The professional identity of career practitioners in the UK has become increasingly challenged in recent decades due to the influence of government policy and the dominance of work-based qualifications. Privatisation, multi-professional working and workforce realignment have all contributed to a reshaping of the career guidance professional. This research examines the views of a group of practitioners all undertaking continuing professional development (CPD) in the form of a postgraduate award. The participants were all UK based practitioners working in a career related role; all were either currently on programme, had completed or stepped off with an interim award within a masters programme. The research explored practitioners’ views at a time of significant upheaval, of themselves as professionals, their professional identity and the extent to which postgraduate CPD contributed to this. The research utilised a case study approach employing document analysis, questionnaire, in-depth interviews and narrative biographies. These tools were specifically selected to enable sequential analysis of data allowing findings from each stage to be rigorously tested out by the next research tool. Applications from potential students were initially analysed helping to establish motivation for undertaking a programme of this type, an on-line survey explored practitioners views of themselves as professionals, motivation for postgraduate study and potential outcomes for themselves, their organisation and their profession. In-depth interviews and narrative biographies provided a voice allowing participants to explore their personal journey with their studies and how this engagement contributed to the establishment, maintenance or enhancement of their practitioner professional identity. Continuing professional development was classified as consisting of three types, operational, experiential and formal. Findings suggested participants predominantly valued formal CPD with operational being perceived as only meeting employer contractual compliance. Postgraduate level CPD contributed to professional identity through engagement with reflection, theory, policy and academic study. Ethics and client focus were central to the professional identity of the career practitioner. Postgraduate study was perceived to empower practitioners and to contribute to the professionalisation of the sector and give parity with other public sector professions. The research contributes to both the limited body of knowledge addressing professional identity within the career guidance context and discourse addressing professionalisation of new professions. It offers a shared professional perspective that can inform the evolving policy debate aiming to professionalise the career and allied workforces. The research offers a unique insight into a profession in transition and the voice of practitioners who have experienced successive waves of government policy, which has been often internalised as de-professionalisation.

M.Ed. / This qualitative research essay reports on a complementary programme, Service Learning, to the current Higher Diploma in Education (H.D.E-postgraduate) curricula at tertiary institutions. It originated from my personal experience of the H.D.E.(postgraduate) training, my experience as educator and the policy documents of the South African Government on Higher Education since 1995. My idea for the investigation is grounded in the first White Paper for Higher Education (1995) and the Norms and Standards of Teacher Education presented by the Committee of Teacher Education Policy (1996). Both these policies advocate innovative, holistic and reflective teacher education training. The title of the essay: "The cultivation of educational knowledge, skills, values and attitudes, through Service Learning, for H.D.E. (postgraduate) students encapsulates the framework of my thinking about teacher education". The investigation commenced with a document analysis followed by a literature study concerning H.D.E. (PIG) curricula and Service Learning. The basic data analysis was used to integrate the relevant literature with the professional ideas of the interviewees. Ethnographic interviews with educational leaders brought all diverting ideas together, which culminated in the findings of the investigation. The justification of the study lies in the question whether one year of training as an educator is holistic and foreseeable enough for the challenging educational environment. The findings of the study advocate Service Learning as an indispensable complementary programme to the H.D.E.(P/G) Curricula. The findings mostly enlighten the advantages of Service Learning Programmes through the eyes of the educational leaders interviewed, and present to the reader the possibilities in teacher education.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo analisar a trajetória escolar de jovens de origem popular e oriundos de um bairro de periferia da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, que ingressaram em cursos de pós-graduação stricto sensu de importantes universidades públicas. Tais trajetórias serão aqui analisadas a partir das narrativas dos próprios atores sociais em questão, buscando evidenciar as marcas de sua socialização e formação escolar em um contexto social que, do ponto de vista de algumas análises no campo da sociologia da educação, não favoreceriam a aquisição do capital cultural e social necessários ao ingresso na carreira acadêmica. Desta perspectiva, além de não serem muito comuns nos meios populares, essas trajetórias também não seriam reconhecidas pelo grupo de origem que, na maioria das vezes, identifica a formação escolar como porta de entrada no mundo do trabalho, tendo no curso superior o ponto máximo de uma formação escolar bem sucedida. Busca-se aqui, a partir da análise do conjunto dessas trajetórias, apreender os elementos e experiências sociais que possibilitaram esse prolongamento na formação escolar, e, sobretudo, o impacto e o significado da inserção na carreira acadêmica, tanto do ponto de vista da mobilidade social quanto dos conflitos decorrentes dessa experiência subjetiva, quer em relação às expectativas familiares ou do grupo social de origem. O trabalho de campo de caráter etnográfico, baseado na observação participante e realização de entrevistas aprofundadas constituíram as ferramentas metodológicas básicas a partir das quais essa pesquisa foi desenvolvida. Com relação à discussão teórica aqui proposta tomou-se como referência os trabalhos de Pierre Bourdieu, Jean-Claude Passeron, Bernard Lahire, Jailson de Souza e Silva e Maria da Graça Jacintho Setton, entre outros / The object of this dissertation is to analyze the academic trajectory of young people of popular origin, natives of districts in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, who have been admitted to postgraduate courses "stricto sensu" at leading public universities. Such trajectories will be here analyzed by means of the narratives of those very social actors, with the intention of pointing out the branding of their socialization and schooling under a social context which, from the point of view of some studies in the field of the Sociology of Education, would not benefit the grasping of the cultural and social assets required for admission to the academic career. From this perspective, besides not being very usual in the popular midst, those trajectories also would not be recognized by the group of origin that, by and large, identifies the school education as the entrance to the professional world, as well as considering the university course the pinnacle of a well succeeded academic education. Starting from the analysis of the set of such trajectories, it is here sought to assimilate the elements and social experiences that made possible the lengthening of the school formation and, most of all, the impact and the significance of the admission to the academic career, both from the point of view of the social mobility and from the conflicts that arise from that subjective experience, be them in relation to the family or to the social group expectations. The fieldwork of ethnographic character was based on participative observation and on the implementation of detailed interviews, which constituted the basic methodological tools for the development of this research. As for the theoretical discussion here proposed, the works of Pierre Bourdieu, Jean-Claude Passeron, Bernard Lahire, Jailson de Souza e Silva, and Maria da Graça Jacintho Setton, among others, were considered as reference.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo analisar a trajetória escolar de jovens de origem popular e oriundos de um bairro de periferia da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, que ingressaram em cursos de pós-graduação stricto sensu de importantes universidades públicas. Tais trajetórias serão aqui analisadas a partir das narrativas dos próprios atores sociais em questão, buscando evidenciar as marcas de sua socialização e formação escolar em um contexto social que, do ponto de vista de algumas análises no campo da sociologia da educação, não favoreceriam a aquisição do capital cultural e social necessários ao ingresso na carreira acadêmica. Desta perspectiva, além de não serem muito comuns nos meios populares, essas trajetórias também não seriam reconhecidas pelo grupo de origem que, na maioria das vezes, identifica a formação escolar como porta de entrada no mundo do trabalho, tendo no curso superior o ponto máximo de uma formação escolar bem sucedida. Busca-se aqui, a partir da análise do conjunto dessas trajetórias, apreender os elementos e experiências sociais que possibilitaram esse prolongamento na formação escolar, e, sobretudo, o impacto e o significado da inserção na carreira acadêmica, tanto do ponto de vista da mobilidade social quanto dos conflitos decorrentes dessa experiência subjetiva, quer em relação às expectativas familiares ou do grupo social de origem. O trabalho de campo de caráter etnográfico, baseado na observação participante e realização de entrevistas aprofundadas constituíram as ferramentas metodológicas básicas a partir das quais essa pesquisa foi desenvolvida. Com relação à discussão teórica aqui proposta tomou-se como referência os trabalhos de Pierre Bourdieu, Jean-Claude Passeron, Bernard Lahire, Jailson de Souza e Silva e Maria da Graça Jacintho Setton, entre outros / The object of this dissertation is to analyze the academic trajectory of young people of popular origin, natives of districts in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, who have been admitted to postgraduate courses "stricto sensu" at leading public universities. Such trajectories will be here analyzed by means of the narratives of those very social actors, with the intention of pointing out the branding of their socialization and schooling under a social context which, from the point of view of some studies in the field of the Sociology of Education, would not benefit the grasping of the cultural and social assets required for admission to the academic career. From this perspective, besides not being very usual in the popular midst, those trajectories also would not be recognized by the group of origin that, by and large, identifies the school education as the entrance to the professional world, as well as considering the university course the pinnacle of a well succeeded academic education. Starting from the analysis of the set of such trajectories, it is here sought to assimilate the elements and social experiences that made possible the lengthening of the school formation and, most of all, the impact and the significance of the admission to the academic career, both from the point of view of the social mobility and from the conflicts that arise from that subjective experience, be them in relation to the family or to the social group expectations. The fieldwork of ethnographic character was based on participative observation and on the implementation of detailed interviews, which constituted the basic methodological tools for the development of this research. As for the theoretical discussion here proposed, the works of Pierre Bourdieu, Jean-Claude Passeron, Bernard Lahire, Jailson de Souza e Silva, and Maria da Graça Jacintho Setton, among others, were considered as reference.

Within postgraduate studies, learning is assessed through the examination of modules making up a taught programme and the writing of a dissertation. However, research, nationally and internationally, has shown that although students are generally able to complete the modules making up a postgraduate programme successfully, often difficulty arises in the writing of the dissertation which begins with the conceptualising and writing of the research proposal. It seems that students are considered poorly equipped for postgraduate study, which puts their academic success and completion of their studies in jeopardy, particularly those for whom English is not a first language. Since 1994 with wider access to higher education, a concern has arisen about National figures for postgraduate throughput rates, which on average, are quite low. This current research originated with concern about the unpreparedness of some postgraduate students in a specific master‟s programme in a Faculty of Education at a South African university and about offering them the foundations for the development of their academic research writing, an aspect so vital to achieve success at this level. It seems that programmes which incorporate academic writing are put into place in some honours programmes (see Henning, Gravett & van Rensburg, 2005; Thomson, 2008 for South African programmes) but once the student progresses to master‟s or doctoral level, this does not seem to be the case. The main aim of this study was to obtain insight and understanding of the demands of academic writing at postgraduate level and to develop an effective intervention to assist in the development of proficient academic research writing. Thus, the development of an academic research writing intervention deemed most appropriate for postgraduates in education was designed and developed to assist students during the first stages of their research, that of conceptualising, writing and successfully defending the research proposal. The premise is that during this first year of study, acquiring and developing academic literacies, in order to become competent academic writers would provide the scaffolding1 for the move into the second phase of the research process, that of academic research writing. Design Research was considered most appropriate for this research as it is interventionist, iterative, process-focused, utility-oriented and theory-driven (Van den Akker, Gravemeijer, McKinney & Nieveen, 2006, p.5) and in addition, requires the involvement of practitioners (Plomp, 2013, p. 20). The sample for this study was drawn from a specific master‟s programme in education and consisted of students, the supervision team and the academic research writing practitioner. A mixed methods approach was used where data comprised quantitative data (questionnaire, evaluations and assessments) and qualitative data (personal writing, evaluative writing, interviews and assessments). Findings emerging from the context of this particular master‟s programme point to a set of design principles that inform the development of a model for academic research writing which appears promising for supporting the postgraduate student effectively. It is hoped that the findings emerging from the research will fill a gap in the literature and add to the body of knowledge on postgraduate academic research writing. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lk2014 / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / PhD / Unrestricted