Sports leadership has received increased promotion during the past two decades, as a tool for providing individuals with leadership skills and in contributing towards community sport development objectives. Sports Leaders UK (SLUK) play a key role in providing sports leadership training programmes in the UK, training over 200,000 leaders each year. This aims of this research was to evaluate the work of SLUK, in contributing towards the development of sport the personal and career development of the leaders undertaking the awards. A mixed methods approach was adopted to achieve ‘enhancement’ of findings. The first quantitative phase involved binary logistic regression analysis of SLUK’s candidate database (n=76,179) and set out to identify the predictor variables associated with award completion. The second quantitative phase provided analysis of surveys (n=76), and set out to explore relationships between the leaders’ career and personal development and involvement in the SLUK awards. The final qualitative study sought to gain the views and perspectives of the sports leaders who had engaged with the SLUK awards through the use of semi-structured interviews (n=16). This study aimed to further investigate the impact of SLUK awards on career development and in contributing towards sport and other community outcomes. Results showed that the SLUK awards were perceived to contribute to developing sport, particularly within the school environment. Furthermore, with the training and development of more sports leaders who are actively leading sport, more opportunities were found to be provided across the UK. Engagement in the awards was found to increase feelings of self-worth, which in turn helped build self-esteem and confidence in the leaders. Important factors which appeared to be associated with award completion and continued leadership behaviour included location of the award (i.e. centre type) and choice of participation in the awards. The research provides original contribution to knowledge by exploring the impact of SLUK awards on the leaders’ personal development and community sport. Future delivery of sports leadership needs to be focused in communities if sports leaders are to make the transition from schools to community clubs and continue volunteering. Support from mentors was found to be crucial in ensuring that sports leaders sustain their voluntary leadership.

Lifelong learning requires motivation to complete learning projects across the lifespan. Understanding an individual’s commitment to extended periods of learning is not well understood. There are particular gaps in longitudinal and biographical accounts of learners grounded in frameworks of lifespan theories. Equally missing are accounts that consider the dynamical nature of learning across time. Three learner biographies are examined to develop a dynamical control perspective of motivation for extended learning. Drawing on a regulatory framework the Lifespan Theory of Control and concepts from complexity perspectives particularly Non Linear Dynamical Systems Theory, including feedback, attractors and bifurcation, A model is offered which synthesises processes of control, motivation and dynamics leading to competence and accounting for extended periods of learning.

This thesis reports on barriers and enablers to participation within Further Education from the perspective of the student voice. It is based on the work of Veronica McGivney (1993) who reported on research undertaken by Cross (1981) which divided deterrents to participation into three categories, namely, Situational, Institutional and Dispositional. McGivney reports these categories to be “oversimplified”. Student participation/non-participation is explored via the opinions/perspectives of learners on the Access to Higher Education Programme within a traditional mining community which is in the process of redefining its identity following the closure of local coal mines within the last few decades. To accommodate the complexity that arose from this research, the discourses of both ‘individual needs’ and ‘student voice’ have been problematised. Quantitative and qualitative survey methods are drawn upon including data from questionnaires, focus group and college Management Information Systems. Nine emergent themes that may act as sub-layers to the themes of Situational, Institutional and Dispositional categories reported by McGivney and one meta-theme (Opportunity) are discussed. High levels of interrelatedness between emergent themes point to a fluid dynamic within the decision-making process of prospective participants. The research concludes with a practical ‘framework for participation’ that attempts to reflect this fluidity.

This thesis explores experiences of college-based higher education (CBHE) in England, positioning this type of provision within the national and local geographies of English higher education. Focusing on institutions located in higher education 'cold spots', the thesis situates these institutions within local and policy narratives of both lack of and need for educational opportunity. The case study research design examines two case institutions, and involves documentary analysis and interviews with higher education directors, tutors and final year students on two degree courses in each college, as well as interviews with key figures in national Further Education policy. Data analysis deploys the concept of possible selves in an original, sociologically-oriented dialogue with de Certeau's 'spatial story' to produce accounts of placed possible selves. The key contributions of the thesis are, firstly, that shared and homogenous societal narratives of university higher education dominate even in places and for educational subjects without university education. Secondly, the thesis challenges reductive binary understandings of student mobilities, in which mobility and privilege are diametrically opposed to immobility and disadvantage. Finally, the concept of local capital offers a way of understanding social, cultural and economic commitments to place that moves beyond a language of deficit.

The aim of this thesis was to investigate some of the processes that contribute to the effective comprehension of text in an adult population. The thesis begins with an assessment of component skills that are of theoretical relevance to reading comprehension skill. Experiment One explored the relation between gist-based memory processes and reading comprehension skill. Weaknesses in semantic processing have been shown to contribute to comprehension difficulties both in childhood (e.g. Nation & Snowling, 1999), and adulthood (e.g. Perfetti, Yang & Schmalhoffer, 2007). Weekes, Hamilton, Oakhill & Holliday (2008) used the false memory (DRM) paradigm developed by Deese (1959); Roediger and McDermott (1995) to assess the relation between reading comprehension and memory processes in children. In the DRM, subjects memorise lists of semantically related words (e.g. bed, rest, awake) for later recall. During recall, it is typical to see intrusions of semantically related but non-presented items (e.g. ‘sleep' is often falsely recalled following presentation of the above). Weekes et al. (2008) found that children with comprehension difficulties produced fewer such intrusions than did good comprehenders, suggesting that poor comprehenders have difficulty extracting the central theme or ‘gist' from the word lists, a deficit that was attributed to weakness in semantic processing and memory. Experiment One demonstrated that this effect was not replicable in an adult population. Although there is evidence that deficits in semantic processing contribute to reading comprehension difficulties in adulthood, these appear to be too subtle to manifest themselves in the DRM paradigm. In Experiment Two, measures of vocabulary, word-level skills (orthography and decoding), working memory and verbal IQ were taken from a population of young adult readers. These measures were used as predictors of comprehension skill in multiple regression analyses. Moderate support for the Verbal Efficiency/Lexical Quality Hypothesis (Perfetti, 1985; 2007) was obtained, in that word-level skills and vocabulary size accounted for unique portions of variance in comprehension skill. Experiments Three and Four explored the processes involved in on-line reading comprehension and, specifically, in a comprehension task that demanded integration. In both experiments, subjects took part in a coherence judgement task (Ferstl, Guthke & von Cramon, 2002; Ferstl, 2006) in which they had to verify whether two sentences cohered with one another or not. Four conditions that resulted from crossing coherence and cohesion (i.e. the presence of a lexical connection), were used: Coherent and cohesive (where sentences cohered, and a cohesive tie made their coherence explicit); coherent and incohesive (where sentences cohered, but coherence had to be inferred on the basis of pragmatic information rather than lexical cohesion); incoherent and cohesive (where sentences that do not cohere were erroneously linked with a cohesive tie); and incoherent and incohesive (where sentences did not cohere, and were not erroneously linked with a cohesive tie). Typically, the paradigm elicits an interaction between coherence and cohesion in reading times for the second (target) sentence: Targets in coherent and cohesive trials are read more quickly than targets in coherent and incohesive trials; and targets in incoherent and incohesive trials are read more quickly than are targets in incoherent and cohesive trials. Experiment Three replicated this interaction, and demonstrated that variance in its size was predicted by working memory capacity, with high working memory readers showing larger interaction effect sizes than low capacity readers. The interaction was interpreted as a monitoring effect that was triggered by target sentences in the atypical conditions (i.e. incoherent and cohesive; coherent and incohesive). It was proposed that high capacity readers were better able to engage in this monitoring. Experiment Four sought to explore the semantic deficit hypothesis in relation to this effect, with the proposal that efficient semantic processes, rather than working memory capacity, contributed to variance in the size of the interaction. Performance on a semantic fluency task was found to predict unique variance in the size of the interaction effect, over and above that accounted for by working memory capacity. This finding suggests that the effect is better explained by semantic processing than by working memory capacity, and that the interaction may be better described as a semantic elaboration effect rather than a comprehension monitoring effect. The conclusion of this thesis is that reading comprehension in adult readers relies upon efficient and accurate lexical access, comprising both lower-level processes such as accurate word recognition and decoding skill, and higher-level processes of semantic elaboration and integration.

Typically, adult educators in Jamaica are part-time employees who are either trained in pedagogy or are employed because of their advanced training or skills in a particular discipline. As adult education in Jamaica and the Caribbean undergoes change, policy focus has concentrated on identifying the discipline with lifelong learning rather than adult literacy. Although the importance of the role of adult educators to the change process is acknowledged, the changes in adult education are not yet focussed on the role of the adult educator and equipping the adult educator to function in this dynamic environment. This study of an adult education institution in Jamaica aims to explore the perceptions of stakeholders, teachers, students and administrators, on how adult education is viewed, the role of part-time faculty in adult education, the quality of teaching they offer and measures to enhance teaching quality in this institution and others like it. I argue that the equipping of adult educators is important for successful adult education, part-time faculty who make up the significant majority of the cohort of adult educators deserve special attention and that Continuing Professional Development is a useful tool that serves the interest of equipping both individual teachers and institutions. Data was collected and analysed by means of a qualitative methodology utilising interviews, focus groups and qualitative questionnaires in two centres of the case institution. The study finds that teachers are crucial to successful adult education. Because of the ambivalence of adult learners and their needs for emotional as well as cognitive support, the onus is on teachers to provide learning environments in which adult learners can make best use of a learning opportunity. Many teachers, however, do not have specialist training for this task. Part-time faculty in the study want professional development although they do not think traditional methods of professional development suit their circumstances. They do have clear ideas of the kind of CPD support that they think will meet their needs. The study suggests guidelines for developing a model of CPD that is suitable for part-time faculty in adult education.

This was a collaborative action research project with three, mixed method evaluation cycles. Its aim was to increase the impact of new learning technologies (NLT) in two Police Forces. The first reconnaissance cycle found a significant absence of uptake for one computer based training system (<1% impact after five years) with only assumptions of ‘technological determinism’ driving the process. A range of individual, work related and cultural factors were illuminated, towards understanding how the Force might become a ‘network’ organisation, where technology fundamentally transforms how work is done (Symon, 2000). Following the qualitative interview study, a quantitative survey was carried out with 164 respondents on the areas of concern for NLT in the Police. Factor analysis of this data reinforced a parsimonious five factor solution, accounting for 55% of the variance and on which to proceed with cycles two and three. In the second cycle, 130 Police Probationers completed a battery of psychometrics to assess individual difference factors associated with successful outcomes in training with NLT. Results showed 27% of the variance on a bespoke NLT learning measure was predicted by computer attitudes. Age, gender, education, motivational and almost all personality measures offered no significant contribution to explaining the data. The bespoke learning criterion was used as a pre-test, post-test and retention measure and showed significant increases in knowledge were gained from NLT: effective and efficient learning was evidenced. Also in the second cycle, a sub-sample of (n=20-34) Probationers participated in two stages of repertory grid interviews rating different elements of Police training methods. From these data an ‘Ideal Probationer Learning Event’ (IPLE) model was proposed. This was stable over time and positioned NLT within a conceptual structure that identified preferred and non-preferred construct poles equating to four dimensions along which Police officers reliably rated any training event. In essence, it highlighted sites of perceived credibility and offered these as levers for creative change. Follow-up work with 120 Probationers using another example of NLT explored how integration of learning from NLT could occur from a learner-centered point of view, using an interpretive concept mapping technique. This illuminated sites of power exchange and the location of ‘ownership’ of learning in Police culture. The IPLE model was used to direct the third cycle which included constructivist and contingency perspectives. It was propsed that by creatively designing an NLT event to increase elements of the preferred constructs discovered in cycle two, integration of an NLT event would enable the transformative properties of NLT as a to manifest themselves. A sample of up to 60 Police Staff used an NLT package alongside a bespoke, collaborative e-learning group. Criterions were developed according to skill breadth, frequency and difficulty and significant increases in learning were not only found, but maintained following completion of NLT when retention was measured. The e-learning group brought some of the credible elements of training to the NLT event, thereby constituting a ‘unique solution’ (Seltzer, 1971). It created peer learning groups, despite geographical separation. Data for each level of Kirkpatrick’s (1959; 1960) ‘best practice’ training evaluation model was collected enabling the conclusion that creative integration is key to a network uptake of NLT.

This thesis explores the relatively under-theorised relationship between wisdom and adult teaching and learning. Whilst studies of wisdom are usually couched within a psychological framework, and/or one related to gerontology, this work poses key questions about what wisdom means, whether it can be taught, and the extent to which its elusive and allusive character has rendered it marginal to the design and delivery of adult and lifelong learning. Using autoethnography as both method and methodology, and by drawing on a diverse range of sources, including six interviews, this pursuit of wisdom is anchored in the reflexive relationship between the author and her subject of study. Key ontological and epistemological questions are posed as I seek meaning in relation to my lifeworld and lifespan. I also examine autoethnography’s efficacy whilst acknowledging criticisms within the academy, including accusations of narcissistic irrelevance. This study also incorporates the use of ‘writing as inquiry’ by way of offering a further challenge to the more traditional bounds of the social sciences. The interview material is couched within a fictionalised framework, and the whole thesis unfolds, conterminously, as both analysis and quest. In keeping with the methodological approach, the thesis concludes by offering a synthesis of certain of its propositions, rather than resolution. By adopting Sophia, the ancient goddess of wisdom, as metaphorical guide, the basic proposition that is shared across the text is the epistemologically fragmented nature of our understanding of wisdom and her relegation in a frenetic world which can be obsessed with the measurable as against the deepening of understanding. Yet the paradoxical nature of wisdom’s manifestations might also offer a degree of hope, should we heed her call…I argue that she is intimately intertwined with learning itself and with the potential for heartfelt and imaginative openness to the wisdom of ‘unknowing’ and the possibility of transcendence. However, Sophia demands our imaginative, authentic, loving and courageous attention in the process: in writing; in the classroom; in understanding the play of history, culture and the self. This autoethnographic inquiry is my response to that demand.

Qualified nurses require equitable access to continuing professional education (CPE) that is responsive to the needs of learners, employers and most importantly clients. There is scant attention paid to the CPE custom of community nurses, with research in the experience of island-based nurses mainly limited to the Mediterranean and under-developed islands, or of nurses working in the Scottish Isles. The community nurses in question are employed by a charity working outside the National Health Service (NHS), based on an island with a unique model of healthcare that is more medicalised and institutionalised than the United Kingdom NHS. Semi-structured, one-to-one interviews were conducted with sixteen community nurses, and two focus groups undertaken, one with nurse managers and the other with qualified nurses. Interview data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, a method new to education research, and not yet recorded in relation to nurse education. Findings indicated an ageing workforce, with ageism hindering access to CPE. Geographical isolation coupled with a lack of access to tertiary education dictated CPE to fulfil professional development. Charitable status and limited CPE funding resulted in a third of nurses applying for sponsorship via local or national agencies, this was not found elsewhere in the current literature. This research contributes to the knowledge relating to nurse CPE, confirming the transferability of existing literature relating to geographical remoteness, barriers and outcomes of formal study to community nurses. It advances the current knowledge base with regard to small island infrastructure effecting access to CPE, funding formal education for nurses working outside the NHS, and silo working within the community setting. Further research is required to explore the experience of community nurses under the age of 30 years not represented within this study, who will be the future workforce when older nurses retire. These findings are of particular significance to the Jersey Health and Social Services Department who are currently redesigning the future health and social care system on the island based on a community model, nurse educators, the charity and its qualified nurse employees, and finally the island population.

This thesis considers questioning of rigid conceptions of identity with regards the parallel and integrated contexts of the Canadian Arctic and academia. The text has been written as a conversation between texts written by Inuit (the source literature) and non-Inuit. I have searched and analyzed these sources on the broad themes of research, colonization and pedagogy. The theme of research is a guide for the first section of this thesis where I locate the research by detailing my rationales and methodologies. My objective to conduct this research ethically, responsible to writings by Inuit and others represented within this thesis, led me to use a literary approach considered by some as non-standard within the social sciences. Drawing only on secondary texts for this research, reading and writing are my methodologies and I utilize intertextuality as a theoretical and methodological guide. The theme of colonization in the Canadian Arctic provides a main focus for the second and third sections of the thesis. I review perspectives both on colonization in the Canadian Arctic, and contemporary social health challenges, and consider these in relation to the educational sphere most specifically. Colonization is discussed as something that has incurred trauma for Inuit, and as something that Inuit seek to be resilient to, but I emphasize a need to recognize diversities within the colonization and contemporary experiences of Inuit. I discuss that narratives can be misleading and potentially harmful, particularly when there is an overreliance on rigid externally-defined narratives which conflict with internal conceptions of identity. And I discuss how narratives can also be affirming, particularly when an individual has agency over the construction and the sharing processes. I consider the writings within the source literature as enactments of resilience through inherent questioning of hegemonic ‘truths’. Pedagogy is a thematic guide for the fourth section of the thesis. I suggest that under the intangible terminologies of ‘overcoming trauma’ or ‘resilience over colonization’ sit pedagogies that Inuit discuss whereby such ideals may be pursued. Learning theorists focussed more broadly promote critiques of mainstream pedagogies and ideal pedagogies similar to those discussed by Inuit. Considering these connections leads to an articulation of five characteristics of ideal pedagogies for coming to new understandings on difference: 1) a need to revalue diversities and ‘soft’ skills such as imagination; 2) a tolerance of an individual’s need for freedom to define one’s own identity; 3) a conceptualization of pedagogy as a contextualized way of living rather than a decontextualized activity; 4) the importance of a dialogic pedagogy and humility of both teacher/learner; and 5) the promotion of a cognizance, through pedagogy, that essentialisms are necessary but also potentially misleading and damaging. Such an articulation of ideal pedagogies has also guided my own learning within this research.