This thesis analyses the influence of the Hypnotherapy National Occupational Standards (H.NOS) on teaching and learning, and professionalism, amongst four groups: hypnosis and hypnotherapy practitioners, researchers, educators and professional organisations. H.NOS describe effective performance of a role, in terms of the knowledge, understanding and actions. The hypnotherapy profession has recently encountered voluntary regulation with the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council. Practitioners whose training meets H.NOS are eligible for registration. In response to government initiatives, there is a progression towards professionalism of hypnotherapy, yet wide-spread review of the literature considered the lack of agreed definitions for hypnotherapy and hypnosis, despite a long history and diverse applications. There is little current research investigating any potential influence of the H.NOS, despite implications for current and future practice. Online quantitative questionnaires completed over a nine-month period assessed awareness of H.NOS and the consultation process, together with their influence on teaching and learning, professional bodies, competence and professionalism. Developed for this study and a unique contribution, the T.A.P. model (Thought, Action, Professionalism), was employed in the questionnaires, to enable respondents to classify their past training in relation to the model, where the H.NOS fits into the model, and where qualifications for practitioners and researchers would be located. Exploration and inferential analysis with chi-square tests and textual analysis of questionnaire comment boxes, indicated positive outcomes for both research questions regarding the influence of the H.NOS on teaching and learning, and the influence of H.NOS on professionalism. Original contributions to knowledge and practice comprise the T.A.P. model; the review of a diverse range of literature, and the unique survey and resulting data analysis, together with a range of planned and potential disseminations. Future directions for research include greater research following raising of H.NOS awareness, together with deeper exploration of the potential of the T.A.P. model and surveying practitioners about engagement in research. Recommendations are for an increase in awareness of H.NOS, more access for practitioners to research, and for an externally verified Hypnotherapy National Vocational Qualification for all using hypnosis, undertaken prior to specialisation.

Teachers are entering deputy headship and then deciding not to become headteachers. This is a double problem for the profession. Firstly, potential headteachers are being lost to that role, and secondly, career deputies block the route to headship and prevent ambitious deputies from getting that essential management experience that will effectively prepare them for headship. In Bromley, where this study was carried out, some deputies are getting good advice and support from their headteachers, are given real leadership development opportunities and are going on to become effective headteachers. However, some deputies are given low grade tasks and do not receive the support and encouragement from their headteachers that will lead them towards headship. Finally, there are some deputies who, although in a supportive environment, have decided that headship is not for them. Initially, a short survey of all primary schools in Bromley was conducted to gain an overall picture of deputy headship in Bromley. All schools were contacted to find out whether the deputy at the school was interested in becoming a headteacher at some stage in the future. During a period of twelve weeks, eleven primary headteachers were interviewed together with a senior Local Authority adviser. The aim of the work was to gain a picture of the state of deputy headship in one London Borough and establish what experiences and opportunities were given to deputy headteacher to prepare them for headship. This inquiry found that the majority of deputies in Bromley did not want to be headteachers and that their preparation experiences differs greatly from school to school. The study suggests that deputies should be given the opportunities and experiences that will prepare them for headship. Information from the literature review, the survey and interviews are analysed to construct a model for effective preparation for headship and to make recommendations for improved practice.

This study examines the balance of HEI-school responsibilities for secondary PGCE courses, and extends previous work in this dimension of partnership by moving beyond the perspective of HEI course managers through content analysis of HEI course documentation and interviews with HEI course leaders. The views of mentor, school ITT co-ordinator, university tutor, and student participants in these courses were also examined, through a questionnaire survey across ten HEI-school partnerships. More specifically, the aim has been to examine the balance of HEI-school responsibility for: course planning and organisation; the assessment of students' teaching; and the assessment of students' work other than teaching. Here, as in other aspects of the study, the experience of participants has been analysed at the level of the overall course, and from the perspective of each of the participant roles. A second, more extensive, aim of the study has been to establish the nature of these courses, particularly within a framework of what may be ailed 'technical', 'interpretive', and 'critical' conceptions of teaching This model has also been extended to the importance placed upon the foci of students' reflection, and other aspects of the nature of teachers', tutors' and students' work on PGCE courses. The implications of these course characteristics in terms of the forms of teacher professionalism associated with them provides a complementary theme which runs through the study. The latter part of this thesis includes a survey of four School Centred Initial Teacher Training Schemes. Differences between data from the HEI documentation, and the perspectives of HEI course leaders, and the teacher, tutor, and student participants have been examined. The association between the balance of HEI-school responsibilities and the nature of courses was also examined, with particular reference to the evident association of shared HEI-school course responsibilities with course experiences, which may support the development of extended forms of professionalism.

The assumptions underpinning this study are that in order to understand the real use of technology in teaching it is necessary to examine the everyday world of the university (Eisner & Peshkin, 1990, p. 99) and then to ‘tell it as it is’. The enquiry process is approached from a disciplinary context by capturing the views and actual practice of technology use in teaching of thirteen academics from different disciplinary fields within one university. A case study methodology framed the design of the study, requiring the collection of data from a variety of sources in order to describe the university which defined the study. My intention was to answer the following question: How is the use of technology shaped by the everyday teaching practice of academics within a university? The aim of the study therefore was to explore the use of technology by examining the academic’s views about how technology affected the way that they understood teaching. A feature of contemporary research into technology and teaching is an emphasis on small, context specific case studies. These often separate teaching and learning from other aspects of cultural practice, such as disciplinary and other institutional influences. In this study Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic discourse and his categories of recognition and realisation, along with the concepts of classification and framing provided a detailed coding structure as a way of analysing the resulting interview data. Analysis of practical examples of technology use in teaching revealed that academics are influenced by ideological conceptions of epistemic and social relations that are inherent within their own values and beliefs about their own roles and those of students. The coding structure revealed a variety of pedagogic practice linked to vertical (i.e complex) language use or horizontal (i.e everyday) language use. The detailed case studies of technology use by the individual academics gave rise to four different categories of teaching - knowledge and knower modes of teaching, with a vocational or non-vocational focus. This thesis contributes to professional knowledge in this field because of the use of a social theory which highlights the complex relationship between technology and pedagogic discourse and the institutional and disciplinary forces that shape the relationship.

This is a single case study of undergraduate business curriculum design and pedagogic practice in a post-1992 university business school (UBS). The central aim of the research was to investigate the factors that combined to influence the design and enactment of the BA Business Studies and BA Entrepreneurship and Innovation programmes. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with academics from the department of Systems and Management and a documentary review of programme texts. The data were analysed within an analytical framework which brings together Bhaskar's critical realism, Fairclough's critical discourse analysis and Bernstein's theory of the pedagogic device. This thesis contends that the undergraduate curriculum in UBS has become recontextualised as a business project which frames knowledge as a commodity for the purposes of income generation, pedagogy as a rational, 'quality-assured' system for its 'delivery' and academics as the 'deliverers'. The pedagogic codes which underpin this model legitimise knowledge as narrow projections of business practices and confine didactics to behaviourist, sometimes incoherent, approaches to knowledge generation predicated on 'employability' and 'transferable skills'.

This research investigates whether work-based learning facilitates the development of practical skills and theoretical insights by early years practitioners. Foundation degrees symbolise both an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunity relates to creating a new vocational qualification which has work-based learning central to its delivery, in attempting to meet the demands of a skilled workforce necessitated by a shifting economy. The challenge is to form workable and sustainable partnerships with employers, Higher Educational Institutes and Further Education Colleges in developing an integrated approach to work-based learning. This thesis reviews the economic arguments and motivations that have led to the establishment of Foundation degrees and despite qualification inflation and continuing budgetary constraints; they are viewed optimistically through the perceptions of employers, students and policy makers. This research uses a mixed method approach involving three Further Education Colleges, learners and employers drawing on data gathered from questionnaires and interviews to examine the role of the Early Years Sector Endorsed Foundation Degree with particular emphasis on the role of employers in facilitating work-based learning and work based assessments. The impact of factors such as pastoral support and the inclusion of study skills in building self-confidence and improving academic writing skills amongst students especially those who have taken a break from education or those who have had negative experiences at school are highlighted. This research analyses the issues faced by employers, learners and Further Education Colleges, in accommodating work-based learning and considers whether the Government needs to reassess the demands placed on the partnerships and reconsider a more supportive package in order to make it a viable and successful qualification.

This thesis examines the rationale and debate of the ‘Fresh Start’ schools policy introduced by the New Labour government in 1997 as a vehicle for improvement in schools that historically had been classified as failing. Underpinning the policy is the assumption that Fresh Start can act as a catalytic agent of positive change to performance, school cultures and the school community. The literature review examines school improvement in schools with challenging circumstances (where many Fresh Start schools are based) and includes the theoretical framework underpinning school improvement. It examines the recent political context that has driven school improvement, the role of inspection in identifying failing schools, the development of Fresh Start policy and alternative routes available to schools failing their OFSTED inspection. The case study traces the transformation process and outlines the profile of the first Fresh Start Primary School in England with a population of 40% Travellers on the school roll. It includes an early evaluation of a number of initiatives associated with catalytic change and school improvement that have been employed in the case study school, in other Fresh Start Primary Schools in England and in socio-economically disadvantaged schools around the world. It looks particularly at the impact of breakfast clubs, a school-wide literacy scheme, ‘Success for All’, and community education based in the school. The impact of these initiatives is considered within the context of the school, the school community and government policy. The research findings conclude that Fresh Start together with the initiatives have been effective strategies for improvement in the case study school, and may provide a good model for other schools in similar circumstances.

This thesis has investigated the notion that lecturing has similarities to acting and in doing so has empirically tested the work of Tauber and Mester (1994). Their model proposes that if teachers use the elements of acting, animated voice and body, space, humour, suspense and surprise, props and role play, within a class, they will promote student interest, attention and positive attitudes towards learning. This study aims to investigate this model against the backdrop of higher education in one School of Health and Social Care in the United Kingdom. Results from this two-phase mixed method study with 81 lecturers and 62 students, suggested that students in a lecture could identify if the lecturer was enthusiastic, confident or not confident via the verbal and non-verbal cues he/she presented. It was also clear the lecturers were not seen to be credible unless they were able to appear knowledgeable about their subject area and had the skills to communicate that knowledge when delivering a lecture. Both lecturer and students showed high levels of agreement with Tauber and Mester’s (1994) model suggesting that elements of acting do enhance both the lecturer’s ability to deliver a lecture in a confident manner and the effectiveness of the lecturer. Conclusions indicated that these lecturers assumed a persona when lecturing, which was different from that displayed in other parts of their professional life. This occurred, particularly, but not exclusively, when they were nervous. The data concluded that these lecturers went through a process of assuming and maintaining this persona before and during a lecture using the elements of acting proposed by Tauber and Mester (1994). This thesis offers a development of Tauber and Mester’s (1994) work that integrates this process of persona adoption into the model’s elements of acting.

This thesis presents findings from a study of first tier managers (FTMs) in Further Education colleges, a role that has been largely neglected by the extant literature. The study investigated the role in four general FE colleges and adopted a case study approach, employing semi-structured interviews as the main research method. The findings suggest that the FTM role is extremely diverse and heterogeneous, elastic and poorly understood. Yet FTMs themselves enjoyed a high degree of autonomy in how they performed their roles. Within colleges, FTMs worked within a trialectic of students, team and organisation and could be identified in one of four positions defined here in terms of metaphors of faith: for fundamentalists, students were the priority; priests put their teams first; converts prioritised the organisation; martyrs attempted to meet the demands of all three elements of the trialectic and suffered the highest degree of home invasion by work. Within the resistant context of FE, FTMs found themselves the audience for a variety of forms of routine resistance by lecturers, from gossip and rumours to making out and withholding enthusiasm. However, as they were rarely the target of resistance, a number of FTMs colluded with their teams or turned a blind eye in the hope of continued cooperation; few were willing to challenge resistance. FTMs were also highly active in their own resistance, expressing principled dissent overtly to senior managers as well as manipulating data and even fiddling paperwork. Yet while change management within colleges appeared generally poor, resistance was not to change but to managerialism, surveillance and the culture of performativity. Despite the challenges of the role – the stress, the immediate gratification needs of senior managers and the fire-fighting – FTMs were found to be highly committed and highly motivated. Where the stress became too much, the articipants employed a range of coping strategies including non-compliant coping, strategies intended to resist stressors rather than manage them. Finally, a new approach to job design with FE is suggested, one that involves idiosyncratic deals, a process of negotiating roles that potentially meets the needs of both the organisation and the employee.

This study is about the experience of teaching adult literacy in a further education college under the auspices of the Adult Literacy Core Curriculum (ALCC) between the years 2002 to 2005. A universal description was derived from the perspectives of five college lecturers, called co-researchers, who volunteered a vivid description of their individual experience of teaching adult literacy in this context. These descriptions were reduced, in terms of volume, and the resulting data created a single universal description of the teaching experience. The modified phenomenological reduction and analysis process used was based on an approach created by Moustakas (1994) to answer the fundamental research question: 'What -was it like for you?' In answering this question, this study presents the crux of what constitutes the qualities or nature of the professional experience, and brings to the fore, the meaning contained within it. This study identified that the qualities within teaching in further education are very much under researched and that rarer still is research from a phenomenological perspective about teaching under the auspices of the ALCC. This study sought to fill this gap where it found that the introduction of the ALCC brought with it a complexity in its defining of adult literacy as a set of functional skills within a socio-economic context, and that its use galvanized the humanism of co-researchers and their sense of moral obligation. It further found that the ALCC became what unified the co-researchers professionally and instigated a teaching culture in which some consideration was given to the social implications of what they taught. Teaching under the auspices of the ALCC thus became the platform of possibility from which institutions and central government can nurture the culture's need for support, and from which teachers themselves can question their role.