In this thesis I explore the debate over the state funding of Muslim schools in Britain, examining the arguments used for and against by the stakeholders involved. Qualitative interviews were conducted with head teachers, politicians, Muslim parents and representatives from a number of stakeholder organisations, to identify their reasons for supporting or opposing state funded Muslim schools. This research is necessary because until now the opinions of those directly involved have not been systematically researched, resulting in assumptions and generalisations about their views. Muslim schooling has become an increasingly fractious and polarised issue, and only by analysing the actual arguments used by those directly involved can we gain insight into the complexities underlying this debate. This data also allows me to explore how the issue of Muslim schooling relates to broader sociological questions about the rights, responsibilities and forms of belonging appropriate for minority communities in multicultural societies. In the findings I begin by reporting that the main arguments used in favour of state funded Muslim schools were equal rights, a better society, strengthened identity and educational benefits. I then move on to question why, given these strong favourable arguments, so few Muslim schools are currently in receipt of state funding. I ask whether this is due, at least in part, to Islamophobia. I then utilise models of political philosophy to evaluate the arguments surrounding state funded Muslim schools, and find that discourses of equality, social cohesion and identity are employed by both opponents and proponents. It is therefore possible to argue either for or against the state funding of Muslim schools from a liberal, a communitarian or a multiculturalist perspective. Finally I assess alternative solutions to the educational difficulties faced by Muslims in Britain, and conclude with my opinion about whether there should be state funded Muslim schools.

The effect of streaming on students' academic self-concept and their perceptions of home environment and classroom climate was examined in a 3-year longitudinal study of a single cohort in Singapore. The subjects were 495 Secondary 1 (average age 13) students, who were streamed based on their Primary School Leaving Examination results taken at the end of Primary 6 (average age 12). The study was conducted with the use of a self-constructed questionnaire on four occasions at approximately 1-year intervals. The measures included the academic self-concept scale, made up of the students' confidence and students' effort subscales, the home environment scale, made up of the relationship with parents and academic support subscales, and the classroom climate scale, made up of the relationship with teachers, teachers' expectations and peer relationship subscales. The results revealed that the students' academic self-concept, and their perceptions of home environment and classroom climate largely declined from Secondary 1 to Secondary 3, and the declines were more pronounced for the higher-ability stream students than the lower ability stream students. In addition, the lower-ability stream students' academic self concept and their perception of classroom climate were more negative than those of their higher-ability stream counterparts immediately after streaming. Nonetheless, they were comparable if not more positive than those of their higher-ability stream counterparts three years after being streamed. Furthermore, regression analyses revealed that perceived teachers' expectations, relationship with teachers, relationship with parents and parental academic support were main predictors of students' academic self-concept. However, parental academic support tended to affect higher-ability stream students' academic self-concept more than that of their lower-ability stream counterparts, whilst teachers' expectations tended to affect the lower-ability stream students' confidence level more than that of their higher-ability stream counterparts.

In light of growing evidence of exogamy among Jews and diminishing levels of community engagement, the question of how to sustain and cultivate Jewish identity has become a major preoccupation in the Jewish world since the early 1990s. Among the numerous organisations, programmes and initiatives that have been established and studied in response, Limmud, a week-long annual festival of Jewish life and learning in the UK that attracts an estimated 2,500 people per annum and has been replicated throughout the world, remains decidedly under-researched. This study is designed to understand its educational philosophy. Based upon qualitative interviews with twenty Limmud leaders, and focus group sessions with Limmud participants, it seeks to explore the purposes of the event, its content, its social and educational processes, and contextual environment. It further explores the importance of relationships in Limmud's philosophy, and the place of social capital in its practice. The study demonstrates that Limmud's educational philosophy is heavily grounded in the interaction of competing tensions, or polarities, on multiple levels. Major categorical distinctions drawn in educational philosophy and practice, and Jewish and general sociology, are both maintained and allowed to interact. This interaction takes place in a "hospitable and charged" environment – one that is simultaneously safe, respectful and comfortable, whilst also edgy, powerful and challenging - that allows the individual freedom to explore and navigate the contours of Jewish community, and the Jewish community opportunity to envelope and nurture the experience of the individual. The study suggests that the interaction of these competing forces, in the context of an intensive Jewish experience, may be an important feature of Jewish educational initiatives attempting to respond to the identity challenges described above. More generally, in detailing a contemporary educational model that sustains religious/ethnic identity whilst emphasising critical thought and openness to competing claims and ideas, it presents an approach that may be applicable in other religious and ethnic communities.

This thesis sets out to answer a central question: is it possible to engage in the Christian religious education of adults without resorting to indoctrination? It looks first to the concepts in the literature connected to the Christian religious education of adults. This literature deals with education overall, the education of adults in particular, and then education as it relates to faith. The concepts of indoctrination, preaching and nurture are then examined as they relate to education. A visual representation of the relationship between these concepts is offered, showing that there is a progression from indoctrination, through preaching, nurture, to education understood in a pure sense, which has only the intention of facilitating (any) worthwhile learning. Alongside this work based on conceptual analysis from the literature, field work undertaken in a Roman Catholic Diocese in England and Wales is used to support the research. The field work is an illustrative snapshot, rather than representative; its purpose is to illuminate the conclusions reached in the first part of the research. In both the questionnaire and interview section of the field work, data was obtained from three groups of respondents: administrators, tutors and participants. This grouping covers all those involved in the Christian religious education of adults in the diocese, and allows triangulation of data. The results of the field work is then related back to the chart proposed from the literature review, and conclusions drawn about gaps in the literature and proposals made for further study. Overall, the data from the field work support the conclusions of the first part of the research, with minor adjustments.

Using the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS) conducted in 1987/88 and 1998/99, this thesis examines two thematic areas of non-monetary returns to education in Ghana. One of the primary aims is to find the differences in the effects of education over the decade (1987/88–1998/99), using standard and non-standard econometric analysis. In addition, the later survey year serves as a robustness check on the first. The first theme examines health status; measured as illness and its duration, as well as the use of anthropometric indicators. The study finds that parental education is positively associated with child’s reported illness and its duration. Further verification of this outcome using an instrumental variable (2SLS) approach that assumes possible endogeneity of parental education supports the results relating to maternal education in both survey years. In contrast, paternal primary education tends to reduce children’s reported illness; but this is only statistically significant in GLSS 1. These outcomes, although perverse are not uncommon in developing countries, and may be the result of systematic reporting bias. The analysis also reveals inconsistent results regarding adults’ health status between the two survey years. For example, we find that illness and its duration increase with personal education in GLSS 1, but the converse is true in GLSS 4, ceteris paribus. The mixed results of this study imply that the relationship between education and health status varies across health measures, and probably over time. Hence caution should be exercised before broad conclusions are drawn and policies made regarding these two vital socioeconomic indicators (education and health). The last theme analyses fertility in both structural and reduced form functions. The structural function involves a two-stage process. The first stage estimates the effect of education on three proximate determinants of fertility - the duration of breastfeeding, contraceptive use and age at cohabitation. The second stage subsequently models the fertility function by estimating three measures: the probability of having at least one birth; the unconditional number of births; and the number of births conditional on one having occurred, using the predicted values of the proximate determinants as inputs similar to the conventional production function. The reduced form fertility model estimates the impact of women’s education on the number of live births. The findings are that (1) education increases the use of contraception, delays age at cohabitation and shortens the duration of breastfeeding, as anticipated; (2) contraception and age at cohabitation subsequently tend to reduce the overall number of live births, though we observe an ambiguous outcome regarding breastfeeding; (3) education, in a fuller and direct way, also shows a strong negative association with fertility in both surveys; and finally (4) fertility appears to have declined over the period studied. We also find a structural shift in respect of the influence of women’s education from post-primary to primary level on fertility, ceteris paribus.

Family literacy programmes have become an increasingly popular pedagogical tool utilised by policy makers to help address the literacy needs of families with low skill competencies and who are viewed as economically and socially underachieving. Taking a comparative case study approach, in this research I consider what benefits family literacy programmes have for the literacy skills of families. Drawing on Bourdieu's habitus (1993) and field (1977) and Bourdieu, Coleman (1988) and Putnam's (2000) notions of social capital, in this research I compare family literacy programmes in selected case study areas within England, Ireland and Malta. The objectives are to establish differences and similarities in policy rationale, the characteristics of delivery and learner engagement. Predominantly qualitative in nature, the research consisted of 94 semi-structured interviews with actors involved in family literacy programmes across the three areas including coordinators, practitioners, learners, ex-learners, non-participating fathers and children's teachers. Interviews were supplemented and triangulated by a range of other data sources including a number of classroom observations. Family literacy programmes across the three areas exhibited many similarities: the content of sessions; the underlying policy rationale for offering and funding programmes; the motivation of learners for attending; benefits reported by learners; and difficulties faced by practitioners. In addition, parents attending were mainly mothers. Some differences were also found, mainly between Ireland and the other two participating areas. For example, in Ireland different types of locations were used and children were not usually present. However, the main difference was not cultural, but political, between the desired policy outcomes, and the motivation of learners. The evidence suggests that, regardless of the cultural context, there is a mismatch or at least a lack of awareness between the two, with learners predominantly motivated to attend to help their children, whilst policy objectives primarily seek to address inadequate literacy levels, as part of wider social inclusion strategies.

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Social Stories utilising either photograph or symbol illustrations to address the target behaviours of children with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Multiple single-case experiments were conducted utilising an ABA design with 10 participants, all of whom were boys attending mainstream primary schools within a West Midlands Local Authority. The children ranged in age from 5-11 and all of them had a diagnosis and a primary need in relation to ASD. Personalised Social Stories were composed for each of the participants to address a specific target behaviour that had been identified by the child and members of teaching staff. The stories were written by the researcher alongside a member of staff from the Local Authority's Autism Outreach Service and all adhered to the criteria and guidelines for construction outlined by Carol Gray (2004). The format for each of the stories was identical but for the manipulation of the illustrations. The effectiveness of the intervention was monitored using a variety of measures including a Behaviour Log recording the frequency of the target behaviour across each of the experimental phases; the Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997); and a Teacher / Teaching Assistant Questionnaire that had been designed by the researcher and was based on items contained within the Behaviour Intervention Rating Scale (BIBS) (Elliot & Treuting, 1991). The data obtained from these measures was analysed through the visual inspection of graphical data and the calculation of effect sizes. Discussion is provided about the suitability, reliability and validity of each of the measures and the methods of data analysis. Overall the study provides evidence of the utility and effectiveness of Social Stories for addressing the target behaviours of children with a diagnosis of ASD. Furthermore it offers an original contribution to the existing literature by exploring the impact of different forms of illustration on story efficacy.

Personal development is the cornerstone of lifelong learning and academic and professional achievement. Co-curricular activities are good learning opportunities and support people to develop. A thorough review and examination of personal development education at HKIVE is needed so that new generations of students can more effectively learn and achieve their goals, enabling them to meet the crucial challenges of the 21st century. Initially, the researcher examined course documents to identify the key areas of personal development education. Data was collected from 134 students, eight educators and six human resource practitioners so as to understand these issues deeply. The study findings indicate that personal development opportunities at HKIVE are ineffective. The College should review existing personal development training to expand learning opportunities for students. Educators are advised to adopt innovative new learning strategies to facilitate personal development. No single training programme can cover all aspects of individual development and learning should be based on personal needs and initiated by students. Furthermore, fostering good attitudes is a key factor in developing students' motivation to learn more. Peers also form an important resource to reinforce students' self-image and self-esteem within the peer group. In addition, the new method of judging competency comprises: knowledge (Stratford, 1994), performance (Summerall, Lopez, Oehlert, 2000), outcome (Proctor, 1991), attitude and self-development. Finally, assessment issues are highly controversial and may serve formative, summative or normative purposes, subject to availability of resources and staff professionalism. This study offers new personal development teaching ideas and a practical guide for educators. Moreover, this study formulates a new learning model for competency and informal learning - critical issues for the VTC in future research and development.

The incidence of sensory processing difficulties (SPDs) was investigated for pupils (aged 4-10 years old) with behavioural, emotional or social difficulties (BESD). Teachers provided a measure of BESD using The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Parents completed The Short Sensory Profile (SSP) and teachers completed The Sensory Profile, School Companion (SC). Data were analysed for 144 children. When total scores were calculated for the sensory measures, parents and teachers rated that 55% and 44% of the sample respectively, had sensory processing difficulties. Both parents and teachers demonstrated concerns about difficulties with overactivity, poor listening and concentration skills. Associations were found between SPDs and some background factors including anxiety and poor peer relations. When individual cases were examined, it was found that children were often rated as having difficulties at school but not at home or visa versa. The implications of this finding are discussed in relation to previous studies that have purely relied on the Short Sensory Profile, a brief parental measure of SPDs. It was cautiously concluded that the data suggest that within the BESD sample it was possible to identify a subgroup of children who may also have difficulties with sensory processing. It is suggested that it may be helpful for there to be an increased awareness of possible sensory difficulties for some BESD children among educational psychologists.

This research examines the development of the EU higher education policy under the theoretical lenses of historical institutionalism. Starting from the assumption that institutions matter, this thesis follows the evolution of higher education policy in the EU premises from its emergence in the early 1970s to date. Unfolding in four phases, this case study focuses on the institutional parameters of the policy and the polity context in order to explain the critical factors that shaped the policy outcomes and the scope of higher education. In a story development full of unanticipated consequences and normative building, this thesis critically examines the relation between the levels of governance to assess their impact on the policy outcome. The main finding is that higher education has been developed as a `market-supporting' policy. The human capital role of higher education has been the main attribute identified in the EU level. As such, higher education gradually evolved from being a policy field aimed at battling unemployment to becoming one of the driving forces behind the knowledge driven society. At the same time higher education moved from the doldrums of EU competence and activity to the centre of policy action to become a policy example of applying the new modes of EU governance. In between the formal EU settings and the Bologna process, institutions and actors have withheld the idea that academic and professional mobility, recognition, comparability are the main areas for the future European workforce.