This research explores the effects of a group intervention aimed at reducing self-reported test anxiety with sixth form students preparing to sit AS / A Level examinations. Previous research has suggested that a combination of cognitive behavioural therapy, relaxation skills training and study skills approaches are most effective in alleviating test anxiety and an intervention was designed combining these approaches. The effectiveness of the intervention was measured using a mixed methods design, with test anxiety measured pre and post-intervention using self-report questionnaires and two focus groups: the first in the pre-examination period and the second following the examinations. The results from the questionnaire showed that, after completing the intervention, participants’ test anxiety had been significantly reduced (p = <0.05), while the findings from the qualitative data suggested that participants felt that the intervention had skilled them with practical tools to reduce anxiety associated with high stakes testing. The findings suggest that the intervention is promising as a proactive approach in educational settings with pupils who have been identified as experiencing test anxiety. The implications of the research for the work of EPs are considered.

This research was undertaken to explore and explain the contexts and mechanisms influencing full-time class teachers’ emotional wellbeing (EWB) in a primary school rated ‘outstanding’ by the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted). Despite being associated with issues high on the national agenda including pupil wellbeing, pupil performance, teacher retention and teacher recruitment, the wellbeing of school staff is a cause for concern calling for supportive and positive measures. Previous findings often describe wellbeing in deficit terms: the impacts of stress and burnout; however, research on what promotes teachers’ EWB is relatively scarce or, in Ofsted outstanding primary schools, non-existent. The current qualitative study aims to address this gap by applying grounded theory (GT) methodology to data collection and analysis on what enhances and hinders teachers’ EWB in their professional role and what interventions could be implemented to produce desirable outcomes. Semi-structured interviews were employed to elicit the views of 5 full-time class teachers at a mainstream primary school in an outer London borough. Adopting a critical realist ontological and epistemological stance, a general, abstract theory grounded in the views of the participants was drawn and discussed in relation to existing literature on psychological theory and research. Findings provide evidence to inform professionals linked to the chosen setting on what teachers think ‘works’ for them and how this could be applied in practice. It is hoped that outcomes will also facilitate further research in similar settings.

In the past three years, the Educational Psychologist (EP) profession has undergone significant developments as a result of the revised Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice (Department for Education, 2014). Two specific changes outlined in the SEND Code of Practice underpin the purpose of this research. The first was the change in terminology from Behaviour, Emotional and Social Development (BESD), to Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH), as one of the four broad categories of identified SEND. The second change was the extended age range of which the SEND Code of Practice now relates to: 16-25 years. The aim of this research was to explore how college staff co-constructed SEMH needs in their setting, to offer a valuable insight as to how EPs can best support similar settings in the future. Existing literature highlighted an absence of EP research on SEMH needs in post-16 education, or how college settings conceptualise SEMH needs. This study used a Discourse Analysis approach to explore how participants in a focus group (6 staff members in a sixth form college) co-constructed SEMH needs through their discourses, and a social constructionist epistemology underpinned the approach to this study. The identification of dominant and suppressed discourses illustrated variation in the staff members’ talk, suggesting the difficulties and dilemmas that arose when co-constructing a term such as SEMH. Emphasis placed on various discourses of SEMH was seen to impact on practice, highlighting the importance in identifying dominant and suppressed discourses of SEMH in educational settings. The college setting was seen to hinder and support SEMH needs simultaneously, and contrasts between disempowering and empowering students and staff to manage SEMH needs were explored. The emotional energy required to work with adolescent students was highlighted, and the extent to which discourses of pathologising students with SEMH needs functioned to defend against social anxiety, was also explored. The role of reflexivity throughout the research process, strengths and limitations of the study, and implications for EP practice were discussed.

This study attempts to explore the experiences of Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) in secondary schools in England working with young people at risk of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and identify what facilitating factors and barriers they believe they face in their role. The study followed a two phase mixed methods exploratory sequential model based on a critical realist epistemology. In Phase 1 qualitative data was gathered from individual and paired interviews, conducted using a focus group process and script in the researcher’s local authority. The data was analysed using Inductive Content Analysis and initial categories identified for facilitating factors and barriers. These initial categories were then used to develop a questionnaire. For Phase 2 the questionnaire was sent out via Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) in England to DSL in secondary schools. The questionnaire involved both open and closed questions. The quantitative data from the questionnaire was analysed using descriptive statistics and Multinomial Logistic Regressions and the qualitative data was analysed using Content Analysis to assess the validity and transferability of the categories identified in Phase 1. The data analysis from Phase 1 and Phase 2 were interpreted together to explore the experiences of DSLs in England and identify the facilitating factors and barriers in their role. A Systems-psychodynamics lens was used to consider the implications of the findings. These included the need for supervision and protected time for DSLs , evidence-based intervention programmes for young people at risk, improved sharing of information between agencies, shared training opportunities and an increased understanding of the roles and boundaries within the local safeguarding system. The development of guidelines should be considered. A potential role for Educational Psychologists (EPs) to develop targeted interventions for young people (including those with Special Educational Needs [SEN]) and provide supervision for DSLs should be considered further.

The prevalence of domestic abuse in the UK and its impact on children and young people exposed to it suggests that it is likely to be encountered by educational psychologists (EP) in their work and that they could have a key role in supporting within educational settings. However, the subject has received sparse attention in the research literature of the profession. Whilst research exists more generally about professional responses to domestic abuse, there is little evidence of the use of psychosocial research methods. In order to address the gap in EP and psychosocial research around domestic abuse, this study explored from a psychosocial perspective how EPs encounter and respond to domestic abuse in their work. Four EPs were interviewed following the Free Association Narrative Interview method (Hollway & Jefferson, 2013). Thematic analysis was used to gather a picture of how EPs encounter domestic abuse in their work. The outcome of this analysis showed that for these participants, key elements of domestic abuse encounters were: Visibility (invisible/visible); Risk (danger/protection); Disturbance (disturbed/detached); Possibility (possible/impossible); and Learning (intellectual/experiential). Evidence of defence against unwanted thoughts and feelings in relation to domestic abuse work was then explored through individual analysis, paying attention to hesitations and avoidances in the interviews as well as the researcher’s own experience of interview encounters. This analysis, supported by psychosocial supervision, suggested that there were aspects of domestic abuse that appeared threatening to participants. These pertained to describing the abuse; situations of conflict; experiences of helplessness; negative evaluations; and feelings of shock, horror, and fear. The outcomes of this study suggest that domestic abuse is an emotive topic for EPs that is hard to process and requires further education and support to enable domestic abuse to be talked about and managed in a safe way when encountered in EP work.

Promoting the mental health and well-being of adolescents has increasingly become a priority for legislation in the UK. The Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice (DfE, 2015) highlights the increasing responsibility professionals have for supporting and promoting pupils’ social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs, a role which is especially pertinent for schools. However, there is a lack of current research exploring how school staff view promoting and supporting pupils’ emotional well-being. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken in one mainstream secondary school to gather the views of six school staff on their experiences and views of supporting pupils’ emotional well-being. The aim of the study was to explore and explain the contexts and mechanisms which facilitate or hinder how staff promote and support children and young people’s mental health and well-being. The data was analysed by use of a grounded theory methodology. The theory emerging from the data suggests that school staff believe that by having a structured, clear approach to supporting and promoting emotional well-being the school is able to become a safe space in an ever-demanding society. The overarching theory is labelled ‘providing containment – school as a safe place’. The findings are discussed in relation to existing literature and research. Implications for secondary schools and Educational Psychologists are discussed.

This psycho-social study explored the experiences of school staff who have worked with emotionally based school non-attendance. There is a paucity of qualitative accounts of school staff’s views in this area. Existing research focuses predominantly on the causes, risk and protective factors and the management of school non-attendance. Six participants took part in two interviews where psychoanalytically informed approaches were employed. This included the Grid Elaboration Method and Free Association Narrative Interviewing. The interview transcripts were analysed using Thematic Analysis, which illuminated five overarching themes: relationships between home and school; school factor s; conceptualisation and impact of school non - attendance; tasks and challenges of adolescence and individual journeys and emotions. The themes are discussed in relation to existing research and psychological theory. Consideration is given to the implications for the role of the Educational Psychologist in working with emotionally based school non-attendance. Strengths and limitations of the current study are discussed and ideas for future research are proposed.

There has been a huge increase in the number of Teaching Assistants (TAs) working in UK schools in recent decades, meaning that most teachers now share their classroom with at least one other adult. Despite this, there has been little systematic or structured research into such a key relationship in the education system. This thesis aims to address this by exploring teachers' and TAs' experiences of working together in primary schools. This is an exploratory piece of research which was conducted from a critical realist perspective. To find out more about the dynamics at play in this working relationship, semi-structured individual interviews were carried out with five teachers and five TAs across two primary schools. The data was subsequently analysed using thematic analysis. This illuminated six themes: 'power dynamic'; 'occupying different spaces'; 'interpersonal and intrapersonal factors'; 'systemic factors'; 'nature of the relationship'; and 'reflection on the relationship'. Each theme is described in detail and presented visually in a thematic map. The relationship between the themes is also discussed. The theme of 'power dynamic' in particular was found to have an effect on the other themes. The results are discussed in relation to previous literature, as well as theoretical frameworks relating to power, psychodynamic theory, and attachment theory. The strengths and limitations of this research are outlined alongside suggestions for future research. Potential implications for practice are then highlighted. For Educational Psychologists (EPs) this includes having both teachers and TAs present during consultations about students, facilitating 3supervision groups for teachers and TAs, and delivering training for these staff members on how to work together effectively. The thesis ends with self-reflections on the research journey.

This research explored the experiences of three secondary headteachers and the way in which role conception, informed by unconscious processes, functions as a mechanism for managing the stresses and demands of said role. The research was underpinned by a psychosocial framework and used an explicitly psychoanalytic epistemology. The research used semi-structured interviews to explore influential biographical factors, which were then explored using a psychoanalytic lens. This produced a series of themes used to thematically analyse their accounts of their jobs and the stresses and strains within it. The ensuing analysis revealed that the unconscious patterns, implicit in their narratives, influenced both role conception and the way they perceived and related to the organisations they led. In discussing these findings, links were made to relevant psychoanalytic and systems-psychodynamic theory; especially Bion's work on containment and alpha function, as well as Rice's seminal thinking about the way in which the unconscious influences role acquisition and task engagement. Further applications to both theories are suggested. A central argument is that working with school leaders has a systemic impact on schools and school populations, something well within the remit and consultative skill-set of Educational Psychologists. This research concludes that unconscious patterns and processes are involved in the management of stress and anxiety and that this is done through unconsciously "shaping" the way headteachers conceive of the role and the schools they lead.

This thesis explores the stories of three women. They are different stories connected by experiences of first or second generation migration, ambiguous identities, belonging and otherness. I also connect the stories as I am one of the women, my cousin is another and the third is my friend. My interest is both personal and professional as this research serves both my personal interest in our lives and careers, and my professional concern as a practitioner about the development of career counselling practice to meet the needs of clients. The search for and interpretation of meaning (Bruner,1990) informed the methodology and analysis of this work. I do not seek a ‘truthful account’ of our stories, accurate in their telling, but a ‘truth seeking’ narrative, what memories and stories mean to the teller. The methodology is auto/biographical. I began the research where my thoughts and questions began, with my own story. This is neither autobiographical nor biographical research, it is an interplay between the two. The ‘/’ both connects and divides my story and those of my participants (Merrill and West, 2009). I reflected upon images, memories, collage and discussion about my own life and career. The stories of my co-participants, gathered through loosely structured interview and using artefacts, poems and family histories, are rich in themselves but their intersection with my own story is also part of the heuristic nature of the methodology. The interviews, lasting one to two hours, were recorded and fully transcribed, and those transcripts shared with my co-participants for accuracy. A second interview, after a period of reflection on the transcription was conducted with one participant. In this follow-up interview, questions were shaped by events and elements in the story that were of particular interest and were then able to be explored further. With the other participant a full weekend of discussion followed the interview, which brought in other family members, reflections and stories. The analysis of the material is holistic and considers the ethnography, process and Gestalt of our interactions (Merrill and West, 2009). The meaning in these lives and careers is a co-construction from themes within each story and also the shared meaning between them. The three stories present windows into very different lives and careers, but also into recognisable and shared struggles and resolutions. Although personal agency is at the heart of each story, this is set within and shaped by the family, history and communities in which each of us grew. The work of Jung (1938), Adler (1923), Frosh (1991) and later of Savickas (2011) provided some theoretical ‘heavy lifting’ in understanding the relationship between personal identities and career. Each is invited into the thesis to comment upon and to illuminate the processes at work in this shared space. They help to understand the relationship between the threads and themes in these stories and how they create a tapestry of meaning for the teller. Insights into the three stories offer a critique of the dominant models of professional practice in career counselling. Such critique follows a now well established paradigm shift in career theory in response to the changing nature of work and of social structures (Bauman, 2000; 2005: Frosh, 1991) and an increased interest in contextualism in career counselling (Richardson, 2002). Social constructionist theories and models include Savickas’ (2011) Career Construction Theory in which he identified the significance of pre-occupations as threads that accompany us through career and life, connecting the plots, characters and scripts into a story that in the telling has meaning and purpose. Pre-occupations in our three stories were identified from themes in the interviews and in other material and the pre-occupation that united us was the clarification and construction of our identities. Sometimes it was a clear and painful roar and sometimes a quiet question hidden within micronarratives that were re-membered in our conversations. Career provided us with a stage whereon identity was more or less resolved and reconstructed. The significance of the relationship between personal and career identity emerges as the key argument of this thesis and a counter narrative for career counselling. It provides an alternative to neoliberal, individualistic, outcome driven practice (Irving, 2013), and has at its heart an acknowledgement of the relationship between who we believe ourselves to be and what we do in our lives. I conclude that such a counter narrative must be illustrated first within the development of the curriculum for the training and education of careers practitioners. It must also be reflected in the development of models of career theory and counselling. In this way it will be secured within the practice of careers professionals for future generations. On a broader level there is much that the exploration into the relationship between personal and career identity can illuminate outside the specific context of career counselling. Social and political concerns about radicalisation and the construction of identity in migrant communities may be illuminated by the insights offered by this thesis. Moreover as identities become more mixed and complex in ‘liquid modern’ worlds (Bauman, 2000) this thesis offers a further understanding of the scaffolding that is needed for identity construction and life planning, when traditional structures are hard to find.