This thesis contains the findings of a qualitative research project that addressed the question 'why collaborate'? Focus was on the experiences of academics in health and social care collaborating to develop interprofessional and interdisciplinary initiatives, including interprofessional education (IPE). The project was based upon the premise, first, that academics need to collaborate effectively if interprofessional initiatives like IPE are to develop and be sustained and secondly, that theory building in relation to collaboration will assist our understanding of why collaborations are formed and why some are sustained and some are not. Research focus in this field has, mostly, focussed on student experiences and the desire to identify the impact of IPE. The project aimed to address the under researched area of collaboration between academics. Data was generated from individual interviews and focus groups with academics from six universities. Respondents shared their experiences of collaborating with colleagues from a range of professions and disciplines. The project utilised a Charmazian constructivist grounded theory methodology and the writings of Pierre Bourdieu were used at the data analysis stage. The thesis details the emergent categories: motivation-dispositions; career trajectories; personal-relationships; leadership and field change, which assist our understanding of what helps and what hinders collaboration. The inter-relationships between the four emergent categories are outlined and a theory of collaboration between academics in health and social care is presented.

College English reform is one of the main elements in the drive to improve the quality of higher education in China so that it meets the country’s social and economic needs. This thesis focuses on three key aspects of the reforms: the new emphasis on speaking skills and communicative competence; the new learner-centred teaching model; and the influence (or washback effect) of the reformed College English Test. The research investigates the responses of teachers and students to the reforms and the factors influencing their attitudes. The aim is to contribute towards a fuller understanding of the impact of the reforms and generate recommendations for making them more effective. The research consists of a case study of one of the 180 pilot centres for College English reform in China. A mixed methodology has been adopted, combining both quantitative and qualitative research. The data are drawn from 20 hours of observation of classroom teaching, 397 questionnaires (46 completed by teachers and 351 by students) and 15 in-depth interviews (13 with students and two with teachers). Since the university under investigation offers an International English course (ITE) to some students as an alternative to College English (CE), both courses have been studied. This comparative element has proved important, since in many ways ITE has been more successful than CE in responding to the New Teaching Requirements. As a snapshot of the response to the College English reforms at a particular Chinese university at a particular moment in time, this research provides fresh insights into the obstacles facing attempts to develop students’ speaking skills, the continuing influence of textbooks and exams on teachers’ practice and students’ attitudes, the reluctance of many students to become autonomous learners, and the continuing assumption that it is the teacher’s task to control all key aspects of the learning process.

Increased concerns about students who present a risk to self or others have been documented in the literature since the 1990s. In particular, concern has been expressed about students who self-harm and students with mental health difficulties (for a thorough overview of the range of issues affecting HEIs see Rana et al., 1999; Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2003; Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2011). Much of the British research has focussed on the prevalence of different types of harmful or risky behaviour. Sector bodies have published guidance documents outlining key issues for institutions to address when responding to students who present a risk to self or others (AMOSSHE; 2000; Universities UK, 2002b; Universities UK, 2002a). Whilst the literature has provided guidance to the sector, there has been no detailed examination of the discourses which underpin concerns about risk or suggested institutional responses. This thesis uses critical discourse analysis to identify these discourses and consider their impact. The data consists of seven national guidance documents which inform practice in the sector and eighteen semi-structured interviews with staff from five universities. Nine key discourses are identified which can be split into two groups with one additional discourse: discourses about the Higher Education context, professional discourses and an additional student accountability discourse. Hilgartner’s (1992) relational theory of risk predicts that valuing different objects will result in the identification of different risks. Integrating this model with critical discourse analysis provides a way of understanding how discourses place different value on objects resulting in the identification of different risks. It is intended that this understanding will enable practitioners to reflect on the discourses they and their colleagues are using and consider alternative positions when responding to complex situations where students present a risk to self or others.

Since 2001 Muslim communities in Britain have largely been governed through the educational policy framing of integration and segregation. This Manichean bio-construct sees mono-cultural ethnic schools as problematic spaces, whilst integrated schools as the liberal ideal. By drawing upon the subaltern studies approach, this study provides a space for Muslim pupils and parents to articulate their own discourses on integrated and segregated schools in Britain. In doing so, it allows Muslim communities a position of power, by giving them agency to construct their own narratives on the policy debate on integration and schooling. This thesis attempts to make sense of Muslim discourses through a theoretic interpretation drawn from Muslim intellectual history. By using Ibn Khaldun’s (d. 1406) sociological theory of ‘asabiyya this study provides a broader theoretical context to the Muslim voice. The empirical and the theoretical perspectives contained in this study attempts to make significant contributions to the study of race, religion and Muslim studies in Britain. Public policy discourses has often seen the concept of integration as a linear cultural process, with minority groups gradually adopting the social mores of the host society. Evidence presented in this study sees integration as an analytical process and not as a fixed cultural template. It shows how the concept of integration can often be used, by political actors, as a tool for anti-Muslim racism. The discourses of Muslim parents and pupils have much in common with each other, especially when rejecting the idea of self-segregation, or highlighting the importance of ‘asabiyya based on religion, but they have little in common with the public policy framing of Muslim communities. Sociological studies have often demonstrated the disjuncture between public policy and lived experience. This study confirms this observation by elucidating the disconnect between political discourse of integration and lived cultural experience of Muslim communities. The discourses of Muslim communities in this study suggest a complex, paradoxical, intersectional reading of integration, which is fundamentally rooted within social constructionism. Most importantly it dismisses the integration and segregation binary, as seen within the educational framing of Muslims, whilst recognising the importance of Muslim group solidarity, or ‘asabiyya in Muslim discourse.

This thesis analyzes the experiences, perceptions and views of a group of newly graduated teachers in post-conflict Tripoli, Libya. The focus of the study was on the first year teachers of English as a foreign language EFL and the aim was to gain an insight into those teachers‘ experiences and the contextual factors that shaped them. The present study adopts communities of practice (CoP) as the conceptual framework for exploring the newly graduated teachers‘ experience and perceptions in post-conflict Libya. In particular, the study attempts to identify the elements within CoP: mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire to allow me to interpret the data. The data for the study come from three main sources: (a) semi-structured interviews with eleven teachers, (b) two expert teachers, (c) three headteachers, (d) the manager of the Education Development Centre and (e) focus group interviews with three inspection office managers and (f) documentary analysis. The results suggested that the newly graduated teachers‘ experiences in the context of the study are influenced by several factors that interact together to make these experiences unique and a contextually situated phenomenon. These factors are: (a) the conflict, which has diminished the opportunities for integration, learning, and establishing relationships so that any CoP was precluded from existence, b) the social restriction, (c) personal characteristics, (d) the discrepancies between their teacher preparation programmes and the requirements of teaching. Within each of these broad categories, there are also sub-categories such as age barrier, the impact of the conflict which further demonstrates the complexity of this situation and how this shapes the development of teachers. The thesis finishes by recommending that further research is needed conducted to explore the experiences of newly graduated teachers in other parts of the country to obtain a clear picture of this category of teachers. A reform of teacher education programme in this context will contribute to the development of these teachers. Formal training sponsored by the government would be the means through which these teachers can be trained and developed in the absence of any professional communities due to the reasons mentioned earlier.

This thesis analyses how the extensive use of networked computers, which were the primary classroom learning resource for three Level 3 cohorts of Further Education students, impacted on how the students approached the academic elements of their coursework. Using an ethnographic methodology the students were followed as they progressed over one academic year, to identify how they engaged with their learning and used the technologies over this period. The study of students’ classroom academic and literacy practices when using the new digital technologies of computers and the Internet as resources in post-compulsory education is a relatively neglected area. At a time when there is the continued call for the increased use of these technologies across the curricula, this ethnography offers an insight into students’ responses to the technologies and how these significant educational resources can also divide the classroom into both educational and social-leisure spaces. What became apparent over the year was students’ superficial level of engagement with online research resources and how that information was then processed. Students’ use of software to manipulate digital text bypassed any evidencing of intermediary cognitive processes, therefore at times idea generation, critical development and level of ownership became challenging to identify. Notably, students’ extensive use of computers resulted in their gaze being primarily directed to their computer monitors and despite the sociality amongst students for non-educational activities, both in and out of the classrooms, the benefits of peer discussion and interaction for learning was absent due to this level of academic isolation. Students’ use of the technologies for either educational or social-leisure use was reflective of the learning conditions and what affected their levels of motivation and attention. For a number of students, their excessive use of the classroom computers to access online social-leisure resources came at a cost to their grades and their ambitions for progression had to be reduced. There is no doubting the value of computers and the Internet as classroom learning resources, however, this research identifies that they are certainly not a quick panacea for education. The evidence illustrates that to attain the potential they offer, there needs to be relative adjustments to pedagogy and learning cultures and how students conceptualise the space of computer-resourced classrooms.

Since 1997, successive governments in England have consistently introduced a range of interventions aimed at developing the quality of training of FE teachers. It has been suggested that these should engender better teaching, which in turn should improve achievement of learners, and subsequently produce a workforce with global competitive advantage. This study explores and analyses the views of a sample of FE teachers and their managers on the impact of an in-service initial teacher education programme on teachers’ development and practice. The case study research uses online questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to collect data from participants drawn from both academic and vocational curriculum areas of a large FE college. The study employs Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field and capital and Giddens’ structuration framework of structure and agency to interpret and explain social practices and actions. Even though the past can frame agents’ dispositions, agents also have the capacity to accommodate and integrate new conditions in shaping future practices. An understanding of power relations within and between fields has been useful in explaining practitioners’ actions, and the concept of capital has been beneficial in analysing practitioners’ influence, and some factors that drive their actions. Initial findings from this study indicate that while structure can constrain agents’ actions, it can also be enabling. Although teachers have faced some constraints and challenges whilst on the training programme, there is a significant positive perception of the knowledge, skills and competencies that they have acquired. Findings also indicate that the social-cultural construction of knowledge approach and teachers’ own passion are significant to their professional development. The thesis proposes a case for reflexive breakout, a phrase used to portray the transformative capacity of teachers in developing their professional practice. This perhaps has some implications for further research in understanding the professional development of trainee teachers.

research examines the development of a self-evaluation model within a secondary school environment. The study investigates the contributing factors that influence the development of a school and suggests an evaluative model that measures pupil performance, encourages school staff to be self-reflective and enables a trustworthy indication of school attainment and improvement. Data collection included the use of surveys at the beginning and end of the investigation and also in-depth individual semi-structured interviews with school staff and local authority educational advisers. The outcome of the research provided a self-audit model that enabled judgements to be made on pupil progress across the full range of the curriculum and measured the strengths and weaknesses of the school compared with national standards. Emerging from the research was the realisation that managing the process of change was fundamental to the success of the model. It is this change process and its management that are the key findings of this research.

This qualitative study explores and examines how local authority Directors of Children’s Services (DCSs) experience and make sense of their professional identity as senior public leaders. Through extended in-depth interviews with fourteen DCSs from a northern region of the UK, it focuses on perceptions and representations of how they construct, reconstruct and enact their identity in everyday practice and social encounters in a turbulent, complex and often uncertain organisational and policy context. With occupational backgrounds largely in education or social work, DCSs are held ‘professionally responsible’ - under statute, for the leadership and effective delivery of children’s services through thousands of multi-disciplinary practitioners and increasing numbers of organisations they do not directly manage. They are also accountable in law for safeguarding children: implementing and monitoring institutional systems and procedures which minimise risk, while meeting demanding performance standards. As hybrid leaders, DCSs face the experience of straddling two professional identities - that of their original practitioner background and that of the senior leader-manager they have become. Despite the role being established in 2004, identity perceptions and identity work in this public sector leadership role do not appear to have been the focus of previous research. In this study, the findings are illuminative of, and illuminated by, sociological discussions of ambiguous occupational domains and insecurity in a fastmoving policy landscape; responding to questions about the precariousness of identity construction and notions of professionalism in a neo-liberal knowledge economy. Drawing on Critical Management Studies, this interpretive study is guided by a philosophy that treats the notion of identity as ‘struggle’ and as enduring and recursive processes of becoming, rather than ever arriving at a fixed identity: refracting what can be seen as a “permanent dialectic” between the self and social structures (Ybema, 2009). Reaching beyond simply telling the story, the critical interpretivist approach informing the research design interrogates new empirical data on identity perceptions of children’s services leaders in the context of agency-structure dynamics and concerns. Social Domains Theory (Layder, 1997) which is concerned with the different, yet interrelated social and structural domains that constitute social reality, is utilised as a sensitising device. Methodologically, this provides an analytic frame to reveal, connect and disrupt the rich narrative emerging from the empirical research in relation to prevailing discourses and theories of identity, emotion and professionalism which are often left unchallenged in traditional interpretivist studies and literature. The contribution of this study is three-fold. First, it offers new insights into how senior leaders experience and perceive their identity work and struggle. Here identities are shaped and reshaped along a continuum between participants’ original occupational values-base, and new discourses of the professional public manager role and its enactment in contemporary organisations. Second, the application of Social Domains Theory to aid critical interrogation of the data adds to, and advances, current understandings in identity studies. Third, the dominant narrative presented by DCSs of their everyday experiences, emotion work and leadership practices is refracted through a ‘touchstone’ of espoused child-centred values - as they bend and angle in searches for identity. This image is conceptualised in the study as a new identity construct: the Refracted Professional Leader.

The thesis looks at the issue of career choice and decision-making through the eyes of young people in Antigua and in England. It provides an account of their views and attitudes in relation to various jobs and careers and the factors which have influenced these views. It asks young people about the way in which they are making their career choices and the sort of factors which influence them into making these choices. The study begins by first providing a brief overview of education and training in both countries and the way in which education is presented in both countries as being essential for economic growth. At the centre of this study is the realisation that after many years of vocational initiatives young people still appear to be reluctant to enter vocational courses and or careers. Nonetheless, from a socio/economic viewpoint, various governments over the last quarter of a century, at least, have placed much emphasis on the relationship between education and the country’s economic performance. The three specific aims of the study are: • To explore young peoples’ employment aspirations in Antigua and the UK • To investigate young people’s attitudes towards jobs and careers • To evaluate the various influences on their career choices. Since vocational education prepares individuals for gainful employment, the participants were therefore questioned about their career aspirations; particularly in terms of whether they are considering academic or vocational type courses or careers. In order to ascertain if the participants had made informed choices/decisions regarding subjects and career choices it was necessary to look at the types of information with which they are provided as well as the sources of the information. The research also questions whether the information provided is adequate and without bias. Conducted within two schools and two colleges in the North of England and two schools and a college in the Caribbean island of Antigua, the study employs the use of both Questionnaires and interviews so as to obtain a rich texture of data. However, as it seeks to give a voice to the young people themselves, it leans more towards the qualitative side of the interview data. The study reveals that the term vocational is not widely understood and attributes this to the narrow approach of careers education and guidance being provided to young people. Thus, it raises questions of how well young people are being prepared for the world of work. It however has found that young people do not make their choices based upon whether the career is a vocational or academic career. They are more concerned about the money and status which a career or job earns them and they are more likely to take advice from parents, siblings and even friends than from careers advisers.