The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitudes of teachers towards inclusive education in Jordanian ‘ordinary’ schools. The first phase of the project reports questionnaire data from 367 teachers. Attitudes are examined in terms of three components: their beliefs and knowledge, feelings and behaviour. The results of the questionnaire revealed that ordinary teachers in Jordan hold relatively neutral views towards inclusive education. Several variables are found which relate to teachers’ attitudes; including training, experience of inclusive education and the type of disability. The qualitative phase of the project involves a series of semi-structured interviews with nineteen teachers to explore their understanding, concerns and suggestions for improvement, regarding inclusive education. Findings suggest that although teachers are not against inclusion per se, they express concerns about implementation. Most teachers perceive they are unprepared and appear to need to be told ‘how to be’ inclusive. A number of recommendations are made, these include: promoting a more positive attitude towards inclusion amongst the teaching profession, improving pre- and- in service training and support, and extending the role of resource rooms as provision for children with SEN.

The purpose of this study is to gain an in-depth understanding of the perceptions of school counsellors in Saudi Arabia with regard to the provision of counselling for students with special educational needs (SEN) and to determine the contribution of counsellors to the development of such students in the context of mainstream secondary boys’ schools in Saudi Arabia. Accordingly, the study employs a mixed-methods approach to explore the perceptions of school counsellors in the country. Quantitative insights are obtained from 138 counsellors working in secondary boys’ schools using a questionnaire designed for the study. Subsequently, qualitative insights are obtained from 12 counsellors who are currently working with students with SEN and 12 counsellors who have never worked with students with SEN using semi-structured interviews. The quantitative data is statistically analysed, whereas the qualitative data is analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Overall, it is found that the qualitative and quantitative findings support each other and indicate that the provision of school counselling in Saudi Arabia for students with SEN requires attention. Salient findings include the existence of systemic issues such as the absence of minimum standards for counsellor recruitment, irregular recruitment practices, and inadequate dissemination of information associated with the purpose, role and function of school counsellors. Moreover, it is found that inadequate training provision and supervision and support mechanisms for counsellors exist, along with a lack of collaboration between departments of the Ministry of Education. Additionally, the findings indicate that the sociocultural environment of Saudi Arabia prohibitively influences the provision of school counselling services, in general, as the Islamic collectivist values with regard to family, hierarchy, secrecy, shame and stigma, are revealed to hinder the provision of counselling in schools. Moreover, counsellors find their work in the schools hampered by their involvement in non-counselling tasks, negative perceptions with regard to the usefulness of their role, lack of awareness about the needs of students with SEN. It is evident that the counselling profession in Saudi Arabia is yet to obtain full professional recognition and status as the country does not have a statutory body to provide support and guidance regarding the professional and ethical practice of counsellors, and to engage with the Ministry on behalf of counsellors. The findings of the study contribute to understanding the current status of the provision of school counselling services to students with SEN in boys’ secondary schools in Saudi Arabia. Suggestions based on the study’s findings are offered to the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia, to counsellors working with children with SEN, and to the administration and personnel in schools. Suggestions for future research are also discussed.

This study explores the meaning of transnational identity of Chinese student returnees from the UK. The study is set in the context of transnationalism in the new era of globalisation. The scientific importance of this research lies in that it seeks to understand transnational identity in student returnees'experiences under the theory of transnationalism. It fills the research gap by providing a new theoretical perspective and methodological approach to identity. Under transnationalism, the study not only explores identity changes in a particular country and culture, but investigates it in the changing and overlapping countries and cultures, especially in China and the UK. To provide a more nuanced description of student returnees’ identity changes, qualitative methodology is adopted. Each student returnee is interviewed three times based on three different settings: first, based on their personal experiences in the UK; second, based on their personal experiences in China; the final round is the conclusion for the first two rounds. Altogether, 48 interviews were completed and analysed. Data based on the three rounds of interviews (two main settings) are organised into two finding chapters. The study finds that transnational identity is understood as single, composing several dimensions. For this study in particular, student returnees'transnational identity can be explained by four major dimensions: the capacity to build connections between cultures, diaspora consciousness, diaspora values and attitudes, and expansion of behaviours and actions. In terms of the process in which transnational identity is formed, the study also finds that Chinese student returnees went through different phases and levels of changes of transnational identity. More importantly, the complex changes in transnational identity show the interplay between agency and structure(s). On the one hand, Chinese student returnees negotiated their identity of various levels of structures, including society, social group, institutional and virtual levels. On the other hand, although various structures provided the context in which student returnees negotiated their transnational identity, it was student returnees'agency that shaped their sojourn and homecoming experience and further identity changes. In particular, it was the extent to which student returnees mobilized their agency that made the difference. Among many factors shaping different responses in agency, the divergence and convergence between agency and structure played a critical role in making the difference. The findings not only nuance the theories of identity and transnational identity, but also deepen our understanding of Chinese students and student returnees’ sojourn and homecoming experience, in addition to a new perspective into the phenomenon of culture shock and reverse culture shock. Finally, it is suggested that a more concerted effort from supra-national level to individual level is needed to provide Chinese students with more equal, qualified and intercultural education in the UK.

This thesis reports on a research study aimed at examining the impact of informal and formal assessment on the self-esteem of pupils with borderline difficulties and language deficiencies learning in mixed ability English language classes. The thesis adopted a qualitative ethnographic methodology with triangulated methods to enquire into macro and micro views of the main concepts in this study. Thus, data were collected by participant observation within English classes, informal and formal interviews with pupils and teachers at the research site and semi-structured interviews at home with parents and pupils. Questionnaires for 6 teachers, pupils and parents [total n=31] were administered 22 pupils were observed over a period of nine months, spanning 5th September 2005 to May 2006 and 3 parents interviewed due to availability of willing pupils and their parents. This was followed by structured and semi-structured questionnaire administration and interviews with six teachers and pupils [n=22]. The experiences of pupils deemed to be struggling with learning, yet not certificated as having learning difficulties were analyzed utilizing the methodology outlined by [Lincoln and Guba 1985; Creswell 1998; Richards 2005; and Bryman 2004] among others, and the data provided rich ground for a potential development of a substantive theory of learning and self-esteem. The questions focused on the evidence of classroom, and on verbal and non-verbal teacher treatment of the focus group. It also focused on the perceptions and expectations of teachers and students regarding assessment [formal and informal] and how it impacts on pupils’ self esteem. Some themes that emerged in the study included the following: resistance to learning and to authority, ridicule and racism, treats and intimidations, student-teacher infatuation, racial and bullying, counter- school culture, and unfair teaching practices. Findings from this research study are a mixed bag. The evidence suggests that, self-esteem is dynamic and has an inherent executive capacity based particularly on individual competence, beliefs, thinking and feeling components. Furthermore, there was no evidence to suggest that pupils performing poorly suffered low self-esteem.

The first “citizenship school” (a literacy class that taught adults to read and write in order that they could register to vote) was established by Highlander Folk School of Monteagle, Tennessee on Johns Island, South Carolina in 1957. Within three years, the schools were extended across the neighboring Sea Islands, to mainland Charleston and to Savannah, Georgia. In 1961, after Highlander faced legal challenges to its future, it transferred the schools to the fledgling Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), who extended the program across the South. Historians have made far-reaching claims for the successes and benefits of the schools. For example, they claim that they recruited inexperienced but committed people and raised them to the status of community leaders; that they encouraged civic cooperation and political activism and formed the “foundation on which the civil rights movement” was built and they argue that the schools were an unprecedented opportunity for women to develop as activists and as leaders. Yet, they base these claims on certain myths about the schools: that the first teacher Bernice Robinson was an inexperienced and uneducated teacher, that her class was a blueprint for similar ones and that Highlander bequeathed its educational philosophy to the SCLC program. They make claims about female participation without analyzing the gender composition of classes. This dissertation challenges these assumptions by comparing and contrasting programs established in Lowcountry South Carolina and in Savannah. It argues that not only was Robinson more skilled and better educated than historians have assumed, but that she was not typical of early teachers. On the Sea Islands, teachers tended to be established community leaders, such as ministers. In Savannah, they were young college students involved in direct action spaces. It analyzes the gender composition of classes, the gendered nature of the spaces in which classes were taught, and the different models of black masculinity (based on class, location and generational identity) that the schools emulated. It argues that while Robinson may have been influenced by Highlander philosophy, the educational materials used in classes indicate that the schools drew more on Septima Clark’s experience of African American educational history than on Highlander’s ethos of education for social change. Local variations, including gender, class, location and age, also shaped teaching curricula. Finally, it examines the reasons for the schools’ failure in the mid to late 1960s. Far from fading away because they became superfluous after the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the schools failed both because of factors at the administrative level (disorganization, mismanagement and gender conflict) and at the local (conflict between generations and local groups.)

This thesis examines the experience of a group of mature women students before, during and after their period of study in higher education. Specific research areas of investigation focus on their existing skills, and the value they give to these skills, and those they develop over their time of study. The context for the study is provided by an examination of the historical development of girls’ and women’s education, looking specifically at its gendered nature. Similarly, the development of universities is examined, in particular, debates on what universities are for, and how they are increasingly linked to providing an educated and skilled workforce rather than being autonomous institutions of education. The research is situated in a period of keen interest in skills development, when many universities were considering their development in some form or other. This sets the context for the women participants in this study in schools that were piloting key skills in different ways. This is explored in relation to their experience of this burgeoning interest in skills. The research approach used was chosen to enhance understanding of the issues that affect mature women students returning to learning. It draws heavily on feminist methodology and is also influenced by the work of Michel Foucault and Paolo Freire. These theorists are used to shed light on how issues of power are endemic within the society in which this research takes place. The feminist methodology employed has allowed me to become part of the research, and to reflect upon my own experiences as a mature student in higher education as well as those of the other participants. The research analysis is based heavily upon multiple semi-structured interviews conducted with each of the women. The analysis reveals how the women feel their skills are valued both by themselves and by the institute of higher education where they studied and by wider society. Whilst the women feel that they have considerable skills as mature women, the discussion reveals a number of interesting factors regarding which skills the women expect to be valued in the wider world compared to the skills they value in themselves.

The debate about inclusion of children with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream education in the UK partly revolves around what makes the classroom environment inclusive. Social and local conceptualisations of government guidelines, as well as specific school agendas, currently influence a range of practices. This study aims to identify ways in which multimodal discourses and particular pedagogic approaches shape the positioning and identification of students with SEN in four primary school classrooms. It investigates whether the practical discursive positioning of students with SEN in these four classrooms can deliver inclusion. The study considers the views and behaviour of primary school students with and without SEN, primary school teachers and teaching assistants (TAs) in one Steiner and two mainstream schools. Drawing on a multimodal approach to discourse analysis which aims to account for the complex relationships between symbolic and non- verbal modes of classroom signification, the study explores ways in which meaning is produced in classrooms and the ways in which children's modes of communication, as well as teachers' practices, are discursively constructed. Four classrooms are compared on the basis of teaching observations, interviews, transcription of dialogues, and analysis of classroom organisation and decoration. It appears that the mainstream primary classrooms, which are characterised by stronger classification and framing and greater degrees of teacher-centred pedagogic discourse, establish strict boundaries around knowledge construction which influence the access to understanding and social positioning of students with SEN. Within these mainstream classrooms, there are barriers to full social and academic inclusion. By contrast, in the Steiner classroom, the inclusion of students with SEN is more effective, due to weaker boundaries around the content of constructed knowledge, more student-centred approaches and a higher degree of symmetrical interaction between teacher and students who actively participate in the production of knowledge. Based on this limited sample, it is suggested that the diverse needs of SEN students do not tend to be supported effectively by the practices of mainstream schools. A shift to more student-centred approaches is necessary.

Inclusive learning for pupils and learners with Special Educational Needs (SEN) is being championed widely within the education sector, both in the compulsory and the post-compulsory stages. The context for this thesis is an exploration of how staff in the further education sector can be best prepared through staff development to support profoundly deaf learners. The thesis concentrates on the subject specialist who has the skills and experience to deliver their own subject but may not have the skills to deliver the subject to deaf learners. The exploration of staff development is done after undertaking an overview of the historical context and development of deaf education. Each of these historical phases has had an impact on deaf education and has implications for staff working with deaf learners. The politicised nature of deaf education is highlighted and reference made to the often entrenched views of professionals working in this area. Their vested interests can raise conflicts within the area and I suggest the need to remove the barriers to achievement caused by this clash. The thesis considered a range of staff development theories and selected two main models (Showers et al (1987) and Brockbank and McGill (1998)) to inform a possible model of staff development work. The staff development sessions and interviews provided data to refine understanding around this specialised area of work. The research has been undertaken using an action research approach with aspects of modified grounded theory. The research has involved colleagues from a variety of further education settings. Three main research themes emerged: first, finding the most suitable model of staff development to train subject specialists who will work with deaf learners; second, resolving some of the tensions between subject and communication specialists; third, offering suggestions about the content of staff development. Key features of staff development are identified and discussed and implications for staff development activity outlined. The thesis draws distinctions between deaf awareness and deaf equality and argues that this distinction plays a crucial role in staff development for inclusive learning. Two of the key players in supporting deaf students are the communication specialist and the subject specialist. The communication specialist is the professional who supports the access to the curriculum through appropriate communication. The subject specialist is the professional who delivers the curriculum and isn't normally able to present the curriculum using accessible communication. The thesis presents the exploration of the relationship between the two roles from the perspective of the subject specialist.

This thesis presents the results of a mixed methods study investigating the truth behind media claims that lone parenthood is detrimental to the social and educational outcomes of children. The research is informed by intersectionality theory, which I seek to apply to both methods used in the study, as well as theories about the power of the State from Marxist theorists Althusser and Gramsci. The first part of the study is a discourse analysis of how lone parenthood is discussed in the media, using articles referring to lone parents in The Times and The Guardian in 1993 and 2013. The analysis shows that while policy and media contexts use generic terminology to refer to lone parents, the more specific focus of the negative discourse on lone parenthood is on white, unmarried, young mothers who live on benefits and in social housing. These findings are reflected in the selected variables for the second phase of the research. The second part of the research investigates whether there are any differences in the outcomes of the children of lone mothers when compared to peers who have not experienced lone motherhood. The outcomes studied are two subscales from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and Key Stage 4 (GCSE) results. The United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Survey and British Household Panel Survey datasets are used for the analysis, together with linked National Pupil Database data. A series of multiple regression models investigate any association between lone motherhood and the outcome measures, with the inclusion of covariates which mirror the key identity factors uncovered in the discourse analysis. The models are additionally run controlling for demographic factors such as maternal education, household size and young person's age and gender, with the addition of the IDACI and free school meals indicators for the educational outcomes analysis. The results of the quantitative analysis show that while there are initially some differences between the outcomes of children of lone mothers and their peers whose mothers have not experienced lone parenthood, this association lessens as additional factors are added into the model. Additionally, of the factors deemed important in the media discourse, marital status is not significant in any models, and maternal age in all but the Total Difficulties Score. Ethnicity is not significant for social outcomes, but is for educational outcomes, with White children performing worse at GCSE than children from other ethnic groups. In all models, social housing is associated with worse outcomes; that is, children whose mothers have ever lived in social housing achieved lower grades at GCSE and showed more behavioural difficulties than their contemporaries whose mothers had never lived in social housing, whether they were lone mothers or not. The possible reasons for these results are discussed in the final chapter, focussing on how lone mothers are unfairly blamed in media and policy circles for the antisocial behaviour and educational attainment of children in modern society. The study shows children from lower income families have poorer social and educational outcomes. Women, who are already disadvantaged due to an inherent gender bias in society, are at a greater risk of economic instability and uncertainty, particularly women who are single-handedly raising families. In conclusion, there is no evidence for the pervasive and perpetual stereotype of lone motherhood as a deficit model of parenting; poverty is more important in determining young people's social and educational outcomes.

Chinese complementary schools (CCS) play a significant role in transmitting the Chinese language and culture to younger British Chinese generations. Existing research are largely set in Cantonese-dominant CCS, which have characterised long-established UK Chinese communities. However, the last five to ten years have witnessed a demographic change of UK Chinese population and Mandarin is replacing Cantonese as the lingua franca of UK Chinese communities. This research aims to explore the current practices in three CCS and to understand the impacts of UK Chinese demographic change on CCS. Data was collected using ethnographic observation, document collection and semi-structured interviews with teachers, parents and pupils. This research finds that CCS in UK are undergoing great changes, as Mandarin has been the preferred language in these schools, which has implications for the population and activities of these schools. Students’ backgrounds have been extremely diverse, but current resources, materials and expertise of CCS do not address the diversity. Issues and problems arise when regarding Mandarin as the Chinese heritage language of all students attending the schools. The role of CCS in participants’ identity construction is significant as CCS provide an intercultural space for them to reflect on their UK Chinese identities. This doctoral research hopes to provide in-depth insights into Mandarin teaching and learning in CCS and implications for policy makers and practitioners.