This dissertation explores why, even after nine years of studying the English language, graduates in the Punjab emerge with very deficient English. An examination of the currently prescribed syllabuses for the Secondary, Intermediate and Degree stages reveals that they are based on out-dated concepts of language teaching. They not only provide impoverished language content but fail to take into consideration the learners' actual needs. They are exclusively based on translation and 'dead language' techniques. Moreover, the examinations allow memorized answers to set questions which are repeated year after year. This dissertation examines the theoretical bases for a specification of a new syllabus. It considers the background of psychology, psycholinguistics, ELT theories and methodologies, and syllabus design, and attempts to develop a pragmatic approach toward the teaching of English in the Punjab. New syllabuses need to be proposed for all three stages of English language study. In this dissertation a proposed specification for the Intermediate stage is outlined, which, if adopted would function as a model for other stages. The specification is for a multi-dimensional syllabus, combining the benefits of both communicative and structuralist approaches, and taking full account of the needs of the particular learners involved and of the local context of education.

This study, based on classroom observation of ESL students, is an attempt to explore the effects of prior interactions on the learners' performance in communicative writing tasks. The study seeks to ascertain how classroom discourse generated by students as they interact prior to writing is shaped by the tasks and how it subsequently contributes to the quality of the written compositions. The basic hypotheses projected for the study were that different tasks would generate different quantities and qualities of interaction patterns which would correspondingly affect the written compositions. The nature of the tasks was seen as being instrumental in determining the variety of words rather than the amount of words used and that determined the quality of the compositions. Similarly, the generation of complex syntactic and cohesion features by the subjects was closely associated with the opportunity they were afforded by the tasks to interact. Narrative composition tasks in which there was substantial interactions were more likely to generate these language features than were the descriptive composition tasks in which there were restricted patterns of interaction. The study reveals, however, that the interaction patterns arising from the oral language gave rise to language features which got incorporated into the written compositions but did not conform with the conventions of the written language. Moreover, the discourse acts employed did not invariably bring about a coherent semantic relationship among propositions because of the subjects' low language proficiency and their inability to appropriately employ cohesion features associated with the expression of propositions. A survey among subjects of the study shows that collaborative learning in pairs or groups is regarded as being more favourable to promoting features of language that lead to good quality compositions than a teacher-fronted approach, although input from the latter is seen as a prerequisite for the smooth running of pair work and group work. However, there is a general consensus that group work is a better method of learning than pair work, apparently because group work, offers opportunity for more substantial interactions than pairwork which often culminates in interlocutors being unable to sustain a conversation in English.

Asking questions is an essential part of teaching and has been an area of inquiry in educational research for decades. However, the research in teacher's use of questions in L2 context has a much shorter history and the findings are preliminary. The present study investigates the use of questions by teachers teaching English as a foreign/second language. The main body of the data used in the analysis comes from audio recordings of 40 lessons where a group of Chinese students were taught by three native-speaker teachers of English over a period of ten weeks. The recordings were conducted and transcribed by the author. One of the main findings is that teachers often ask more than one question in one move. This cluster of questions is termed "question unit", (Q unit for short). The focus then is directed to what constitutes a Q unit, the relationship between questions in a Q unit and the responses to Q units. The identification of a Q unit apparently involves the length of pause (termed wait-time) between questions asked in one speaking turn. It is found that the subsequent question(s) in a Q unit are often either repetition or reformulation of the previous Q(s) in the unit. It is also found that, when Q units are taken into consideration in the analysis of response rate (the percentage of questions being responded to), it would change the response rate significantly. It is argued that Q unit as a unit of discourse analysis does not affect the existing discourse analysis models but would add a supplementary but helpful dimension to it.

This research has sought to contribute to the literature to the understanding of the factors influencing women’s career progression in higher education management through in depth, semi-structured interviews and a focus group discussion conducted with 48 women working in junior, and senior level management positions in the universities of Pakistan. Addressing the first research question to better understand current gendered based distribution of management positions in the sampled universities, a quantitative survey was conducted. The research questions 2, 3 and 4 addressed the following three areas sequentially: first, the constraints faced by participants at familial, societal, organizational and personal levels; second, the supportive factors experienced by the participants at familial, societal, organizational and personal levels; and finally, Is work-family conflict a barrier to women‘s career progression in Pakistan? The aim of the focus group discussion was to extract some further qualitative information from a group of six participants working in one of the universities and to investigate whether participants had similar experiences. For the analysis of quantitative data the advanced charting and graphing features in Microsoft Office Word and Excel were used to develop basic table, graph, and chart structures to display the frequency count. For the qualitative data the inductive coding and thematic analysis was utilized searching for patterns and themes. The analysis of quantitative data revealed the dearth of women in senior management positions. The analysis of qualitative data provided an unprecedented and comprehensive view of the complex, contradictory, and multifaceted dimensions of distinctive factors influencing women’s career progression in senior management positions. The participants – both junior and seniors – informed about the hurdles they had faced when they got appointed or when they had moved into senior roles, as well as what kinds of help and support they had received for their career progression. It was expected that knowledge based on participant’s perceptions of the difficulties and social support and the strategies they exercised for facilitating the work-family interface, hopefully, will bring their insights to a wider audience. Such knowledge would support the management of women‘s human resources and their management careers in the cultural specific context and might emerge as a strong strategy for policy makers for countering the issue of the dearth of women in senior management positions.

Regular school attendance has been identified as being of paramount importance for social, economic, educational and emotional well-being. However, UK schools have experienced high levels of school non-attendance for several years. Government legislation and research highlight the importance of early intervention to combat non-attendance. They also emphasise the need to involve pupils in decisions affecting their lives. However, despite much research into non-attendance, currently there is a paucity of research eliciting the views of non-attenders, particularly non-clinical samples and those at the early stages of non-attendance. There is also a lack of updated qualitative research around school staff experiences of working with non-attenders. This study gained an understanding of the perceptions and experiences of secondary school non-attenders during their early stages of attendance difficulties particularly regarding support they had been offered or used. The study also explored the views of secondary school staff regarding their experiences working with non-attenders and their perceptions of the support available to help these pupils attend school regularly. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with twelve pupils and six staff members and their perceptions were analysed using thematic analysis. The study revealed that there are several factors impacting on pupils’ unwillingness to attend school, particularly those negatively influencing their sense of school belonging and academic self-concept. Despite supportive strategies in place, non-attenders do not always perceive them as effective. However staff face clear challenges to implement more supportive measures. The key findings emphasised the importance of using an interactionist and systemic perspective to support non-attenders rather than a within-child or family perspective. School issues included a lack of opportunities to gain pupils’ views, poor pupil-teacher relationships and ineffective school systems. The research provides useful recommendations for educational professionals and educational psychologists to promote attendance through collaborative working, pupil participation and early intervention.

The thesis is an analysis of the changing social definition of youth and the pattern of transition from youth to adulthood in the context of the schooling systems and educational policies of England and Wales, and the USA since the Second World War. The period under study, 1945-1992 can be divided into two parts. The first is the period of the dominance of the welfare state. The second is the period typified by an attempt by the state to withdraw as a major provider of welfare. In Part One of the thesis a general analysis is undertaken of the position of youth under welfare capitalism within liberal democracy. The study focuses particularly on the educational provision for the fourteen to nineteen year group. A comparison is made between the welfare capitalist model of youth and that of two totalitarian states in which comprehensive national youth policies were developed. In Part Two, a study of the educational provision for youth in the USA, England and Wales during the period 1945 to 1972 is undertaken. It focuses upon the successes and failures of the policies of each state. In particular the tension between educational and state ideologies in the construction of youth is explored. In Part Three there is a study of youth in the period from 1972-1992. For both countries this is a time of concern with economic decline. In the USA and England and Wales governments attempted to withdraw from the extensive provision of education and welfare. The study analyses the effect of the new policies on the definition of youth.

The theme of the research is the developments in education, particularly with refence to vocational education in the Federal Republic of Germany. During the 1950s the FGR underwent an economic miracle in the area of reconstruction following the devastation of the war years. As economic stability returned to the Republic the move towards reform in the educational sector began to develop. Whilst under occupation, the military authorities in each zone had supervised the reconstruction of the education system per se, but with little regard for the vocational sector, tending to leave that area to those who controlled its development in the past, namely the employers and their respective Chambers i.e. Industry and Handicraft. As the debate progressed over the form that the new educational system should take, it became apparent that there were almost irreconciable differences between the models favoured by the opposing political factions. Whilst the right wing looked to the past in the formation of its policies, as illustrated by the perpetuation of the old tripartite system, the left were seeking to broaden the educational choice of the majority who were restricted in their participation in higher education under both the existing and preceding systems. As the balance of power in the LAnder and Bund shifted during the late 1950s and early 1960s so the educational plans were modified. The left initially sought to influence general education in the political arenas, but later turned to the vocational education sector and the Berufsschule in order to increase the element of general education included in the curriculum. It was during this period that, on the one hand, the left were seeking to introduce the concept of equality of educational opportunity both in the general education system and the vocational sector, on the other hand, the right equally determined to maintain the status quo, that a further argument was being presented by the academics and social scientists. Namely, that the education system had lost sight of the traditional German values of neo-humanistic Bildung in its pursuit of a materialistic society. It is in the light of these widely differing views that the introduction of the Basic Vocational Training Year and the corresponding legal and political arguments surrounding its introduction are examined to establish its validity as a solution to the problems of the various participants in the debate.

Students from lower socio-economic groups remain underrepresented in UK medical schools. This enquiry explores the perspectives of medical student participants to better understand how medical students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may be perceived, their experience of an undergraduate medical curriculum, and any issues concerned with what is required for them to learn in order to become doctors. A conceptual framework that encompasses both sociological and sociocultural learning theories that enable the professional development and learning processes of medical students, and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds in particular, to be better understood was required. Theoretical concepts from the literature informed the iterative development of the research questions that addressed student perspectives, the relational aspects between student practice and medical school structures including the medical culture, and how student participation is pivotal to their learning. An interpretive methodology including focus groups and individual interviews was used to access the perspectives of medical students from across the curriculum of one medical school. Analysis used a priori concepts and a modified grounded theory approach which generated three main categories of themes: who becomes a doctor, students’ developmental processes and issues underlying their learning. Non-traditional medical students were found to possess certain socioeconomic characteristics that distinguished them from their peers from a more advantaged background. For some students this led to disadvantage inherent in their differing patterns of socialisation, issues with developing an effective medical habitus and resultant professional identity, and reduced or less effective participation in authentic learning activities. A more nuanced nondualistic understanding of the nature of medical professional knowledge and the undergraduate curriculum by incorporating a more balanced approach to the insights afforded by participatory models of learning have several implications for both medical pedagogy and medical student practice.

This thesis will explore the concept of social equality in education in relation to France and England within their historical contexts from 1789 to 1939. It will compare and contrast how both countries have gone about reducing social inequality in education. The thesis will emphasise the importance of the ideological legacy at the heart of both systems for understanding this i.e. Republicanism in France and Liberalism in England. French education emphasises equality and secularism. This is a legacy from the French Revolution, which brought the state centre stage in education. It also emphasises unity since Napoleon imposed a unified framework for its administration. In France these characteristics of centralism, unity and secularism have been perceived as offering the best possibility of providing equality of opportunity for all pupils regardless of social background, religion, ethnicity or geographical location. Equality was not a founding principle of English education, as it was in France; the concept evolved more pragmatically as a way of dealing with the more unfair aspects of the system. Liberalism with its values of freedom and diversity and the political and economic doctrine of laissez-faire have had the most enduring influence on English education The method of enquiry undertaken in this thesis will be drawn from comparative historical sociology. It uses comparative historical analysis to understand the variation in how both countries have gone about reducing educational inequality and why a discourse of egalitarianism is stronger in French than in English education. Three factors: persistence of ideology, social-class alliances and the nature of the state are put forward to explain the variation between both countries in relation to social equality in education. The final section of the thesis reflects on how the histories of both countries have impacted on their current education systems.

This thesis is a study of academic failure among Primeiro Grau children in Southern Brazil. The empirical basis of the thesis is constituted by two investigations: a study of risk factors for failure in a birth cohort of 6,000 children from the city of Pelotas, through a correlation approach, and case-studies of two Primeiro Grau (Primary) schools - from the same city - that presented contrasting rates of academic failure (high and low). The thesis pursues the argument that academic failure cannot be fully understood through a correlation model. Such an approach is important to identify the children at risk. Nevertheless, it offers little in terms of insights into the intra-school processes associated with failure. The second investigation aimed at making a contribution to the understanding of academic failure among Primeiro Grau children through exploring such intra-school processes. Their identification and investigation are of particular importance in the light of the extensive long-term epidemiological research tradition in the area, which the thesis critiques. The theoretical basis of the second study is derived from Vygotsky's and Bakhtin's accounts of the social formation of mind, which privilege communicative means of mediation, and Bernstein's model of educational transmission, which speaks of the specialization of communication in schools. This study investigates the characteristics of the cultures of the two schools and suggests that the high rates of educational failure in one of the schools is associated with the privileging of the regulative aspects of education over its instructional aspects: teachers' beliefs that poverty affects children's attainment, negatively combined with teachers' impressions that the children attending their school were very needy, resulted in teachers stressing the socialization purposes of schooling to the detriment of its academic purposes.