The present thesis is a report and analysis of work undertaken in an attempt to find the forces at work at the selection stage of teacher training. Applicants for admission to the University of Birmingham Education Department and the Weymouth Training College have been subjected to certain procedures. From the performances of the interviews it seemed that they behave more consistently and uniformly when working in a structured interview than when working freely, although the unreliability of the interview remained fairly high.

This treatise is an extended case study in the failure of applied psychologists to encourage care- workers in services to people with intellectual disabilities in the United Kingdom to use well- established, evidence-based behavioural approaches to reduce the behavioural challenges presented to services. Even when extensively taught and coached, they were rarely applied by care-workers in their everyday work, and had little or no impact on service practices. This failure had been attributed to care-workers being unwilling and unable to use these methods. An Institutional Ethnography discovered that 'challenging behaviour' is a phenomenon nested within a complex of relationships involving private and statutory service providers, service users, and commissioners. A range of ruling texts were in use, some coordinated, some apparently used competitively. The main coordinating ruling relations were the statutory obligations placed on local authorities, despite the presentation of other discourses promoting a person-centred, human-rights focused agenda. The role of applied psychology in these ruling relations is explicated using research literatures, field-work vignettes, and auto-biographical reports of professional practice.

Dominant discourses construct South Asian girls and women as having a high risk of internalised problems such as depression and anxiety. Existing literature suggests that services for mental distress are under-utilised by South Asian women with the construct ‘Shame’ cited as a potential barrier to help-seeking. Little research has examined how South Asian girls construct ‘Shame’ and ‘Mental Health’ and how these constructions relate to help-seeking. This study explores discourses of ‘Mental Health’ and ‘Shame’ through the talk of South Asian girls and their teachers. Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (Willig, 2008) is employed to analyse semi-structured interview data from seven girls and five teachers. This research specifically explores how South Asian girls are positioned within the discourses of ‘Shame’ and ‘Mental Health’ and how they “open up” or “close down” opportunities for help-seeking. The analysis highlights that discourses of Mental Health are complex, contradictory and tied to prevailing discourses of abnormality and the medicalisation of mental distress. Pupil and teacher discourses surfaced contemporary understandings of Mental Health as a universal and dynamic state, demonstrating a shift in discourse. Similarly, ‘Shame’ was constructed as oppressive, sexist and regulatory as well as helpful and protective. These constructions have implications for educational psychology practice.

With the additional responsibilities that come from the new SEND Code of practice and a government focus on supporting the mental health of children, the well-being of teachers was deemed a relevant and useful focus of research. This study aimed to elicit teachers’ experiences of well-being and the factors that support well-being, considering the role for the school and the Educational Psychologist. Data was collected from five Key Stage Two teachers in the same local authority using semi-structured interviews and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Flowers and Larkin, 2009). The concept of well-being, professional identity, interpersonal relationships and interpersonal approaches, managing the demands of the role and personal resources were developed as superordinate themes. Conclusions and suggestions have been provided for schools and Educational Psychologists to discuss, which focus on a whole school approach to supporting well-being.

Today, increasing numbers of children and young people (CYPs) live with chronic health conditions. A fact reflected in recent UK legislation which highlights the necessity of supporting these CYPs to fully access education. This study explores the experiences and perspectives of children and young people with chronic conditions (CYPCCs) regarding hospitalisation and hospital school. A narrative methodology was selected to explore the experiences of five hospitalised CYPCCs (aged 12 to 16 years) in addition to the meanings they ascribed to these experiences. Findings contribute important insights into CYPCCs' experiences of hospitalisation in relation to the following family, personal growth, health-related identity, relationships, coping, unpredictability and uncertainty and medical intervention and physical pain. This research makes a unique contribution to the field, in relation to the substantive topic (how CYPCCs perceive educational experiences in hospital settings) and the original application of a narrative research methodology. I argue the necessity for professionals to recognise CYPCCs as a potentially vulnerable group. Ethical issues concerning access to hospitalised CYPCCs for research purposes are highlighted and the value of narrative research with CYPs is endorsed. Implications for professional practice and research are discussed which seek to improve the educational opportunities, experiences and outcomes for CYPCCs.

This study investigates inclusive educational understandings, practice and provision for children with autism in Palestine, using a qualitative, case study approach and a dimension of action research together with participants from two educational settings. In addition, data about the wider context was obtained through interviews, visits, observations and focus group discussions. Despite the extraordinarily difficult context, education was found to be highly valued and Palestinian educators, parents and decision-makers had achieved impressive progress. The research found that autism is an emerging field of interest with a widespread desire for better understanding. Autism was often perceived in terms of deficits, and the breadth, diversity and abilities within the autistic population were not well understood. Although there was general support for the official policy of inclusive education, autistic children were sometimes stigmatised, isolated and excluded. Notwithstanding many challenges, there were examples of dedicated but insecurely funded non-government provision. However, autism was not generally well understood or reliably identified and there was a lack of opportunity for sharing knowledge and practice. The action research dimension of the study identified features of successfully developing practice within two settings and considered the viability of replicating these more widely with in Palestine. Concluding recommendations call for development of knowledge and practice in Palestine, drawing on, but not dictated by, the international pool of knowledge on inclusive autism practice. The study highlights a need for better identification of autism; for building capacity for contextually-appropriate inclusive educational provision; and for reconceptualising inclusion as a process of enabling participation in education. It proposes that there is a need for collaboration between professionals, parents and people with autism to share knowledge and practice, and suggests that this could be achieved through a Communities of Practice approach. It also proposes that Palestinians have much to contribute to the international discourse on the inclusive education of autistic children.

Whilst there is a reasonable research evidence base concerning the experiences of visually impaired young people during their compulsory education and in terms of their subsequent employment prospects, there is a paucity of evidence examining the transitions between these two elements of the lived experience of these young people, including their perceptions of their levels of independence and self-identity during transition. A sociocultural framework was utilised to explore the experiences of five young people with a visual impairment who had experienced challenges during their respective transition journeys from compulsory education into further education, training, employment and unemployment. Following in-depth semi-structured interviews with the participants themes were identified relating to the young people’s transition experiences, feelings of independence and sense of identity during the transition process and were explored using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Findings suggested that the young people participating in this research were largely content with the support that they received during their compulsory education but felt in need of greater levels of support in terms of developing resilience, self-advocacy skills, problem-solving and assertiveness in achieving a successful transition into further education, vocational training and employment and avoiding becoming not in education, employment or training (NEET). This research is set within a social and political context of high levels of unemployment amongst young people in the United Kingdom and even higher levels of unemployment amongst young people with disabilities and specifically those with a visual impairment.

This research identifies the assumptions underpinning Different discourses about literacy and investigates their impact on the professional values of adult literacy Practitioners. Four key discourses are identified, ‘Literacy as skills’, ‘literacy as an experiential process’, ‘literacy as a social practice’, and ‘literacy as a critical transformation process’. The research explores the philosophical roots of these different discourses, and also those of the different learning theories which act as a framework for the teaching and learning of literacy. Informed by a postmodern perspective, based on Lyotard’s (1984) concepts of ‘meta-narratives’, ‘little narratives’, ‘language games’, and ‘the differend’, the research ‘brings life’ to the literacy discourses by using the ‘professional narratives’ of adult literacy practitioners as data. These are presented as a number of individual case studies. The findings clearly indicate that the ‘literacy-as-skills’ discourse, imposed by policy-makers and now embedded in the power structures of educational institutions, is not supported by this particular group of research participants, who are strongly orientated towards the ‘literacy as a social practice’ and the ‘literacy as an experiential process’ approaches.

This thesis explores the effects of residential schools on EBD pupils I two residential schools. Major sources of data for this interactionist study are the transcripts of interviews with pupils attending the schools, questionnaires and observation. After examining the social and psychological correlates of EBD and the therapeutic approaches of pioneer workers in the residential field, the claimed ‘institutionalizing’ effects of residential care are considered. Data from this study are analyzed with reference to these conflicting viewpoints. The study supports the view that the residential experience can benefit pupils by providing: * respite from negative influences in the family, home based peer school and peer group * opportunities for positive pupil achievement * encouragement to form rewarding interpersonal relationships with adults and fellow pupils at the schools Negative effects of stigma and loss of family contact are also noted. The concept of ‘re-signification’ is introduced to describe the process whereby the schools, through organizational and interpersonal means, promote improvements in pupils’ self images and the development of non-deviant identities, in contrast with the negative labelling effects of mainstream schools as reported in this and other research.

The ‘Academies Programme’ has been the subject of limited research and virtually none focusing on their ‘entrepreneurial’ nature. As an inaugural piece of research, the research methodology was that of a survey, based upon semi-structured interviews of Senior Leaders in academies. The theoretical basis of the research is drawn from the modelling work published by Woods et al (2007). Emerging from the research are a number findings about entrepreneurism in academies based on the perceptions of Senior Leaders. These relate to: the entrepreneurial differences between earlier and recent ‘convertor’ academies; the impact of ‘chain’ academies; and the almost unanimous perception by those interviewed that academies are primarily focused on ‘social entrepreneurism’. From an initial review of the Woods et al (2007) ‘Lens Model’, the findings lead to a revision of the model to express the apparent predominant perception of social entrepreneurism in academies and the postulation of additional conceptual models. With the number of academies already standing at over fifteen hundred it is now apposite to consider the implications of the findings of this thesis, This thesis will be of interest to current and future academy Senior Leaders, new academies, researchers wishing to take forward the limited historical research, and policy makers for whom there are some major challenges to be faced in re-defining the nature of the ‘academy movement’.