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This paper is a reflection upon the research findings of Rebecca Allen and Anne West in relation to religious schools in London. While welcoming this contribution to the systematic study of faith schools (a neglected area of empirical inquiry), the paper argues that the use of 'religious schools' as a unitary category is problematic for the analysis. It also suggests that certain historical and cultural contextual knowledge is required when analysing the characteristics of different categories of religious schools. This response is intended to be helpful for future researchers into the different types of faith school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper referred to is ‘The Future of Data Analysis,’ published in 1962. Many authors have discussed it, notably Peter Huber, who in 1995 reviewed the period starting with Hotelling's 1940 article ‘The Teaching of Statistics.’ I extend the scope of Huber's remarks by considering also the period before 1940 and developments since 1995. I ask whether statistics is a science and suggest that to attract bright students to our subject, we need to show them the excitement and rewards of applied work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assesses the validated outcome instrument quality of life in hip revision with impacted morselized allograft bone and cemented Exeter prosthesis compared to primary hip replacement in England. Outcomes of hip revision; Indication of the Nottingham Health Profile scores after revision; Duration of the primary cemented hip replacement.

The Richard Review of the United Kingdoms (UK) Apprenticeships in 2012 proposed degree apprenticeships (DA) as a new model for the unification of academic and vocational learning. Apprenticeships have long been acknowledged as a practical vehicle to develop the vocational skills and educational achievements of the UK employee resource. The UK Government set a target of 3 million apprenticeship starts between 2015 and 2020. In order for higher education institutions (HEI) to participate in the new apprenticeship marketplace, they need to consider distinct factors that do not surface in traditional Bachelors programmes. Cognizant of these challenges this paper evaluates the development of the new degree apprenticeship programmes for built environment education through the research lens of HEI. This paper evaluates extant literature and primary data collected from qualitative interviews carried out across the UK HEI sector during 2017. Research findings are presented following analysis using NVivo. Narratives on the barriers, benefits, and opportunities, of degree apprenticeships, including academic quality assurance, governance, and pedagogic dimensions are presented. The findings include industry designed curriculum producing a different graduate output, redefining the purpose of HE, restructuring governance and resource, additional contractual obligations for stakeholders and the embedding of work-based learning strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture has a hugely important role to play in meeting many of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Ensuring the economic resilience of farms and improving their capacity to respond to a wide range of challenges is key if agriculture is to contribute positively to achieving SDGs and sustainable growth. This paper aims to calculate the economic vulnerability and resilience of agriculture in England and Wales (UK), by analysing individual farm business data and using it to compute an aggregated agricultural resilience index at regional level across the two countries. The results of our analysis are visualised as maps, showing the geographical distribution of the input indicators and the final composite resilience index. We argue that this type of spatio-economic approach is useful for understanding the geography of agricultural resilience at sub-national levels, which could be valuable for helping to inform decisions and formulate strategies for promoting sustainable agriculture.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Concept maps have been used extensively for developing higher order thinking skills and are considered significant artefacts in constructing understanding in educational contexts. Increasingly, they are being used as a tool to chart a way towards ‘new understanding’ rather than recording ‘accepted knowledge’. This study is set in an academic development department in a UK higher education institution in which previous research projects have utilised concept map-mediated interviews as a tool in data collection. This paper reports on the relationship between the process of the concept map-mediated interview and the resulting concept map and focuses on the talk during the interview process. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to explore the co-constructed nature of the concept map which resulted from the concept map interview. The research question was: how is the concept map accomplished through and in the interview talk? Sample: The three researchers and authors of this paper are colleagues in an Academic Development department in a UK higher education institution. The focus of the interview was to probe the research perspective underpinning the practice of one of the authors. Design and methods: The study used a qualitative, unstructured concept map interview. The aim of the interview was to elicit an understanding of one of the authors’ research frame and how it influenced her work with staff. The interviewer noted labels on post-it notes during the interview which both participants then arranged on a sheet of paper. The interview lasted 36 minutes and was transcribed verbatim. Sociocultural discourse analysis was used to examine the trajectory of concepts in the interview talk. Results: The results highlight the collaborative nature of the interview and how the concept map is co-constructed through the interview talk. We demonstrate how the concept map is co-constructed through and in the dialogue between interviewer and interviewee, not as a result of the interview. Results also reveal how the context of acquaintance interviews impacts on the co-construction and thus the resulting concept map. Conclusions: A concept map which results from such an interview is co-constructed with the interviewer playing a pivotal role in the talk and the mapping. The implications are that the interview as research tool needs to be recognised as a site for the co-construction of ideas and perspectives. Concept maps resulting from interviews need to be recognised as co-constructed. A further implication for research methods is that the transcripts from the interview itself can be used as data to provide a richer understanding of the concept map. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the genetically-modified bacteria BacillaFilla developed by students at Newcastle University in England to join together concrete cracks in structures.

This paper describes a 9-month project commissioned by Halton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Liverpool photography organisation, Open Eye Gallery. Socially engaged photographers worked with local residents from the Windmill Hill estate in Runcorn to describe healthy and unhealthy aspects of the area. Six women were trained to use cameras to document everyday things that mattered to them. Through focus groups they discussed what these photographs revealed about the health and ill-health of the area. The resulting exhibition, As and When, told their story. Despite being a deprived area with more than average incidence of illness, they identified many positive things that enhanced their sense of wellbeing and resilience. The benefits of the project included increased social engagement and participation, an improved sense of vitality and rejuvenation, emotional benefits, a feeling of greater political agency and increased visual literacy. This paper outlines the model of practice developed with the support of CCG and in collaboration with local stakeholders. It makes a case for the value and the ways in which clusters of general practices could develop links and work with health assets in their local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: England has a long history of government-commissioned reviews of national inequalities. The latest review, the Marmot Review, was commissioned by a government headed by the same party (the Labour Party) that had introduced the National Health Service in 1948, but the review was implemented by a coalition of different parties (Conservatives and Liberal Democrats). At the same time, a government reform of health services took place, and the monitoring of the existing inequality strategy was changed. Objectives: This paper examines the lessons that can be learned about indicators for monitoring social determinants of health inequalities from the Marmot Review and recent health inequality strategies in England. Design: The paper provides a narrative review of key findings on the collection, presentation, and analysis of routine data in England in the past 5 years, comparing what has been learned from the Marmot Review and other evaluations of the first health inequality strategy in England. Results: The emphasis on monitoring has progressively shifted from monitoring a small number of targets and supporting information to frameworks that monitor across a wide range of determinants of both the causes of ill-health and of health service performance. As these frameworks become ever larger, some consideration is being given to the key indicators. Conclusions: Although the frameworks used in England for monitoring health inequality strategies have developed considerably since the first strategy began, lessons continue to be learned about how monitoring could be improved. Many of these are applicable to countries initiating or reviewing their strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The paper plots some shifts in educational policy between 1988 and 2009 in England that launched the rhetoric of a ‘gender gap’ as a key political and social concern. The rhetoric was fuelled by a rise in the importance of quantification in technologies of accountability and global comparisons of achievement. A focus on boys and attainment emerged, along with new requirements for measuring educational achievement in the context of debates about standards and the growing marketisation of education following the 1988 Educational Reform Act (ERA) in England and Wales. Purpose: Theoretically, the paper explores the effect of ‘gender gap’ rhetoric on pedagogy. The arguments about pedagogy presented here are based on the premise that sex-group is different from gender. Sex-group is a form of labelling and categorising persons as either male or female with reference to a biological classification that focuses on genitalia and reproductive organs. The emergence of ‘gender gap’ rhetoric is investigated within a temporal perspective, through an overview of guidance to teachers about pedagogy published between 1932 and 2007. This temporal lens becomes a heuristic for presenting the main point of the paper, which is that technologies of measurement construct reified representations of the learner. This is used to demonstrate how gender, as a sociocultural and political phenomenon, morphed into sex-group, a biological categorisation, and how this has had unintended effects of pedagogy. Sources of evidence: Analysis of three landmark educational documents focuses on changes in representations of society, the learner and pedagogy. The documents are the Hadow Report (1931), the Plowden Report (1967) and a guidance document for teachers called ‘Confident, Capable and Creative: supporting boys’ achievements’ (Department for Children, Schools and Families 2007,http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Confident_Capable_Boys.pdf). Main argument:Analysis demonstrates the way that technologies of measurement construct reified or ‘ideal’ representations of the learner and how technologies used for measuring sex-group difference have changed across time. Shifts in representations of the learner, from the ‘bone child’ to the ‘gene child’ and eventually to the ‘masculine child’ were detected. These shifts represent a gradual decline in the emphasis on pedagogy as nurture, towards a heightened focus on the supposedly innate characteristics of individuals, in line with neoliberalism. Conclusions:The discussion points to some of the unintended effects on pedagogy and practice that take place when gender becomes sex. If teachers are constantly presented with the message that boys and girls learn differently due to innate genetic make-up, they may assume that whatever pedagogic strategies they employ, these will be ineffective in the face of what some educational consultants tell them are boys’ and girls’ innate genetic features. In effect, teachers are being told that biology controls learning and that social and cultural contexts, and thus their own classroom environments, cannot counter the forces of nature. Some methodological implications of studying gender as opposed to sex-group are discussed. The conclusion advocates a shift back to the study of gender as a historical, sociocultural phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper I discuss the ways in which the conference stream ethics and values manifested at the 2015 RCGP Annual Conference in Glasgow, and the ways in which it is planned for the 2016 RCGP Annual Conference in Harrogate. The 2015 RCGP had plenaries, oral presentations, breakout symposia, a debate, and a poster stream. I briefly discuss each in turn before offering a manifesto (a public statement of aims and proposed policy) for ethics and values at healthcare conferences. It is my hope that others will critique this, flesh it out further and even consider how ethics and values relate to conferences for healthcare workers of various specialities. A conference provides opportunities for ethics and values discussion that are potentially distinctive from any other kind of forum. Because conferences offer the potential for knowledge and attitudes to be revisited and revised, issues can be ‘unsettled’ in a way that permits different perspectives to be more fully discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sustainability assessment is a recent framing of impact assessment that places emphasis on delivering positive net sustainability gains now and into the future. It can be directed to any type of decision-making, can take many forms and is fundamentally pluralistic. Drawing mainly on theoretical papers along with the few case study examples published to date (from England, Western Australia, South Africa and Canada), this paper outlines what might be considered state-of-the-art sustainability assessment. Such processes must: (i) address sustainability imperatives with positive progress towards sustainability; (ii) establish a workable concept of sustainability in the context of individual decisions/assessments; (iii) adopt formal mechanisms for managing unavoidable trade-offs in an open, participative and accountable manner; (iv) embrace the pluralistic inevitabilities of sustainability assessment; and (v) engender learning throughout. We postulate that sustainability assessment may be at the beginning of a phase of expansion not seen since environmental impact assessment was adopted worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: ‘Creative learning conversations’, are methodological devices developed in two co-participative qualitative research projects exploring creativity and educational futures at the University of Exeter in England. Sources of evidence: Framed by Critical Theory, the projects, one on dance education partnership, the other on student voice and transformation, sought to open space between creativity and performativity to initiate emancipatory educational change. This was undertaken over the course of five years in English primary and secondary schools, prioritising humanising, wise creativity. Purpose: This paper re-analyses data and methodological processes to characterise and theorise creative learning conversations in terms of social spatiality and dialogue. The characteristics are: partiality, emancipation, working from the ‘bottom up’, participation, debate and difference, openness to action, and embodied and verbalised idea exchange. Main argument: This re-analysis theoretically adapts Bronfenbrenner's ecological model (The ecology of human development; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979) to situate layered engagement. Utilising Lefebvre's conceptualisation of lived space (The production of space; Wiley-Blackwell, 1991) and Bakhtin's work (Problems of Dostoevsky's poetics; ed. and trans. Caryl Emerson; Minneapolis: University of Michigan Press, 1984) on open-ended dialogue, the paper theorises creative learning conversations as producing living dialogic spaces. Conclusions: Creative learning conversations are a way of contributing to change, which moves us towards an education future fit for the twenty-first century. From a living dialogic space perspective, a creative learning conversation is the ongoing process without forced closure of those in the roles of university academic, teachers, artists, students co-participatively researching and developing knowledge of their ‘lived space’ together. Given traditional lethargy in the educational system as a whole commitment to changing education for better futures demands active involvement in living dialogic space, where our humanity both emerges from and guides our shared learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates critically the validity of the competing conceptualizations of informal employment that variously read such work as a leftover of a previous mode of production, a by-product of, alternative or complement to formal employment. Until now, the common tendency has been for commentators to universally privilege one conceptualization over the others. Reporting data collected through 861 face-to-face interviews in 11 deprived and affluent urban and rural English localities, the finding is that each conceptualization is a valid portrayal of particular types of informal employment, and that only by combining and using them all is it possible to achieve a finer-grained and comprehensive understanding of the complex and diverse nature of informal employment as a whole. The paper concludes by discussing the implications for both the way in which informal employment is conceptualized as well as how it is tackled by governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects upon the nature of a target-setting and mentoring scheme in an 11-16 school in England, through a series of retrospective interviews with students who continued into further education. It considers the extent to which the initiative impacted both upon students' formal academic achievement at 16+ and upon the subsequent longer-term aspirations of these students. Interviews with students who achieved considerable 'value-added' in their GCSE examinations suggested that the impact of mentoring was strongest amongst those students who came from homes where there was less expectation of them participating in further and higher education, and that this effect was not differentiated according to gender. The paper suggests that longer-term transformation of students' aspirations, and the challenging of gendered course and career stereotypes, will only be achieved if schools adopt a more holistic and proactive approach to careers education and to widening participation for their students, and that the absence of such proactivity will limit the longer-term gains initiated by successful mentoring activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper considers apprenticeship as a model of education that both teaches technical skills and provides the grounding for personal formation. The research presented is based on long-term anthropological fieldwork with minaret builders in Yemen, mud masons in Mali and fine-woodwork trainees in London. These case studies of on-site learning and practice support an expanded notion of knowledge that exceeds propositional thinking and language and centrally includes the body and skilled performance. Crafts – like sport, dance and other skilled physical activities – are largely communicated, understood and negotiated between practitioners without words, and learning is achieved through observation, mimesis and repeated exercise. The need for an interdisciplinary study of communication and understanding from the body is therefore underlined, and the paper suggests a way forward drawing on linguistic theory and recent neurological findings. It is argued that the validation and promotion of skilled practice as ‘intelligent’ is necessary for raising the status and credibility of apprentice-style learning within our Western systems of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a time when 'personal development planning' is being rolled out across the UK higher education sector, this paper explores young adults' inclinations to plan for the future in relation to work, relationships and other aspects of life. Although Giddens has emphasised the prevalence of strategic life planning (or the 'colonisation of the future') in all strata of contemporary society, du Bois Reymond has argued that there are important differences by social class, with young people from more privileged backgrounds more likely than their peers to engage in such life-planning activities. This paper draws on interviews with 90 young adults (in their mid-20s) to question some of these assumptions about relationships between social location and propensity to plan for the future. It shows how, within this sample at least, there was a strong association between having had a privileged 'learning career' (such as attending a high-status university and identifying as an 'academic high flier') and a disinclination to form detailed plans for the future. In part, this appeared to be related to a strong sense of ontological security and the confidence to resist what Giddens terms 'an increasingly dominant temporal outlook'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper re-considers some of the evidence for low and declining social mobility in Britain, showing that one study based on a re-analysis of cohort figures appears to have had an impact on policy-makers out of all proportion to its scale and rigour. The study claimed to show that the income of parents and children were more closely related for sons born in 1970 than in 1958, and that therefore social mobility was declining. It also claimed to show that the incomes of fathers and sons were more closely related in Britain than in countries such as Norway. However, a reconsideration of the same results in this paper leads to very different conclusions. This example is considered in detail here to illustrate the point that it is not always a good thing for research to have influence. The most important and ethical challenge facing social research in education is to improve its quality rather than its impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarises the findings of a study on second trimester abortion in England and Wales in 2005. Second trimester abortions constitute a relatively small proportion of the total number of legal abortions performed in these countries yet attract quite substantial public, and particularly media, attention. Discussion of these abortions has, however, been conducted within a context of little understanding of the factors which explain why they happen. This paper starts with a brief introduction to the policy context for provision of second trimester abortion, and a summary of existing research in the area. It then presents the results of a survey of 883 women on their own reasons why they had abortions in the second trimester. The key concept is that of "delay" and reasons for delay in seeking or obtaining abortion at five stages in the pathway to abortion. No clear, single reason emerges. Amongst the main reasons identified are uncertainty about what to do if they were pregnant, not realising they were pregnant, experiencing bleeding which may have been confused with continuing to have periods, and changes in personal circumstances. The paper ends with a consideration of the implications of the results for education, policy development and service provision. Cet article résume les conclusions d'une étude sur l'avortement du deuxième trimestre en Angleterre et au Pays de Galles en 2005. Les avortements du deuxième trimestre représentent une proportion relativement modeste du nombre total d'avortements légaux pratiqués dans ces pays, mais ils attirent beaucoup l'attention du public et en particulier des médias. Le débat sur ces avortements s'est néanmoins déroulé dans un contexte où les facteurs qui les expliquent sont mal compris. L'article commence par une brève présentation du contexte politique pour la pratique de l'avortement du deuxième trimestre, et un résumé de la recherche dans ce domaine. Il expose ensuite les résultats d'une enquête ayant demandé à 883 femmes leurs raisons pour avoir avorté au deuxième trimestre. Le concept clé est celui de « retard » et des raisons du retard de la demande et de l'obtention de l'avortement à cinq étapes de la voie vers l'avortement. Aucune raison claire et unique n'est apparue. Parmi les principales raisons identifiées, figurent l'incertitude sur la conduite à tenir en cas de grossesse, le fait que les femmes ignoraient qu'elles étaient enceintes, des pertes de sang leur ayant fait croire qu'elles continuaient à avoir leurs règles, et des changements dans leur situation personnelle. L'article s'achève en examinant les conséquences des résultats pour l'éducation, la définition des politiques et la prestation des services. En este artículo se resumen los resultados de un estudio sobre el aborto en el segundo trimestre, realizado en Inglaterra y Gales, en 2005. Los abortos de segundo trimestre constituyen una proporción relativamente pequeña del número total de abortos legales efectuados en estos países; sin embargo, atraen considerable atención pública, particularmente de los medios de comunicación. No obstante, el debate sobre estos abortos ha transcurrido en un contexto de poco entendimiento de los factores que explican por qué ocurren. Este artículo comienza con una introducción concisa al contexto de políticas para la prestación de servicios de aborto en el segundo trimestre, y un resumen de las investigaciones realizadas al respecto. Después, se presentan los resultados de una encuesta entre 883 mujeres sobre sus propios motivos para tener abortos en el segundo trimestre. El concepto clave es el de "demora" y las razones para aplazar la búsqueda u obtención de servicios de aborto en cinco etapas en la ruta hacia el aborto. No surge ninguna razón clara y única. Las principales razones mencionadas fueron: incertidumbre sobre qué hacer si estaban embarazadas, no darse cuenta de que estaban embarazadas, experimentar sangrado, que pudo haber sido confundido con continuar teniendo la regla, y cambios en circunstancias personales. Para concluir, se analizan las implicaciones de los resultados para la educación, la formulación de políticas y la prestación de servicios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposed development of extended schools in England is part of an international movement towards community-oriented schooling, particularly in areas of disadvantage. Although on the face of it this movement seems like a common-sense approach to self-evident needs, the evaluation evidence on such schools is inconclusive. In order to assess the likelihood that community-oriented schooling will have a significant impact on disadvantage, therefore, this paper analyses the rationale on which this approach to schooling appears to be based. It argues that community-oriented schools as currently conceptualised have a focus on 'proximal' rather than 'distal' factors in disadvantage, underpinned by a model of social in/exclusion which draws attention away from underlying causes. They are, therefore, likely to have only small-scale, local impacts. The paper suggests that a more wide-ranging strategy is needed in which educational reform is linked to other forms of social and economic reform and considers the conditions which would be necessary for the emergence of such a strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the potential role of creative learning in helping to create positive experiences for socially excluded young people. Noting the increased influence of the market into education and the onus engendered in the 'Third Way', which seeks to give socially and economically marginal individuals the opportunity to adapt to changing economic conditions, while neglecting the underlying causes of exclusion, the paper focuses on a group of 14-18 year olds' experience of performance-based training as part of a government-funded Creative Partnerships project in Durham/Sunderland. The paper argues that creative learning cannot provide a solution to the ills of educational disadvantage, but that its untapped potential lies in its ability to provide a 'community of practice' in which an individual can take personal ownership of his or her own learning experience in a communal context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the social factors influencing the learning of two cohorts of school students and their experience of compulsory secondary education in a city in southern England - the secondary schooling phase of a 12-year, longitudinal ethnographic study that also tracked the same children's experiences through primary schooling. We embed our report of secondary school findings within the theoretical models and understandings generated by the Identity and Learning Programme as a whole. The paper addresses three key issues. First, we trace how social influences on learning broaden as young people develop through adolescence, and illustrate why viewing learning as social activity is so important. Second, we discuss evolving processes of social differentiation in relation to gender and social class. We draw particular attention to the dangers of over-simplified models of social reproduction. Finally, we review an analysis of strategic action and identities, contrasting the differentiated experience of young people attending independent and selective schools compared with those attending non-selective comprehensive schools. Overall, this analysis seeks to complement studies of differentiated educational outcomes by suggesting possible social processes that could help to account for them. The Identity and Learning Programme, both in its secondary phase and as a whole, shows clearly how individual agency enables young people to cope with their circumstances. However, in so doing, they both reproduce elements of constraint/opportunity and construct others anew. This has significant implications for policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper reiterates the importance of studying past visibility patterns within the context of landscape archaeology. In spite of the many difficulties and criticisms revolving around this topic, efforts aimed at reconstructing these patterns and exploring their possible roles are considered to be central to the reconstruction of social landscapes. This paper extends previous GIS work done on inter-visibility by making reference to the concept of "co-visibility," by exploring the way in which visibility of any monument or set of monuments is shared with that of other monuments. A subset of round barrows from the Yorkshire Wolds (northern England) is used to illustrate this work. The study also underlines the need to address the variability which is often present in archaeological data, variability, in this case, of visibility patterns associated with the barrows due to our lack of precise chronological information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The manuscript paper map of Lancashire in Lord Burghley's Atlas is generally dated to c.1590 and is widely regarded as having been produced in the aftermath of the Armada. It is also assumed to have been concerned primarily with national security, especially with regard to the continued Catholicism of the Lancashire gentry. The map is now argued to be a copy of a vellum original constructed probably in Lancashire c.1576–1577. It was subsequently amended by Lord Burghley, and a paper copy was commissioned and kept by him. The evidence for attributing this copy to 1577–1579 is considered. Burghley made numerous corrections and annotations to the paper map, which may date from any time before his death in 1598, and which are by no means restricted to crosses allegedly noting recusants. The cartographical significance of the original vellum map lies in its being a uniquely detailed pre-Saxton exposition of the gentry, administration, religious provision and architecture of a county. The use of astronomical signs on a map to denote market days is unusual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposition that regional devolution in and of itself will lead to economic success has become deeply embedded in beliefs and policy discourses about the determinants of regional prosperity, and in turn has led to political demands for such devolution. In this paper I seek critically to examine such claims, using the case of the north-east of England as the setting for this examination. The paper begins with some introductory comments on concepts of power, regions, the reorganization of the state and of multi-level governance, and governmentality, which help in understanding the issues surrounding regional devolution. I then examine the ways in which north-east England was politically and socially constructed as a particular type of region, with specific problems, in the 1930s — a move that has had lasting significance up until the present day. Moving on some six decades, I then examine contemporary claims about the relationship between regional devolution and regional economic success, which find fertile ground in the north-east precisely due to its long history of representation as a region with a unified regional interest. I then reflect on the processes of regional planning, regional strategies and regional devolution, and their relationship to regional economic regeneration. A brief conclusion follows, emphasizing that questions remain about the efficacy of the new governmentality and about who would be its main beneficiaries in the region. The extent to which devolution would actually involve transferring power to the region and the capacity of networked forms of power within the region to counter the structural power of capital and shape central state policies remains unclear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the interaction between fieldworker and “tradition bearer” over an extended period of time, in the context of an ethnographic study of singing traditions in the southern Pennines of England. Using examples, it examines the negative as well as the positive aspects of the exchange, with particular emphasis on mutuality and reciprocity. It charts the development of key relationships and the ways in which they have come to maturity and achieved equilibrium. Careful thought is given to the role of the fieldworker in respect of active/passive, interventionist/non-interventionist stances. Aspects of performance, commercialisation, networking, promotion, and media relations are discussed. Following a consideration of ethical and moral issues, including exploitation and advocacy, the paper suggests a working model of partnership as a way forward for future productive field-based research into traditional expressive arts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A. H. Halsey has been a professorial fellow (now emeritus) at Nuffield College in Oxford University since his appointment in 1962 as Director of Oxford’s Department of Social and Administrative Studies. This paper explores his contribution to education throughout his career, as an academic and as a national and international policy advisor, and the interface between these two. Halsey worked in what he termed the ‘political arithmetic’ tradition throughout his career, with the dual tasks of documenting the state of society, and addressing social and political issues through ‘experimental social administration’, that is the field testing of social innovation and social policy in advance of national implementation. The paper focuses on Halsey’s ‘activist’ role in policy development in the UK and internationally, through his work on educational reform at the OECD and as research advisor to Crosland at the DES with the introduction of comprehensive schooling in the UK and in particular the Educational Priority Areas (EPA) programme, and traces through the impact of his work. His major contribution as one of the leading sociologists of education in the second half of the 20 th century is also discussed, but the wider impact of this aspect of his work requires a much more extensive assessment than is possible in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study considers the influence on British education (particularly schools) of Alan Bullock, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University from 1969 to 1973 and distinguished contemporary historian. It quotes extensively from Bullock’s own writings, including his developing personal views on education, and reflections on his own experiences. Following a brief biographical section, the paper reviews his work as chair of Government committees and advisory bodies, notably the Schools Council and the eponymous ‘Bullock Committee’ to consider all aspects of the teaching of English. These experiences contributed to his increasing disillusion with formal political power structures as a means of bringing about social change. I examine Bullock’s long period as a dominant figure in the administration of the University, and the consequences for schools of the changes which occurred over that time, especially the move towards admissions policies based almost entirely upon academic merit, and towards becoming a leading scientific university. St Catherine’s College, which he founded, played a significant part in these changes. Bullock’s personal views on the need to offer in schools a broader education, which would be attractive to young people searching for values of their own, were developed in his later writings and are briefly summarised. The paper speculates that he would not have been happy with the competitive and measurement-oriented system of today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ways in which sixth‐form students in Milton Keynes negotiate their identities and the symbolic significance they attach to leisure activities in the process of doing this. The paper draws upon qualitative, young‐person‐centred interviews with sixth formers in state and private schools. We address the investments of sixth formers in constructing themselves as autonomous individuals and argue that they do so from a position of middle‐class subjects‐in‐the‐making. Through an inversion of Willis’ (1977) (focus, our concern is to make explicit the implicitly middle‐class identities sixth formers were forging. We argue that the identity‐work of sixth formers plays a part in the reproduction of school‐based class inequalities by pathologising working‐class students while constructing themselves as bourgeois liberal individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past decade has seen many calls for the development of unified ‘world historical archaeologies’ of the past 500 years. While the field benefits from growing international exchanges and collaborations, retaining the diversity of regional traditions is a major and emerging challenge. As the field increasingly tests the temporal, geographical and interdisciplinary limits of archaeological perspectives, engaging with the diversity of modern material, these complexities remain little discussed, and the situations and contingencies of disciplinary narratives, priorities and interactions remain unproblematized. Exploring these matters, this paper considers transatlantic interactions between British and North American traditions of historical archaeology over the past two decades, journeying between two garden landscapes – in Annapolis and Bristol. After considering Mark Leone's 1984 study of the William Paca garden in Annapolis, Maryland, and its subsequent reinterpretations, the paper discusses an eighteenth-century ‘eclectic’ garden at Goldney in Bristol. The paper argues that situational and ‘symmetrical’, rather than interpretative, approaches to archaeological material would aid the development of multi-vocal and inclusive ‘world historical archaeologies’, acknowledging and celebrating the archaeological complexities that are encountered in the past and the disciplinary present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One way to manage marking error, in a large-scale educational testing context, is to establish a mechanism through which appeals can be lodged. While, at one level, this seems to offer a straightforward technical solution to the problem of marking error, it can also result in unintended consequences, with political, social or educational ramifications. It is therefore important to monitor the operation of any appeal system, to determine how effectively it meets its objectives. The present paper was based on an evaluation of the system which operates for National Curriculum testing in England. Four underlying objectives were identified: the measurement objective, the political objective, the educational objective and the psychological objective. Although there is reason to believe that such goals can be achieved through appeal systems, there are major threats to achieving them, many of which appear to be inevitable. These threats are examined within the paper and implications for policy and practice are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the use of a systematic review to explore the impact of daily mathematics lessons in England on enhancing pupil confidence and competence in early mathematics. The review process identified 18 key papers. An in-depth analysis of these indicated that there was some evidence that the introduction of daily mathematics lessons, as part of the National Numeracy Strategy in England, has led to some improvement in pupil confidence and competence in early mathematics. However, the analysis also highlighted some shortcomings in the way this approach has impacted on classroom practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the system of banding used in England by the former Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) in order to seek to obtain an intake to secondary schools that was balanced in terms of ability. The first part of the paper provides a brief history of the system of banding, how it was informed by verbal reasoning testing and how it was subsequently based on the results of a specially constructed reading test. The second part of the paper examines the extent of banding after the abolition of the ILEA. Whilst LEA-wide banding is currently only used by three LEAs, many schools in inner London that are responsible for their own admissions (i.e. voluntary-aided and foundation schools) have introduced banding. The problems associated with banding at a school level are discussed and it is argued that banding at the level of the LEA is likely to be more equitable, more transparent and more likely to reduce social segregation; in addition, there is some evidence to suggest that the ILEA banding system resulted in a higher percentage of parents achieving their stated first preference school than more recent admissions policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing learning programmes to enhance the formation of generic skills is an international concern in education and training policy. This paper provides a broad survey of the development of generic skills policy in England from 1975 to 2002, drawing on both the economic and educational literature. It demonstrates that, despite an evident demand for generic skills in the English economy, successive waves of education and training policy intended to stimulate the supply of such skills have failed to deliver the desired results. Such failure is accounted for using a policy instruments and institutions framework. This suggests that the failure of generic skills policy can be attributed to a combination of weak policy design, the interaction of generic skills policy with other market-led reforms of education and training in England, and broader exogenous socio-economic trends. The paper concludes that current initiatives to develop key skills for all 16-19 learners in England are unlikely to succeed without substantial changes in the current education policy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a multilevel modelling approach to the analysis of social segregation in schools. Using data on free school meal eligibility it shows that the underlying variation between schools for the period 1994-1999 has increased. It also shows that the change is greater for selective than non-selective local education authorities (LEAs). It is suggested that the approach of this paper can be applied generally to the modelling of social segregation at institution level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Diversification has been identified as a common response to the agricultural crisis of the 1980s and to the changing ethos of agricultural policy in the closing decade of the twentieth century. In particular, farmers operating large-scale farms have been prominent in adopting this approach, just as they were innovative across a range of farming practices in the expansion and modernisation of their agricultural production in earlier decades. Can we identify serial diversifiers within this sector of the farming community, who are disposed to react in an entrepreneurial fashion to the changing fortunes of agriculture? The paper draws on results from a survey of large-scale commercial farmers in South East England and, by examining the sequence in which various forms of diversification were adopted, identifies a temporal pattern as farmers responded to the fluctuating fortunes of the agricultural industry over the past thirty years. But has the potential for diversification been exhausted? The paper also considers future prospects for diversification within the large-scale, commercially oriented sector of the agricultural industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coming of LEAs in 20th-century England presented an administrative challenge and an information explosion as the local state worked to meet both local and national educational policy demands. This paper will analyse the ways in which the organisation of knowledge was enlisted into the service of local education policy-making. It will argue that the collection of data by the local state involved both the construction of knowledge and its ordering. These processes in turn involved the creation of an 'education archive', an archive in which ideas about pupils and communities were embedded and genealogies of identity created. The paper will be illustrated through a case study of Birmingham LEA. In particular, use will be made of the Education Census, 1907-1970. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the possible impact of market forces on educational attainment in secondary schools in England and Wales. One of the main arguments made by market advocates in favour of extending programmes of school choice was that this would drive up standards. However, despite 12 years of relevant experience in the UK, it remains very difficult to test this claim. This paper examines some practical difficulties before presenting three possible models for considering changes in educational standards over time. The results are inconclusive, possibly even contradictory. The measures, such as GCSE and A levels, extending back to 1988 and beyond, have clearly increased in prevalence. In terms of these measures, students from state-funded education have also reduced the 'gap' relative to those from fee-paying institutions. However, it is not clear that either of these developments is market related. In addition, there is no evidence yet that these improvements indicate any breakage in the strong link between the socio-economic background of students and their school outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the experiences of a hitherto invisible and possibly increasing population in England, namely young homeless lesbian, gay and bisexual people. It draws on preliminary findings from research into transitions for young lesbian, gay and bisexual people that took homelessness as one theoretically informed focus. The paper explores two main questions. Firstly, how far and in what ways does sexuality play a role in a housing crisis? Secondly, why have the experiences of young people who may be questioning their sexuality been neglected in service provision and in the mainstream literature on leaving home and homelessness? Qualitative and quantitative evidence is brought together to suggest that a sizeable proportion of young homeless people may be lesbian, gay and bisexual, and that issues of sexuality have had an important bearing on their circumstances. At a time when it may be easier than before for a person to come out at a younger age, the risks associated with constructing identity and lifestyles against the norm should not be underestimated. Accounts of sexuality that ignore wider material circumstances do so at their peril. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research-based paper attempts to describe a continuum of delivery choices available to school and college managers by which Key Skills can be introduced as part of Curriculum 2000. It describes the pressure to integrate, the illusion of contextualisation and the consequent pre-eminence of staff competence as a determining influence on the effectiveness of the delivery structure. It describes some problems associated with integration and the relative efficiency and effectiveness of discrete and integrated delivery. The paper goes on to define a continuous array of mixed modes of delivery, the levels of support required to underpin them, the external influences that impinge on the process of their selection and the effectiveness of monitoring and tracking systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a well-known twentieth-century monument to examine contradictions in the material record and how they might be accommodated in protection and interpretative schemes at this and similar sites where contested space is represented. The archaeology of the later twentieth century at, and immediately outside, Greenham Common Airbase (Berkshire, England) is described as unconventional and atypical in its associations, mysterious and disquieting in its later Cold War context, as well as outlandish and unorthodox in what it can hope to achieve in terms of public perception and interpretation. Protest is the stuff of everyday life, yet it is rarely and barely recognised in heritage interpretation, particularly where opposition was directly aimed at the establishment view or government policy. This paper explores these related issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of encouraging small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to improve their environmental performance is now well recognised. This paper evaluates the contribution of the business-support network to the delivery of a range of services designed to encourage SMEs to adopt more environmentally sound practices by examining the work of an environmental non-governmental organisation working in the North West of England: Sustainability Northwest (SNW). SNW has attempted to catalogue, promote and co-ordinate the services provided by the business-support network in its area. The focus of this development has been the establishment of the Environmental Initiatives Database (ENID). This has provided further evidence that the bespoke, solution-driven services required by SMEs are not readily available. Furthermore, the increase in mutual awareness among members of the business support network, facilitated by ENID, appears to have done little to foster an atmosphere of greater cooperation and integration of services. In conclusion, the paper discusses possible reasons for this apparent impasse by outlining the rationale for a new initiative to enhance co-ordination among members of the business-support network: the Green Competitive Edge for the North West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Poetry Research Project 1998 continues work begun in 1982 which analysed the practice of secondary school teachers when teaching poetry and their attitudes towards it. Then some 170 teachers in a single Local Education Authority (LEA) completed a lengthy questionnaire and a number were interviewed. The information gained by this means highlighted both good practice and a number of problem areas which teachers encountered. Sixteen years after that first survey, and following considerable change in the teaching of English and of poetry as a result of such initiatives as the National Curriculum, the survey was repeated with a group of over one hundred teachers from the same LEA. This, the first of two papers, reports mainly on teachers' attitudes to poetry, particularly the reading, writing and discussion of poetry and upon their concerns. The second paper, to be published in the Oxford Review of Education, March 2000, considers the effects of the National Curriculum, of SATs and of changes in examinations at 16+. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational use of the Internet forms one of the cornerstones of Labour government policy, primarily via the construction of the 'National Grid for Learning' which aims to connect every school in the UK to the Internet by 2002. In this paper we report on the extent to which schools are already buying into information and communications technology (ICT) and in particular the Internet, effectively examining the foundations upon which the Learning Grid is being constructed. Via an empirical study of 150 current school websites we will argue that schools adopt a variety of approaches to the Internet and Worldwide Web depending upon the technological and institutional capital of the school, and that far from being utilised solely for educational purposes, the Internet provides an additional tool through which schools seek to reaffirm or reconstruct their existing institutional identities with varying levels of success. The paper concludes by adopting a semiotic framework for analysing the differential use of the Internet by educational institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Although the 'Third World' is not a formal subject and plays a minimal role in the National Curriculum Orders for England, this paper argues that in its constructions of 'self, 'world' and 'other' it is a potent element of the English school curriculum. Using ethnographic data from two schools and theoretical insights from post-colonialism, development studies and social theory, the paper conceptualises its communication in terms of debates around difference. Three perspectives are identified through which the 'Third World' is communicated in the curriculum--development, charity and multiculturalism. These are analysed in relation to their constructions of difference. The paper suggests that contradictions between and within them reflect a process of change in which a more critical knowledge of the 'Third World' in the curriculum is emerging. The paper concludes with some observations on the factors constraining this process and some recommendations for policy and further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past decade has witnessed the publication of a growing number of important ethnographic studies investigating the schooling experiences of Black students. Their focus has largely been upon student--teacher relations during the students' last few years of compulsory education. What they have highlighted is the complexity of racism and the varied nature of Black students' experiences of schooling. By drawing upon data from a year-long ethnographic study of an inner-city, multi-ethnic primary school, this paper aims to compliment these studies in two ways. Firstly the paper will broaden the focus to examine how student peer-group relations play an integral role, within the context of student--teacher relations, in shaping many Black students' schooling experiences. By focussing on African / Caribbean infant boys, it will be shown how student--teacher relations on the one hand, and peer-group relations on the other, form a continuous feed-back loop; the products of each tending to exacerbate and inflate the other. Secondly, by concentrating on infant children, the paper will assess the extent to which these resultant social processes and practices are also evident for Black pupils at the beginning of their school careers--at the ages of five and six. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the considerable media time devoted to the teachers' industrial dispute in England and Wales during 1985-86 little or no effort was made to represent the conduct of the dispute in particular school or through the experiences of individual teachers. The impression conveyed was of a uniform type of 'action' and similar effects in different schools, although some were reported as being 'harder hit' than others, that is more days on strike. In reality, although related to a set of general conditions affecting teachers' work, the dispute was enacted and experienced very differently in different schools and localities. The conduct of the dispute in particular school emerged from and was related to a variety of 'local' factors. In this paper some of these institutional variations are examined. The paper consists of two sections. The first attempts to describe and analyse recent structural changes affecting the conditions of work of teaching and thus provide a context for the 1985-86 industrial action in schools. The second section explores teachers' interpretations of and involvements in the industrial action in particular schools. The data on which the paper is based were collected as part of a more general research study on school organization and micro-politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a detailed account of fertility levels and trends in England and Wales since 1938, with a briefer coverage of a much longer time-span. The paper is concerned both with the measurement of fertility and with understanding the observed fertility behaviour. We lament and correct the failure of demographers to apply measurement tools available since the 1950s to the analysis of fertility in England and Wales, with a particular emphasis on adjustment of period measures and period parity progression ratios and show how some of the grosser errors of analysis and interpretation might have been avoided by earlier use of these approaches. We also relate these estimates to more recent ones. Once a clearer account of trends has been established, the paper goes on to reinterpret and explain the baby boom and baby bust. The conclusion looks at future prospects for fertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Assessment grades are ‘estimates’ of ability or performance and there are many reasons why an awarded grade might not meet a candidate's expectations, being either better or poorer than anticipated. Although there may be some obvious reasons for grade discrepancies, such as a lack of preparation or under-performance, there are a number of technical issues to consider, such as the potential effects of random measurement error, human error and grade misclassification. However, traditionally, there has been limited information available to the public about such issues. Purpose: This study formed part of a two-year investigation into the reliability of public examination outcomes in England and the current paper explores participants’ narratives relating to one of the themes that emerged from the study of public perceptions of assessment reliability. It examines how individuals interpreted and rationalised their examination results, particularly those that failed to meet expectations, and discusses the impact that such results may have on individuals’ academic self-concept. Sample and method: Ten focus groups were conducted across five qualification user groups: two each with employees, employers, teachers, trainee teachers, and job-seekers (74 participants in total). A flexible discussion schedule was employed to explore participants’ experiences and perceptions of assessment reliability. Main findings: Participants tended to internalise ‘blame’ for results that were poorer than expected by constructing explanations that focused on a perceived lack of preparation, ability or knowledge. These experiences appeared to have a negative impact on individuals' academic self-concept. Secondary school teacher participants shared experiences of marking, technical and standard setting errors, and were more aware than other qualification user groups of the external factors that can impact on assessment outcomes. Conclusion: Examination results that are poorer than expected can threaten individuals’ academic self-concept, confidence in their ability, and influence their study and career intentions and opportunities. A better understanding of educational measurement issues may offer individuals a more informed framework for understanding their examination results, especially where results do not meet expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is widely recognized that healthy ecosystems can provide considerable benefits to people, including food, timber, freshwater, protection from floods and much of what we call quality of life. A global review of these ecosystem services carried out as part of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) provided a framework for national and local studies. Using the MEA approach, this paper reviews the ecosystem services provided by the Somerset Levels and Moors wetland system in southwest England. This wetland provides a series of important services that are beneficial locally, regionally and globally, including grazing for cattle, carbon sequestration, flood water storage, recreation and archaeology. Some services are synergistic and reinforcing; for example, maintaining wet conditions supports wetland bird life that maintains biological diversity, attracts tourists, protects archaeological artefacts and reduces CO2 emissions; raising water levels to or above the ground leads to net greenhouse gas uptake by the wetland. Other services are potentially conflicting, for example raising water levels may reduce potential flood water storage and increase methane emissions. Comparison of the services of the wetland with those of drier habitats reveals for example that carbon sequestration, bird habitat provision and hay production is greater in wetlands, whilst grazing quality may decline and plant diversity may be reduced in the short term and distributions of disease vectors may be altered by wetland restoration through raising water levels. Management decisions affecting wetlands may necessitate a trade-off of ecosystem services. Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz Citation Acreman, M.C., Harding, R.J., Lloyd, C., McNamara, N.P., Mountford, J.O., Mould, D.J., Purse, B. V., Heard, M.S., Stratford, C.J. and Dury, S.J., 2011. Trade-off in ecosystem services of the Somerset Levels and Moors wetlands. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 56 (8), 1543–1565. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]