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This study focuses on academic curriculum team leaders in secondary schools who are in middle management positions and assesses their role following the Education Reform Act of 1988. It examines both their perceived role, along with how that relates to the tasks they prioritise, and their stated role. The expectations of others within their school are considered and compared with findings of other studies established by analysis of current literature. A model is developed to classify the tasks expected of the academic middle managers to see if expectations and performance vary according to whether the task is related to the management of people and if it is on a school wide or individual basis. Data collection includes a survey of middle managers in schools in three local authorities in the East Midlands and East Anglia with a response rate of 47 per cent. There are also three case studies where middle managers and members of their role sets are interviewed, meetings observed and documents analysed. The research findings show that the department or subject area team is considered by the middle managers as being their most influential group in all areas of decision making with the head and senior management of secondary significance. There is some difference between the tasks the middle managers perceived as expected by their heads and senior managers and those they perceive as expected by their departmental or subject area team. For all task areas there are middle managers who perceive tasks to be expected of them by their senior managers but do not accept them as being their responsibility. There is clear evidence, however, that the middle managers have accepted responsibility for the monitoring and supervision of their departmental staff. Middle mangers were aware that expectations of them had increased following the ERA and accepted the legitimacy of these requirements but there was no evidence of additional time being given for this extra responsibility.

Since 1979 there has been a marked shift in the education system of England and Wales, and, in particular, in the provision and organisation of compulsory schooling. One of the key components of this shift was the introduction of Open Enrolment, which gave parents the opportunity to state a preference over the school they would like their children to attend. This study examines the secondary education system and specifically focuses on issues of equity in the 'new' education market, both in the process of parents choosing a school and the product, or outcome, of this new system on school admissions. This is done from a geographical perspective, and consequently makes comparison between different LEAs and different schools, urban and rural. Using Geographical Information Systems this study examines patterns of competition and choice based on pupil home postcodes and relates these patterns to the decision-making process of parents. This thesis presents the geography of the 'new' secondary education market and provides a conceptual framework that stresses the importance of the geographical context behind competition and choice. This research also shows that consideration of 'local' markets is necessary in aiding an understanding of the reforms, and that the outcomes of competition between schools tends to reflect their relative examination performances. However, it is also clear that parents from different socio-economic backgrounds are 'active' in the 'new' education market, which, consequently, has in the majority of cases prevented further social segregation of intakes, and has in some cases actually reduced social polarisation. There is a cautionary note to these findings since the study also shows that there are a small number of schools, which due to their extreme levels of popularity and unpopularity, have seen the socio-economic composition of their intakes change dramatically, increasing the social divide between these schools.

This research sought to examine current concerns about the quality of the educational experience of secondary age pupils who have the potential to achieve highly in academic tests. It asked about the best means of nurturing such pupils, the experiences which are most likely to affect their educational achievement and wellbeing and, lastly, what factors need to be taken into account to ensure that they are likely to fulfil their potential. An empirical study was undertaken in four case study schools. Interviews were carried out in four secondary schools in the south-east of England – twelve with groups of pupils and a further ten with a selection of staff. Additional evidence was gained from focus group studies involving parents. Interview data were analysed by the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method. Four clusters of findings emerged. These included: pupils‟ experience of teaching and learning; their experience of school support; aspiration and anxiety; potential inhibitors of enjoyment and achievement. Further analysis suggested that highly able pupils might have pronounced preferences for particular pedagogies, including practical or collaborative work. Creative activities were also highly valued if accompanied by good lesson planning, sound behaviour management, along with approachability and humour on the part of the teacher. Pupils‟ concerns centred on negative peer pressure and accelerated entry to public exams. Some teachers and support staff were concerned by instances of depression amongst high ability pupils. Staff showed high levels of expertise in managing such issues, especially where ASD/Asperger‟s was a factor. Parents reported anxieties about their children‟s future prospects in higher education. They sometimes lacked confidence in knowing how to support their child‟s learning. They also appeared to have experienced some negative peer pressure of their own „at the school gates‟ from fellow parents, sometimes related to their child‟s high level of academic success. Finally, school leaders spoke of their schools‟ initiatives for supporting their highly academic pupils. These included schoolwide enrichment designed to stretch the most able, but based on an inclusive philosophy and an overt culture of praise. On balance, pupils in the schools sampled appeared to be thriving.

In the UK, girls perform highly at secondary school; they have been the success story of education in recent times. However, they also make up only 17% of ‘top jobs’ in the FTSE 100 in the UK (Martinson, 2012); are completely outnumbered in Westminster (22% of UK MPs) and constitute only 13.6% of senior judiciary positions in Law (Fawcett Society, 2013). There remains a considerable mismatch between girls’ academic success and subsequent levels of career achievement. This research project explores the perceptions of future eminence held by high-achieving secondary schoolgirls. A ‘possible selves’ story-writing methodology was used: 10 Year 10 (age 14 and 15) participants were asked to imagine themselves and write about a day in their possible future as an eminent woman in their chosen field. This data was analysed using ‘multiple textual analytic frames’ (Wickens, 2011), which involved a constant comparative analysis (Glaser and Strauss, 1967); textual discursive analysis (Fairclough, 2003) and literary analysis (Vandergrift, 1990). This study concludes that high-achieving secondary schoolgirls hold ambivalent perceptions of future eminence. They foresee a range of the difficulties and strains detailed by the real experiences of the women in the ‘Opt-Out’ literature e.g. long working hours, exhaustion. They also foresee the potential for exciting careers and creativity. And where they do foresee future challenges in an eminent career, they do not position these as ‘external’ barriers e.g. they do not see gender as a barrier, nor do they imagine limiting social structures or workplace inequalities. For the participants in this study, barriers to future eminence have been internalised, echoing the conclusions of Ringrose (2007), Pomerantz and Raby (2011), Beck (2001) and Bauman (2008) regarding the neo-liberal transformation of the ‘social’ into the ‘individual.’

This study set out to ensure that the experiences of secondary school students who speak more than one language were listened to and valued. As a monolingual teacher, I felt that my own analysis of such students’ lived lives would be lacking. Therefore this study was undertaken in collaboration with eleven secondary school students. The students all speak more than one language fluently. Over the years there has been a paradigm shift in qualitative research methods. Education researchers have moved away from the positivist archetype to more pragmatic, participatory models. Such methods view the researched not as subject but as participant. In this study, eleven teenage researchers were trained in participatory data collection methods, ethics and data analysis. The research team developed their own questions, collected the data themselves and analysed that data collaboratively thus going some way to ensuring the integrity of the findings. The project therefore was twofold. The student researchers considered the identities of bilingual learners within school and the learners’ understandings of and approaches to being bilingual. The second part of the project deals with collaboration. I consider whether or not such collaborations are able to deconstruct entrenched power inequalities and empower bilingual learners.

This study is the first territory-wide research into the quality management issues of extracurricular activities (ECA) involving the whole population of the frontline ECA masters/mistresses in Hong Kong secondary schools. Survey was the major research method which was triangulated and supplemented by elite interviews and case studies. The two case studies involved an investigation into a unique Hong Kong secondary school using an extension curriculum to replace traditional ECA, and a study into the only school in Hong Kong adopting the ISO9002 quality assurance system in school management. In this study, effective ECA quality management practices were recognized while management deficiencies and quality gaps were identified. The modes of practice in ECA management, and the factors hindering ECA development, were also identified. The perception of management quality in the serving schools from the perspectives of the ECA masters/mistresses, in terms of "ECA management" and "ECA quality and quantity", was analyzed. This study also challenged the dichotomy of the formal and informal curricula in Hong Kong school education, and criticized the existing examination-oriented and academic-focussed education culture. The findings in this study were scrutinized and discussed with literature concerning Total Quality Management and ECA management. A list of innovative ECA items in Hong Kong secondary schools was generated. For ECA quality assurance, an effective school-based ECA quality management model has been introduced with a model for ECA curriculum development. Finally there were recommendations for improving ECA management and suggestions for further research.

This study aims to explore how Year Ten students make sense of the experience of studying and achieving in academic subjects. Purposive homogenous sampling was used to select Year Ten students from the same school, eligible for free school meals and underachieving according to grade predictions based on end of key stage tests. Semi-structured interviews were conducted individually, focusing on students’ perceptions around three research questions: • How do students interpret their experience of home (community and family) and its influence on study and achievement in academic subjects? • How do students interpret their experience of school and its influence on study and achievement in academic subjects? • How do students make sense of studying and achieving in academic subjects? Interpretative Phenomenological analysis was chosen as the methodological framework for a detailed examination of six students’ expressed experiences. A rich account of these experiences is given in the interpretative findings with eight superordinate themes emerging. Most students perceived their parents to have expectations that they studied and achieved in academic subjects, but lacked the educational understanding and resources to help. Students valued the pastoral care system and relationships with teachers, when they perceived them to be supportive to their learning and when teachers held them in good opinion. Active teaching approaches that supported autonomy were largely perceived as having positive effects on studying. Students mostly associated negative emotions of frustration, confusion, anxiety and boredom with study in academic subjects; this often lead to decreased motivation. The findings are discussed in the light of the motivation framework of Social Determination theory. Conclusions are drawn that have implications for school and Educational Psychology practice.

The influence of parent engagement on a child's education appears to be a rare area of consensus in the sector. However, there is comparatively little agreement on exactly what parent engagement means, or how it can be encouraged among families where it is relatively sporadic. These difficulties are especially prevalent in secondary schools. In response, this thesis presents a series of experiments which aimed to improve pupils' grades by providing parents with timely and actionable information 'on their child's schooling. Chapter 1 reviews previous research on the influence of parents on their child's human capital. Chapter 2 presents an experiment where parents were texted conversation prompts related to their child's science classes for one month. These texts increased home conversations about science for all pupils, but only improved grades for the previously highest attaining pupils. Chapter 3 presents an experiment where parents were texted notification of an upcoming maths test and a request that they encourage their child to study. The intervention improved attainment for the previously lowest attaining pupils and surveys revealed parent and pupil demand for it to be repeated. These experiments were all conducted in the south east of England, were short in duration and their outcome measures were not high stakes or standardised tests. To establish the external validity of their findings, chapter 4 describes an experiment which tested these interventions and others as a bundle in a year-long experiment with a nationally representative sample of secondary schools and standardised tests as outcome measures. No statistically significant effects were found, though these null findings could be attributable to weak implementation of the intervention. Further work is required to develop the insights from parent information experiments into an implementable approach schools can use. Chapter 5's experiment used a similar modality but in a different context. Adult learners attending numeracy and literacy classes were texted weekly messages of encouragement which reduced dropout rates by 30%. In chapter 6, I attempt to elicit the mechanisms driving the treatment effects found in chapters 2 and 3 using causal mediation analysis of pupil survey data. The contribution of this thesis is to add to the growing literature showing that timely and actionable messages informed by findings from behavioural science can improve educational outcomes at a trivial cost.

Job satisfaction and work motivation are very important management concepts but the conceptual and empirical literature are predominantly from western countries, with only limited literature from African scholars and very little focused on the Cameroon context. This study contributes to the current research and literature by examining teachers’ job satisfaction and work motivation in the South West region of Cameroon, through a mixed methods design. In the quantitative phase, data were obtained from a stratified sample of 265 teachers from 20 secondary government schools from Fako (an urban setting) and Ndian (a rural setting). In the qualitative phase, two case studies (one in Fako and another in Ndian) were undertaken to provide greater depth and understanding. The study relied on a set of descriptive and inferential statistics to represent the findings of the survey on job satisfaction and work motivation. A series of non-parametric statistical analysis techniques were carried out in order to gather evidence to decipher whether teachers’ levels of teachers’ job satisfaction was related to a specific number of selected demographic variables. The study also utilized qualitative data to provide depth on teachers’ job satisfaction and work motivation. Data from interviews were analysed using a thematic approach, while field notes were compiled and analysed using broad codes and themes. The findings showed that, though intrinsic variables are commonly cited to underpin teachers’ job satisfaction in Western literature, both intrinsic and extrinsic elements are important components that shape teachers’ emotional and cognitive assessment of their job satisfaction and work motivation in Cameroon. The study showed that economic factors (salaries, allowances and benefits), situational circumstances (environmental factors and working conditions), as well as the behavioural dispositions of other members of the school (students, other teachers, and administrators), were the most prominent elements impinging on teachers’’ job satisfaction and motivation.