In recent years a preference for secondary private school education over secondary public school education has increased rapidly among parents in Riyadh in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). This study explored why, in the perceptions of 386 participants, private schools were preferred by some parents to public schools, or vice-versa. The study was conducted through questionnaire survey and Focus Group methodologies in order to identify the factors that influenced parents to be attracted to their preferred school, as well as seeking to understand why and how these factors contributed to their decision-making. For example, some parents identified weaknesses in private schools that they felt had an impact upon their child’s academic performance. In some situations they, therefore, withdrew their children and sent them to public school. On the other hand, other parents expressed their dissatisfaction with elements of public school, resulting in them sending their children to private school. Through determining the effects of independent variables in terms of choice of public or private school, the researcher was able to provide head teachers and administrators of private and public schools with identified negative and positive attributes based upon parental perceptions. The thesis also places the situation in Saudi Arabia within the wider context of global research results regarding school choice, based upon a review of relevant literature addressing the reasons and circumstances influencing parents’ preference for private or public schools. This was achieved by collecting and collating data from a questionnaire survey of 386 public school and private school parents, followed by the results of a semi-structured Focus Group interview involving five parents from each type of school. In line with the literature review, a comparison of results was undertaken to explore the identified factors and the differences in perceptions of public and private schools parents related to the Quality of Instruction; Class Size; Teacher-Student Relationship; Parent-School Relationship; School Facilities; Physical Education and Sport activities; School Rules; Safe Haven. The result of the Logistic Regression analysis revealed that, in the Saudi context, there are four significant predictors of parental school choice at the p<0.05 level or below: Class Size (W= 35.864, p˂0.001); Safe Haven (W= 19.68, p˂0.001); School Facilities (W= 6.14, p˂0.05) and Physical Education (W= 5.44, p˂0.05). Class Size was the strongest predictor, reflecting that parents who score high (or have higher agreement) on this variable, are more likely to choose a private school, because these parents either have experience of private education and/or appreciate that small class size permits a much more intense nurturing and teaching environment for pupils from the staff. This in turn demonstrated higher academic achievement in pupils. The results from this study also demonstrated, however, that parents who identified the issue of the school as a Safe Haven for their children were more likely to choose a public school. Whereas, parents who identified School Facilities as the most influential factor in their decision-making were more likely to choose a private school. This result was reflected with similar results for Physical Education and Sports. Equally, the findings of this study indicate that parents who chose a private school demonstrated a more positive perception for the desirability of School Quality than public school parents. Also, the Pearson Correlation demonstrated that higher levels of parental educational achievement and monthly income were associated with stronger preferences for private schools. Conversely, participants who do not hold high education qualifications, and those who have lower monthly incomes, were more likely to choose public schools. As this study was undertaken only in Riyadh City, KSA, the researcher recommends that future replications of this study, or a similar study, should be conducted in other cities in the Kingdom. Such studies could inform and enhance the overall effectiveness of the National Education System in KSA. Since, for religious and cultural reasons, this study was conducted with male participants only a further important recommendation is that it would be beneficial to carry out a replication of this study, or a similar study, with female participants. Such a study would permit informative comparison of results, thereby positively contributing to enhancing the existing body of knowledge regarding reasons for parental perceptions and preferences related to school choice in KSA. Such data comparisons will help to inform improvements in the overall effectiveness of the National Education System in KSA.

In recent years there have been a number of pieces of research published which suggest that the phenomenon of self-harm in adolescence is increasing (Hall & Place, 2010, Beauchaine et al.,2014, Garcıa-Nieto et al., 2015). Heath et al., (2006) found that a majority of school teachers shared this view. In their study, 74% of teachers reported a first-hand encounter with self-injury. The subject of self-harm is also receiving more media coverage in mainstream newspapers and magazines (Dutta, 2015 & Money-Coutts, 2015), suggesting a rise in public consciousness about mental health issues such as self-harm. The extent of mental health problems amongst adolescents has also been publicly acknowledged by the Department of Health, who state that “Over half of mental health problems in adult life (excluding dementia) start by the age of 14 and seventy-five per cent by age 18” (2015:9). Research into adolescent self-harm has suggested that the most likely age for adolescents to commence self-harm is within the 10-15 years age bracket (Garcıa-Nieto et al., 2015 & Hanania et al., 2015) demonstrating that many adolescents are self-harming at an age where they are expected to be in school for the majority of their time. However, in studies of teachers, a ‘patchy' awareness of self-harm has been demonstrated (Best, 2005a; 2005b), and a lack of ability to know how best to deal with the situation, should it present itself, has been acknowledged by teachers in a number of research articles (Hall & Place 2010; Heath et al. 2006 and Kidger et al., 2010). This issue was discussed further in my Critical Analytical Study (Margrett, 2014). This study is guided by two main questions; firstly, “what are the experiences of independent school staff of pupil disclosures of self-harm?” and secondly, “how well equipped do independent school staff feel to deal with pupil disclosures of self-harm?” Interviews with four subject teachers, two housemistresses, and a school matron were conducted as a participant researcher within one girls' independent boarding school. The interviews were analysed through the use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Flowers and Larkin, 2013) and findings were synthesised with some of the key concepts found in the work of Foucault (1982; 1977/1991) concerning discourses of power, knowledge and truth. Five main superordinate themes emerged from the analysis of the data: knowledge and awareness of self-harm; reasons why pupils have self-harmed; the hidden nature of self-harm; personal responses to self-harm disclosure by staff; lack of training and support; and reasons for participating. The study finds that within the small sample interviewed, the participants demonstrated a lack of confidence in their own understanding of the term ‘self-harm', but a wide experience of pupil self-harm disclosures. It suggests the need for the training of all staff, not just key pastoral staff, in dealing with pupil disclosures of self-harm; and the requirement for schools to develop a self-harm policy (Robinson et al., 2008) and clear guidelines for referral and follow-up of disclosures of self-harm. It also supports the concept of supervision style meetings for school staff to have the ability to discuss their own anxieties and concerns about pupil behaviour (Best, 2005a & 2005b). Finally, the study examines how staff and parental avoidance of self-harm can lead to the development of concentric circles of complicit secrecy surrounding the pupil who is self-harming. It considers how ‘over-parenting' and ‘spoon-feeding' of educational concepts may be damaging pupils' ability to manage their fear of failure and suggests that this may lead to a lack of resilience and a lack of an ability to deal with problems effectively (Lahey, 2015) particularly when pupils feel that they do not conform to the accepted norms of society (Foucault, 1977/ 1991).

This thesis provides an ethnography of the final year at an emerging middle-class private high school in the Northeast of Brazil. It draws on 15 months of fieldwork, including participant observation in the classroom wherein I followed students whilst they prepared for vestibular (the university entrance exam). Students' movements through Fortaleza, one of the world's most unequal cities, produced knowledge about the kind of person that one could and should be in the future. Private schooling appeared to provide a route for students to realise that metaphorical (and perhaps physical) movement. Vestibular served as a sort of rite of passage that could transform (emerging middle-class) youth into (middle-class) adults. Students and teachers characterised vestibular as a luta (fight) that could be won with enough training, flexibility and commitment. Good or high self-esteem was needed to overcome laziness and endure this luta and, thus, teachers and students worked on producing better self-esteem through affective work. Dreams (aspirations for the future) also played a critical role: the school encouraged students to engage in time work, to imagine appropriate future(s) into which students could channel their energies in the present. This version of individual power differed from the political and economic power structures portrayed in the classroom. Students grew indignant as, through curriculum and pedagogy, they came to understand that they were oppressed and that Brazil was underdeveloped and not quite modern. The university entrance exam served as a national meritocratic ritual that portrayed Brazil as becoming modern with governable and governing citizens. Students resisted these assertions and/but their cynicisms belied hope for better imagined futures. Using the classroom as container, this thesis presents a portrait of people and ideas in formation during a post-Lula era.