This study explores methods of shifting the power imbalance within autism research by acknowledging the autistic voice as the expert ‘insider’. This is critical, since statistics relating to access to services demonstrate social barriers to inclusion and a negative impact on wellbeing. With communication as a central challenge between autistic and non-autistic individuals, I explore methods to access the views of autistic adults regarding their experiences, support requirements and provision of appropriate services. In order to do this, my main research question concerns the deeper exploration of data informing an evaluation of a support service to understand how some autistic individuals conceptualise their experiences. My research design, informed by autistic people, focused on context and power issues through method flexibility. I used collage and narrative diary methods to gather written and visual data, which is presented and analysed as three individual case studies and also as a meta analysis providing a broad picture of themes. My key contribution to autism research blends IPA, narrative analysis and discourse with distinct sites of analysis (narrative process, images of autism, audiencing, turning points and discourse). In addition, I employ a flexible methodology to embrace diverse communication preferences of autistic individuals. My findings demonstrate the importance of contextualisation in making sense of autistic individuals’ experiences and understanding how the ‘outsider’ location of power can negatively impact on the autistic agenda. To address this, autistic people need to be seen as the expert of their lives, and this study demonstrates how autistic and non-autistic individuals can work together.

Video self-modelling (VSM) is a behavioural intervention in which an observer views a short video of him/herself engaged in adaptive behaviour, in order to learn the behaviour and reproduce it more frequently, fluently or appropriately. While the past three decades have seen research in different domains of applied psychology which attests to the potential benefits of VSM in a variety of settings, including special education, it has received scant attention within the UK educational psychology community. An exploratory study was conducted to see if and how VSM could be integrated into the work of an Educational Psychologist working as an external consultant. VSM interventions were undertaken with two 10-year-old boys with social interaction and communication difficulties. One of these focused on developing anger management skills, and the other on improving writing performance. A mixed-methods approach was used with qualitative information from post-intervention participant and staff interviews being used in addition to experimental outcome measures. Post-intervention behaviour changes were observed in both cases, with fewer negative behavioural incidents, and more words written, respectively, however qualitative feedback raised questions about the effectiveness of VSM for one of the cases. Limitations of the research are discussed, as is the suitability of VSM as an addition to the repertoire of Educational Psychologists’ interventions.

This thesis is intended to impact positively on our ability to understand and describe spatial awareness of children who are blind by investigating children’s explanations, understanding, feelings and coping strategies in their use of space in their everyday experience. It examines whether children who are blind are capable of providing reliable information that informs our knowledge of how they perceive space and how they achieve spatial understanding. The thesis also examines whether children’s voices inform the ideas, the theoretical perspectives and the positions adopted by researchers over the years that are found in the literature, in this complex field. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the theoretical understanding of children’s experience of spatiality and the diversity of environmental circumstances to which they need to adapt. The results are also discussed in terms of their implications for practice by providing practitioners with theorized evidence of practice that supports the effective learning. Taken together, the evidence suggests that children who are blind are able to verbalize their knowledge about spatial relationships using a wide range of sensory and cognitive strategies and demonstrating a sophisticated understanding of space; thus suggesting that cognitive experiments may not be the only way to study spatial processing in children who are blind.

This is a case study of the role of feeling and will in interaction with children with autism. It investigates the use of changing colours of light for enhancement of engagement at this level. The research was carried out in a specially designed room where the whole interior colour could be changed using dimmer-controlled lights. 19 children aged between 8 and 17 years with a diagnosis of severe autism were involved in the study. Data were collected using video recordings, a research diary and small-scale informal interviews and were analysed by quantitative and qualitative methods. Three main stages were developed. These involved observations of behaviour of children in different colours of light, of children interacting directly with changing coloured light, and of intensive interaction augmented by changing colour moods. The main findings were that colour could affect behaviour and that in general reds were more arousing than blues and greens. Some children engaged readily in interaction with changing coloured lights, though many did not. When changing colour was used in conjunction with intentional creation of affect by an adult during intensive interaction, improvements in social engagement and communication skills were observed.

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.