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This thesis critically reviews, evaluates and synthesizes theories of cross-cultural adjustment and international students’ sojourn activities, and develops a multi-layered and dynamic framework of cross-cultural adjustment. Empirical evidence, collected from the experience of Taiwanese postgraduate students in the UK, is used to build a grounded theory of cross-cultural adjustment. The process of cross-cultural adjustment is examined in terms of four key dimensions - self-identity, academic pursuit, affection and sojourn life-experience - each of which is broken down into more specific components (categories and sub-categories) according to the interview responses of the student sample. The result is an in-depth appreciation of the wide range of factors that contribute to the experience and challenge of cross-cultural adjustment for Taiwanese postgraduate students. For each of the four dimensions, certain core conditions are shown to give rise to specific adjustment phenomena which are shaped by certain contextual factors, and these phenomena give rise to a characteristic strategic response by the students, which then yields a specific consequence. The study shows that cross-cultural adjustment is a continuous process in which international students establish emotional alignment through social interaction and the articulation of their self-identity. The study provides a conceptual framework for future research into cross-cultural adjustment within different host countries, and also serves as a basis to help universities anticipate and manage effectively the adjustment problems faced by international students.

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Students from lower socio-economic groups remain underrepresented in UK medical schools. This enquiry explores the perspectives of medical student participants to better understand how medical students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may be perceived, their experience of an undergraduate medical curriculum, and any issues concerned with what is required for them to learn in order to become doctors. A conceptual framework that encompasses both sociological and sociocultural learning theories that enable the professional development and learning processes of medical students, and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds in particular, to be better understood was required. Theoretical concepts from the literature informed the iterative development of the research questions that addressed student perspectives, the relational aspects between student practice and medical school structures including the medical culture, and how student participation is pivotal to their learning. An interpretive methodology including focus groups and individual interviews was used to access the perspectives of medical students from across the curriculum of one medical school. Analysis used a priori concepts and a modified grounded theory approach which generated three main categories of themes: who becomes a doctor, students’ developmental processes and issues underlying their learning. Non-traditional medical students were found to possess certain socioeconomic characteristics that distinguished them from their peers from a more advantaged background. For some students this led to disadvantage inherent in their differing patterns of socialisation, issues with developing an effective medical habitus and resultant professional identity, and reduced or less effective participation in authentic learning activities. A more nuanced nondualistic understanding of the nature of medical professional knowledge and the undergraduate curriculum by incorporating a more balanced approach to the insights afforded by participatory models of learning have several implications for both medical pedagogy and medical student practice.

This thesis examines the experience of two groups of practitioners from three further education (FE) colleges, working in an established franchise partnership with a local higher education (HE) provider. The practitioner groups consisted of lecturers and their programme managers, who mainly taught students from non-traditional entry backgrounds. The research took place within the context of national policy steering, involving both the FE and HE sectors and focused on the impact of policy on practitioners. A critical point to this study was the concept of educational partnerships and the effectiveness of FE colleges as HE providers. Hence the literature from the contextual chapters identifies a set of forces which interact to produce a ‘FHE Institutional environment’ which shapes the practitioners’ FHE experience. A single case study approach was adopted as the major research vehicle, with emphasis on the practitioners’ accounts of their HE teaching experiences. The data was collected over a two year period and consisted of practitioner accounts, vignettes and documentation. Data triangulation involved comparing and contrasting the findings at the case study’s lateral and multi-levels, including referencing to other relevant research projects. My claim to knowledge is that the ‘FHE Institutional environment’ is dominated by a FE professional cultural element, whose predominant norms and values serve to produce a diluted HE experience for their students. Whereby students are largely taught on FE lines, it calls into question the principle that FE colleges can provide comparable HE experiences. The study proposes, therefore, that FE colleges should view their HE provision as being distinct, and provide autonomous units, or designated centres, where a higher education ethos could prevail. The findings also reveal the need for further research on this topic in light of the potential ‘emergent’ HE markets, resulting from the Coalition Government’s proposed sector reforms.

This empirical inquiry was designed as a comparative study to facilitate in the development of theoretical models that can promote a better understanding of the forces that shape the teaching and learning of older people in different cultural settings. For an examination of cultural similarities and differences, this thesis adopted a cross-national comparative method to study two institutions of third age learning, that is the University of the Third Age (U3A) in the UK and the Senior University (SU) in South Korea. In order to achieve a more active comparison, this research followed the systematic approach of comparative study advocated by Bereday (1964), and employing multi-faceted analysis according to the cube method of Bray and Thomas (1995) for a full and balanced understanding of the research subject. Quantitative and qualitative methods have been used in combination to capture the differences across the two institutions in terms of participants’ educational needs and their experiences, and the historical development of each institution, in order to analyse the different cultural meanings attached to learning and ageing in the two countries (Evans, 2001). This thesis also draws on national statistics and research reports in order to understand the broad trends. Policy thinking about the learning society and the ageing society are usually based on the same economic point of view, and governments tend to focus on the instrumental aspects of education. Therefore, in many countries older people have created learning opportunities for themselves, specifically U3A in the UK and SU in South Korea. In this study, U3A and SU’s cultures of learning are compared: the mutual aid or self-help model and organisation-led welfare model; the informal learning orientation and formal learning orientation; the andragogical and pedagogical models; the buffet or cafeteria style and set-menu style; horizontal and vertical teacher-student relationships; bottom-up and top-down management styles. Analysis of all these differences supports the conclusion that U3A is based on the tradition of liberalism and self-help tradition in the UK and SU is based on the tradition of collectivism and Confucianism in South Korea. The members of the U3A have a middle-class background and culture, and so dominantly feel more comfortable with an academic, discourse-based form of learning, while the SU members had a 'Botongsaram (ordinary person) culture' in which they preferred practical activities and pastimes (such as music and dancing) to academic subjects. This research will be of help to academics and policy makers to understand cultures of learning from the perspective of the third age group, so as to develop different learning models to satisfy the diverse interests of older adults in third age learning.

The issue of vocational learning (VL) for older workers (OWs) has become pivotal in European regions with an ageing workforce and facing economic changes and pressure to innovate. European Union policies recognize the value of formal, non-formal and informal learning to enhance workers’ skills, but report low participation of OWs in continuing formal VL. I contend that EU documents conceptualize learning according to a ‘cognitivist’ view and motivation as an individual endeavour, failing to acknowledge OWs’ subjectivities and working activities in providing the context for the development of their motives for learning. I adopt Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to direct the attention to the OWs’ subjectivities and their personal relationships with their objects of activities (work). CHAT allows subjectivities and activities to be brought together in a holistic framework. To illuminate the different ways in which objects influence motivation and learning, I introduce sociological strategies of production as objects of industrial activities and identify two radically different models as mass production and flexible specialization. Two case studies, based on unstructured interviews with OWs and managers in two firms representing both production models, provide elements to analyse the interrelation between OWs’ activities objects and their personal senses of these. My thesis concludes that: (i) OWs’ relation with their work contexts, rather than their personal qualities, influences their engagement in their working practices and leads to the development of motives for learning; (ii) strategies of production influence the intensity and richness of OWs’ workplace learning; (iii) OWs’ previous and parallel experiences of active roles contribute to the judgement of the current work and to engagement in this; (iv) EU policies for VL need to take into account how to support the OWs’ engagement in their jobs.