This thesis examined the process of learning transfer between university and the workplace by investigating the one-year work-placement experiences of three undergraduate students. For this study, transfer was conceptualised as an ongoing process, based on three distinct dimensions:knowledge, social interactions and self; supported by physical and conceptual mediational means; and framed by the context(s) in which it occurred. In order to address these dimensions, a new learning transfer model was developed, drawing on classical and sociocultural perspectives on transfer. The participants were three undergraduate students from the University of Leeds, from different schools and degrees. They were in between their second and third years, and they were undergoing a paid work-placement. The chosen methodological approach was a longitudinal case study with three instrumental cases, resorting to interviews with the students in transition, observation of two of the students, and further collection of secondary data, including students’ placement reflections. The data was coded and analysed through thematic and cross-case analysis. Using the developed learning transfer model enabled the understanding of transfer of learning, within the transition between university and the workplace, as a multidimensional and intercontextual process of transformation, experienced by the students in a developmental manner. The study’s findings also identified a narrow understanding of learning transfer by the students and discussed the possible implications of this perspective on their ability to transfer. Regarding the context of the study, work-placements were found to be beneficial experiences for the students. However, the study proposes that placement experiences are reframed as broader opportunities for learning and development.

The introduction of the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) has created both "opportunities and dilemmas" (Bolam 1997, p 278) for the providers of taught higher degrees in educational management. Over a number of years a significant percentage of Universities and Colleges have been developing higher degree programmes designed to address the management development needs of senior managers in schools. These degree programmes have sought to address the increasing demands on headteachers and others in senior roles in schools and have a strong basis in the growing research on school effectiveness and improvement which has profoundly affected attitudes to the ways in which schools are managed. There has, to date, been no persuasive "map" drawn up of the wide variety of such degree programmes and, what is more, little consideration seems to have been given to the effects which the effective arrogation of a large part of management development by a governmental organisation might have on these courses. This study attempts, firstly, to draw up such a "map" of taught higher degree programmes in education management in higher education institutions in England and Wales and, secondly, to define, explore and analyse some of the issues subsumed within the above noted "opportunities and dilemmas" through a series of research interviews with course leaders/ tutors on taught Masters degree programmes in education management.

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While universities provide quality education, they also offer a range of social, economic, and cultural activities to their host communities. In Ghana, University Community Engagements are part of the government’s initiatives aimed at the redistribution of prevelege nationality, educational inequalities and eradicating poverty. However, not many studies have been carried out on community engagement in this part of the world, as most studies have concentrated on faculty and students. This is a seven week ethnographic study of a village in Northern Ghana focussing on stakeholders understanding, participants concerns and power relations in an engagement programme. The study aims at understanding the shift in dispositions that enabled students to advocate eradication of poverty, network with colleagues and future leaders from different disciplines, to research and present prioritized proposals by the villagers. Seven weeks were spent following eleven students and four subsequent weeks in the community. Participant observations, interviews and documentary evidence were employed. Semi structured interviews were later conducted with nine university leaders and two District Assembly staff representimg the Assembly as a stakeholder located outside the village. Key arguments engaged regarding participation include providing empowering strategies to community to give voice, eradicate poverty and power relationships that challenged and support emancipation. The key findings of the study from a thematic analysis indicated varying degrees of understanding amongst stakeholders and asymmetric power relations that affects the entire programme. Based on these findings, and consistent with the wider literature, recommendations are that the engagement should be based on equal partnership among all stakeholders to encourage full cooperation and effective participation. It is hoped that the findings will contribute to increased participation and a greater stakeholder involvement. The research may also lead to programme restructuring and ultimately a review of the relationship between the university and other stakeholders. More importantly, it may influence policies to address the increasing disparities and poverty which affect community participation in the engagement process.

This thesis provides an ethnographic account of the institutionalisation of intercultural communication, intercultural studies and the umbrella label of ‘intercultural’ within a large British university. The study finds that the spread of the term ‘intercultural’ has been prolific, but the concept of ‘intercultural’ is polysemic and kept strategically vague within the university. The theoretical positions taken by social actors (university staff and students) who encounter and use ‘the intercultural’ is varied and uneven. The hegemonic position frames the ‘intercultural’ as compatible with the values and dominant discourses of the neoliberal university which ‘the intercultural’ must be seen to serve to become part of the institution. This position is evident, for example, in cases where ‘the intercultural’ is mobilised as a marketing tool to suggest it is a key to providing increased student employability and capacity for competing in a globalised world. In this version, ‘the intercultural’ is largely understood as essentialist and it is complicit with a wider methodological nationalism used to naturalise categories such as ‘international’ and ‘home’ students. While this may allow ‘the intercultural’ to gain institutional space, it paradoxically threatens to render the concept devoid of theoretical value. A counter position taken by some social actors stresses the need for greater criticality which avoids the essentialist traps posed by a structural-functionalist approach to the intercultural. This study is relevant to current arguments which emphasise the need for a paradigm shift in the application of ‘the intercultural’ and it suggests that the daily exigencies of the University and its discourses serve as an impediment to a conclusive shift. This raises the question of whether a nuanced approach to the intercultural is possible within a neoliberal university and suggests there is not only a need for a paradigm shift for ‘the intercultural’, but for universities as well.

The current trend towards student-centred teaching and learning is bringing about a change in emphasis in Higher Education: a shift from promoting effective teaching towards developing an understanding of how students learn. Prevalent literature calls for more emphasis on the students‟ learning process through increased metacognition and critical reflection. This research revolves around the premise that learning takes place through the interaction of cognition (thinking), affectation (feeling) and conation (doing). Consequently, this study presents a model of teaching and learning in Higher Education through the integrated use of metacognitive tools, namely, Vee Heuristics and Concept Mapping along with an awareness of how students prefer to learn. This research suggests that when metacognitive tools are merged, students are empowered to embark upon a meta-learning journey which eventually leads to critical reflection and meaningful learning. In the Action Research carried out in the first phase, University students‟ work products, from the University of Malta, are used to trace the effect of a learner‟s mental operations on the learner‟s use of Vee Heuristics and Concept Mapping as the learner embeds and retrieves new and scaffolded knowledge. The analysis of data reveals the powerful effect which this combination of learning tools yielded on student achievement. The model presented yielded successful meaningful learning; however, one cannot assume that the same results will be produced if this model is used by other teachers. This reflection led to an emergent multilevel mixed method design in the second phase where the role of the teacher was highlighted to illustrate that teachers must see the purpose and value of the tools they are using. The teaching and learning process becomes most effective when teachers plan intentional approaches in response to how students are learning. Action research promotes a cyclical process and I am coming to a personal understanding that the tools and strategies did help me to create a meaningful learning environment which adequately responds to the „learning-how-to-learn‟ concept. However, at the heart of quality teaching was my continuous reflective approach about the learning process and my own practice. I started this research by fallaciously assuming that focusing solely on the learner would bring about meaningful learning. However, the research has demonstrated that both students and lecturers are equally important and they should be seen as partners in achieving the intended learning outcome.

This thesis explores the nature and status of instructors’ teaching practices in an emergent university in Saudi Arabia. The study begins by investigating current teaching practices as reported by the instructors and their students, as well as the instructors’ perceptions of ‘good’ or ‘effective’ teaching practices. It goes on to explore the challenges involved in teaching practices from the perspective of the instructors, and the factors affecting these teaching practices. It identifies intrinsic (or micro) factors based in the institution, such as institutional regulations, physical environment, professional development programmes, teaching materials and assessment requirements, and extrinsic (or macro) factors including socioeconomic conditions, cultural values, and regional influences of geographic location, tribe, family, and extended family. The study utilized exploratory case study methodology to collect and analyse data from university instructors and their students. It used a mixed methods approach involving both qualitative and quantitative data in order to obtain a holistic understanding of the instructors’ teaching practices. For the quantitative element, two questionnaires were developed and administered to 48 instructors and 628 students in the same university. The responses were analysed using descriptive statistics. The main corpus of data was obtained via semi-structured interviews for both instructors and students. The data obtained were analysed using a general inductive approach through the ‘indexing’ technique proposed by Ritchie et al. (2003). The study found that an instructor-centred teaching approach dominated teaching practices, where students’ learning was perceived as in the ownership of their instructors. More importantly, drawing on a holistic understanding of the instructors’ teaching practices, the study found that these practices arose from the instructors’ location in a matrix of relations of power, or their ‘socio-academic’ position. Specifically, while the instructors held a privileged position in their universities and local community, the students lacked this status and were often disadvantaged in their own learning. Both, however, were subject to major challenges related to the local socioeconomic context. Drawing on these findings, I argue that the context-specific nature of the current university has produced a sort of ‘culture’ where several forces operate to shape and determine teaching practices. I conclude the study by proposing some theoretical tenets that I suggest are useful for understanding the status of teaching practices at the university level and for responding to the diverse challenges involved; these theoretical tenets are collectively referred to as ‘contextually responsive differentiated teaching practices’. Since the study is the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia, it is expected to provide insights for local researchers to further investigate the several questions the study raises. It should also raise the awareness of instructors, policymakers and social actors of the current status of teaching practices as well as the challenges involved, especially in Saudi emergent universities.

Policies promoting collaboration have been introduced to counteract the policies of autonomy and school Marketisation. This thesis sets out to find the implications and extent of practitioner collaborative practice within a converter academy in England, examining models of collaborative practice critically through a case study lens. Central to the study is the policy ethos behind converter academies and a probing of the requirement to support and work with ‘weaker’ schools. This study considers the extent of such work and the experiences of the practitioners within the case academy, using questionnaires and interviews, exploring the tensions emanating from the contradiction of local and national drivers. The Findings show that practitioners’ perceptions of the models of collaboration have changed over time and current policies have led to teacher isolation. Practitioners value collaborative practice and understand its benefits but find that policies within the academy as well as time pressures of demanding roles within education mean it is often just an add on to the day. The conclusions drawn from the study suggests that in the case academy the policies drivers for collaboration have led to teacher isolation as well as contrived collaboration. This is derived through policies that force collaboration through a lack of trust in teacher professionalism.

This thesis examines the nature of structural reform of higher education in England with a particular focus on the changing policy environment of the role and status of the University College sector. The study explores the extent to which political and status considerations have determined the shape of the sector and the interrelationship of institutions within it. It is argued that the pressure to reform the structure of the higher education sector in response to profound economic, political, social, cultural, educational and demographic changes has confronted the traditional value systems and structures of an elite system. The debate relating to the legitimate use of the University College title and the attendant issues relating to institutional title and status encapsulates this conflict of interest and neglects the historical development and growth of the sector. It is argued that the failure of two recent major Committees of Inquiry and successive policy-makers to implement systematic structural reform of higher education in order to promote greater social justice, meritocratic social mobility and educational opportunity, and simultaneously to resolve the anomalies of institutional positioning (which reflect both the elite values of the existing sector and the legacy of the piecemeal and unstructured historical development of higher education), has perpetuated the confusion of institutional status and has generated a policy conflict whose ambiguities threaten the fulfilment of the lifelong learning agenda and the future success of individual institutional providers of higher education beyond the mainstream university sector.

Using grounded theory methodology, the case study explores fourteen teachers’ experiences of educational reorganisation. Although the study identifies three distinct groups varying in the support offered for the demerger of Midtown High School, teacher resistance to the change is minimal. A variety of reasons for this are offered, including the nature of the teaching culture. Camaraderie and jocular relationships characterise the ethos that provides a positive experience for the teachers of the site. The study recognises the value of the supportive teaching culture in its ability to reduce stress. Leadership by the principal and a cycle of student to student-teacher to teacher reinforces the supportive teaching culture and ensures its continuance despite inherent communication problems. However, teacher-leaders dissatisfied with the status quo initiated the demerger. Within the second series of semi-structured interviews, the study reveals an improvement in communications and greater teacher empowerment as a result of effective leadership offered by the new principal. However, during the change process, the effect of the reorganisation upon the teaching culture and teacher-leaders was notable. Teacher-leaders who experienced stress during educational reorganisation lost the ability to function in their leadership roles. This affected the collegial relationships of the junior site staff and individual teacher's ability to cope. Teachers with an internal locus of control experienced significant stress when expectations were not met. In arriving at these assertions the role of the teaching culture was central. The effective teaching culture not only relies on effective leadership offered by administrators and teacher-leaders but also collegial relationships that are supportive and jocular in nature. The case study reveals that such a teaching culture, despite its limitations, is a valuable asset to the educational organisation.