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The continued existence of a distinctive civil society in Scotland has certain implications for Conservatism in Scotland. Specifically, Scottish Conservatives can identify with a set of institutions which are peculiarly Scottish. Scottish Conservatives can accommodate this stance with their Unionist philosophy so long as the British leadership of the party is willing to recognise and exercise some degree of flexibility over how Scotland is governed. Problems arise for the Conservative Party in Scotland when Conservative statecraft chooses to either ignore or undermine the distinctive elements of Scottish civil society. The Thatcher Governments were different in significant respects from previous post war Conservative Governments. Ideology informed a number of policies which were introduced by the Thatcher Governments and specifically those policies which challenged the social component of the social democratic state. This had implications for the Thatcher Governments in Scotland. By pursuing ideologically motivated social policies, which undermined the social democratic consensus, the Thatcher Governments were seeking to alter the most distinctive institutions in Scottish civil society. In order to understand the implications that this had for the government of Scotland, an analysis has been conducted of Thatcherite education policy. The Scottish education system has been and continues to be an important component of Scottish national identity. The thesis analyses a number of issues in relation to education policy, including the manner in which educational professionals reacted to Thatcherite education policy, and what the implications were of their reactions for the implementation of policy. The reactions of teachers and head teachers to Thatcherite education policy demonstrate that the distinctiveness of the Scottish education system presented the Thatcher Governments with specific problems in their implementation of public policy.

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The thesis investigates variations in effectiveness of six Malaysian primary schools in three kinds of geographical sites: urban, rural and resettlement areas. It also focuses on the perceptions of headteachers, deputy headteachers, and teachers about school effectiveness, leadership/ management style of headteachers and collaborative management culture. The research explores the tensions that exist between the ingrained assumptions of Malaysian education and the practices and attitudes of headteachers, deputies and teachers. Detailed interview research on effectiveness and managerial collaboration is highly significant in enhancing understanding of education in Malaysia. The findings also make a further contribution towards international and cross-cultural perspectives of `school effectiveness' and `collaborative management'. Although generally the understandings of what constitutes collaborative management and what constitute the effectiveness of schools are still in their infancy in Malaysia, however, this does not mean that they are not important to the Malaysian educators. The need for collaborative management in Malaysian primary school is getting greater as the country moves towards `Vision 2020' and obviously this need is not adequately provided for in the present education system despite the Ministry's directive. More emphasis on policy making, awareness, commitment and training are needed for better application of the collaborative management. At the same time better communication and relationship between headteachers, teachers, DEDs, SEDs and the Ministry should be enhanced. This research also suggests ways in which training for headteachers in the area of collaborative management may be helpful for the more effective function of the schools. For collaborative management to be a success, artistry is required, to know when and how to exercise the various components of leadership so that a collaborative culture that brings success can be developed and maintained in schools. Although there is relatively little disagreement concerning the belief that headteacher's management styles have an impact on the lives of teachers and students, both the nature and degree of that impact continue to be open to debate.

This thesis is in three parts. Part One reviews the general literature on the integration debate and looks at the debate in relation to the specific field of visual impairment. This examines the issues and gives a broad context to the particular area of the visually impaired student in mainstream further education. Part Two is a review of the field of integration support with particular reference to further education and individuals with visual impairment. There exist real concerns about the ability of the mainstream to provide an environment that will ensure that these individuals maximise their learning potential. These concerns seem principally related to making appropriate support services available so that the advantages of mainstreaming are not outweighed by the disadvantages of reduced levels of support. Part Three is a research project based on further education colleges in the Midlands. It attempts to identify and examine the support services that enable successful integration of visually impaired students. It also attempts to evaluate these factors to establish their relative value in this mainstreaming process. The evaluation is from the perspective of visually impaired students in fur.ther education rather than that of professionals in the visually impaired field. This perspective is clearly relevant and has not been given due weight in the literature to-date. The thesis goes on to compare these findings to the data from other surveys which were concerned to identify and evaluate these support services from the perspective of the professional in this field.

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