In 1997, New Labour introduced a national ICT strategy for schools and went on to spend over £3.54 billion on educational technology. This exploratory study examines whether changes to government funding for educational technology has altered the view of the role of ICT in the thinking of senior leaders. It contrasts views of the role of ICT in the classroom from those in the ‘Edutopian’ school (Chen and Armstrong, 2002) who see it as transformational, innovative and an essential part of preparing children for modern life, with those who adopt a more cautious ‘Dystopian’ narrative as found across the work of a range of academics, such as, Cuban (2001), Selwyn (1999, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2011, 2014) and Facer (2011). This exploratory study draws on a small sample of interviews with key decision makers based in different schools that are all located within a single county in the North of England. The findings suggest that ICT remains one of the top five spending priorities for schools who explain this with the use of the Edutopian globalisation and economic arguments. In the study, a minority of key decision makers for ICT had formal training and this was reflected in the range of processes and procedures they adopted. The movement by government away from a centralised planning approach was welcomed across the sample and the loss of some ring-fenced funds was deemed by the ‘rural schools’ to have improved outcomes and created solutions more attuned to local requirements. Edutopian arguments were used by all participants to explain their planning and vision for the future with some desiring to move to ubiquitous or 1:1 tablet teaching solutions.

The notion of ‘authenticity’ has been revisited and discussed by the researchers and practitioners in the field of English language teaching (ELT) over recent years. However, it is usually described within a limited framework that focuses on the quality of texts used in ELT, often without paying attention to the ways and contexts in which those texts are used by language learners and teachers. Following van Lier’s definition of authenticity as ‘the result of acts of authentication, by students and their teacher, of the learning process and the language used in it’ (1996, p.128), this study focuses on the dynamic and multi-dimensional nature of authenticity in the language classroom. In ELT literature, there are a limited number of studies on this issue and the majority of them have provided prescriptive or theoretical discussion or focused on ‘text authenticity’ and the ‘correspondence account’ of authenticity rather than encompassing different dimensions and accounts of authenticity in a more holistic way. The present study addresses this gap and explores the relationships between different dimensions of authenticity in four 9th grade classrooms in two Anatolian High Schools in Ankara, Turkey. This study adopts the qualitative research tradition and is tailored as an embedded multiple-case design with multiple data collection methods such as classroom observations, semi-structured interviews and documents (e.g. textbook extracts). The data was analysed separately for each unit of analysis (i.e. classroom) and themes were developed inductively. The findings revealed that authenticity should be seen as a phenomenon (co)constructed through human actors’ engagement and validation in the classroom context rather than as an inherent quality of materials or activities. The main characteristics of this process were discussed under the key themes that emerged from cross-case comparison. These themes were listed as Spontaneity, Discrepancy, Personalisation, Humour, Didacticity (genesis and accommodation) and Localisation.

There has been concern for more than a decade that pupils do not have sufficient knowledge, skills and understanding of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at the end of compulsory schooling. This research investigates approaches to the organisation of the ICT curriculum, teaching and learning, management, staffing and resources that are associated with high levels of ICT capability among 14-16 year olds in four secondary schools, each of which organised the delivery of the ICT curriculum in different ways. These were discrete or ‘centralised’ ICT, cross curricular ICT; and hybrids of these, the ‘skills core’ and ‘kick start’ models (NCET, 1996, p7). There are detailed case studies of each school, and a comparative analysis, which includes an assessment of the relative ICT capability of their pupils. The more and less successful schools are characterised, and there is discussion of the issues arising and those areas requiring further research. Features associated with high levels of ICT capability included: • ICT was taught as a discrete subject throughout key stages 3 and 4, and pupils were entered for GCSE ICT at the end of key stage 4 • There were well planned programmes of study for discrete ICT but the use of ICT across the curriculum was not planned in detail • ICT teachers were more aware of the differences between teaching ICT and other subjects • There was strong leadership by senior management; the HoD ICT was enthusiastic and approachable; and there were opportunities for all teachers to be involved in decision making • There was a management committee that included senior managers, the HoD ICT and ICT teachers; and a user group with representatives from other subject departments • Teachers of other subjects could not avoid using ICT in the classroom and for aspects of school administration • Schools valued their investment in ICT resources • There were significantly more specialist ICT teachers employed by the school • There was an adequate quantity of modern ICT resources • Higher levels of bid based funding were acquired

The modern and post-modern world has tried to attend to the factors that lead to effective schooling. The School Effectiveness (SE) movement investigates the characteristics of effective schools and how these characteristics may lead to improved pupil achievement. This study explores the characteristics of effective secondary schools in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) context, together with the effectiveness of their leaders from the perspective of these schools’ stakeholders, namely principals, teachers, students and parents. In particular, the main aims of the study are first to identify the key factors that contribute to effective schools in UAE secondary education and second to outline the strategies for improving schools and school leadership professional development requirements. The study employs a mixed-methods, sequential, exploratory strategy to understand the perceptions of UAE key education stakeholders. Firstly, 46 principals, 138 teachers, 136 parents and 142 pupils filled in questionnaires and then, for added validity and reliability, ten school principals were also interviewed in the second part of the study. What is striking about the study’s findings is that the two instruments – the survey and the interview – did not, in most cases, lead to the same homogeneous results, as the results deduced from the questionnaire did not totally corroborate those realised from the interviews. Key education stakeholders in the UAE proposed three strategies – vision, teamwork and school climate – in order to improve SE in Abu Dhabi. Induction leadership programmes, internal self-evaluation and external evaluation are not considered by the majority of principals and their subordinates to be salient and efficient strategies for improving schools. This is due, presumably, to the lack of logistical procedures and evaluation organisms in place through which schools can internally gauge their degree of effectiveness against lucid standards, indicators and benchmarks.

The phenomenon of bullying and, more recently, cyberbullying, continue to be of interest to scholars, practitioners and policy makers. To date, the vast majority of research into bullying and cyberbullying has been contained to compulsory education contexts, leaving a dearth of literature in post-compulsory education. This thesis explores cyberbullying in the context of post-16 education in England, considering, in particular, four research questions relating to prevalence, involvement of particular groups, reasons for cyberbullying, and consequences on feelings, learning, and social integration. Previous research on cyberbullying is considered, including a discussion of the definition and criteria of both bullying and cyberbullying. The main contributions to knowledge are the age group and context of this research, the use of phenomenology as a philosophical framework in the research design, data collection, and analysis, and how attribution theory is related to the reasons given for cyberbullying others and being cyberbullied. A mixed methods survey methodology was used to collect data; an online questionnaire was used to collect data from 5,690 students from 41 colleges, and semi-structured interviews were used to collect in-depth data from six victims of cyberbullying. In terms of prevalence, 7.9% of those aged 16–19 years old who study in colleges in England reported being victims of cyberbullying and 1.9% admitted to cyberbullying others. The findings also show certain demographic groups statistically more likely to be disproportionately involved as cyberbullies, such as boys and those who were offline victims at school, and as cybervictims, such as girls and those who had a physical disability. A range of reasons were reported for cyberbullying others, in particular the victim’s intelligence/ability and because of feelings of anger, and for being cyberbullied, in particular because of their physical appearance and friendship groups. Various consequences for being a cybervictim were revealed, in particular on they way they felt and on their mental health/wellbeing.

Twelve aspects of the communicative language teaching approach which have placed FL reading skills development in English at discordance with L1 and L2 reading research findings and models of memory and word recognition are identified. Cognitive aspects of reading, which are not developed implicitly, are highlighted. The impact of curricular change on FL reading development since 1995 is considered in relation to theoretical models of memory and word recognition and L1 literacy development. Decoding sub-processes are identified through Goodman's (1968) model of L1 Levels of Reading Proficiency, and the teacher's role in promoting deep structure-building in the L2 mental lexicon is considered. River's (1968) Six Stage FL Reading Training Programme is re-visited in the light of the new research understandings. The crucial role of phonology and word form knowledge in FL reading development emerges unequivocally from this literature and is the focus of the empirical research reported here. The function of 'hearing' words during L1 and FL silent reading is compared. Respondents confirmed this to be 'normal' classroom reading behaviour, promoting comprehension and reader engagement with narrative L1 reading, and linked with word-level comprehension when reading in French. Inability to 'hear' words when reading in French was linked with perceptions of text difficulty. The need for helping learners to 'hear' the sound of FL print through explicit teaching of sound-spelling links and oral reading tasks is demonstrated. Rapid sight vocabulary growth, too, is vital. A Flash Card Vocabulary Presentation Task demonstrate that failure to present the written form during oral presentation of new vocabularly leads learners to form incorrect mental representations, as shown through respondents' invented spellings. Those who failed to make semantic and orthographic associations with prior L1 and L2 linguistic representations in which working memory span limitations effects were evident. Contrastingly, when phonological, orthographic, semantic and syntactical associations were made, prior knowledge was used to construe sensible 'guesses' at spelling, indicating strong structure-building in the mental lexicon. Respondent expressed a strong preference for seeing spellings during the oral presentation phase. The findings show that knowledge of the interrelationships of sounds and writing in the target language impacts on vocabulary acquisition, spelling, word recognition and reading comprehension. This supports the guiding principles of the Key Stage 3 Framework (DfES, 2003). An outline pedagogical framework for FL reading development in Key Stage 4 in England is proposed based on the research literature and empirical research findings.

This thesis comprises a critical appraisal and a collection of published works drawn largely from extensive qualitative data generated by a five-year longitudinal study of forty-four Gypsy Traveller students. Gypsy Traveller children’s disengagement and underachievement in the secondary phase of education has exercised educationalists and policy makers for over forty years. Historically, deficit theory associated with an impoverished and disadvantaged nomadic lifestyle prevailed but this is no longer sustainable. The vast majority of Gypsy Travellers in Britain today are housed or settled on established sites and the situation has barely improved. Other ‘pathological’ explanations such as the Traveller community’s determination to preserve a separate identity from the dominant population by defending cultural boundaries have also featured prominently in the literature and in professional discourses. The thesis is grounded in a social constructionist approach, which critically analyses psychosociocultural forces and their impact on relationships and human behaviour. From this analysis, a new perspective is proffered as to why Gypsy Traveller children so often find themselves out of the secondary education system. Social exclusion and cultural dissonance are identified as significant push factors that trigger certain coping responses, some of which are maladaptive

National statistics on school exclusions published annually by the Scottish Executive indicate the over-representation of particular groups within the whole group of those excluded. Official and policy accounts of school exclusion were explored and tensions found between social policy constructions of exclusion and school policy. The latter was rooted in understandings of challenging behaviour as an additional support need or as a problem of school functioning. Not only were these discourses in tension with each other, resulting in inconsistencies in practice, but both ignored the social and cultural factors structuring school exclusion statistics. In the first empirical phase of the research, key informant interviews were used to probe professional and personal experience of exclusion, to contrast these with official views, and to inform the main phase of the investigation. The second, main phase of the research used a case-study sample of twenty excluded pupils, in four secondary schools, to investigate inequitable patterns of exclusion. Data was gathered from classroom observation, from school documentation and from interviews with pupils, parents and school staff. The main focus of the enquiry was the social identities of excluded pupils. Gender was a main category of analysis in this research, and especially masculine identities since boys were so predominant in exclusion statistics. The thesis argues that school exclusions are not just an indicator of wider social exclusion but an effect of policy which pursues social justice without fair distribution of social and economic benefits. Structural inequality has ensured that children and families are differently positioned to schooling and has limited the scope of schools in fostering engagement with schooling. Increased participation particularly in curriculum planning, is nevertheless a worthwhile and realistic aim for schools seeking to minimize school exclusion.

Despite the increasing prevalence and diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) and the increasing number of children and young people (CYP) with ASC in mainstream schools, there is little qualitative research exploring a common element of the condition, anxiety. This study adopts a qualitative research paradigm and attempts to develop understanding of and insight into the lives of CYP with ASC by giving a voice to these pupils, their parents/carers and members of staff who support them. Adapted, semi-structured interviews using a cognitive-behavioural framework were used to elicit participants’ views. The data were triangulated and analysed using thematic analysis to ensure detailed analysis of the topic. The themes highlighted a number of school scenarios that cause anxiety and distress for pupils, as well as the negative thoughts, feelings and behaviours associated with such situations. Psychological explanations for these findings were examined. Pupils found talking about their anxieties and using distraction techniques to be helpful anxiety-management strategies. For school to be ‘anxiety free’ participants alluded to a setting in which the CYP would be understood and accepted. The environment would be calm and predictable. Implications of the study, its relevance to the EP profession and further areas for research are discussed.

This action research study, which is composed of three cycles, aims at understanding and helping Portuguese students in an EFL context to improve their writing skills in English through a blended-learning (b-learning) writing module, using Moodle. This research contributes towards a better understanding of a research practitioner’s perspectives of an action research study. A narrative inquiry approach is used to convey the action research process through the practitioner’s eyes. It also contributes to the framework of Communities of Inquiry (CoI). This thesis looks at b-learning, its affordances and challenges and the function of CoI within a b-learning environment and how the different components of a Community of Inquiry framework, namely Social, Cognitive and Teaching Presences, contribute, influence and enrich the learning and teaching experience. The methodology behind the learning and teaching of writing as well as the theoretical and practical development of the research methods are described within the afore-mentioned framework. Communities of Inquiry will be seen as emerging from the data, as this research initially was not designed to include them. However, during analysis of the first action research cycle, data began to show evidence of the Community of Inquiry and it thus became part of the research and an integral part of the remaining two cycles. A Community of Inquiry’s sustenance relies on students’ engagement and interaction with the learning platform and with the people who make up the learning community and this data provides evidence for the framework in this research, which exemplifies and justifies the community of inquiry framework. Data for this thesis has been gathered using a mixed methods approach and thus the sources are varied. Interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, a research diary, class recordings and field notes and online interaction through forums, emails and messages compose the sources of the data for this research.