This study offers an understanding of the emotional challenges encountered by AGIS (Association of German International Schools) head teachers in the course of their role; the consequences and impacts these challenges have on their personal and professional lives and the strategies they use to cope. This mixed methods study employs a questionnaire survey of 34 AGIS leaders, plus semi-structured interviews with eight of them, to explore their lived experiences in relation to the emotional demands they face. The findings show that, in addition to the challenges experienced by heads in wider contexts, AGIS leaders face demands specific to the multi-cultural context and transitional nature of international schools. They also highlight how school leaders may contribute to the challenges they encounter through their poor understanding of the cultural contexts that they operate in. The demands that heads face, may lead to a range of negative consequences and impacts for many. The coping strategies upon which they draw, reflect the context in which heads operate and their individual resilience capabilities. The study suggests a range of strategies by which leadership-training providers, school boards and regional and local networks may better support international school leaders. It is also suggested that international school leaders take greater initiative for both their own cultural literacy and the development of personal resilience capabilities. Such steps should reduce the demands placed on heads and enable them to better withstand the challenges they face.

This small scale qualitative study interviewed 33 maintained school headteachers and academy principals to identify their attitude to and perceptions of effective school to school collaboration. The research has been informed by Hall and Oldroyd’s (1992) model of the collaboration process and by Coleman’s (2011) model of collaborative leadership. Evidence of the anticipated linear nature of Hall and Oldroyd’s model was not found, rather there is evidence that frequently collaborations slip back to earlier more confrontational stages of development. Whilst this in some cases can derail the collaboration totally, in others it can galvanise the group into developing more effective partnership working than might otherwise have been the case. The study has been able to explore the various elements of Coleman’s leadership model and contends that there needs to be an elasticity in the way in which the elements are utilised to maximise effectiveness. This has implications for future leadership development. As with all qualitative research, the findings have raised some interesting questions beyond the main focus of the study which need further exploration. One such question concerns the increasing political emphasis placed on the importance of academy chains and the implications of their role in the educational landscape. As chains take on many of what would have been Local Authority functions, will they become the new ‘middle tier’ of accountability superseding the Local Authority organisation? As the educational landscape in England continues to change, there remains a need for balanced, in-depth research into the impact and implications of the change.

This study investigates issues of subject choice at 14. Geography is a popular optional subject choice in England and Wales at age 14 but between 1996 and 2010 numbers entering for the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examination declined by 35.6% although total entries for GCSE had increased. This study sought to help the geography subject community better understand the reasons for this decline. The research has used NPD/PLASC data to investigate patterns of entry for geography at the national level. This secondary data analysis was developed further through a study of five schools which investigated curriculum diversity and competition between subjects at the school level. A conceptual model of the option choice system is used as the framework for analysis. The results showed there was segregation in entry patterns with high attaining students and students in less deprived rural counties being more likely to study geography. Government policy had both direct and indirect influences on geography entries through curriculum decisions made by schools. Teachers and their pedagogy played a significant part in student choice but their influence on numbers choosing the subject can be constrained by whole school curriculum and option choice systems.

My thesis explores language policy and practice in the history of the people of Gibraltar between 1940 and 1985. This period covers the wartime Evacuation and the Spanish border restrictions and closure, and it is also fundamental in the emergence of Gibraltarian identity and democratic rights. My contention is that these developments were facilitated by growing accessibility to the English language. From being largely the preserve of the colonial establishment and the elite, it emerged as pre-eminent in official use, the media and culture, and higher oral registers. This change was hastened by the Evacuation, which increased awareness of the need for English. The Clifford Report of 1944 reformed the whole education system and gave a central role to English. Clifford, Gibraltar’s Colonial Secretary, and indeed educationalists at the Colonial Office, proved themselves far more enlightened than their governing counterparts in Gibraltar. Their reform greatly contributed to political development in the following decades. With the Spanish border closure, the English language and the sense of attachment to Britain gained further consolidation, co-existing with the move away from overt colonialism. In my examination of language behaviour in Gibraltar, including bilingualism and the use of Spanish, interview material supplements written sources.

The thesis focuses on the issue of the assessment of social work students in practice learning settings and draws on multi-disciplinary and international literature. The dissertation considers why practice assessors find it so difficult to fail social work students and what might get in the way of failing a student. The rationale for such an exploration concerns the relatively limited literature from both social work and other disciplines where there is a practice-learning element and what limited literature there is often appears under-theorised. A further rationale to explore this area of professional practice concerns the author‟s own experiences as a social work practitioner, practice assessor and social work educator. Located within a qualitative framework, the methodological influences on the research include: ethnography, life story and narrative approaches as well as practitioner-research paradigms; although it is clear that as the research progressed, practitioner-research paradigms became more influential. Based on twenty in-depth interviews with both new and experienced practice assessors, the research utilises the voice centred relational method to analyse the data. From this narrative process a number of stories emerge, including; “The Angry Story”, “The Dramatic Event Story”, “The Guilty Story”, “The Idealised Learner Story”, “The Internalising Failure So I Couldn‟t Always Failure Them Story”, “The Lack of Reflection Story” and the “What is my Role/Assessment Story”. Psychodynamic frameworks have been employed to theorise and make sense of these various stories as well as transactional analytical perspectives. Differences in approach to practice assessing are also considered, most notably around how practice assessors‟ conceptualise, make use of and understand the assessment process. It is also clear that disability, gender, ethnicity, class and sexuality also impact on the assessment process. For some practice assessors, ultimately the evidence of students' competence appears to rest on hope. It appears that some practice assessors are still giving students “the benefit of the doubt” a phrase coined thirty years ago by Brandon and Davies (1979) in a wide ranging but still very relevant study of the assessment of social work students in practice settings. Practice assessors thus find it difficult to fail students because of: Their lack of reflection about the intense emotions raised; The internalisation of these intense feelings; Lack of support from colleagues, the Higher Education Institute (HEI) and tutors; Lack of understanding about the process of assessment; Difficulties in managing the multifaceted role of the practice educator including the lack of acknowledgment of the gate keeping function.The dissertation concludes that although practice assessors have a very clear understanding of what behaviours might hypothetically cause a student to fail the practice learning opportunity, the reality is that not all practice assessors go on to fail the student. The high emotionality often associated with the process of managing a potentially failing student on placement often obscures the process. The thesis argues the need for practitioners to consider the intense feelings that arise in difficult practice learning opportunity situations in a more reflective, contained and considered manner. A number of ways forward have been suggested in light of these findings, including the need to pilot a reflective toolkit for practice assessors and students alike.

This thesis investigates how secondary school history teachers at the start of their teaching careers view the nature and purposes of their subject and how they think these views impact on their practice. Data were collected through in depth individual qualitative interviews with eleven teachers completing their initial training. These focused on: how these beginning teachers conceived of the nature of their discipline; the rationale they presented for the purposes of their subject in the school curriculum; the origins of their views on the nature and purposes of history; and how they are manifest in what and how they teach. In order to maintain coherence and to represent the richness and complexity of each teacher's own story these were written, analysed and presented as narrative accounts. A summary is given of each the accounts with three presented in full. The accounts show these beginning history teachers' views on the nature of history as reflecting the dominant discourse that characterises history as an academic subject, being largely Constructionist and emphasising the objective analysis of historical evidence. The teachers' rationales for the purpose of history emphasised broader educational, social and moral purposes. More postmodern perspectives are apparent in the emphasis given to the importance of historical interpretations. Family background, lived experiences, literature and the media are significant influences on the teachers' beliefs about the nature and purposes of history. These beliefs seem to impact on classroom practice and pupil learning in the subject. They influence teaching style, choice of learning activities and the areas of historical understanding emphasised, with, for example, views of the past as an uncontested body of knowledge leading to a pedagogy dominated by the transmission of substantive knowledge; and views which emphasise the more constructed nature of history leading to more pupil centred skills based approaches. Teachers' views on the nature and purpose of the subject are a significant influence on their mediation of the National Curriculum. The National Curriculum for History has increasingly provided opportunities for interpretations more sympathetic to the postmodern orientation but research and inspection evidence suggest that these opportunities are often poorly realised in schools. One reason for this is proposed as history teachers' lack of engagement with postmodern perspectives on history. It is important for teachers to engage with such approaches as without further consideration of their implications history teachers are unable to teach aspects of secondary History. Teachers also need to recognise and make explicit different orientations towards history in order to facilitate pupil learning, to engage pupils and to provide them with the skills necessary to be critical consumers of the range of histories presented to them in society. The research has implications for history teaching, pupil learning and the initial training and professional development of teachers. The case is made for further consideration being given to postmodern perspectives on the nature of history in initial and continuing teacher education in order to improve teaching and learning. The initial teacher education of history teachers needs to ensure that those on programmes have the syntactical knowledge necessary to develop effective teaching strategies and approaches, to enable pupil learning, and to develop their own subject knowledge and ability to reflect on their own practice and development. This research also emphasises the need for all those involved in training to critically engage with subject orientations as where beginning teachers' beliefs conflict with the dominant discourse of history teaching this can lead to problematic experiences of teaching and of teacher training.

The use of Levelled Assessment Tasks (LATs) in secondary science in England has been increasing over the past five years in response to attempts to encourage more Assessment for Learning (AfL) strategies in the science classroom. This empirical study investigates how LATs are used by teachers and the extent to which such tasks support teaching and learning. An online survey of 106 teachers was used. It showed that teachers did find that the LATs supported their teaching using AfL strategies, but revealed that a majority of teachers do not use the tasks as formatively as they could be used. From the online questionnaire, a descriptive framework for how the LATs support teaching and learning is proposed. Five case studies where teachers used a LAT were observed. The data collected included a post-lesson pupil questionnaire, an interview with a group of pupils and an interview of the teacher. From these cases, a theory seeking approach to educational case studies through fuzzy propositions (Bassey, 1999) was used to develop a model of the relationship between teacher values and pupil values to assessment tasks. The fuzzy generalisations proposed from the case studies were that: (1) Teacher attitudes to the LATs may influence pupil attitudes to the LATs, (2) Teachers with a „big picture of levels‟ may be more likely to use LATs formatively and (3) Teachers who engage pupils with the notion of „levelness‟ may be more likely to improve conceptual development of pupils. The notion of „levelness‟ is explored. This evolves into three issues being explored: whether grades should be shared with pupils, the LATs relationship with summative and formative assessment practices and why such tasks have become popular with science teachers. The latter is considered in the context of the current target-driven culture of schools in England. Finally, the future of assessments like the LATs is discussed in relation to current policy and recommendations for their use and development are considered.

This study investigated the provision that students with dyslexia receive in Greek state secondary schools in EFL and if it corresponds with the Education Ministry’s policy on dyslexia. A study of the literature on dyslexia in Greece has shown that there is lack of teachers’ training on dyslexia and of teaching resources, collaboration between professionals and seminars for parents (Constantopoulou 2002; Arapogianni 2003; Lappas 1997). Taking a Vygotskian approach to learning, I apply activity theory (Engeström 2001) to understand and analyse the contradictions that inhibit the implementation of provision for students with dyslexia. This is an ethnographic case study involving audio recorded observations and interviews with two head teachers, three teachers, four students with dyslexia and their parents in two Greek state secondary schools. It also involves the collection of students’ work. The analysis shows that contradictions are created when the participants try to achieve their goals for dyslexia support by the lack of teachers’ knowledge and funding, the school timetable, the lack of inter-collegial collaboration and collaboration with parents and the inadequate diagnosis and school and Ministry’s policy. The analysis also shows how the participants try to resolve the contradictions by creating new objects and new tools through individual reflection.

E-learning is one of the common education types in Turkey elsewhere in the world because it has been a necessity for higher and continuous education of people but what about its quality? There are a diverse number of factors which affect the quality of e-learning education but one of the most important factors is the student. Because students are at the center of education and all of the teaching-learning operations are performed for them, their impressions are very important to gain idea about the quality and improvement of education. In order to obtain information from students about e-learning process, questionnaires applied to 267 students and 203 of them were used for this study. The results showed that students were not able to get adequate support from teachers and success rates of the students were affected negatively by lack of immediate feedback. It was also inferred that learning objectives of the course were shared at the beginning but they were not emphasized throughout the term therefore students did not have enough knowledge about them. Moreover, according to the students almost all of the e-learning courses have similar assessment methods and they were not selected according to the predetermined learning objectives. Lastly, students mentioned that e-learning courses they had taken were not more beneficial than traditional ones but they will continue preferring them in the future. This shows that although there are still problems related with e-learning, students still prefer it because of its advantages for the students.

A European consensus on the centrality of education for the guarantee and promotion of religious freedoms has emerged over the last two decades. Initially articulated in the human rights discourse of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and subsequently elaborated through the Council of Europe’s Recommendations, Declarations, Research Projects and Reference Books, this frame of reference forms a normative and legislative basis for states in Europe. Long national traditions of particular approaches to the ‘protected spaces’ of religion and education, however, render the development of common policies and practices amongst states problematic. This thesis examines the impact of the European framework of freedoms of religion and education on states’ education systems. An important contribution to the scholarship of social constructivism and interpretivist studies, the thesis contextualizes the research question within the conceptual framework of Europeanization. The nature and extent of the Europeanization process are approached through the structured comparative study of two cases: France and Greece. The respective educational provisions towards religion classify these countries as two of the hardest critical cases in this area of Europeanization in seemingly opposing ways. The thesis utilizes discourse analysis of the key documents of national education, including an analysis of the crucial findings of field research that investigates the social reality of religious freedoms in the educational settings of the selected cases. The conclusions denote a discrepancy between a degree of ideational convergence in the national discourse and the discernible divergence that characterizes the practical approaches to religious freedoms in the education systems of France and Greece. The limited and differential impact of the European norms reveals the particular national factors that prove resilient to external forces of normative and policy change in the fields of religion and education. By challenging the views on the transformative impact of the European recommendations, the thesis critically raises the question on the reconsideration of the origins, the objectives and the limitations of the complex of religious rights norms in Europe.