Professionalism can be a complex concept to define (McLachlan et al. 2002; Finn et al. 2009). Within nursing, the majority of studies have explored professionalism within the clinical environment, and very few examine how student nurses construct their talk regarding professionalism while they study at university, highlighting this as a distinct gap in the knowledge and understanding. The aim of this study was to uncover the discourses used by student nurses and lecturers, and offer insight into the influences on student professional language from within and outside of the nursing profession and offer an appreciation of the processes of language (discourse) adoption. The theoretical position adopted was social constructionism, where it is assumed we jointly construct our world on shared assumptions and that language is central to this process (Potter and Wetherell 2009). The methodological approach employed was Discourse and Social Psychology (DASP) (Potter and Wetherell 1987). Seventeen (17) interviews were conducted. Eight (8) of which were one-off interviews with lecturers. Seven (7) students from adult, child and mental health nursing were interviewed multiple times over the three years of their nursing programme. FIGURE 1 presents an overview of the research process. The analysis suggested that participants drew upon a number of interpretative repertoires and memes. These led to the identification of discursive threads, which were proposed as entangled within discursive knots, serving to position students and lecturers within a dynamic process of professional discourse development. The theoretical perspectives of Foucault, Goffman, Bourdieu and Harre informed the interpretation of the talk. Initially, students were positioned in a place of high surveillance through authoritative language used by lecturers. This position informed the discursive know of 'separation' which serves to maintain student nurses as 'different' and ‘special’, and to distance them from other university students. Clinical practice experience was seen as influencing students’ talk when back in University, emphasising differences. The discursive knot of 'maintaining quality and credibility' questions the 'real' place of nursing and the credibility of lecturers, and brings about a positioning of students that influences agency. The final discursive know of 'permission' is located in the talk of lecturers and final-year student nurses only. This knot illustrates students adopting the discourses of the registered nurse, including the surveillance talk used by lecturers to first-year students. This suggests that final-year students 'become' enforcers and protectors of 'difference'. This study highlights the intricacies and complexities of the 'professionalism discourses' woven into the talk of lecturers and nursing students, and their spread via both the overt and hidden curricula. Indeed, the adoption of the 'permission' discourse by third-year students suggests the perpetuation of a discourse via a socialisation process. The discursive 'knots' seem to function to instill, maintain and perpetuate wider discourses. The 'separation' and 'permission' knots may be viewed as serving to 'other' to maintain the 'specialness' of the profession, while the 'maintaining quality and credibility' knot may indicate tensions related to academic and clinical professional sub-groups and sites of knowledge development.

The current study sets out to investigate the level of Pakistani university students’ willingness to communicate (WTC) in English and what affects users’ willingness in a setting where English has been taught, learnt, and used as a foreign language. Pakistan is a linguistically complex society where ethnic diversity and multiple educational systems increasingly makes English language teaching (ELT) daunting and challenging. This thesis, therefore, highlights particularly the linguistic issues users of English face while perceiving their willingness to communicate in English in their day-to-day affairs. I argue that linguists and policy makers, in Pakistan, have largely neglected or failed to address the issues related to users of English ability to communicate in English. Moreover, I argue that studying these users’ willingness to communicate in English has also been essential in a sense to comprehend that how such users perceive their level of willingness to communicate under various conversational contexts with different types of interlocutors. The present study was conducted at Shah Abdul Latif University (SALU), Khairpur, Pakistan. Khairpur is one of the oldest cities of Pakistan with its rich cultural heritage and political history. However, the educational standard is still in its early stages of development due to the rural location and lack of interest from the government. Using mixed-method research measures, the current study recruited N=350 research participants for self-administered questionnaires and N=15 for semi-structured interviews. The findings of the present study suggested that users of English from SALU did not have a high level of WTC and their WTC was affected by a host of factors such as topic, task type, interlocutors, interactional contexts, desire to get good grades, gender, lack of self-confidence and communication anxiety, and some of the background variables. Evidence from self-report questionnaires and semi-structured interviews indicated that familiarity with interlocutors and knowledge of the interactional contexts encouraged L2 learners to be more willing to communicate. Results of the study further revealed that the influence of the combination of variables differed between individuals and interrelationship could be too complex to be predicted. At the end, acknowledging the limitations of the current study, recommendations for future research have been proposed along with possible pedagogical implications.

This submission for a PhD by publication is situated in the discipline of Applied Linguistics, focusing specifically on the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) and the relationship between theoretical and disciplinary knowledge on the one hand, and English language teachers’ understandings of such knowledge and its relevance for their own situated pedagogic practice on the other. The submitted work harnesses practitioner experiences in relation to theoretical knowledge and challenges traditional tenets of ELT thought and practice, particularly around the key pedagogic issue of own-language use in the classroom. My publications make an original contribution to the field of ELT from an Applied Linguistics perspective by: •framing a problem-posing approach to professional practice and disciplinary knowledge based on the tenet that practitioner understanding depends on teachers’ own sense of plausibility (publications b, d, and e) •contributing to the development of practitioner understanding of the theory-practice interface in ELT, by: illuminating research and research dilemmas in practice (publication a); exploring the relationship between disciplinary knowledge and local pedagogic practice (publications b, d, and e); and mapping and, where appropriate, challenging traditional assumptions underpinning ELT, particularly concerning own-language use in the classroom (c, d and e). •developing disciplinary knowledge through the collection and analysis of primary data drawn from teachers’ understanding of their own practices and pedagogic contexts (publications a, d, e) or through the shaping of academic and professional discourse through the synthesis of sources (b and c). Consequently, my publications have resulted in a range of impacts and practical applications in the field of ELT across a variety of contexts around the world, in: classroom pedagogy, materials and resource development, curriculum design, and CPD and teacher training/education programmes. Thus, the work put forward in this submission lies on the boundaries of applied linguistic theory and ELT practice, mediating disciplinary knowledge in light of real world experiences, perspectives and problems.

This thesis explores the nature of the self and how the various self-perception constructs – self-esteem, self-concept, and self-efficacy – contribute to academic functioning. The research was undertaken in three stages. The first was designed to examine how the self is represented. Bandura’s Multidimensional Scales of Perceived Self-Efficacy (1990) and Harter’s Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents (1988) were utilised to examine the extent to which self-efficacy and competency-related elements of the self-concept are independent constructs. Factor analysis of data provided by secondary school students revealed that when measured using domain-specific measures such as these, self-efficacy and competency self-concept do not represent totally separate, distinct aspects of the self. The second stage was designed to examine how representations of the self relate to academic performance, intrinsic motivation, and occupational and educational aspirations. Taking account of past academic performance and other factors that might impact on the self-perception–academic outcome relationship, self-efficacy was shown to be a better predictor of these outcomes than either of the other two self constructs. Self-esteem was the least predictive. These findings suggest that self-efficacy and self-concept, but not selfesteem, are important for the development of academic functioning. The third stage of this research was designed to examine whether interventions can have a positive effect on how the self is represented, and if so, whether this also impacts on academic functioning. This thesis used a widely-used and Government-supported intervention programme to explore this issue in a real-world context. There were positive effects on some aspects of self-concept but not on any other variables. These effects were not associated with any changes in the academic outcomes. The reasons why this intervention did not have a wider impact are explored, and the practical and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed. This research provides a clearer understanding about where educators and education policy-makers should focus their efforts if the aim is to enhance self-related perceptions in school.

Participation has been defined as a ‘way of working’ rather than an event or a project, and literature demonstrates that the process of participating is as important as the impact on services. Many organisations have developed standards advising on the best ways to engage young people in sharing their voices. There is however, limited evidence revealing the impact of participation on services and on those young people who chose to take part. Where evidence does exist it tends to examine the views and report the outcomes of young people engaged in mainstream services. This study therefore aims to explore the impacts of participation on ‘marginalised’ young people and the services that affect them. The thesis is underpinned by a hermeneutic interpretive phenomenological approach and reveals how young people marginalised by society and circumstance can share their voices within the context of their very complex lives. The narrative method enables the capture of the young people’s histories and experiences of voice sharing. Key workers’ narratives additionally help describe the complexity of the young people’s lives and the constraining and enabling factors challenging successful participation. The research found that whilst participation is important in developing and improving services, young people appear to develop new skills, build confidence and self esteem, raise their aspirations and role model key workers’ positive attributes. Young people experience ‘therapeutic’ effects associated with voice sharing and for key workers the research experience was found to be beneficial and salutary. To facilitate and sustain meaningful, fulfilling and positive experiences a new model of participation generated from the data is presented.

No description available.

As part of a high quality nursing student experience within Higher Education there is a need to access the voice of the student. By listening to the students, greater clarity and understanding from the students' perspective is proposed. The focus of this research is within the first year of an undergraduate nursing programme. This thesis gives insight into the experiences and perceptions of undergraduate nursing students' transition into Higher Education and professional transformation, within the first year of a three year proframme. In addition, the research sought to illuminate the participants' personal learning journeys and experiences. There is a dearth of literature addressing various aspects of the first year student experience and minimal literature which represents the student voice. The first year experience is a complex and multifaceted area of study. This complexity is related to the Higher Education organisational processes that are required to enable the student to succeed and the amount of personal investment by each student who enters programmes of learning within a university setting. It has been identified that the first year is the most critical to ensuring that students engage with programmes of learning and achieve both academically and professionally (Trotter and Roberts 2006). To develop insight into the learner's journey a theoretical framework is constructed from within an interpretive paradigm. Hermeneutic phenomenology was selected as a suitable methodology for this research, informed by the work of Max van Manen (1990). The use of hermeneutic phenomenology enable the exploration of participants' experiences. The participants in this research were representative of a typical nursing cohort's profile and, therefore, provided the ideal means of investigating the student nurse experience within the first year. Ten student nurses volunteered to participate in this research and data was collected over a period of one year by use of repeated semi-structured interviews and collection of critical incidents using digital voice recorders. Data was analysed using phenomenological and hermeneutic strategies involving in-depth, iterative reading and interpretation to identify themes in the data. Findings from this research identify that the students have developed skills to survive but there was considerable variation in the student experience which impacted on their motivaton and behaviour. A key finding was the ability of students to develop their own skills of coping to deal with the demands of academic life and those of the practice settings. The skills of self-reliance and self efficacy are evident in the findings and are explored in relation to professional transformation.

The rising demand of teamwork during Design for Social Innovation (DfSI) projects has created a need for professional development to be able to work cordially within teams. Traditionally, reflective practices have been considered most effective for the development of professional practice in the field of Design. However, enactive cognitive science points to the practice of Awareness-based Meditative Techniques (AbMT) as an alternate way for such development. Such AbMTs have been extensively studied by different disciplines. This research borrows from: • Social science and positive psychology perspectives, where the act of becoming aware has been associated with an inner value system that guides behaviour. Theoretical perspective from many authors from various backgrounds in AbMT research have been reviewed to propose a model of inner values which could affect teamwork during DfSI project as well as be influenced positively by the practice of AbMT intervention. • A physiological perspective, to measure Heart Rate Variability (HRV) as an indicator of the physical stress which is known to e reduced by AbMT due to an improve ability to deal with such stress. • A psychological perspective, using the Mindful attention and awareness scale (MAAS) questionnaire for quantitative research on the practice of AbMT intervention by participants. Taking a post-positivist stance, this research focuses on creating a depth of information utilising these inter-disciplinary methods. Therefore, three teams working on three similar social innovation projects have been studied for eight weeks- one team populated with all meditators, another with all non-meditators and a third team with both. Analysis of reflections by team members on their own teamwork led to conclusion that- AbMT intervention could lead to improved teamwork during a DfSI project, especially with regard to the responsibilities perceived as the leadership of the team. This is because the meditators in this research reflected that, because of AbMT intervention they could • share responsibilities which they perceived as pertaining to leadership of their team not only with other members of their team but also with the wider community of stakeholders, • prioritise reflective action over unproductive debates for the better functioning of the team rather than satisfaction of own ego and • change their perception from ‘goal oriented’ to ‘people oriented’ approach. Further it was observed that, teams with meditators could use ‘framing’ and ‘reflecting’ activities to work in multi-disciplinary setting of their team and utilise strength of knowledge of their team. It was also observed that teams with meditators got overly focused on social innovation aspects while working with the community of stakeholders and users, and the team temporarily lost focus of financial viability until the client (sponsor) helped the team to regain their focus. However, the relationship between such findings and the effect of AbMT intervention could not be conclusively asserted, though the intervention is one of the key influences on the teams during their DfSI projects. Thus, the key contributions to knowledge from this research are: the model of inner values, the development of the inter-disciplinary hybrid research methodology and evidence of the positive influences that AbMT intervention can have on the teamwork during DfSI projects.

Much research has been done into the knowledge, skills and attributes that are important to legal practice; furthermore, many bodies have released reports on what they would like graduates to start practice with. As a result, clinical legal education has grown in popularity, with the use of live client clinics to educate future lawyers. However, little empirical research has been done into whether they work as educators intend, and develop the necessary knowledge, skills and attributes needed to start practice. This research investigated whether live client clinics develop students and which knowledge, skills and attributes are important to practice. This study used Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory as its conceptual framework, influential to clinical legal education. The study used the Diamond16, a visual method, as its main data collection tool and semistructured group interviews. Data was collected from a sample of students, tutors and lawyers, in four live client clinics, across three countries and two law firms. This study followed five firms in Northumbria’s SLO throughout the academic year, collecting comparative data from the other participants. Results show the live client clinics can develop certain knowledge, skills and attributes in law students, but we cannot create “practice ready” graduates. Some of the learning in the student law office appeared to be because of their tutor’s influence rather than experience. Lastly, the knowledge, skills and attributes which were perceived to be important to practice are presented, drawing on the distinction between “hard” and “soft” skills. This research produced important results for legal educator wishing to justify the establishment or sustainability of a clinic and for those within policy who are implementing changes to legal education and qualification.

In recent years, there has been growing interest towards integrating industry into the teaching and learning processes. This is due to many factors including increased concerns about the mismatch between the skills and abilities of the talent pool, strengthening partnership and improving quality of engineering education. Thus, greater emphasis on the teaching and learning processes to enhance the students’ learning experience leads to the university-industry partnership to the forefront interest of the university. On the other hand, exclusion of industry’s engagement in the teaching and learning processes have been identified as the main source of chronic criticism on the higher engineering education segment in recent years. This study demonstrates a research model that hypothesised the influence of teaching and learning domains on the university-industry partnership towards enhancing the learning experience of the engineering students. Using the structural equation modelling (SEM), the hypothesis was tested on the primary data collected from 212 communities of the industry. Furthermore, the study investigated the preference of industry on the type of linkages to foster university-industry partnership using analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The results revealed that nine out of the thirteen hypotheses had significant associations including six direct paths and three indirect effects in the model. The findings indicated the need for industry-university partnership in three main constructs including cooperation in education, the mobility of people and intellectual enhancement. Moreover, internship programme was the important linkage in achieving the overall university-industry partnerships goals, followed by the staff training programme, academic development, consultancy work, student learning activity and publication activity. In summary, the study demonstrates that teaching and learning relevance could be enhanced through optimizing industry’s enrichment activities into the learning process, improving the measures for accreditation in narrowing the gap between theory and practice and proactively improving the quality of teaching by exploring the staff training programmes.