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.

The aim of this four year longitudinal study was to identify the contributory factors that brought about rapid improvement in an especially challenging urban school. A two-phase sequential mixed-method strategy was used to identify underlying statistically derived factors within a post-positivist paradigm In phase I, Principle Components Analysis was used to reduce an initial 90-item questionnaire, administered to 302 students, to identify a three factor multilevel school improvement model that comprised 17 sub-factors. The derived factors were: i. leadership at the whole school level; ii. teaching and learning in the classroom and iii. the development of students and teachers as part of a unified learning community. During phase II, Principle Axis Factoring, Multiple Regression and MANOVA were used to test the hypothesis that 22 school improvement variables, derived from a review of the 3 factors and 17 sub-factors from phase I, did in fact comprise a single coherent school improvement model with 3 levels. A detailed analysis of the perceptions of 104 students, gathered via a 22-item questionnaire, yielded a coherent model based on 4 factors (levels) that were interpreted as: context; leadership; learning & teaching and ethos & relationships. In addition, 22 sub-factors were identified within the model. The statistical findings were triangulated with the literature, external documentary evidence about the school and focus group interviews with a stratified random sample of students, parents and teachers. This thesis proposes a new dynamic multilevel rapid school improvement model together with a new paradigm for schools operating in challenging urban contexts.

As a Physical Education (PE) teacher in both special and mainstream schools over a 15 year period, I witnessed the use of the teaching assistant (or Learning Support Assistant as they were known) for purposes which might be deemed to be related to a medical/welfare/care-giver role. In addition, previous small-scale research into the experiences of secondary-age disabled pupils in mainstream as opposed to special school PE showed that their experiences in an inclusive setting were restricted and that the presence of a TA did little to rectify this situation (Farr, 2005). Recently, the professionalisation of the role of the TA may have created a ‘teacher-in-waiting’ (Neill, 2002) and thus the nature of the TA’s role in PE, and the ability of the specialist teacher to work collaboratively with them is complex. This mixed methods study, inspired by critical ethnography (Thomas, 1993, 2003) incorporated five techniques of enquiry initially based on the work of Giangreco and Broer (2005). In keeping with a constructionist paradigm and integrating what I have termed a distorical theoretical perspective, I counted the interaction between people and the social structure in which they operated as important (Crotty, 1998, Broido, 2002) and drew on dominant participant voices (Lincoln and Guba, 2003). Adopting a theoretical perspective grounded in disability studies, I explored the perceptions of the role of the TA in inclusive PE through qualitative and quantitative data and presented a role definition which combines the humanistic with the instructional (or professional) after Reiter, 2000. I argued whether responsibility for the child’s learning should be devolved through the TA. Do we use the TA to make the teacher’s life easier or to support, collaboratively, the inclusion of the disabled pupil? The impact of this study on professional practice relates to the clarity of role definition for TAs generally and for TAs specifically who work in PE; the collaborative nature (or otherwise) of the TA/teacher relationship and the implications of these findings for the future training and deployment of teaching assistants in PE with a physically disabled pupil in a mainstream secondary school. This study found that TAs in PE share many traits or characteristics with those TAs working in other subject disciplines, or across subjects. However, in PE they were inclined to rate a willingness and ability to ‘join in’ and participate in practical activities alongside pupils above pedagogical knowledge. Training either reinforces an instructional or coaching role, or it focuses on the caring or medical aspects. The reality for the TA in this study however, is that they neither define themselves as one or the other but see themselves as drawing on their own skills, empathy and initiative to facilitate a positive, inclusive environment, with or without the input of the PE teacher. They deem themselves to be both care-givers where appropriate as well as supporters of autonomous participation (as opposed to learning). That the professionalization of their role moves them towards the pedagogical places the TA between a rock and a hard place.

The present study aims to explore Chinese learners' conceptions of learner autonomy from learners' perspective since researchers in language education argue that concepts of learner autonomy may bear cultural imprints and recent college English language education reform in China sets learner autonomy as a prime goal. The study first presents general background and an introduction to the research context. There follows a comprehensive literature review, tracking origins of the concept of learner autonomy in the fields of philosophy, general education, and language education, with distinctive 'Western' and 'Chinese' emphases. This is followed by a review of relevant research on learner autonomy in language education, which consists of research on learner autonomy as a concept, as a means for effective learning, relationships with culture, and methodological issues. To investigate Chinese learners' conceptions of learner autonomy, the study adopted a mixed research approach to collect data: with a qualitative method as the main research method to capture in-depth understandings of learners' conceptions, and a quantitative method as a supplementary one to support qualitative data findings and at the same time reveal further diversity. Moreover, to avoid any imposition of learner autonomy theory pre-occupied in the researcher's mind, the study does not ask directly about learner autonomy to learners but instead examines whether concepts of learner autonomy are embedded in students' accounts of successful English language learning. The study involved 27 interviews and a questionnaire survey of 450 college English language learners among three different Chinese universities. The main findings of the study are as follows: 1) Both 'Western' and 'Chinese' emphases and core elements of learner autonomy are found in Chinese learners' conceptions of successful English language learning; 2) Chinese learners' conceptions of learner autonomy are found to exist in two distinctive domains: learner autonomy for academic success (LAAS) and learner autonomy for communicative competence (LACC). 3) Learners' conceptions of learner autonomy can be influenced by different sources: political, economical, social, cultural, and individual. 4) Learners' conceptions of learner autonomy are dynamic, and subject to various factors such as progress of level of education and individual language learning experiences. Based on the data findings, a reconsideration of concepts of learner autonomy drawn out from students' conceptions of successful English language learning is discussed, which combines 'Western', 'Chinese' emphases and core elements of learner autonomy, associated behaviours, and sources of influences on them. This reconstruction of the concept of learner autonomy in the Chinese context contributes to a better understanding of learner autonomy theory. The research has important implications for policy makers, teachers, parents, and students in understanding learner autonomy from learners' perspectives and for research into concepts of learner autonomy in different contexts.

This thesis presents an evaluative case study of school improvement initiatives in the Seychelles, in a context specific to small island developing states (SIDS). It examines the complexities of borrowing a school improvement model from a larger and more open system (the UK) and the possibilities for adapting it to the local needs. It also considers the significance of the small island and centralised contexts into which the school improvement model was imported. In so doing, the research attempts to determine the factors that may help schools in the SIDS context to develop the internal capacity to improve and to establish the basis for a possible model for school improvement in SIDS. The research is significant because it provides originality as the only study of school improvement in Seychelles secondary schools. It also contributes further insights into the development of the Seychelles School Improvement Programme (SIP); it complements the existing knowledge base on the SIP and adds to the scant literature on school improvement in small states and in centralised systems. The study attempts to capture the multi-faceted nature of the SIP and the multiple forms of people's understanding of it, by examining the most salient aspects of the Programme from the perspectives of different stakeholder groups, through the case study approach. A 40% sample of the country's state secondary schools were studied, using documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews and observation of meetings as the means of data collection. While the SIP has had far reaching implications for school development in the Seychelles system and school improvement strategies such as development planning and school-based professional development have become institutionalised, schools are yet to take ownership of them. It is hoped that the findings of this study may contribute to educators' reflections on effective teaching and learning as well as inform policy and practice.

This thesis presents the findings from exploratory research on the induction of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) in Seychelles. The Seychelles education system has no formal policy or framework for the induction of NQTs. The research aimed at discovering if and how NQTs were inducted and supported during their first years of teaching. The management and implementation of induction were examined and NQTs’ perceptions of their induction experiences were sought, thus bringing to light their socialisation process within their institution. The research is significant as it is the first major study of induction and mentoring in both primary and secondary schools in the country, targetting a cohort of new teachers. It explored the issue of induction and mentoring holistically by using mixed methods. The NQTs’ perceptions of their induction and subsequent mentoring were obtained through a survey questionnaire. In addition, key officials and policy makers in the Ministry of Education were interviewed, to ascertain their intentions and expectations of new teacher induction. Finally, three case studies (two in primary schools and one in a secondary school) were carried out, enabling the researcher to explore the induction and mentoring practices in these schools in depth. The findings revealed that induction in the Seychelles is incidental, lasting for about a week. The head teachers play a pivotal role in welcoming new teachers only and the subject leaders play the dual role of mentors and assessors. The induction process is not successful because school leaders lack the expertise to design, implement and evaluate their induction programmes. Hence, this research leads to a proposal for an induction model with implications for policy development and with a recommendation for a decentralised induction process which will cater for, the socialisation, the improved competence and the continued professional development of novice teachers.

Mathematics education serves a number of purposes within contemporary English society. Many of these concern the learning of knowledge and skills which an individual may need in their everyday life or in a future occupation. Other purposes are predicated instead on the merit afforded to mathematics by society, such that mathematics is used as a benchmark of intelligence or as a gatekeeper to future opportunities in education or employment. This thesis describes a research project which explores how a variety of learners recognise, navigate and make sense of this range of intents, and how the learners’ subsequent understanding informs both their decisions and their personal sense of mathematical purpose. It uses a critical grounded theory methodology to research and report the experiences of four groups of learners: adults returning to the formal study of mathematics after leaving school; undergraduates choosing to leave mathematics behind after completing their degrees; and GCSE students on and beneath the borderline of a watershed C grade. The results first support specific observations concerning each group then go on to reveal a number of resonances and commonalities which establish how purpose is inferred by, and how purpose influences, learners within contemporary mathematics education. Together the findings demonstrate that the place of mathematics as cultural capital plays a dominant role in steering mathematical trajectories. They go on to illustrate how this role and others impact on mathematical identities, and describe how many learners respond defensively to the current layering of discourses surrounding the purposes of mathematics education. In particular this thesis observes the deployment of minimisation and ego defence strategies, including partitioning mathematical learning, deferring its import and critiquing systems within mathematics education, each of which is advantaged by certain aspects of prevailing practice. In conclusion this thesis considers critically how these findings might inform both contemporary debates in mathematics education and current trends in pedagogy. It argues in turn for renewed attention regarding how the purposes of mathematics education are considered, balanced and communicated.