Over the past decade in the UK, the rise in salience to government of physical education and school sport-related policy interventions has been remarkable for the wide-ranging array of objectives that these interventions have been expected to realise. This thesis analyses and evaluates government's sports policy for PESS centred on the Physical Education, School Sport and Club Links (PESSCL) strategy and Physical Education and Sport Strategy for Young People (PESSYP). These strategies together arguably represent the most significant initiatives relating to physical education and school sport (PESS), shaping the possible forms of PESS could take in the 2000s. Drawing on Basil Bernstein's (1990, 1996) theory of the social production of pedagogic discourse as the main framework used to investigate the policy for PESS, this thesis discusses the complexities and inequalities of policy-making in terms of examining dominant physical cultural discourses embedded within PESSCL and PESSYP, and the main agents/agencies contributing to the policy for PESS and evaluation processes. In addition, this thesis adopted a grounded theory approach to look at patterns of evidence in a range of resources from policy documents, newspapers, official evaluation studies and interviews, analyses that were underpinned by the research aims and theoretical framework of the study. This thesis identifies a number of physical cultural discourses constructing and constituting policies and strategies for PESS, including discourses of sport, health, citizenship, lifelong participation, and Olympic/Paralympic legacy. Moreover, this thesis presents evidence, consistent with Goodson‟s (1990) thesis about the social construction of school subjects, of struggles and contestation among vying groups, in this case between the Youth Sport Trust and Sport England (i.e. within the Official Recontextualising Field) as well as between the Youth Sport Trust and Association for Physical Education (i.e. between agencies within the Official Recontextualising Field and Pedagogic Recontextualising Field respectively). Furthermore, the powerful recontextualising agents/agencies including the media contribute to the recontextualisation of the discourse in which PESS policies are embedded. Finally, this thesis questions whether the main official evaluation studies undertake "evidence-based‟ policy making and practice because the evaluation studies not only provide implausible evidence but they are also focused solely on "numbers‟, whilst pragmatic and critical voices are excluded from the process of evaluation. Building on these key findings, this thesis concludes with a discussion of the implications for PESS. In particular, I discuss the possibilities for PESS to realise authentic forms of physical culture in schools in the context of a dominant sport discourse and an ongoing reduction in the autonomy of the Pedagogic Recontextualising Field. Finally, this thesis suggests that there is an urgent need for promoting communication between policy makers from within the Official Recontextualising Field and researchers and educators from within the Pedagogic Recontextualising Field and practitioners in the Secondary Field in order to achieve sustainable policy development school physical education and youth sport that benefits all young people in the future.

The use of research evidence to improve the practices of teachers is considered one of the ways of improving the educational outcomes for children. This study was focussed on determining how an online approach could be used to increase knowledge mobilisation in education, by giving teachers better access to research knowledge that they could use to support and develop their practices. This study had two aims. The first aim was to investigate what research knowledge and research practices teachers were using and what value they ascribed to those practices; the second was to explore teachers' views and opinions of a new online approach to the presentation of research knowledge. This was a mixed method study using questionnaires, interviews and focus groups to gather a range of both qualitative and quantitative data. The findings of this study show that practitioners value research practices more than they are able to participate in them, and that there is a consistent valuepractice gap across the range of research practices. Exploratory factor analysis revealed five underlying factors; engagement with research, engagement with the research community, promotes professional discussion of research, promotes teacher knowledge generation, and promotes wider engagement of the school with research and the research community. These factors showed that teachers and their schools want to engage both with research knowledge and with the wider research community so that the use of research knowledge can be enhanced in education. The findings also show that practitioners were receptive to the use of an online approach to the delivery of research knowledge and the piloted approach was accessible and intuitive. Practitioners exhibited interest in using the approach in a range of collaborative interactions with colleagues. Overall this study revealed that online approaches to knowledge mobilisation have potential but that teachers need to be supported in their engagement with research and the wider research community. This thesis is a contribution to the knowledge of how online approaches can be developed and deployed to enhance knowledge mobilisation towards teaching being an evidence informed profession. Equally school leaders and policy-makers need to create environments that are supportive of teachers' use of research, if they want teachers to use research knowledge to inform their practices.

This study investigated stakeholders’ views of multicultural policies and practices in multicultural secondary schools in Sri Lanka and a comparator school in England, in order to elicit what new insights could be gained that could lead to educational improvements in Sri Lankan schools. Specifically, students and staff in five Sinhala-medium secondary schools in the Colombo region, all with reputations for good multicultural education practice, together with local community leaders and national policy makers, were interviewed. A series of questionnaires was designed to examine a wide range of stakeholder perspectives across these five schools, using as a conceptual framework Banks’s (1986, 1989 and 2004) international work on multicultural policy and practice in schools and teacher education. A similar interview schedule and questionnaire were used to elicit views and experiences of multicultural education in a comparator school in an urban area of the East of England. There were a number of reasons for this. The modern school system of Sri Lanka had its beginnings during the British colonial administration. Now that there is peace in Sri Lanka after a long period of civil war, the government is focusing on ways to develop the curriculum to integrate multicultural education into its peace education curriculum in order to foster intercultural understandings. England has a longer tradition in multicultural education and policies in its education system. Using Banks’s work (op. cit.) for analysis, there may therefore be lessons to be drawn from the Sri Lankan schools identified as having good multicultural practice and the English experience that are of use in Sri Lanka. Major findings from this research project include the need for careful consideration of ways to foster greater multilingual competence among both teachers and students if Sri Lanka is to reach its goal of greater intercultural understandings and communication between the various ethnic groups. It seems from this study that, in Sri Lanka, whilst there were some differences in the strength of perception of different ethnic groups of students, overall they felt comfortable and safe in school, which is a testament to government efforts to achieve harmony in schools and, thus, social cohesion in society. However, some groups of students are more advantaged than others in the same schools in their access to the acquisition of languages and, therefore, access to the curriculum and to further and higher education and future enhanced life chances. The teachers acknowledged that language was a major concern in multicultural classrooms, partly because some students could not communicate effectively in Sinhala medium, and partly because they themselves were not always fluent in both national languages. Further, despite central government policy that all secondary teachers in Sri Lanka should be trained to degree level and should be qualified in their profession, the highest qualification that nearly one half possessed was A-level General Certificate of Education. All teachers in both Sri Lankan, and the English comparator, schools expressed a wish for training in multicultural practices.

This work is based on eight papers published between 1998 and 2006. The papers present a process of investigating, discussing and documenting how, through exploring, stretching and developing opportunities offered by various qualitative research approaches, facilitated collaborative action research (CAR) and evaluation became entwined They question how and where participants in projects recognise their own knowledge and learning, and how they use and develop their understandings in relation to new knowledge. In these papers I worked at the interface between the known and the nearly known; between knowledge-in-use and tacit knowledge that was yet to be useful. This interface, a 'messy area', was a place of contested knowledge. In this 'messy area' long-held views, shaped by pro essional knowledge, practical judgement, experience and intuition, came together to disturb both individual and communally held notions of knowledge for practice. Working in the 'messy area' enabled new knowing that has both theoretical and practical significance to arise, a 'messy turn' to take place. This is the purpose of mess. These papers add to the body of knowledge about 'seeing' and 'knowing', 'the importance of not knowing' and the role of participation, collaboration, facilitation and learning as key change mechanisms in research and evaluation.

The aim of this study was to determine how student writing and academic literacy are experienced and perceived in a university by academic staff and students and how pedagogical interactions are influenced by institutional discourses and practices. The research is a form of institutional case study realised through a qualitative, ethnographic-style inquiry. The methodology comprised semi-structured interviews with forty-eight academic staff from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and thirty-five student respondents from diverse areas of study, and discourse-based analyses of textual materials at both the institutional and departmental levels. The findings of the present research revealed that there is variation in the way academic staff perceive the nature and the learning of student academic literacy and their understanding of the practices which support that learning in a university. Students face significant challenges in adapting to variable expectations and managing the requirements of writing and assessment in the contemporary context. The research also revealed that there are structural aspects of higher education practice which appear to have adverse effects on the learning and development of student academic literacy and the capabilities of academic teaching staff to actively support and foster student learning in that domain. There are implications for the role of writing in learning and teaching and its position in the curriculum. It is argued that a more explicit approach should be taken to student academic literacy by embedding it in disciplinary teaching and learning. A number of ways, based on the evidence of this research, are suggested to advance pedagogical research and develop appropriate practice to that end. The findings are linked to wider debates about teaching, learning and educational reform in higher education. The thesis concludes by comparing and contrasting two disparate research paradigms for investigating the higher education experience. A new paradigm is conceptualised which draws on existing models theoretically and empirically but adds dimensions which address the exigencies of research in the contemporary context of higher education. It is argued that this reframing has the potential to raise and enhance the profile of pedagogical and student writing research consonant with current higher education policy aims and ambitions.

This thesis presents a study of three and four year old children attending preschool at a time of rapid expansion of this phase of education. There is strong evidence that the quality of the experience is the determining factor in the long term effectiveness of early years provision. However, quality is a contested concept with a range of viewpoints, defined by different stakeholders including children. The study builds on previous research and aims to clarify children’s perspectives on the quality of their preschool experiences and to consider how their viewpoint might influence policy and practice. The study examines successive policy initiatives in relation to children and families including the development of quality frameworks for early years practice. It considers policies that promote children’s participation based on children’s rights, and related theories of children as social agents, active in their own lives. The study discusses different approaches to quality early years provision, identifying two main positions, ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’. The study explores alternative, co-constructed approaches to quality that involve children assessing their learning together with trusted adults, to prepare for future learning. This is a qualitative study using an ethnographic approach. Data were collected employing an adapted version of the Mosaic Approach which combines multiple methods. The study takes a case study approach to present the research stories of six children by detailing their perspectives on quality. These findings are presented as a taxonomy of viewpoints, focussed around a common framework of re-occurring categories. This represents the contribution to knowledge of the study. The taxonomy is presented both in the language of children and that of adults in order to emphasise the extent to which the voice of children is currently absent from discourses on quality. Children’s responses are presented as indicators of quality that could inform day to day practice and policy.

Constructing a Reflective Site is a fine art practice-based research project, which considers the relationship between art practice and teaching. It does this through a critical examination of reflection in art, in pedagogy and in philosophy. Contemporary art forms, like relational practice, discursive practice and artists appropriating education as their medium, raise new questions regarding the mechanisms by which practice informs or can inform teaching within Higher Education. Reflection can be one way to elucidate and question this interrelationship towards an understanding of how notions of knowledge can be seen to operate across practice and teaching. This research is undertaken from within a dual position on practice: art practice and teaching as practice. The concept of practice-based research has been adopted from emerging positions in relation to artistic practice and artistic research, and this position has also been employed in the study of teaching as practice. This is thus a dual study, which has employed an indisciplinary approach towards an examination of subject specificity in fine art teaching. Notions of site have been used both as an artistic position in relation to the research, and as a theoretical framework, drawing on Miwon Kwon’s genealogy of site-specific practice. The research sought to explore the relationship between reflection in teaching and learning and reflection within an artistic practice and has found that, in epistemological, cognitive, social and historical terms, reflection does not necessarily constitute the same experience across pedagogy and art practice. This has consequences both for art students when asked to critically reflect on their work and also for developing the field of artistic research and concepts of artistic knowledge. Furthermore, these differences highlight the need to continually examine contemporary arts practices for models contributing to subject specific pedagogies in fine art, in order to keep the relationship between the subject and the academy critical and productive.

In a shrinking more connected world, web based communication technologies play an increasingly important role in educating younger generations. However, the process of change that teachers must go through to accommodate the appropriate use of web based communication technologies for teaching and learning is a complex process, which can be viewed from multiple perspectives. Specifically, this study explores pedagogic shift in the context of a virtual international school spanning five different countries within the European Union. It adopts an interpretive paradigm of research to explore perceptions of teachers in the virtual international school over the course of four years from 2009-2013. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, a variety of data collection techniques were employed over the course of three different cycles of research. Each cycle built on the previous cycle through an in depth analysis of the data, which enabled the emergence of a model for pedagogic shift. Findings from this research point to the importance of understanding change as a learning journey, which necessarily takes time and is influenced by a variety of factors in which effective leadership plays a central role. Additionally, the research shows how through processes such as understanding each others’ different perspectives and the way technologies are harnessed, change is facilitated and a sense of community is built, all play an important role in enabling pedagogic shift to take place. From these findings a thematic model emerged, which was explored in depth and further refined during the research. The study concludes with recommendations for further research into pedagogic shift, particularly in relation to the dispersed multi-level model of leadership, the evolution of virtual international schools, the changing nature of teacher-student relationships, and the influence of external drivers in models of pedagogic shift.

Mary Sumner (1828-1921) founded the Anglican Mothers’ Union, which originated as a parish mothers’ meeting in 1876, and followed the Girls’ Friendly Society as the second women’s organisation to be sanctioned by the Church of England. By 1921, the Mothers’ Union had a membership extending across the British Empire and transnationally. Mary Sumner sought to educate mothers in Christian values and pedagogy so that they might educate their children to be future citizens of empire. Her life trajectory occurred against a context of evangelical religious revival, contest over matters of doctrinal authority, the proliferation of women’s philanthropy, the growth of the British Empire and changes in education characterised by state intervention in working-class elementary schooling and the negotiation of educational provision for middle- class girls. This thesis uses primary source material to build on institutional histories of the Mothers’ Union to situate Mary Sumner in networks, emphasise gender and class as mediating of opportunity, and envisage her religious ‘mission’ as educational. The thesis draws on the thinking tools of Pierre Bourdieu, habitus, field and capital, to analyse Mary Sumner’s negotiation of constraint and agency in relation to the fields of religion, mission (understood as religious and philanthropic activism ‘at home’ and overseas) and education through which womanhood runs as a connecting theme. Bourdieu’s concept of reproduction is used to position Mary Sumner in relation to the operation of power across domestic, local and global spaces. The thesis concludes that using Bourdieu’s ‘thinking tools’ highlights how Mary Sumner used opportunities for women within her temporal and socio-cultural context in ways that were complicit with notions of womanhood reflective of patriarchal domination and accepting of hierarchies of class and ‘race’, yet were innovative in her achievement of access for an organisation of women within Anglicanism that was recognised for its educational work.

The nature of reflective practice in teaching and its development is the focus of this research. The research approach is reflexive narrative through systematic self-inquiry using Johns (2010) six dialogical movements. This methodology is new to researching the practice of teaching. The research process involved constructing stories of practice experiences, culminating in the construction of the reflexive narrative charting the entire journey over three years and four months. Creating the stories involved in-depth reflection using the disciplined practice of journaling. Reflection was deepened using reflective models, and dialogue with a range of literature sources also supported the creation of the stories. Central to the study was guided reflection through regular engagement with an established inquiry group, which provided a high level of challenge and support for the research. The reflexive narrative was constructed from 25 stories of practice experience, which represents the journey of being and becoming a reflective teacher and teacher educator. The research presents aspects of the lived experience of teaching which includes foregrounding some of the complexity of classroom practice. The research demonstrates how engaging in in-depth reflective process can transform moment to moment practice within the fast-paced crowded classroom experience. This is achieved through gaining an in-depth understanding of self as a teacher, and of the education system and its policies and practices. As a result of in-depth reflection on practice, aspects of teaching which usually remain hidden are exposed. The research identifies how emotion impacts on teaching in some depth. An understanding of one’s emotional self in practice, and one’s personality preferences are essential in developing desirable practice. The research makes a contribution to knowledge about narrative research in educational practices. The methodology demonstrates a valuable approach to developing teaching practice, and enabling a teacher to identify issues which impact on practice but which have been hidden. Teachers also gain an understanding of the fear and constraints which limit desirable practice and enable one to find ways to work that are liberating rather than limiting.