This work is an analysis of the origins and development of modern school boards in Scotland, 1984-1994. Its major conclusion is that there has been disjunction between theories of participation and management and the system on one hand, and between the system and the operation of boards on the other. Part one provides a rationale for pursuing this study and poses a range of questions which the analysis attempts to answer. The methodology adopted with regard to documentary analysis of the two public consultation exercises of the 1980s, the educational press and other documents is described. The approach to interviewing of key participants and observers of the events is also explained. The work is placed in a theoretical contexts in Part two where attention is drawn to the underpinning concepts for the establishment and emerging prominence of participative councils. Consideration is given to theories of democracy, particularly representative and participative forms. Indicators of democracy are considered as is the nature of representation and modes of participation which claim to challenge remoteness and tendencies towards centralisation and elitism. The discussion moves from general theoretical analysis to the potential for such insights to apply to schools and school boards. The main types of participatory action are discussed and the efficacy of using the structure of school boards as a means of applying democratic theories is introduced. Democracies invariably generate bureaucracies so the question of schools being bureaucracies is raised and the relationship to the concept of professionalism is explored. Accountability of schools is identified as especially important to school board functioning. The nature of school management is then assessed and the possible purposes of participative councils reviewed. The trend towards participative management in schools is analysed with a view to its extension to include lay persons on governing bodies or school boards; it is speculated that this might encourage the development of a management partnership involving lay and professional interests which appeared to be one of the government's intentions in 1987 when the proposals for school boards emerged.

This thesis is a qualitative study of the power relations structuring interactions between parents and teachers in one inner London borough. The first three chapters consider the theories and practice of participation and the extent of its realisation in education. Individual parental involvement is seen as the accepted way for parents to intervene in their child's education; this tendency is heightened by the current New Right emphasis on the 'parent-asconsumer'. Such individual parental incursions can only have a limited effect upon the imbalance of power that defines relationships between teachers and working class parents. However opportunities for collective parental participation are found to be restricted. Chapters five to nine contain case studies of two primary schools, a home-school co-ordinators' project and a parents' centre. The ethnographic chapters use fieldwork data, gathered mainly through semi-structured interviews to illustrate the effects of social class, ethnicity and gender; firstly, on individual teacher-parent-officer relations, and secondly, on allowing access to school and LEA decisionmaking fora. These chapters illustrate the arguments of the earlier theoretical chapters, by showing how teachers as individuals and schools as institutions allow particular types of individual parental involvement whilst limiting opportunities for collective parental participation. The concluding chapter applies these findings to the theoretical arguments outlined in chapters one to three. It argues that allowing parents a role as participant would profoundly alter their relationship with the education system. Such a role - resulting in increased lay participation in a welfare state institution - is seen as an integral part of citizenship in a fully participative democracy.

This is a comparative study about secondary teachers’ understandings of dyslexia in England and Greece. Specifically the study focused on English and Greek teachers’ professional training related to dyslexia, the influence of politics and cultural context, the history of dyslexia in England and Greece, the different definitions (meanings) of dyslexia and the legislation related to dyslexia. The main goals of the study were to find out how dyslexia is conceptualised in the Greek and English educational systems and the implications of these understandings for training and professional development in both countries. The sample consisted of ten teachers of secondary schools (five English and five Greek) who had experience of dyslexic students in their classrooms. An illuminative approach was used to compile and explore these two fields, teachers and dyslexia in England and Greece. Narrative analyses were undertaken culminating in individual portraits and an analysis of the role of the teacher in both countries, the influence of the educational system and the social and cultural habits and outcomes. The findings showed that English and Greek teachers had similarities and differences in their understanding about dyslexia. However, they had more similarities than differences, even if they were educated, trained and worked in two different educational systems. Both English and Greek secondary teachers were feeling unprepared to define, diagnose and support dyslexic students in their classroom, as both lacked power, autonomy and a clear picture of their role in relation to supporting students with learning difficulties.

To date, research studies and first-hand accounts have combined to provide compelling evidence that individuals with autism experience an array of social and sensory-perceptual impairments which impact upon their ability to succeed within traditional educational environments. This study employed evidence-based research to develop a learning environment which supports students with profound autism to engage as effective learners. The research was carried out at a special school for students with severe and complex learning needs. The Mosaic approach (Clark & Moss, 2001) was utilised to enable students and practitioners to co-construct an evidence-base for the design of their new school. By combining participatory action research including observation of student behaviour and engagement, with a grounded theory study incorporating surveys with significant adults, and specifically adapted methods of obtaining direct student voice, this research identified a wide range of issues which require consideration in order to develop a learning environment which accommodates the sensory-perceptual and social impairments characteristic of autism. In summary, the findings reveal that specific consideration should be given to the physical environment, social environment and teaching approach and resources. In particular, the evidence from this study suggests that an autism-specific learning environment is one which: (i) reduces sensory aspects of the physical environment, (ii) provides opportunities for sensory regulatory activities and (iii) targets the visual kinaesthetic learning styles of students with autism.

This thesis explores the educational needs and range of strategies used for educational provision for gifted children in Malaysia’s Ministry of Education preschool programme. A review of literature relating to international theory and existing research in gifted education and empirical work of teaching gifted children were carried out. The literature review examines the dominant theories of intelligence and giftedness in general. It also includes the historical background of definitions of giftedness as well as methods for its measurement, before specifically focusing on the concept of giftedness at the preschool level. The study was located in the Ministry of Education’s preschool classes within Melaka, Malaysia. Preschools in that area are required to implement the Kurikulum Prasekolah Kebangsaan or National Preschool Curriculum (NPC) of the Malaysian government. The research was conducted in two phases during the school year 2009. The first phase selected 25 gifted children. This phase involved a questionnaire survey that was specially designed for the purpose of this study and was sent to parents and preschool teachers within two districts in Melaka. This was followed by an assessment using Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM) that involved 187 preschool children. For the second phase of the research, the main methods of data collection employed were observations during lessons, semi-structured interviews with children nominated as gifted and their teachers, as well as analysing documentary evidence using children’s drawings. In the first phase of this research, it was discovered that the majority of parents involved in this study agreed that their child had showed gifted characteristics compared to preschool teachers who were found to be more cautious in nominating children as gifted. The findings from Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM) showed that Malaysian preschool children in the sample weren’t much different from their counterparts in other places when reviewed in terms of their test scores. In the second phase of the research, it was found that every gifted child was unique with his or her own different needs that can be categorised into three domains: physical, cognitive and socio-emotional. It was also found that preschool teachers were responding to the policy in pragmatic terms, although no specific training was provided for practising teachers as part of the national training programme in making provision for gifted children. There is paucity of research in aspects of education for gifted children in Malaysia. By specifically addressing this topic, this study makes a distinct contribution to current literature in both understanding aspects of giftedness at a preschool level and the range of provision used. This study makes a particular contribution to finding out what the gifted children’s educational needs are, and how practising preschool teachers in Malaysia are responding to their needs. This should be of interest to both policy makers and practitioners. This thesis also presents recommendations for a new policy and programme in organising and teaching gifted children within regular classrooms. This may be of interest to audiences internationally, including countries where there are no policies of provision for gifted children that came from disadvantaged or low-income family background.

This thesis sets out to examine how teachers cater for the bright pupils and slow learners in first year mixed ability classes in five comprehensive schools. Teachers were asked to nominate bright pupils and slow learners in their classes using categories on a class profile instrument. The same teachers were observed teaching these classes. Observations covered most academic subjects on the timetable: RE, French, science, history, English, mathematics, geography, music and integrated studies. Over a period of a month the teachers' talk and questions, the pupils' responses, and the tasks set to pupils were each analysed for cognitive demand using specially adapted or newly devised instruments. The study suggests that very little cognitive stimulation takes place in these first year mixed ability groups. Most verbal transactions have to do with class management, and of the remainder the majority are information-giving or information-seeking. Tasks, too, are mainly of a lower cognitive order. In only two of the five schools did it appear that teachers made significantly higher cognitive demands on the perceived bright pupils than on other pupils. Though there is some evidence to suggest that bright pupils and slow learners may receive a disproportionately large amount of interaction with teachers, there was virtually no evidence to suggest that teachers tailor tasks or teaching strategies to cater specifically for the needs of these two groups in a mixed ability context. Most teaching is undifferentiated whole-class teaching aimed at all the pupils and not at individuals. Some small-scale comparative studies were carried out in banded groups, and also in a primary school, a middle school, and in an accelerated set leading to GCE 101 level examinations in the 4th year. An important outcome of the thesis is the development of an Analysis of Classroom Tasks proforma for the secondary school. The size and scope of the main study, covering over 200 single periods by 36 teachers in 8 subject disciplines, suggests that the results may have some degree of generalizability.

This thesis is a study of the ways in which hegemonic masculinity is constructed in two primary schools. Its principal perspective is feminist, though it draws heavily on the substantial body of work on masculinities within sociology. Connell's (1987) understanding of hegemonic masculinity which informs much of the work in this area, underpins the theoretical framework for conceptualising how a school constructs specific forms of masculinities which are powerfully shaped by ideologies and structures in wider society. The notion of 'critical incidents' is employed to ascertain how social processes come together in specific combinations in order to explore hegemonic and other modes of masculinities. This study is a feminist analysis of masculinities in school settings. As such, methodological/theoretical issues occupy a central role. The research on which the study is based was conducted with teachers and children in two primary schools located in different socio-economic areas of the same city. In one school the focus was on a class of 6-7 year olds, and in the other, on 9-10 year olds. The study adopts a qualitative methodology in the form of ethnography in order to explore teacher-pupil classroom behaviours and the peer relationships and social interaction of children, with a particular focus on boys. The study both confirms findings of other research on masculinities and primary schools which show the importance of locale on constructions of hegemonic masculinity and draws attention to previously unacknowledged issues. Locating the research in a middle- and a working-class school enabled a comparison of the ways in which the characteristics of a social area influence the processes of masculine constructions in a school. Also, the study considers the impact of the Education Reform Act (1988) on constructions of dominant masculinities in schools. Importantly, these two ethnographic case studies have been undertaken from a feminist position and the researcher's relationships with, and explorations of the relationships between, male teachers and boys contribute new insights into how hegemonic masculinity is constructed, at the level of the school, through various discourses.

This thesis discusses the pastoral care worker role as defined by Schools Outreach. Schools Outreach is a charitable Christian organisation who recruit, train and manage the provision of pastoral support in selected schools. The research aims to explore perceptions of the role in two junior schools and the extent to which the interventions of the pastoral care workers are successful. The research methods chosen include interviews, questionnaires, dairy entries and observations. The roles of the two pastoral care workers are researched as are the effectiveness of some of the programmes and activities they are involved with. Findings from the research are considered in the light of proposed national developments in multi-agency work. The author believes that issues encountered during this research are fundamental to the involvement of support services in schools.

This thesis examines the role of employers in vocational education and training (VET) with particular reference to initiatives targetted at the 16-19 age group. Its premise is that the so-called 'employer-led' initiatives of the 1980s and 1990s have, in fact, been government-led and that employers have played a particularly passive role in their design and delivery. Furthermore, the thesis asserts that employers lack the understanding, knowledge and commitment required to play the proactive role which the rhetoric of VET demands of them. Historical sources are used to demonstrate that the struggle to persuade employers to play a leading role in VET has been taking place for decades and that even the classic employer-led model, apprenticeship, cannot be said to have been an unqualified success. The introduction of the Youth Training Scheme is examined in terms of its effects on employers' company-wide training practices, effects which have been largely overlooked by previous analyses. The thesis then attempts to reveal the realities behind the employer-VET interface through two closely observed case studies of, firstly, a Training and Enterprise Council (TEC), and, secondly, a Training Credits pilot programme. A qualitative methodology was used to bring into focus the perceptions, values and struggles of people working both inside and on the outside of initiatives which are hailed as vehicles for reversing the national failure to match the rest of the developed world in terms of a skilled labour force. In order to create a sense of the highly complex world of VET as experienced by young people, employers, TEC staff, teachers, lecturers and careers officers, the thesis draws on research data collected over four years. The thesis concludes by recommending that employers, researchers, VET practitioners and policymakers need to construct a new paradigm to encompass a meaningful role for employers in VET.

This research investigated the past relationship between the formal education and nonformal educational systems in Palestine as a basis for considering what form the relationship may take in the future. The study was based on the initial understanding that within the field of study and practice of continuing education, non-formal education has been conceptualised as having a particular role to play in producing a more equitable society. The study was undertaken at a significant political moment. Non-formal educational institutions and programmes had flourished when, under Israeli occupation, much formal education provision was restricted. Palestinian non-formal education played a significant role in resistance to Israeli occupation and in the Intifada (1987-1994). In 1993, with the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principle on Interim Self Government, the geo-political context for the Palestinian people and Palestinian institutions changed and a transitional national authority was established. The research was shaped to consider this transitional context. The research was planned to include interviews with people who were likely to be players in the process of national policy formulation. The researcher standpoint was that of a known NFE practitioner. The intention of the field approach was (a) to assess whether a perspective on social exclusion or, for reasons described in the dissertation, educational exclusion was likely to inform the education policy of the new regime and (b) to stimulate through the interview conversation, consideration of the past and future role of non-formal education in Palestine. Analysis of the views of 31 members of the educational elite was informed and contextualised by a review of the literature (mostly in English and much of it written in relation to developing societies) on non-formal education, statistical data, research reports and case studies of education in Palestine. The research argues for the necessity of reforming and reshaping Palestinian non-formal education, and for strategies to be adopted that integrate formal education and non-formal education. Consideration of policy options for the future of Palestinian non-formal education was set within a model of relationships between non-formal education and forms of governance.