Autism, a lifelong developmental disability, can have a significant impact on parents, particularly mothers who are often the primary care takers of their children in countries in which understanding of and resources for young people with autism are limited. This study explores the lives of mothers of adolescent sons with autism in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. I focus on the issues that arise in a strictly sex segregated society, Saudi Arabia, and ask how living in such a culture affects the capacity of mothers to support and care, and to be helped to support and care, for their sons. I consider the experiences of these mothers in contrast with those of mothers from Bahrain which, though still a traditional society, has a more progressive approach towards women who fully participate in society and have almost the same rights as men, at least in law. In a country like Saudi Arabia, mothers struggle with the complexities of autism in a society that often treats them as inferior simply because of their sex. In Bahrain, even though mothers struggle with autism and a lack of support, the social and political structures of the country are different. Bahraini mothers, for example, do not have to contend with male guardianship laws or a prohibition on driving, both of which, I argue here, extensively affect their capacity to care for their sons. In this thesis, I apply Nussbaum’s Capability Approach to questions of social justice for mothers of adolescents with autism. The Capability Approach is an evaluative framework that assesses individuals’ well-being, exploring what a person can actually do and be when given opportunity freedoms. In a just society, according to Nussbaum (2011), every individual is entitled to dignity and respect and should be provided with appropriate threshold levels of functioning in ten central human capabilities which include bodily integrity; senses imagination, and thought; emotions, and affiliation. By engaging in conversations with 17 mothers, 10 in Saudi Arabia and seven in Bahrain, this study starts to tell the stories of these seventeen mothers. In their own words2, the mothers I interviewed share their journeys with autism, discuss available social support, both formal and informal, and refer to and sometimes explicitly describe the cultural norms and regulations they encounter. To analyse the interview data, I use thematic analysis and Nussbaum’s Capability Approach to explore mothers’ experiences. While I acknowledge that this is a small-scale study and I make only limited claims to generalisability or representativeness, the results of 1 I discuss terminology in Chapter One but this term is taken from the UK National Autistic Society definition at http://www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is/asd.aspx 2 Translated from Arabic to English as explained in Chapter Four. iv my analysis indicate a significant lack of support, both informal from husbands, families and friends, and formal from hospitals and schools. Most mothers experienced difficulties dealing with autism, physically and/or emotionally. With respect to the Capability Approach, most Saudi mothers reported capability failure, largely because of the marginalisation of those with autism and gender discrimination. These capabilities are compromised because Saudi mothers live under laws which, I claim, promote inequality and injustice. With major gender inequality, mothers in Saudi, I argue, suffer greatly and their capabilities are jeopardised. By contrast, my data indicates that Bahraini mothers’ capability development is less inhibited by the social and political arrangements of their country than applies to women in Saudi Arabia. This study draws out the significant differences in the experiences of women in two countries that are geographically separated only by a bridge but whose norms and conventions are radically different. I argue that in order to promote social justice for women, it is important to see the situation through their eyes and to research their experiences in ways that allow a deep understanding of their struggles in their societies. I conclude that it is vital to acknowledge and value the roles of mothers caring for their children with autism within their communities, and to develop and ultimately implement policies that allow their own capabilities and those of their children to flourish.

This study explored the relationship between implicit and explicit knowledge of 13 second language (L2) English grammar points and the relationship of each type of knowledge with language learning aptitude and working memory capacity in 90 Mexican learners of L2 English at three different levels of proficiency (Level 5, Level 7, Level 9). An elicited imitation test and an oral narrative test were used to measure implicit knowledge, and a metalinguistic knowledge test was used to measure explicit knowledge. With respect to language learning aptitude and working memory, the former was operationalised by the LLAMA test, and the latter by the backward digit span test. With regard to the relationship between implicit and explicit knowledge, implicit knowledge correlated positively and weakly with explicit knowledge while an analysis by grammar point showed a non-significant negative correlation approaching significance between implicit and explicit scores. These results indicate that learners found some grammar points easy in terms of explicit knowledge and other grammar points easy in terms of implicit knowledge, and vice versa. Learners’ language aptitude and working memory did not significantly predict explicit or implicit knowledge of the targeted difficult and easy grammar points for the cohort of participants as a whole. Another analysis by level group (Level 5, Level 7, Level 9) indicated that the cognitive variables did not significantly predict explicit knowledge of easy or difficult grammar points. However, with respect to implicit knowledge, working memory significantly predicted implicit knowledge of easy grammar points in Level 5, and language aptitude marginally predicted implicit knowledge of difficult grammar points in Level 5. Overall, the findings support the view that language aptitude and working memory are better predictors at lower levels of proficiency. The findings of this study contribute to researchers’ understanding of the distinction between implicit and explicit knowledge and the relevance of language aptitude and working memory at different levels of proficiency.

This thesis will explore the current and potential role of emotion in undergraduate legal education in England Wales. It will discuss the lack of acknowledgment of emotion within both the doctrinal and liberal traditions of legal education and the limited recognition that has been accorded to emotion more recently as a result of the development of socio-legal and other approaches to the law degree. Parallels will be drawn with changing philosophical and scientific conceptualisations of emotion, which have shifted from viewing emotion as irrational and potentially dangerous, to viewing it as intertwined with, or even part of, cognition and intelligence. The different ways in which emotion can, and arguably should, be incorporated within legal education will then be evaluated. The influence of neo-liberalism on both higher education generally, and legal education specifically, has led to a focus on skills which could incorporate the use of emotion, in particular emotional intelligence, into legal education as a form of soft skill or competency. However, the final three chapters of this thesis seek to demonstrate that relying on this conceptualisation alone is too narrow (as well as being ideologically driven). A detailed discussion of the role of emotion within learning and its impact on the wellbeing of both law students and the legal academy shows that emotion is more than a fotm of soft skill and should become an integral part of undergraduate legal education in England and Wales to improve both the academic attainment and the psychological health of those involved.

Well-being is increasingly of interest to schools and educational policy makers in the UK and beyond. This thesis is a philosophical and empirical enquiry into the relationship between well-being and education and into the nature of a theory and practice of well-being in educational settings. Well-being, I will argue, is not a single entity or the private possession of an individual; nor is it an add-on or optional extra for educators. It is rather an intergenerational, shared embodied theory and practice, an intrinsic goal of education and an inherent and constitutive part of how we engage in education. Well-being is not something we ‘deliver’ and we may not be able to teach or produce it directly. However, we can attempt to create an environment in which it can occur. I will argue that the qualities of this environment should be the focus of those who wish to promote well-being in education and that teachers need an educational environment which will allow them and their pupils, to be well. Using Arendt’s The Human Condition as a key insight into human ways of being and doing I will argue that well-being, being well, occurs when there is balance between the different activities that humans engage in and a balance in how they engage in those activities. I will also argue that such a balanced environment will serve a key educational function, the containment of anxiety and the containment of love. Theory and practice are indivisible and this theory arose from 13 years of practice in schools as an advisor into well-being in education. I therefore put my own emergent theory into practice by using it to develop a reflective research methodology, contemplative reflection, with which to study a well-being project I co-created and worked with for 13 years, which is called Celebrating Strengths.

This doctoral study explores the use of playful collaborative learning in computer science. The researcher undertook a pilot and an iterative main study, using a design-based research method, through which to investigate a fresh approach for teaching computer science to secondary age students (11-16). The design was realised through collaboration with school-based colleagues, resulting in a responsive sequence of lessons, each evaluated and adapted. An explorative picture was drawn of the students’ experience through live observation, and through analysis of audio data. It was expected that the approach would capitalise on the benefits of play and collaboration as described by the influential theorists Bruner (1976) and Mercer (2007). The initial framework for the analysis was based on Mercer’s ‘sociocultural discourse analysis’ to evaluate collaboration, and on a qualitative analysis of the presence of ‘play’ as defined by Bruner (1976). Close analysis of the recorded transcripts of the students’ paired discussions, however, revealed little exploratory talk and the type of ‘play’ present did not often conform to Bruner’s specific characteristics. It was instead frequently humorous or ‘ludic’. This suggested a need for further elaboration of types of play, beyond Bruner’s categories. Moreover, thematic analysis of the collaboration between the teachers engaged in the design and ongoing evaluation of the sessions suggested a tension between the teachers’ personal pedagogy of play and their professional performance in the classroom. This tension influenced the extent to which playful and collaborative learning could be designed for. The tension is particularly marked in a phenomenon here newly named as ‘play-stops’, which occur when a student embarking on a playful episode is diverted back to the ‘task’ in hand by a fellow student or a teacher. A number of approaches for further developing and nurturing knowledge of computer science are articulated in the latter phase of the thesis. These recommendations respect the restrictions of contemporary computer science education while also valuing a contemporary playful pedagogy that understands the need for time, space and personal motivation to be developed and shared with the students.

This study explores the impact of government-driven change (DfEE, 198; DfES, 2006, DCSF, 2008; DfE, 2017b), within a sector largely comprising privately owned and managed organisations, on how individual practitioners understand their role and their professional identity. Workforce reform strategies included the introduction of sector-endorsed degrees to promote the use of critical reflection to raise the quality of practice, a skill understood to develop confidence, autonomy and agency in practitioners (Moss, 2006; Osgood, 2010), for which a personal vision of practice (Dyer and Taylor, 2012) is required. This raises a potential tension between the empowering nature of reflection, and expectations of compliance with government-led standards and practice guidance. This study explores how this shapes graduate practitioners’ understanding and articulation of professional identity, and their understanding of their professional status and agency. 23 semi-structured interviews were conducted, within which participants shared narratives of their practice experience, discussing what they considered to be strong and weak practice, and how they prioritised the different aspects of their role. These were analysed using the Listening Guide (Doucet and Mauthner, 2008), an approach selected for its effectiveness in drawing attention to the voice and the stories of narrators, to understand how they perceive their world and themselves within it. The data analysis draws on literature exploring the nature of early years practice, power relations within the sector, and the formation of professions. This study shows that these participants understand professionalism and their role in terms of the relationships they form within their own organisations, privileging interpersonal skills over abstract, high level knowledge, and presenting these as personal values rather than professional ethics. By using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model of development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; 1986), this study identifies that these participants engage with their sector largely within the micro-and meso-systems of early years practice, limiting their agency as a professional workforce. It is isolation, rather than lack of knowledge, that restricts their agency, from other practitioners within the workforce, from the politics that drive change within the sector, and also from the research community that produces the knowledge they use to underpin their practice. This study concludes with curricular and pedagogic implications for professional educators within the sector, and also identifies how the workforce itself might more closely engage with the wider systems that impact on their sector.

This thesis aims to develop an understanding and explanation about what Libyan teachers think and believe about teaching English. It examines how they regard themselves as English language teachers, addresses their beliefs about classroom practices and the current curriculum, and what might be regarded as professionalism within the Libyan educational context. This interpretive qualitative case study was conducted in the southern part of Libya and involved fifteen teachers of English from seven public schools who were purposively chosen and then observed and interviewed to generate data. Four inspectors and the head of a university English department were also interviewed to elucidate the wider context. This research adopted Ajzen’s (2005) Planned Behaviour Theory (PBT) and Desimone’s (2009) model of professional development as a theoretical base for the study. PBT underpinned an exploration and explanation of teachers’ beliefs, taking into consideration a variety of motivational factors. The way teachers’ intentions acclimatised to certain practices were analysed with regard to the three main determinants of PBT: behavioural, normative and control beliefs. Desimone’s model of professional development then was implemented as a relevant basis to explore the change required with respect to teachers’ current practices and their professional development in an evolving context such as Libya. The findings of this research confirm that Libyan teachers’ pedagogical practices are largely traditional. However, it also demonstrates that this occurs, in some cases, despite initial teacher training, since there were those participants who had had a pre- service background in teaching methodologies but, nevertheless, still adopted a traditional role once in the classroom. Significant factors which influenced this were: firstly, a lack of alignment between the Libyan assessment system and the principles of the English curriculum; secondly, an inconsistency between the official inspection regime and the principles of the current curriculum; thirdly, inadequacy in initial training and in any subsequent continued professional development (CPD). The Libyan inspection regime itself also displayed inconsistencies owing to inspectors’ incongruent views about what constitutes effective teaching in Libyan English language classrooms. Moreover, the research findings regarding teachers’ beliefs, as they emerged from the data and were interpreted under the main aspects of PBT, suggest that the participant teachers hold a range of beliefs which influence their practices. Those beliefs were formed in various ways initially as a result of background factors: their previous preparatory and secondary school experiences as language learners, and then advice from inspectors and other colleagues. However, significantly, the Libyan public examining system encouraged them to teach to the test and define success solely in terms of assessment while defining their concept of professionalism exclusively as years of teaching experience. This thesis reveals then a lack of alignment between the Libyan English curriculum and its assessment. It also indicates that professionalism in Libyan education is conceived as years of experience rather than as pedagogical knowledge and understanding, and that, currently, there are few opportunities either through pre- service training or continued professional development for that to change.

This thesis explores links between lifelong learning and professional identity among a group of eighteen accountants working across three countries between 2013 and 2016. The substantive aim of this study was to contribute to existing but limited literature on lifelong learning in accountancy, by exploring ways in which professional identity features in decisions around lifelong learning. Current literature tends to focus primarily on either lifelong learning or professional identity, in which lifelong learning usually relates to CPD. However, the importance of the accountancy profession as a core institution linking state and society (a Durkheimian concept of ‘profession’) makes considerations of its learning and professional aspects important as part of a learning society. Data for this study were collected through six semi-structured interviews and thirteen separate open-ended self-administered questionnaires. The respondent accountants, drawn from UK, Ghana, and Canada had varying levels of experience, worked in different economic sectors, and were all undertaking varied forms of lifelong learning. The data obtained were analysed thematically in the main, but also drawing heavily on Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice to focus on the individual negotiation of constraining institutional structures. I find that, for these accountants, lifelong learning is an inseparable component of their professional identities; hence, they strive to be tactical in managing short-term constraints, assume much responsibility, and adapt to change in their learning practices. Through these strategies, they buy and consolidate their positions in this changing and competitive field. I argue that it is this constant process of capital negotiation that confers ‘professional’ status – that is, part of the group of experts serving as a link between state and citizenry. I hope this research will inform policy makers and inspire future researchers for further exploration.

A four year quasi-experimental, repeated measures, mixed methods study was run in one Local Authority in England. Designed to improve early childhood quality and support policy development; it aimed to capture: first, the quality of all (279) pre-school settings within the county; second, the impact of a bespoke professional development (PD) on a sample of fifty private, voluntary and independent settings with matched controls. A database of quality, pre- and post- intervention, was established using Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales (ERS) [ECERS-R and E, (Harms et al., 2005; Sylva et al., 2003)], interviews, focus groups and questionnaires provided additional information. The PD was devised to support educators' implementing: • collaborative, evidence-based practice, • their role, including interpreting and using the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage (DfEE, 2000), • effective practice and research on: o the early Home Learning Environment, o children's behaviour for learning, o engaging with sustained shared thinking and o quality improvement processes. The PD data (ERS scores, focus groups, interviews and questionnaire responses) suggested that a short evidence-based PD can impact on practice predictably and consistently. Overall, quality ERS scores suggested the need for additional support and investment. Initial quality ratings (at pre-test) were predictive of modest improvements following the PD (at post-test). Ensuring the PD was accessible to all educators was an important part of the process. Where quality was extremely low at the beginning of the PD, no real progress was found, suggesting that this group of settings was unique and required more than the PD could offer. Bronfenbrenner's Bio-ecological Model of Human Development (2005) was applied to the educators' learning during the study. It supported: first, consideration of the interrelated multi-level systems that impacted on the educators' learning; and, second, the development of a new model considering the process of learning they underwent during the PD.

The Training and Development Agency for Schools continue to set an official agenda for what constitutes professional knowledge for teachers in England. The Professional Standards for Teachers (TDA, 2007) set out expectations regarding attributes, knowledge and understanding and skills for teachers at different stages in their careers. Such prescriptions have been the subject of critique by the academic community (Furlong, 2001, Phillips, 2002, Ellis, 2007) for their implicit reductionist assumptions about professional knowledge. History teacher educators (John, 1991, Husbands et al, 2003) have long recognised the need to focus on what history teachers do know, rather than what they should know. However whilst scholarship offers us rich understandings of those considered experts (Turner-Bisset, 1999) or engaged in initial teacher education (Pendry, Husbands, Arthur and Davison, 1998), little is known about the professional knowledge of early career history teachers. This study explores professional knowing of early career history teachers working in secondary schools in South East England. Through presenting twelve case studies of teachers at the end of initial teacher education, induction, experiencing the first two to three years of teaching and more experienced practitioners the study analyses the nature of professional knowing as well as its interrelations, origins and development. Two research questions are addressed: • What do beginning history teachers know? How does this relate to existing models of professional knowledge? • Where does their professional knowledge come from? What are its origins? What factors influence its development? The study draws upon a constructivist interpretation of professional knowing (Cochran et al, 1993) rejecting the static nature of knowledge and instead presents knowing as a dynamic entity. The study also draws upon Eraut's (1996, 2007) epistemology of practice, specifically the interplay between context, time and modes of cognition and reflection as well as conceptions of teaching as a craft (Cooper and McIntyre, 1996). In addition, the study acknowledges the nature of situated learning and identifies how early career teachers develop within different communities of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991). Inspired by life history research, a mixed methodology is used to examine how childhood experiences, schooling and pre-professional education combine with formal and situated learning. Interviews exploring “critical incidents” (Tripp, 1994) are used to encourage participants to reflect and associated narratives are analysed using a constructivist conceptualisation of grounded theory (Charmaz, 2005), to reveal the temporal and spacial dimensions (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000) of professional knowing as well as broader “genealogies of context” (Goodson and Sykes, 2001) telling of changes in history education over the last three decades. The findings illustrate how early career history teachers draw upon their knowing of history, pedagogy, resources, learners and context as well as their beliefs and values. Whilst it will be shown that these areas of knowing can be described and illustrated discretely, they work in complex ways with each other and decisions, actions or reflections often necessarily draw upon complex inter- relationships. Whether intuitively or deliberatively, these ways of knowing are developed through interactions between personal historical forces, learning situations and shifting professional contexts. Drawing on these findings the thesis makes an original contribution in presenting a new model of professional knowing connecting historical, pedagogical, curriculum knowing, knowing about learners, the context, and ideological knowing with teacher reflectivity; all situated in an envelope that recognises the roots, complexity and fluidity of what history teachers know including personal histories, formal and informal learning experiences and their environments.