The teaching of progressive patriotism, as an inclusive, open-ended and interpretive project, is needed in state schooling to counter significant threats to modern liberal democracies. This thesis argues that various forms of civic education, with a particular focus on England over recent decades, have not been adequate. It is argued here that these conceptions of civic education have all, in various ways, failed to provide enough vital force to engage the young in our increasingly complex and demanding plural democracies. An important affective dimension has been missing. Recent civic education has also failed to be sufficiently liberal by promoting an exclusive sense of national solidarity. It is argued here that these failures need to be addressed given the levels of informed, critical democratic engagement needed in our complex modern democracies and the real and growing threats they face. For example, our increasingly diverse and unequal liberal societies, operating within an era of globalisation, have spawned a rise in chauvinistic and emotionally potent conceptions of exclusive national identity. What is needed to counter this threat is a conception of patriotic education that adheres to liberal principles whilst developing affective affiliation to the country through a liberal, multicultural, democratic national building project.

The research is a case study of one local authority and the leadership of complex change with a focus on Children’s Services. It has as its focus the leadership of children’s services and within that explores three particular areas of change: that of reducing budgets, the Academisation of schools and the systems change for child protection services. Implications for academic debate include the differences between the public and private sectors in terms of the political nature of local government; high levels of regulation and inspection; the relationship between employed staff and elected members; and the relationship with staff and that of trade union engagement. Although local government can draw from the private sector regarding leadership, the public sector has particular differences and this should be reflected in the approaches taken by senior leaders. The study evidenced the move from the traditional ‘command and control’ of bureaucratic leadership to that of distributed leadership as well as the utilization of shared leadership within the partnership arena. Leaders moved between transactional and transformational roles as the change process demanded. Implications for practice also included systems thinking; dealing with the barriers to change and putting ‘team’ into the senior leadership team.

Student learning approach theories dominate higher education pedagogy resulting in an emphasis upon individual learning. Primarily using Communities of Practice theory this thesis is a phenomenological study investigating social learning processes amongst student and qualified mental health nurses. Study questions were: • How does student social participation support development of learning for student mental health nurses? • How does community participation support the practice of qualified mental health nurses? • What are the implications of this study for pedagogical design? The study involved fourteen semi-structured interviews with student mental health nurses and practicing mental health nurses. Data was analysed using a process of interpretive phenomenological analysis as well as a value creation framework designed by Wenger et al (2010). Findings. • Social interaction is central to learning. • Individual thinking develops in a dynamic interaction with practice whilst practice develops through interaction with the individual. • Social interaction and learning involve identity change. • A range of social situations influences learning. Attempts to understand learning by examining just one aspect (i.e. the classroom) may produce an incomplete picture. • Power dynamics influence learning outcomes. • Individual learning approach theory and situated learning theories are not as opposed as originally assumed.

The intention of this case study is to evaluate the impact of classroom practice on the learning of pupils with statements of special educational needs in a mainstream secondary school and to consider the degree to which specialised teaching is required to enable such pupils to learn. A discussion of educational developments over the past thirty years, particularly with regard to provision for pupils with special educational needs, sets the context and explores the relevance of an increasing emphasis on teaching approaches and strategies as a means of meeting the needs of all pupils, including those with the most complex needs. The developing role of the teaching assistant particularly as it relates to the research is also discussed and evaluated. The study gathers qualitative data from classroom observations, interviews and questionnaires and reviews documentary evidence to examine classroom practice (particularly focusing on the work of teaching assistants) as it affects a cohort of pupils with special educational needs. This evidence is used to examine the extent to which pupils with learning difficulties need distinct educational provision – including distinctive teaching strategies – and whether the use of teaching assistants is an effective means of supporting these pupils’ learning.

This thesis explored the uses of continuous assessment and the experiences of lower attaining pupils in primary and junior secondary schools at Agona and Affutu Districts in Ghana. The study adopted a range of data collection methods including: self-completed questionnaires, semi-structured and focus groups interviews. A systematic sample of 107 primary and junior secondary teachers answered questionnaires and 12 teachers from the cohort were interviewed. Additionally, four focus groups of Primary 6 lower attaining pupils were interviewed. The main findings of the study were: • The majority of the teachers in the study felt strongly that continuous assessment enabled teachers to support lower attaining pupils to improve. • The teachers reported in the interviews that they used the same approach to assess all pupils including lower attainers in classrooms; this caused the pupils to perform poorly and eventually repeat classes. • The teachers identified policy, larger classes and lack of training as barriers to supporting lower attainers to improve. • Lower attaining pupils in the study reportedly became anxious, frustrated, and helpless before and during class tests, and upset when they failed. • They identified difficult tasks, lack of self-regulated learning and supportive environments as barriers to participating in class tests. The findings have implications for policy, practice, research, teacher training and professional development.

The study presented in this thesis was designed with a view to investigating the lived experiences of three young British women spending a Year Abroad (YA) in Italy as a part of their undergraduate degree course. The study was guided by four research questions (see § 1.3). The empirical work was ethnographically-informed and combined interviews, diary entries, photos and photo captions with audio and video recordings. My understanding of the participants’ experiences was mostly built up through thematic and lexical analysis of the interview transcripts. I first focused on the themes which recurred most frequently in the participants’ discourse. I then examined the affective lexis that the participants drew on in expressing emotions and, drawing on the insights occurred from this aspect of the data, I built an account of their perceptions of and reactions to cultural difference. In addition, I looked into the specific ways in which they negotiated and reconfigured their identities as second language learners during the experience abroad. This study offers a new lens on the YA experience and demonstrates the value of cross-disciplinary research, which takes account of emotions in the negotiation of second language learner identities and in the handling of intercultural encounters

This longitudinal research study looks into the attitudes and current practices of Taiwanese teachers in supplementary schools (buxibans) toward professional development. Using the method of triangulation, data from two case studies, survey questionnaire (2004 and 2008), and electronic discourse were gathered and analyzed. A five-point likert scale was used to measure the teachers’ attitudes, Cronbach alpha to measure reliability, Chi-square to test the strength of the correlations between variables, and T-Tests to compare the responses from surveys 1 and 2. An online teacher professional development (oTPD) framework, that integrated the principles of cognitive apprenticeship and informal mentoring in online environments, was used to facilitate 1) the delivery of oTPD over a period of time, 2) the transfer and construction of teacher knowledge and skills that would have direct implications on teachers’ practice and on students’ learning, and 3) the social interaction and collaborative efforts of international teacher-experts (invited mentors) in the oTPD process. Despite some challenges faced during the implementation of new learning activities and/or learning materials adapted from their participation in the oTPD, the results show that teachers who took part in this study benefitted from oTPD through the construction of new knowledge and skills and a positive engagement in professional development.

The aim of the current study was to investigate the impact of parental constructs of school upon their children’s constructs of school and their emotionally based school refusing (EBSR) behaviour. The literature review explores the range of definitions surrounding EBSR, examines the existing research conducted to date and explores the lack of research around parental constructs and the potential role parental constructs may have upon EBSR. Using a Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) (Kelly, 1955) methodology called the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT), 5 parents and their children’s (who present with EBSR) constructs were elicited around school and school related elements. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data collected from the RGT interviews and also the shared themes between the constructs elicited from the parents and children and also between the parent-child dyads. In addition, a chi-square methodology was used to examine whether any of the parent-child repertory grids could be identified as being significantly similar. The results are discussed in relation to PCP and the impact the findings may have upon interventions for the child and their family and also the practice of professionals around the family. Methodological challenges with the study are examined and opportunities for future studies are illustrated.

This study explores how science and history trainee teachers, who have different amounts of higher education in science, respond to news reports about science. In semi-structured interviews, using researcher and reader selected articles, readers were asked about the likelihood of veracity of knowledge claims and also their reactions to what they read. The thesis reports a range of heuristics which served to increase, or decrease, epistemic distance and so make the reader more or less willing to accept scientific claims as true. The quality of participants’ responses to news stories was also examined by using concepts maps to identify the extent to which ideas were interconnected. Concept maps were found to have a networked structures for both groups of participants, however, there was limited evidence for participant use of ‘ideas about interconnectedness’, thus there was limited evidence of epistemic thinking. The veracity of news stories is largely indeterminate for the non-expert reader given the limited information contained in the story and so readers’ multiple understandings are emphasised. Overall, there was not much difference between the two groups of readers.

Previous research has highlighted that Greek-Cypriot teachers need to be offered a solid programme to support their practices with regard to SEBD children, and to provide support to SEBD children in order to meet their educational needs. This study examines the effect of the SEAL programme on children with SEBD in a mainstream Greek-Cypriot primary school in terms of changing their behaviour. Five teachers were interviewed in the researcher’s attempt to identify the way that teachers understand the concept of SEBD, the kinds of SEBD behaviours observed, and the provision made available by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Cyprus (MOEC) and by the school under consideration to support the teachers’ practices. A seminar was given to raise awareness of the concept and to provide information on the SEAL programme to the teachers. Finally, a series of observations took place, before during and after the implementation of the programme with SEBD children (Years 1, 2, 3) in order to address changes in their behaviour. This study highlights different challenges that the teachers appear to come across while trying to educate SEBD children, and a number of areas that need to be improved within the Greek- Cypriot education system to improve practices with regard to SEBD children. Results also indicate the improvements in teaching practices and SEBD children’s behaviour after the implementation of the SEAL programme. Further research into strategies that could be used by teachers, and changes in the education system, are called for.