This thesis explores students’perceptions and practices within the context of a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate degree at a UK Higher Education institution. This engineering education research is situated in the pragmatic paradigm and is informed by a relational view of learning. The study explores the perceptions of students throughout the second year of their programme and also investigates their practices during the same time period. The research employs a mixed-methods exploratory methodology with data collection led by a dominant qualitative phase and followed by a quantitative phase. Data is integrated to present a holistic understanding of students’ perceptions and practices. The results demonstrate the importance for academia to consider students’ expectations and perceptions and to understand students’ actual practices. Analysis of the data has enabled the context to be defined from a student perspective; showing four key areas of context as being the staff-student relationships, students and student cultures, the teaching and assessment context, and the course contexts. The connection between students’perceptions and their practices is clearly established in the data. The integrated findings highlight the complexities involved for students in carrying out the practice of learning in a complex environment alongside their own perceptions of the discipline, the programme, their peers and staff. Combining the two data types has enabled the significance of perceptions to be highlighted, the vast elements of context to be demonstrated and finally recommendations to be produced to inform the design and execution of engineering education. Specific attention is drawn to findings which suggest further explanatory work is required to explore aspects such as; students’perceptions of importance, their participation in informal peer working, the distinction between procedural and conceptual learning for the discipline and the expectation of professionalism that students hold.

This thesis examines the determinants of student demand for higher education (HE) in Jordan with special attention devoted to the role of expected rates of return (ERRs) to HE. In the context of economic theory, mainly Human Capital Theory (HCT), earnings expectations lie at the heart of students' post-secondary education decisions. Therefore, the study is primarily based on final-year secondary school students' HE decisions and starting earnings expectations. The starting earnings expectations are critically analysed and used to construct short-cut ERRs to HE. Also, comparisons between expected starting earnings and actual public sector starting wage rates are carried out. The findings lend support to the economic explanations of demand and, in particular, the HCT predictions. Through applying logistic models, the study finds that ERRs influence students' post-secondary education decisions to enrol in HE positively. Students from low-income and large families are found to be less likely to consider continuing into HE. Consistent with the empirical literature, student academic ability is also reported to impact positively the likelihood to consider enrolment. Other variables such as parents' level of education and student's area of residence are proved not to be significantly associated with demand. Consumption value of education is greatly perceived, however, among both groups of the participants (i.e. those intending to undertake HE and those not). This indicates a weak prediction role of consumption motives in student demand for HE. Overall, the analysis also indicates a strong role of education in determining students' starting earnings expectations. Furthermore, the calculated ERRs show females to expect higher return from HE than males, a pattern matching with the most recent Jordanian study of rates of return (RORs) to education (Talafeh, 2003). However, students appear to be overoptimistic regarding starting earnings for both secondary education and HE. In this regard, the analysis suggests that students do not base their starting earnings expectations on the current actual wage rates, a finding to consider in future RORs and ERRs and their link with demand for HE studies in the context of Jordan. devoting more resources towards poor students, particularly those characterised with high-academic ability. Making students better-informed about HE and labour market return and conditions may also enhance the efficiency of individual decisions on HE and contribute to alleviating the mismatch between HE and the labour market in the country.

The primary aim of this research is to develop my own critical perspective on oppression, marginalisation and education in Kerala, India. First, it critiques Freire’s educational thoughts including banking and problem-posing education; second, it goes on to extend Freire’s ideas to develop a dialogical methodology in the field of Education while addressing my fieldwork struggles and dialogues. Third, it addresses how Freire’s educational thoughts can also be critically understood to explore the oppressive and marginalizing nature of non-formal education and community work in Kerala; fourth, this thesis contributes to innovative knowledge mainly at theoretical, methodological and empirical levels.

This thesis investigates how the regulation of emotions contributes to the resilience of a school’s workforce in Germany, so that teachers develop and maintain the ability to handle obstacles as they occur, while emphasising the role of the organisation in supporting this process. Two areas of literature, around resilience and emotions, respectively emotion regulation, are reviewed and critically discussed. Additionally literature on stress in the teaching profession is reviewed in order to provide the context of this study. It is found that no research has investigated to date which emotion regulation strategies are applied by individuals in an organisational (here specifically educational) context that have the potential to increase their perceived resilience. At the same time it can be shown that the teaching profession is considered a stressful profession due to its high emotional demands (Brackett et al., 2010; Johnson et al., 2005; Kyriacou, 2001) and teachers are in need of high levels of resilience (Brackett et al., 2010), making this study relevant for educational organisations. In this study, both, resilience and emotions, are understood as social constructions. Consequently this research follows a social constructionist approach. With an interpretivist perspective, this study tries to explore subjective understandings of emotion regulation and its influence on the individual’s perception of their resilience, taking a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with teachers of German schools. This data is complemented by qualitative research diaries, filled in by the interviewees. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis is the chosen framework for analysis, as it allows the exploration of individuals’ experiences and perceptions (Chamberlain, 1999; Smith & Osborn, 2003). Research participants’ reported intensity of emotional experiences in the workplace combined with the increased risks for teachers’ physical and psychological wellbeing, requires high levels of resilience (Roeser et al., 2012) and a strong capability to regulate emotions effectively (Helsing, 2007; Schutz & Zembylas, 2009). Various antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation strategies are reported. Many of these strategies can also be considered risk-, asset-, or process focused resilience-promoting strategies. Positive emotions potentially enhance resilience (Fredrickson, 2001; Hobfoll, 1989, 2001; Ong et al., 2006; Zautra et al., 2001), while the regulation of negative emotions reflects the idea that resilience is developed in the face of adversity (Gu & Day, 2007). Therefore the findings of this study contribute to closing the gap between literature focused on resilience and literature concerned with the regulation of emotions by showing how emotion regulation strategies have the potential to promote resilience. Organisational support appears as a promising avenue to promote emotion regulation strategies and consequently resilience in employees in the context of educational organisations, fostering teachers’ personal and professional development. The role of the organisation appears to be crucial in this context. Various suggestions of participants how the organisation could provide support, form the base for a possible development of a training programme which could help teachers to enhance their individual resilience for their own good and the advantage of the organisation, which is a potential practical contribution.

The use of research evidence to improve the practices of teachers is considered one of the ways of improving the educational outcomes for children. This study was focussed on determining how an online approach could be used to increase knowledge mobilisation in education, by giving teachers better access to research knowledge that they could use to support and develop their practices. This study had two aims. The first aim was to investigate what research knowledge and research practices teachers were using and what value they ascribed to those practices; the second was to explore teachers' views and opinions of a new online approach to the presentation of research knowledge. This was a mixed method study using questionnaires, interviews and focus groups to gather a range of both qualitative and quantitative data. The findings of this study show that practitioners value research practices more than they are able to participate in them, and that there is a consistent valuepractice gap across the range of research practices. Exploratory factor analysis revealed five underlying factors; engagement with research, engagement with the research community, promotes professional discussion of research, promotes teacher knowledge generation, and promotes wider engagement of the school with research and the research community. These factors showed that teachers and their schools want to engage both with research knowledge and with the wider research community so that the use of research knowledge can be enhanced in education. The findings also show that practitioners were receptive to the use of an online approach to the delivery of research knowledge and the piloted approach was accessible and intuitive. Practitioners exhibited interest in using the approach in a range of collaborative interactions with colleagues. Overall this study revealed that online approaches to knowledge mobilisation have potential but that teachers need to be supported in their engagement with research and the wider research community. This thesis is a contribution to the knowledge of how online approaches can be developed and deployed to enhance knowledge mobilisation towards teaching being an evidence informed profession. Equally school leaders and policy-makers need to create environments that are supportive of teachers' use of research, if they want teachers to use research knowledge to inform their practices.

This work is based on eight papers published between 1998 and 2006. The papers present a process of investigating, discussing and documenting how, through exploring, stretching and developing opportunities offered by various qualitative research approaches, facilitated collaborative action research (CAR) and evaluation became entwined They question how and where participants in projects recognise their own knowledge and learning, and how they use and develop their understandings in relation to new knowledge. In these papers I worked at the interface between the known and the nearly known; between knowledge-in-use and tacit knowledge that was yet to be useful. This interface, a 'messy area', was a place of contested knowledge. In this 'messy area' long-held views, shaped by pro essional knowledge, practical judgement, experience and intuition, came together to disturb both individual and communally held notions of knowledge for practice. Working in the 'messy area' enabled new knowing that has both theoretical and practical significance to arise, a 'messy turn' to take place. This is the purpose of mess. These papers add to the body of knowledge about 'seeing' and 'knowing', 'the importance of not knowing' and the role of participation, collaboration, facilitation and learning as key change mechanisms in research and evaluation.

The aim of this study was to determine how student writing and academic literacy are experienced and perceived in a university by academic staff and students and how pedagogical interactions are influenced by institutional discourses and practices. The research is a form of institutional case study realised through a qualitative, ethnographic-style inquiry. The methodology comprised semi-structured interviews with forty-eight academic staff from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and thirty-five student respondents from diverse areas of study, and discourse-based analyses of textual materials at both the institutional and departmental levels. The findings of the present research revealed that there is variation in the way academic staff perceive the nature and the learning of student academic literacy and their understanding of the practices which support that learning in a university. Students face significant challenges in adapting to variable expectations and managing the requirements of writing and assessment in the contemporary context. The research also revealed that there are structural aspects of higher education practice which appear to have adverse effects on the learning and development of student academic literacy and the capabilities of academic teaching staff to actively support and foster student learning in that domain. There are implications for the role of writing in learning and teaching and its position in the curriculum. It is argued that a more explicit approach should be taken to student academic literacy by embedding it in disciplinary teaching and learning. A number of ways, based on the evidence of this research, are suggested to advance pedagogical research and develop appropriate practice to that end. The findings are linked to wider debates about teaching, learning and educational reform in higher education. The thesis concludes by comparing and contrasting two disparate research paradigms for investigating the higher education experience. A new paradigm is conceptualised which draws on existing models theoretically and empirically but adds dimensions which address the exigencies of research in the contemporary context of higher education. It is argued that this reframing has the potential to raise and enhance the profile of pedagogical and student writing research consonant with current higher education policy aims and ambitions.

This thesis presents a study of three and four year old children attending preschool at a time of rapid expansion of this phase of education. There is strong evidence that the quality of the experience is the determining factor in the long term effectiveness of early years provision. However, quality is a contested concept with a range of viewpoints, defined by different stakeholders including children. The study builds on previous research and aims to clarify children’s perspectives on the quality of their preschool experiences and to consider how their viewpoint might influence policy and practice. The study examines successive policy initiatives in relation to children and families including the development of quality frameworks for early years practice. It considers policies that promote children’s participation based on children’s rights, and related theories of children as social agents, active in their own lives. The study discusses different approaches to quality early years provision, identifying two main positions, ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’. The study explores alternative, co-constructed approaches to quality that involve children assessing their learning together with trusted adults, to prepare for future learning. This is a qualitative study using an ethnographic approach. Data were collected employing an adapted version of the Mosaic Approach which combines multiple methods. The study takes a case study approach to present the research stories of six children by detailing their perspectives on quality. These findings are presented as a taxonomy of viewpoints, focussed around a common framework of re-occurring categories. This represents the contribution to knowledge of the study. The taxonomy is presented both in the language of children and that of adults in order to emphasise the extent to which the voice of children is currently absent from discourses on quality. Children’s responses are presented as indicators of quality that could inform day to day practice and policy.

In a shrinking more connected world, web based communication technologies play an increasingly important role in educating younger generations. However, the process of change that teachers must go through to accommodate the appropriate use of web based communication technologies for teaching and learning is a complex process, which can be viewed from multiple perspectives. Specifically, this study explores pedagogic shift in the context of a virtual international school spanning five different countries within the European Union. It adopts an interpretive paradigm of research to explore perceptions of teachers in the virtual international school over the course of four years from 2009-2013. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, a variety of data collection techniques were employed over the course of three different cycles of research. Each cycle built on the previous cycle through an in depth analysis of the data, which enabled the emergence of a model for pedagogic shift. Findings from this research point to the importance of understanding change as a learning journey, which necessarily takes time and is influenced by a variety of factors in which effective leadership plays a central role. Additionally, the research shows how through processes such as understanding each others’ different perspectives and the way technologies are harnessed, change is facilitated and a sense of community is built, all play an important role in enabling pedagogic shift to take place. From these findings a thematic model emerged, which was explored in depth and further refined during the research. The study concludes with recommendations for further research into pedagogic shift, particularly in relation to the dispersed multi-level model of leadership, the evolution of virtual international schools, the changing nature of teacher-student relationships, and the influence of external drivers in models of pedagogic shift.

Mary Sumner (1828-1921) founded the Anglican Mothers’ Union, which originated as a parish mothers’ meeting in 1876, and followed the Girls’ Friendly Society as the second women’s organisation to be sanctioned by the Church of England. By 1921, the Mothers’ Union had a membership extending across the British Empire and transnationally. Mary Sumner sought to educate mothers in Christian values and pedagogy so that they might educate their children to be future citizens of empire. Her life trajectory occurred against a context of evangelical religious revival, contest over matters of doctrinal authority, the proliferation of women’s philanthropy, the growth of the British Empire and changes in education characterised by state intervention in working-class elementary schooling and the negotiation of educational provision for middle- class girls. This thesis uses primary source material to build on institutional histories of the Mothers’ Union to situate Mary Sumner in networks, emphasise gender and class as mediating of opportunity, and envisage her religious ‘mission’ as educational. The thesis draws on the thinking tools of Pierre Bourdieu, habitus, field and capital, to analyse Mary Sumner’s negotiation of constraint and agency in relation to the fields of religion, mission (understood as religious and philanthropic activism ‘at home’ and overseas) and education through which womanhood runs as a connecting theme. Bourdieu’s concept of reproduction is used to position Mary Sumner in relation to the operation of power across domestic, local and global spaces. The thesis concludes that using Bourdieu’s ‘thinking tools’ highlights how Mary Sumner used opportunities for women within her temporal and socio-cultural context in ways that were complicit with notions of womanhood reflective of patriarchal domination and accepting of hierarchies of class and ‘race’, yet were innovative in her achievement of access for an organisation of women within Anglicanism that was recognised for its educational work.