included teacher characteristics such as age, gender, academic qualification, teaching experience within the ii I I institution, individualized academic support for students, high expectation of student achievement, students' perception about the courses, regular monitoring of student pelfonnance, teacher commitment, whether or not students/teachers felt valued, order and discipline, quality of teaching, teacher professional development and cooperation among teachers. The study also highlighted a number of key issues that needed to be addressed in tenns of policy, practice and research, if the quality of students' performance within the Polytechnic is to be improved. Such issues included .the need for (a) a policy document on regular self-evaluation, (b) a national dataset created in collaboration with the Polytechnics for examining effectiveness across institutions, (c) early remedial SUPPOlt for both low and high achieving students and (d) the standardisation of rules across all faculties. However, a careful and contextualised interpretation/use of the fmding is emphasised considering the limitations of the study. Keywords: Raw performance, valued added progress made, teacher/department effects, trend analysis, teacher-input, classroom/department processes.

The focus of the RBT (Research Based Thesis) was teachers’ professional development (PD) within a school undertaking the innovative CASE (Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education) project. The study involved a case-based approach that drew upon a range of mixed methods to explain the process of how teachers learn as they develop an ownership of the CASE methodology. The literature review placed this research in the developing field of professional adult learning, where it has been recognised that more research is required to consider equally both professional learning processes and the pedagogy of how students learn. In line with the founders of CASE, the RBT examined teachers’ development through an active, conscious process. The two main research questions focused on teachers’ PD and are as follows: Question 1 How does a teacher change in terms of his/her classroom skills, attitudes/beliefs and knowledge/understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of CASE as he/she develops an ownership of the methodology and how can the nature of the change process be characterised? Question 2 How important to the process of change are the mediating factors of experimentation, collaboration, lesson observation with feedback and modelling? In addition, student outcomes were also included in the study mainly to give a clear indication of the effectiveness of the CASE project, which relates to the third subsidiary question: Question 3 Did the students show significant cognitive gains, with the primary focus being the whole cohort’s results? A case study methodology was used, drawing uponmixed-methods based upon a pragmatic paradigm. The study was carried out in my own institution during the academic year 2007-2008 where I was the upper school Deputy Headteacher, and involved three participant teachers. Qualitative teacher data was collected through three lesson observations and semi-structured interviews - one per term. Quantitative data was also collected at three different stages to measure students’ cognitive development using the established Science Reasoning Tests (SRTs). The research tools were developed using an analytical framework which contained a description of each construct and/or process contained in the two main research questions. The development of teachers’ classroom practice was solely studied using a systematic lesson observation schedule, whilst all the other constructs were researched either directly or indirectly through the semi-structured interviews. The BERA (British Educational Research Association) guidelines were used to consider ethical issues especially those relating to carrying out research in my own institution with a small number of participants as well as my multiple roles. In terms of PD inputs, the participant teachers attended six half termly in-service sessions and observed a demonstration lesson conducted by me at the beginning of the year. The approach to analysis used a combination of inductive and deductive methods. The interview transcripts were initially coded using the analytical framework with respect to the different constructs, but the themes were inductively identified. The main deductive approach to analysis was the use of established PD models to give a level to teachers’ classroom practice based on a novice-expert five stage model and their sense of ownership using a non- linear stage model. In relation to question 3, students’ cognitive levels were compared with norms to determine whether cognitive gains had been made beyond expectation. A common issue in CPD (Continuing Professional Development) research is that the tools used for development can often overlap with methods of data collection. Careful consideration was given to this in the methodology/method section so that the methods for collecting evidence and the PD inputs were made explicit. In terms of the main findings, in relation to question 1, there were similarities in teachers’ respective descriptions of how their knowledge of the CASE methodology developed. They referred to gaining confidence in their skills, which was supported by lesson observation. In terms of question 2, the interpretations of the responses of the two teachers with the least experience indicated differences in how they learned as well as the mediating factors that best supported their learning. This supports existing literature that individual differences play an important part in teachers’ PD. No significant cognitive gains were made by the students as determined by the analysis of their pre- and post-test SRT scores; the analysis of students’ cognitive gains in terms of standardised norms was, however, questionable and therefore the appropriateness of SRTs to measure cognitive development needs to be considered in any future research. In relation to teachers’ PD, the main recommendation for the future was the development of a contextualised PD model of CASE to allow for teachers to understand their development and to support CASE tutors in considering how teachers learn and develop an ownership of the CASE methodology. This would support teachers and tutors in being more deliberate in their respective practice.

This study explored 14 to 15 year old pupils' graphical understanding and their teachers' pedagogical content knowledge. A diagnostic instrument was developed from the research literature to suit the UK National Curriculum, and was administered to 425 pupils. The problems were deliberately posed in such a way as to encourage relevant errors and misconceptions to surface. The test was 'scaled' using Rasch methodology and the result was a hierarchy of responses, each level of which was described as a characteristic performance including key misconceptions. Results showed that pupils were able to solve tasks involving both reading and interpretation of graphs from an early level. The hierarchy was generally consistent with previous literature. The errors were validated apart from one which is believed to be a new version of the so called 'interval-point' confusion. The instrument was also further developed to function as a questionnaire for assessing teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). Teachers' estimation of the difficulty of the items, their proposed learning sequences and their awareness of errors and misconceptions were examined. Furthermore, teachers' perceptions of what is difficult were correlated with the children's actual difficulty estimates. Results showed that these teachers' estimation of what is difficult seemed to be partly structured by the curriculum sequence. Some of the teachers overestimated the difficulty of some tasks involving global interpretation and underestimated the difficulty of those which entailed pointwise reading or algebraic manipulation. Also, their knowledge was highly sensitive to the method adopted to collect the data. The teachers' mis-estimation of (relative) difficulties could be explained by one of two reasons: sometimes teachers apparently misunderstood the actual question themselves, and so underestimated the difficulty of the item. At other times, teachers overestimated the difficulty because they did not realise that children could answer the question without a sophisticated understanding of some concepts. Pupils' and teachers' responses were confirmed and enriched through group interviews and semi-structured interviews respectively.

The aim of this thesis is to provide an overview of and commentary on recruitment and entry to the teaching profession in England of mature trainees during a decade and a half between 1993 and 2008. It seeks to answer the question of the extent to which mature entry to the profession is able to contribute to teacher supply in England. While a number of national data sets include data on age, and there have been a number of studies and some media reporting in relation to mature entry, there has been, to date, no full account of mature entry to teaching. This thesis aims to fill that gap by providing a synthesis of the available information, interrogating that synthesis and identifying policy implications and questions for further research. The thesis explores the rhetoric and reality behind the efforts made to attract older entrants to teaching, considering the evidence base on which such campaigns were based. It considers the extent to which policy aims have been successfully met in respect of the employment and retention of those trained as mature trainees, and looks at implications for the future.

This thesis is a critical qualitative analysis of the teaching methods of seven new teachers in 5 Botswana junior secondary schools during their first term of teaching. The focus is on socialisation during early childhood, their own schools, colleges of education and their new teaching schools. Data were collected from new teachers and stakeholders mainly through school and lesson observations, unstructured and semi-structured interviews, document analysis and supplementary questionnaires. The overarching conclusion is that authoritarianism in junior secondary schools is rooted in the teachers' positivist view of knowledge as 'facts' to be 'delivered' to the passive students. The behaviourist teacher training model reproduces the new teachers' authoritarianism rooted in their own school experiences. There was authoritarian school socialisation of the new teachers through the formal and hidden Curricula. Lack of induction. programmes exposed new teachers to school enculturation in the form of staff-room gossip, military-style morning assemblies, strict enforcement of punctuality and school uniforms which amount to the imposition of the 'cultural capital' of dominant groups in society. Systemic constraints like large class sizes, mixed ability groups, teaching through a foreign language, unwieldy syllabuses, examinations driven curricula and lack of subject base rooms were contributory factors. Furthermore, the prescriptive national curriculum reduces teachers to 'technicians' rather than curriculum builders. The 'technical rationality model' pervades preservice training. School climates, rules and regulations and student-teacher relationships are undemocratic as structures for students' voice do not exist and caning is routinised. New teachers had a fixation with 'class control' enforced by caning. While the state sanctions and attempts to restrict the application of corporal punishment there was no evidence of enforcement of the rules despite their frequent infraction by teachers. However, the only urban school in the sample minimised the use of caning and it had the best academic results. The only new teacher opposed to caning achieved the best class control with only a modicum of effort. On this basis claims by teachers that caning works and is part of 'African culture' are questionable. The historical roots of authoritarianism and its brutal face of corporal punishment are traced to the advent of rationalist colonial education in Botswana and the evolution of a positivist post-independence system of education. Behaviourism in colleges of education and junior secondary schools cannot be divorced from the activities of USAID - the aid agency which developed the curricula of the two sets of institutions during their inception from 1980 to 1990. By the end of the term much of the college-induced behaviourism of the new teachers had disappeared while the positivist outlook was retained. Whole class teaching, usually with no teaching aids, became the norm, student participation was curtailed and caning was commonly used and defended.

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Empathy can be seen as a crucial factor in developing understanding of the world around us. The “ability to see something from a different point of view” has been associated with increased ability to understand literature, the moral development of children, and the development of positive personality traits both in adults and children. Investigating empathy, however, is difficult, not least because it is likely to develop over a considerable length of time, and may well involve private or even confidential conversations with a sympathetic audience or counsellor. The following research began with an analysis of existing literature on empathy, ranging from that presented by practising psychologists to those engaged in classroom practice with children. The fieldwork began with an investigation into the meaning of empathy when it is used in the classroom with children in the formative years of their early teens. The Initial Study examined teacher perceptions of empathy and sought to find commonality between teachers’ ideas and the literature available on empathy. It looked particularly at how teachers utilise empathy in the presentation of literary texts, and whether it helped the pupils to develop their knowledge of set literary texts. Qualitative research methods were used, allowing the focus to be the learning process in the classroom, rather than any end results. The research increasingly came to focus on the pupil experience of empathy in the classroom, and an action research programme was used to allow spirals of activity and reflection to develop. Action research provided the opportunity to observe and become engaged in the processes which children use in order to construct their own knowledge about particular literary texts which they are required to “study” during Key Stage Three of the National Curriculum. Pupils were observed in their normal surroundings and classrooms, and the work progressed with the help of another teacher, committed to the improvement of her own practice through collaborative action research. The findings indicated that empathy is difficult to sustain, and not always clearly understood by practitioners in the classroom. It can be viewed as a useful tool, which if carefully used can help learners to construct their own knowledge about a particular text. The study suggested that there is a need for teachers to review assessment strategies for work carried out using empathy as a tool.

This small-scale ethnographic study reports on an investigation into the ways in which classroom assistants support the development of children’s language and literacy in a limited number of mainstream primary schools. The purpose of the study was to gain an understanding of the ways in which assistants support children, the influence of school policies on their work and how, or if, their own language and literacy practices affected their work. The study was carried out between 1997- 2000, a period, which coincided with the introduction of the National Literacy Strategy. Phase One, a pilot study documented the work of classroom assistants in one urban primary school for 5 - 11 year olds. Phase Two, the distribution of a questionnaire survey to 39 urban primary schools and brief observations and interviews in eight of those schools was based on the information obtained in phase one. The data from phase two was analysed and used to select three schools for phase three, two primary and one infant as ‘core data’ schools. This report discusses the results from the questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and observations. It indicates some of the ways in which assistants’ personal literacy practices were used to support children and the links between these and school policy documents. The findings suggest that the management style and ethos of a school affected the deployment of assistants, their access to training and their status as members of staff. The study concludes that heads and teachers need to be aware of not only of what assistants are asked to do but how they do it in order to monitor and evaluate their work, use the skills they bring to the job and plan tailored training.