Service improvements in healthcare can improve service provision; make cost efficiency savings, streamline services and reduce clinical errors. However, service improvement alone may not be adequate in improving patient outcomes and quality of care. Complexity of healthcare provision makes service improvement a challenge, and there is little evidence of whether service improvement initiatives change healthcare practice and improve patient care. To equip the nursing workforce with the skills necessary to make service improvements, Higher Educational Institutions (HEI) have developed courses that include service improvement within their pre-registration programmes. However, service improvement is a learned skill, which nurses need to practice in order to become competent in making improvements. In order to explore service improvement in nursing, hermeneutic phenomenology was used to gain an understanding of the lived experiences from student to registered nurse. A purposive sample of twenty participants were selected from an adult pre-registration nursing programme, during their third year. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews in two phases; once when the participants were student nurses and 12 months later when the same participants were registered nurses. Data analysis occurred using a van Manen (1990) approach and the hermeneutic circle to facilitate interpretation and analysis of findings. Four key themes emerged from the data; service improvement in nursing; socialisation in nursing practice; power and powerlessness and challenges in changing practice. Findings showed that the participants underwent processes of professional transformation, becoming empowered and developing resilience in making service improvements from student to registered nurse. Participants achieved this by developing positive, adaptive behaviours. A new ‘Model of Self-efficacy in Service Improvement Enablement’ is presented which explains the participant’s service improvement journey. This new model has relevance for both nurse education and practice, in seeking to improve patient care through service improvements in nursing.

This document collates examples of the author’s practice, initiatives, inquiries, and scholarship in the five year period from 2010 to 2015. In conjunction with the critical commentary, ‘Developing a Curriculum for Engagement for Architectural Education at Northumbria University’ it serves to satisfy the requirements of Northumbria University’s regulations for the submission of a Professional Doctorate by Portfolio. The individual components within this portfolio seek to underpin the author’s claim towards developing a ‘curriculum for engagement’ in support of the student’s holistic educational experience of architectural education at Northumbria. The majority of the components have resulted from collaborations with colleagues in the course of the author’s practice. These have included fellow academics, academic managers, colleagues from other institutions and disciplines, as well as students of the programmes of architecture. In support of developing a ‘curriculum for engagement’, these collaborative works embody the notion of ‘communicative action’ (Habermas, 1981) in seeking consensual, iterative and beneficial initiatives for the benefit of student learning and experience. All inquiries have been supported by ethical permissions from relevant schools and faculties in the institution. All components have also been made available in the public domain, through a variety of outlets relevant to the particular output and audience. Permissions have been sought and granted for their reproduction in this portfolio. The individual components have been re-formatted for the purpose of this portfolio in order to comply with Northumbria University regulations for doctoral submissions. Font sizes and type, line-spaces and layouts have been standardised, and Harvard Northumbria has been used throughout for the purposes of citations and in-text referencing. References have been collated alphabetically. Word counts have omitted references.

The development of physical education and school sport (PESS), a once ‘marginalised’ subject within the school curriculum, over the period 2003-2010 has often been referred to as the ‘quiet revolution’. An increased political interest in PESS and the idea that sport could be used to address wider social issues resulted in two major strategies, Physical Education, School Sport and Club Links (PESSCL 2003-2008) and Physical Education and Sport Strategy for Young People (PESSYP 2008-2013) and £2.4billion of funding. Drawing on Bernstein’s concept of the pedagogical device, this thesis seeks to understand how these two strategies were transmitted, transformed and realized in the secondary field and examines the extent to which they impacted on the pedagogic practice of PESS. This research study, conducted from within a School Sport Partnership, draws on a range of ethnographic methods including in-depth interviews with Partnership Development Managers, School Sport Coordinators, Primary Link Teachers and physical education teachers across a sub-regional area of London. This data was supplemented with extensive field diaries, partnership documentation and emails. Analysis of the data was conducted using grounded theory in NVivo9. The research findings are presented in three data chapters. The first examines the positioning of the PDM in the space at the interface between the recontextualising and secondary fields. The second results chapter investigates the realization of the PESS strategies and specifically examines the process of transmission and transformation of discourse as it passes through the complex infrastructure of School Sport Partnerships. The final data chapter discusses the impact of the PESS strategies on the pedagogic practices of teachers, and focuses extensively on the target driven culture which dominated practice within the secondary field. The lack of impact on pedagogic practice, particularly within secondary physical education, emerges as a key issue. The dominance of policy targets as the core evaluative rules of the PESS strategies emerged as a limiting factor in the realization of change. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the key findings and the implications for agents and/or agencies tasked with implementing and enacting change in the school setting. In applying the pedagogic device, we are able to analyse the role that the evaluative rules have in prioritising aspects of policy implementation and investigate the challenge of innovation and change. However I argue that Bernstein’s theory is not sufficiently sensitive to a number of the complexities of the contemporary educational landscape and needs further development and adaptation if we are to continue to use the pedagogic device to examine the process of recontextualisation and realization of policy in PESS.

This study compares and explains the knowledge base (Kirk et al, 1997; Shulman, 1987) for teaching physical education in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) programmes in England and Korea from the 1960s to the present. In the USA (Siedentop, 1989), the UK (Kirk, 1992) and Australia (Macdonald et al, 1999), the erosion of time spent on content knowledge (CK) for sports and other physical activities has been noted as a matter of concern. The academicisation of the physical activity field and the marginalisation of PETE within it are major factors in the shift in the knowledge base. Data was presented from a comparative study of four PETE programme in two countries in respect of social constructionism (Berger and Luckmann, 1966). The historical resources such as timetables, curricula and official documents were analysed using documentary methods and grounded theory. Grounded theory was also used to analyse interviews with previous and present teacher educators, student teachers, and teachers who graduated from each university. I found that for universities in both countries, first, the hours of theoretical content knowledge (TCK) and practical content knowledge (PRACK) in PETE had been reduced over time. Time for units of physical activity had decreased significantly. Second, student teachers learnt physical activity to introductory levels only, and the spiral system for the physical activity curriculum, where students ideally move from introductory to advanced levels of knowledge, did not work well. In terms of differences between the countries, first, in England there were many sessions where PRACK was interrelated with pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and knowledge of learners and their characteristics (KLC). However, this was less common in Korea. In particular, interrelationships between PRACK and PCK and KLC were very weak because the Korean system is based on the study of kinesiology. Second, many students and teachers in England requested sessions to assist them to teach at GCSE and A Level. In Korea, in contrast, the need for PCK and KLC was identified. I conclude by confirming that CK forms only a small proportion of the knowledge base for teaching physical education confirming that there is a gap between the knowledge base in PETE and the knowledge requirements for teaching physical education in schools. I suggest developing special units in the PETE course based on models of learning, teaching and philosophy and being suitable for inclusion in the academic and scholarly culture of the university.

The research is based within higher education, focusing on four undergraduate modules in a university in the north of England, United Kingdom. The research explores the relationships between authentic learning activities and the development of different 'types' of learner autonomy. Assessment for Learning provides a pedagogic framework for the research and positions and defines authenticity and autonomy within this perspective on learning and assessment. The research aimed to explore the (potential) relationships between authentic (formative and summative) assessment practices and the types of autonomy, learner behaviour or development which emerged from this type of approach. The research examined authentic learning activities developed within academic modules which were non-vocational in nature (curriculum which was not linked to any professional awarding body). The 'authentic' learning activities were placed within a situated paradigm of learning and a constructivist view of knowledge. An interpretive, qualitative research design was employed, with twenty student and four tutor respondents. The research identified tutor and student constructions of authenticity and outlined the different types of learning autonomy which emerged from these constructions. Factors which inhibited and promoted development are discussed. When authentic learning activities were seen as relevant and meaningful by learners' and were framed and conceptualised within a pedagogic structure which supported student learning, a range of autonomous learning behaviours were observed. These behaviours were seen to develop in a complex 'layering' process, dependent for development on the presence of other 'types' of autonomy, to enable the 'building' of an overall autonomous learning capacity. The thesis presents two theoretical models which offer a contribution to the understanding of the ways in which authentic learning activities may contribute to the development of learner autonomy.

This study explores the processes involved in the construction of female aspirations and expectations. Early research has a male centrality that excludes female experience which is seen as deviant. More recent research makes aspirational predictions based on single variables such as education or class, or works with single cohorts of participants. My interest lies not in what a woman's aspirations and expectations are, nor with making predictions, rather, I am concerned with the processes involved in how aspirations and expectations develop, in how these processes remain stable or change over time. By processes I am referring to knowledge constructions. Taken-for-granted knowledge has asserted that women naturally aspire to wife and motherhood. Regardless of the seeming inviolability of such knowledge, it does not represent absolute truth; it is constructed from discourses imbued with vested interest, power and control. Thus, from a social constructionist perspective, I explore the discourses instrumental in the construction of women's aspirations and expectations and the associated power structures that limit or expand women's options. I show that discourses are not static, that constructions change and are socio-politically historically relative. Survey data provide broad views that inform in-depth interviews. Voices from the literature form an integral part of the account and are not presented separately. A narrative analytic strategy synthesises all the voices to form a multi-layered socio¬political, historically situated oral history of two generational cohorts' aspirationallexpectational development, cohorts I have designated mature women and teenage women. In conclusion I show that legislative changes alone are insufficient to change women's aspirations and expectations. The mature women in the study illustrate how traditional discourses impacted on their lives and how, although individual agency is difficult, it is possible to bring about change which influences the options available to future generations of women. The teenage women in the study, whilst cognizant of increased opportunity and equality discourses, illustrate the persistence of traditional discourses and the conflicts they face in navigating their own lives.

In Madeira Island the Educational System has endured significant changes. The concept of education has changed in the past years as well as the need to help parents understand the new changes. This new concept of school brought a new universe into the classrooms. Teachers, students and the community in general must learn to deal with the diversity of students who now share their educational journey in the same school environment. This new challenge obliges parents, teachers, headmasters and the school community to accept, respect and provide the needed conditions for an effective education for all students. This research has explored whether inclusion of students with mental problems is working effectively, from the perspective of the teachers, in the high schools located in Madeira. The study was developed to identify the gaps in the teaching/learning process for students with mental problems studying in regular high schools. A survey method was adopted for this study in which a questionnaire was developed to explore teachers' attitudes and beliefs around the education of students with mental problems studying in regular high schools. Three illustrative scenarios were selected to show different realities that may occur among these students. Teachers read the three case scenarios and related them to their own experiences as educators. Teachers' reflections upon the problems gave the researcher the opportunity to analyze how these problems are solved or ignored by educators. The questionnaire was validated and ethical permission gained from the University. Five hundred questionnaires were distributed to teachers working in different high schools in Madeira, 300 questionnaires were returned at the end of the field work. Analysis of the responses identified a significant view that teachers were concerned about inclusion, but did not engage actively to implement government policy in this area. In particular teachers with more than 10 years experience were significantly less prepared and willing to engage with this inclusive approach. The majority of teachers reported a lack of resources, inappropriate curriculum and insufficient specialist staff as excuses for not engaging in inclusive education. The guidelines laid out in the educational policy have been put to the test. This study showed that, according to the opinions of teachers, none of the requirements have been met by the 35 schools surveyed in this study. The distance between theory and practice has always been long and in the case of inclusive education, giant steps need to be taken to narrow the gap between the theory in policy and reality in the school.

Work-Based Learning (WBL) has increasingly become an area of interest for the higher education sector. It can be defined as an approach to education where learning towards accredited qualifications is relevant to and draws on the student’s workplace role and situation. This education can take place via a range of delivery methods. For this study, this definition has been further narrowed down to concentrate on WBL that is delivered by the university to those in the workplace and results in accredited higher education qualifications, where the learning contract is rooted in the discipline and draws on the student’s workplace role and situation. Northumbria University is considered one of the leaders in WBL delivery in the UK. All the faculties in the university deliver WBL programmes across a number of different disciplines. These programmes encompass a wide range of delivery formats including face-to-face, correspondence distance and online delivery. The aim of this research study is to contribute to the research in this area by conducting an in depth study of the effectiveness of the delivery of WBL from the perspective of a range of stakeholders including students, programme leaders, tutors, university support services, employers and representatives of professional bodies. There is a wealth of literature that concentrates on the learner and education provider and occasionally the employer but little that has attempted to directly investigate the wider stakeholder environment in which WBL takes place and how this contributes to the effectiveness of the WBL experience. To gain the deep insights needed for such a study, the research approach adopted a case study methodology which included mixed method research techniques for data capture and analysis combining both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The study examined the perspective of stakeholders drawn from five WBL programmes across the disciplines of Engineering, Computing, and Information Sciences delivered by the Faculty of Engineering and Environment at Northumbria University. These programmes primarily use online learning delivery format with some blended learning components and comprise four postgraduate programmes and one undergraduate programme. An online survey was administered among all the students whilst in depth interviews were conducted among all the stakeholders including students. The case study explored the students’ demographic characteristics, experience of WBL and characteristics of their learning experience. Data from the other stakeholders was analysed to both cross validate the students’ feedback and to learn about their own contribution to the effectiveness of the WBL process. The analysis was performed in relation to the three main factors identified to be most influential: quality, access and support. The original contribution to knowledge and the significance of this study can be seen in three different areas. Firstly, eight main themes and three subthemes have emerged from the data analysis of this case study. These themes and sub themes were consolidated through triangulation of the qualitative and quantitative outcomes. They illustrate the key drivers and factors underpinning the effectiveness of WBL in the selected case study and have been used to classify the main strengths and issues of WBL that have emerged from the data and develop a set of recommendations to address the main key issues. For example, ‘Accreditation of Prior Learning’ and ‘Tailoring of Learning Contracts’ emerged as key attractions for students to embark on WBL programmes. The need for the use of technology in learning was highlighted by students to support the distance delivery of content, communications and assessments, whilst academics came out with the issues and challenges which prevented them from being able to use technology effectively. Thus one of the key recommendations arising from this study is the need to provide assistance and support to academics to engage with technology in learning to support WBL. ‘Student isolation’ was found to be an issue in some disciplines where mentor and peer support cannot be facilitated and thus developing approaches that reduce student isolation is another key recommendation. One final example is that a majority of students prefer ‘blended learning’ where distance online learning is combined with some face to face components compared to purely distance online learning. This is a challenge particularly where students are dispersed over a large geographical area. Secondly this research study has considered the range of key stakeholder groups: student, employer, academic and professional body, and their contribution to the effectiveness of WBL programmes. This consideration has highlighted the specific impact they have on the effectiveness of WBL. For example employers’ support was found to be particularly useful for the development of learning contracts and for onsite mentoring support during the lifetime of the students’ studies. Professional bodies contribute through the process of accreditation of WBL programmes/qualifications for students’ professional registration. In this study this proved to be a key motivational factor for the students to embark on WBL. A four pillar model has been constructed to illustrate consideration of the range of stakeholders and this has been applied to two existing WBL frameworks to show how such consideration might be applied in practice. In the first example, the researcher has taken an existing approach to online WBL course design, development and delivery practice and adapted it to include consideration of the range of stakeholders at appropriate times in the process to strengthen the WBL experience. In a second example, the researcher has taken an existing WBL maturity toolkit and shown how it could be adapted to include consideration and input from the full range of stakeholders on the readiness to engage in WBL. The study provides key recommendations to each of the stakeholders separately which should enhance the effectiveness of the WBL provision. The final contribution to knowledge that emerges from this work is focused on each of the embedded units within the case study. Each of these embedded units represents a separate WBL programme and an analysis was performed to highlight the key strengths of each of these programmes and their main deficiencies. For example, the MSc Professional Engineering programme uses 100% tailoring of workplace projects in student learning contracts which benefit the employers. The academics’ role is primarily centered on guiding those students to document the learning outcomes from those workplace projects against their individualised programme learning outcomes. In order to support them better, students felt that academics should upload online content for the more generic topics such as research methodologies which could be new to them and quite challenging to understand. In contrast, the MSc Information and Library Management programme takes a more generic approach to its learning content and has minimal tailoring. The students and employers benefit from application of this learning content to their own environment through assignments and the final MSc project. One approach to further tailor the programme to the needs of the organisation and employee would be to offer more focused module options. This analysis of the individual programmes has helped pinpoint areas for further development. This study has conducted an in depth case study of the effectiveness of the delivery of WBL across three discipline areas at one university. This has not only provided a number of key findings from the case itself but it has also demonstrated the benefits of considering the wider stakeholder contexts in such a study. It also provides exemplars of how others can build on this work to embed these wider stakeholder contexts in WBL toolkits and associated practices to provide enhanced provision.

Reflexivity has had a long standing presence in professional education and therapy practice. In family therapy our knowledge about reflexivity has largely been produced through its application in practice. This is reflected in its multiple forms, described in the literature as therapeutic reflexivity, self reflexivity, relational reflexivity, group reflexivity, reflexive loops, recursiveness, self- reflection, self-awareness, reflexive competence, personal development, organizational reflexivity and cultural reflexivity. The practice context for conceptualising reflexivity fixes taken for granted knowledge as theory. This research constructs a history of reflexivity which draws upon narratives from diverse contexts across time and relationships, and weaves these together to examine discourses of influence which have led educationalists, practitioners, researchers and authors to construct reflexivity in many different ways. The influence and implications of these reflexivity discourses for practice and education are explored using a social constructionist approach to knowledge creation. A reflexive research design and methodology generates relational and dialogical contexts for constructing new knowledge about reflexivity and at the same time makes the processes of constructing this reflexive mode transparent. The question: ‘How is reflexivity constructed in family therapy education?’ is examined within a collaborative community constituted between educators and students. As we coordinate our polyvocality, episodes of transcendent storytelling and transformative dialogical moments are distinguished in which new knowledge emerges between participants. Using CMM heuristics, these transformative episodes are laminated to make visible the dialogical process of knowledge production. Different ‘forms’ of reflexivity are reconstructed as artefacts of conversations in relational contexts over time, shifting the discourse from looking at multiple reflexivity ‘forms’ towards ‘reflexive looking’. ‘Reflexive Dialogues’ transform positioning and offer new horizons which scaffold resourcefulness, including transfering relational practices from therapy to research and education. ‘Reflexive Dialogues’ transform hierarchical power and colonizing knowledge creation in research, therapy and education and invite empowering and collaborative relationships in which we produce knowledge together. ‘Reflexive looking’ affords theoretical pluralism and local coordination of multiple reflexivity discourses. This produces new knowledge and transforms relationships through scaffolding connected learning, engaged pedagogy and coordination of horizons between research, practice and educational communities.

This thesis evaluates the experiences of a Maltese school that decided to embrace the philosophy of inclusion. It provides a synthesis of knowledge about the processes of inclusive education, derived from the experience of the main stakeholders in the school. The main research question being: “What changes does the implementation of the Social Model of Disability that focuses on abilities and skills rather than labelling and deficit have on a school population?” Specifically, the study investigated: · The practices within the school that enable inclusion. · The experience of students, students’ parents, teachers, learning support assistants (LSAs) and administrators. · Whether or not, and if so, how disabled students are participating, active members of the school. · The effect of inclusion on the school community/culture. A case study approach is used in order to evaluate this school’s process of inclusion and its ramifications on stakeholders. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used, along with a triangulation of questionnaires, focus groups, semi-structure interviews and observations. A thematic analysis supported by descriptive statistics was used within an interpretative approach of hermeneutic phenomenology. This research contributes theory to the following three areas in: 1. Offering a different model for an inclusive school. 2. The use of innovative structures in school management. 3. The changes brought about by valuing the education of disabled students. The findings show a general positive attitude towards inclusive education and suggest that inclusive education heightens the awareness of each interrelated aspect of the school as a community, challenges stereotypes, and promotes contextually relevant research. The work concludes with a series of possible future directions for research and a critical reflection that is needed to help educators achieve progress towards philosophical and practical ideals of a socially and academically just education.