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This study argues that time is a significant factor for the ways in which early years education is conceptualised and experienced. Three time scales are shown to be important. Firstly, the historical background to early years teaching is examined. In particular, I argue that the way in which women have come to be seen as the most appropriate teachers of young children has implications for how early years teaching is perceived and experienced in the 1990's. Secondly, the life history approach adopted by this study highlights the importance of early years teachers' own histories. The biographical accounts of fourteen early years teachers show how past experiences influence teachers' perceptions, understandings and experiences of their work. Thirdly, the particular time period, contemporary time, in which teachers live and work is shown to influence the way in which early years teachers perceive and experience their work. Of particular importance here are the recent educational reforms and the ways in which early years teachers have responded to them. I examine the role that early years teachers construct for themselves, a role shaped by the responsibility of being children's first school educators, and argue that for many teachers this role conflicts with current educational reforms.

Concerns about children's eating problems such as obesity, unhealthy eating, dieting and eating disorders have been rising in recent years because of their detrimental effects on children's health. By exploring nine year old children's perceptions of body image, their perceptions of the link between body size and food, and their perceptions of the control of children's eating, this study seeks to contribute to an understanding of why children may develop these eating problems. 98 children undertook a semi-structured interview which incorporated drawing and card sorting activities. The measurement of the children's body mass index allowed the sample to be grouped into three weight categories. When describing their ideal body images most children rejected fatness, most girls wanted to be thin to medium and most boys wanted to be medium to muscley. About half the children were dissatisfied with their own body image, and about half wanted an ideal body image which differed to that of an ordinary child. The children described hypothetical fat people as eating large amounts of high calorie foods, such as chips, very quickly. Thin people were described as eating smaller quantities of lower calorie foods, such as fruit, slowly. The children demonstrated a good understanding of how foods could alter body size. Adults, particularly mothers, were perceived as having a great deal of control over the food which children ate. The study indicated that whilst many nine year old girls and boys had the pre-requisite knowledge to diet, girls had more incentive to do so. Boys had less incentive than girls to eat healthy food. The research draws attention to an association between men and women's perceptions of eating and body image, and boys' and girls'. The current national obesity campaign may be inadvertently fuelling children's eating problems and needs to address children's needs as separate to those of adults. Educational strategies which could make an important contribution to the primary prevention of eating problems include active learning about: the nutritional value of foods such as meat, normal changes in body shape and size, the biology of weight regulation, prejudice and discrimination on the basis of body shape or size, and social images of food and body image. These need to take a gender sensitive approach which acknowledges the biological and cultural differences between girls and boys.

Contrary to the prevailing thinking about beliefs change, Perry (1970), in his model of “Intellectual and Ethical Development”, described structural cognitive and ethical changes that take place during students’ experiences in university education. The research reported here used Johnstone’s (1998) adaptation of Perry’s (1970) scheme of “Intellectual and Ethical Development” to investigate pre- and in-service teachers’ belief change, to examine whether teachers’ beliefs are rooted in a Victorian system and whether they are facilitators or inhibitors of educational change? Using quantitative and qualitative approaches, the current study traced the development of the beliefs of cross sectional groups of pre- and in-service teachers, identified the factors and the influences that in-service teachers perceived to be of great effect on changing their belief profiles and uncovered teachers’ perceptions of what could be the leverage points of educational change. These examinations were conducted in two cultural settings: Egypt and Scotland. Findings confirmed that the beliefs of pre- and in-service teachers do change over time. These changes followed various patterns. In some groups, the change identified contradicted the change anticipated by Perry in his model. Furthermore, major contextual barriers to belief change and interpretation have been identified. Despite the collective effect of these barriers, teachers singled out current curriculum and assessment frameworks as the greatest barriers to changing beliefs and practices. Recommendations include a process of personal and systemic change as a means to achieve the paradigm shift necessary to develop the beliefs in accord with 21st century education reform; provision of specifically designed teacher education programmes and the development of professional development modules.

A vigorous debate is taking place about whether school pupils should be morally educated. Opinion appears to be sharply divided both about whether this is possible, and even if it is, what it would be. Some claim that schools have a duty to teach pupils 'universal' values. Others reject this, claiming that this is based on a misconception of what a moral judgment is. This school of thought takes moral judgment to be in a broad sense subjective or relative, and bases its doubts about the enterprise of moral education on these conceptions. Such scepticism about moral education, I suggest, is indicative of a more general view that unless claims made in a subject or activity can be objective and objectively assessed, they are not a fit vehicle for educational activity. Subjective or relativistic conceptions about moral judgment are ways of doubting whether claims made in morality can be objective and so can be a proper domain of educational activity. These claims about how we understand the concept of moral judgment, are philosophical claims. To get to grips with these positions, I use the resources of metaethics to examine them. I suggest that any metaethical theory about the nature of moral judgment can be assessed by four tests, which are laid out in chapter 1. These are whether a theory (a) accounts for our basic moral convictions, (b) explains how we should understand the nature of moral disagreement, (c) explains what kind of knowledge is moral knowledge or what kind of justification is moral justification, and (d) explains the connection between moral judgment and moral action. In chapters, 2-7, I examine the claims of emotivism, universal prescriptivism, two versions of subjectivism, relativism, moral realism and, more briefly, ethical naturalism to provide a satisfactory philosophical account of the nature of moral judgment. In the concluding chapter, I draw out the implications of these different metaethical theories for moral education. I argue that emotivism, standard subjectivism, and relativism, the metaethical theories upon which sceptical views about the possibility of moral education are based, do not do justice to those aspects of our moral experience which form the basis for my four tests, and do not support the case that moral education is not possible. I go on to argue that we can deepen our understanding of what it is to be morally educated and what it is to engage in moral education, by making judicious selections from the ideas and claims in universal prescriptivism and moral realism.

The English language has an important place in Pakistan and in its education system, not least because of the global status of English and its role in employment. Realising the need to enhance language learning outcomes, especially at the tertiary level, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan has put in place some important measures to improve the quality of English language teaching practice through its English Language Teaching Reforms (ELTR) project. However, there is a complex linguistic, educational and ethnic diversity in Pakistan and that diversity, alongside the historical and current role of English in the country, makes any language teaching reform particularly challenging. I argue, in this thesis, that reform to date has largely ignored the issues of learner readiness to learn and learner perceptions of the use of English. I argue that studying learner attitudes is important if we are to understand how learners perceive the practice of learning and the use of English in their lives. This study focuses on the attitudes of undergraduate learners of English as a foreign language at two universities in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan in Pakistan. These provinces have experienced long struggles and movements related to linguistic and ethnic rights and both educate students from all of the districts of their respective provinces. Drawing on debates around linguistic imperialism, economic necessity, and linguistic and educational diversity, I focus on learners’ perceptions about learning and speaking English, asking what their attitudes are towards learning and speaking English with particular reference to socio-psychological factors at a given time and context, including perceived threats to their culture, religion, and mother tongue. I ask how they make choices about learning and speaking English in different domains of language use and question their motivation to learn and speak English. Additionally, I explore issues of anxiety with reference to their use of English. Following a predominantly qualitative mixed methods research approach, the study employs two research tools: an adapted Likert Scale questionnaire completed by 300 students and semi-structured interviews with 20 participants from the two universities. The data were analysed through descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis, with each set of data synthesised for interpretation. The findings suggest that, compared with the past, the majority of participants hold positive attitudes towards learning and speaking English regardless of their ethnic or linguistic backgrounds. Most of these undergraduate students do not perceive the use of English as a threat to their culture, mother tongue or religious values but, instead, they have a pragmatic and, at the same time, aspirational attitude to the learning and use of English. I present these results and conclude this thesis with reference to ways in which this small-scale study contributes to a better understanding of learner attitudes and perceptions. Acknowledging the limitations of this study, I suggest ways in which the study, enhanced and extended by further research, might have implications for practice, theory and policy in English language teaching and learning in Pakistan.

This study focuses on the learning and teaching of Reading in English as a Foreign Language (REFL), in Libya. The study draws on an action research process in which I sought to look critically at students and teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Libya as they learned and taught REFL in four Libyan research sites. The Libyan EFL educational system is influenced by two main factors: the method of teaching the Holy-Quran and the long-time ban on teaching EFL by the former Libyan regime under Muammar Gaddafi. Both of these factors have affected the learning and teaching of REFL and I outline these contextual factors in the first chapter of the thesis. This investigation, and the exploration of the challenges that Libyan university students encounter in their REFL, is supported by attention to reading models. These models helped to provide an analytical framework and starting point for understanding the many processes involved in reading for meaning and in reading to satisfy teacher instructions. The theoretical framework I adopted was based, mainly and initially, on top-down, bottom-up, interactive and compensatory interactive models. I drew on these models with a view to understanding whether and how the processes of reading described in the models could be applied to the reading of EFL students and whether these models could help me to better understand what was going on in REFL. The diagnosis stage of the study provided initial data collected from four Libyan research sites with research tools including video-recorded classroom observations, semi-structured interviews with teachers before and after lesson observation, and think-aloud protocols (TAPs) with 24 students (six from each university) in which I examined their REFL reading behaviours and strategies. This stage indicated that the majority of students shared behaviours such as reading aloud, reading each word in the text, articulating the phonemes and syllables of words, or skipping words if they could not pronounce them. Overall this first stage indicated that alternative methods of teaching REFL were needed in order to encourage ‘reading for meaning’ that might be based on strategies related to eventual interactive reading models adapted for REFL. The second phase of this research project was an Intervention Phase involving two team-teaching sessions in one of the four stage one universities. In each session, I worked with the teacher of one group to introduce an alternative method of REFL. This method was based on teaching different reading strategies to encourage the students to work towards an eventual interactive way of reading for meaning. A focus group discussion and TAPs followed the lessons with six students in order to discuss the 'new' method. Next were two video-recorded classroom observations which were followed by an audio-recorded discussion with the teacher about these methods. Finally, I conducted a Skype interview with the class teacher at the end of the semester to discuss any changes he had made in his teaching or had observed in his students' reading with respect to reading behaviour strategies, and reactions and performance of the students as he continued to use the 'new' method. The results of the intervention stage indicate that the teacher, perhaps not surprisingly, can play an important role in adding to students’ knowledge and confidence and in improving their REFL strategies. For example, after the intervention stage, students began to think about the title, and to use their own background knowledge to comprehend the text. The students employed, also, linguistic strategies such as decoding and, above all, the students abandoned the behaviour of reading for pronunciation in favour of reading for meaning. Despite the apparent efficacy of the alternative method, there are, inevitably, limitations related to the small-scale nature of the study and the time I had available to conduct the research. There are challenges, too, related to the students’ first language, the idiosyncrasies of the English language, the teacher training and continuing professional development of teachers, and the continuing political instability of Libya. The students’ lack of vocabulary and their difficulties with grammatical functions such as phrasal and prepositional verbs, forms which do not exist in Arabic, mean that REFL will always be challenging. Given such constraints, the ‘new’ methods I trialled and propose for adoption can only go so far in addressing students’ difficulties in REFL. Overall, the study indicates that the Libyan educational system is underdeveloped and under resourced with respect to REFL. My data indicates that the teacher participants have received little to no professional developmental that could help them improve their teaching in REFL and skills in teaching EFL. These circumstances, along with the perennial problem of large but varying class sizes; student, teacher and assessment expectations; and limited and often poor quality resources, affect the way EFL students learn to read in English. Against this background, the thesis concludes by offering tentative conclusions; reflections on the study, including a discussion of its limitations, and possible recommendations designed to improve REFL learning and teaching in Libyan universities.

Working to promote the emotional well-being of children is currently a key area of development for the UK government. The increasing responsibility that professionals have for supporting children and young people’s mental health needs has been reflected in recent policy and legislation with particular prominence in the new Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice (DfE & DoH, 2014). In the context of early years education, the new legislation makes specific reference to the importance of early identification and provision in improving long-term outcomes. In that respect pre-school settings can offer the ideal context where the early intervention and prevention of mental health difficulties can take place. However, at present there is limited research in the UK which focuses on the views of early years practitioners particularly on their role in supporting children’s emotional needs. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather the views of seven early years practitioners from 4 different pre-school settings across an inner London Borough. The study aimed to explore and explain the contexts and mechanisms which facilitate or hinder the promotion of children’s emotional well-being in pre-school settings. A grounded theory methodology was used to analyse the data. The emergent theory proposes that early years practitioners’ experience of promoting children’s emotional well-being can be best understood as an interactive relationship between internal and external influences summarized by the overarching category labelled “Balancing internal and external factors to promote well-being”. The findings are discussed in relation to existing psychological theory and research and the implications for early years practitioners and Educational Psychologists considered.

Governments have encouraged higher education institutions (HEIs) to develop entrepreneurial, innovative and highly employable graduates. Accordingly, employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship are all high on the agendas of United Kingdom (UK) HEIs (Sewell and Dacre Pool, 2010) and the use of constructivist approaches, such as experiential learning and problem based learning, may offer an effective way to develop the entrepreneurial, enterprising and employability skills that both graduates and employers need. Constructivist approaches in higher education (HE) have become increasingly common across a wide range of disciplines in recent decades. This is particularly true in the field of entrepreneurship where the development of entrepreneurial skills requires different hands-on or experience based approaches to the more traditional didactic lecture based teaching methods (Jones and English, 2004; Jones and Iredale, 2010; Zahra and Welter, 2008). Constructivism lends itself to active based learning approaches which can result in improved problem solving skills, improved knowledge retention, and improved motivation (Bonwell and Eison, 1991; Rhem, 1998; Snyder, 2003). Furthermore, unlike didactic teaching approaches, constructivist active learning can lead to changes in both thought and attitude, and the development of behavioural skills (Bligh, 2000; Grimley et al., 2011). Whilst there is much practical practitioner based research focusing on the implementation of constructivist enterprise education, there is limited existing research focusing on the constructivist learning theory underpinning constructivism. This has led to a degree of separation between practitioner-based research and constructivist learning theory in abstraction and application. This thesis addresses three research questions • How can constructivism be applied to enterprise education in HE? • What is the relationship between constructivist learning environments and the development of enterprising graduates? • How can learning environments be created and implemented to effectively support the development of enterprising graduates? This thesis investigates a range of constructivist pedagogic interventions across a range of academic levels, subjects, and disciplines, both within and outside of formal curricula, to explore their ability to develop enterprising skills and to consider how they can be created, developed and implemented to effectively support the development of these skills. In addition, the portfolio contains an assessment of the relationship between a range of entrepreneurial attitudes and the likelihood of graduate employment in a professional field six months after graduation in Paper 1. This provides some quantitative evidence that enterprising skills that can be developed by constructivist active learning can have an impact on graduate employability. This portfolio provides a strong case for the use of constructivist approaches in developing a wide range of entrepreneurial and enterprising skills that graduates require, enhancing their employability and enabling them to be more enterprising. These skills included developing a proactive disposition, achievement motivation, self-efficacy, interpersonal skills, team working, communication skills, planning, attitude to risk, leadership and a preference for innovation. This portfolio found support for the contention that in general, students respond positively to these approaches and satisfaction levels are high e.g. in Paper 5 and in Paper 6. However, Papers 2 and 4 highlighted the importance of adequate temporary scaffolding, where appropriate, to ensure access to learning for all students. The learning points that can be taken from the portfolio to help develop and create the best pedagogy and constructivist learning environment for students to maximise the benefits of constructivism are summarised in Appendix 2. Paper 7 considers the development of a constructivist intervention that involves external stakeholders. This research focused on the perspectives of students, faculty and stakeholders to better understand the creation, implementation, and development of such pedagogic interventions. This thesis concludes that enterprise education in HE should be based not only on didactic teaching but should also involve the application of constructivist active learning approaches (particularly experiential learning) based and grounded on constructivist learning theory to develop enterprise skills. Thus enterprise education can be viewed as a mixture or fusion of didactic teaching to impart essential theoretical knowledge and the application of constructivist learning approaches which seek to develop experiential knowledge and skills, which can be developed through both experience and reflection. This thesis contributes to knowledge by combining constructivist learning theory and practice based research to underpin the application of constructivism in enterprise education. It provides additional depth and breadth to research on constructivist pedagogy, using a range of research methods across a range of educational settings, to support the development of enterprise skills and employability. It identifies how to achieve best practice in the delivery of constructivist learning through the implementation of constructivist learning principles and highlights the pivotal role of the educator in supporting student learning in a constructivist learning environment.

The adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) has often been motivated by ideas of bridging the digital divide and promoting socio-economic progress within these countries. For example, many LDCs within sub-Saharan Africa and development practitioners alike are enthusiastic about the prospects of socio-economic progress through the adoption and use of ICTs. In Malawi, this belief in ICT potential is widespread and it is presumed that the adoption of ICTs will provide a sufficient condition for socio-economic progress and will offer Malawi the opportunity to leapfrog stages of development and accelerate her progress in socio-economic spheres. In particular, the adoption of computer based ICTs for educational purposes in Malawian secondary schools is being widely promoted. However, in many LDCs particularly those within sub-Saharan Africa, the realisation of such over-hyped technological gains has always remained elusive and literature suggests that the use of computer based ICTs in LDCs is constrained by a cross section of critical challenges (Mansell and Wehn, 1998; Kawooya, 2002; Heeks, 2002). Wade (2004) further explains that ICT initiatives in LDCs are "... biased towards the supply side and give scant attention to demand" (Wade, 2004, pl9l) and that the alleged stories of ICT adoptions within the region are generalised with "little attention to scaling up problems" (p. 186). This suggests that ICT adoption processes can not be understood and explained by simply focusing on the perceived potential of ICTs and disregarding complex socio-technical influences which shape and are shaped by those adoption processes in LDC contexts. This research focussed on the development of a socio-technical conceptualisation of ICT adoption processes in Malawian secondary schools based on empirical evidence. Methodologically, it uses both qualitative and quantitative approaches and focuses on three main notions of ICT choice, ICT use and ICT value in order to investigate ICT adoption processes. Socio-Technical Interaction Networks (STINs) technique is used in order to analyse research data. In particular, analytical affordances provided by the Social Actor Model (Lamb, 2006) are used to gain rich insights into ICT adoption processes in Malawian secondary schools and to generate an evidence based theoretical conceptualisation which appreciates the inextricable interrelationship between ICTs and the context within which they are embedded. The developed framework illustrates the significance of a context specific socio-technical approach when implementing ICT initiatives in Malawian secondary schools and the researcher argues that it deepens our theoretical understanding of the socio-technical nature of technologies and can facilitate the implementation of ICT solutions that are aligned and valuable to the adopting context in LDCs like Malawi.