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This paper critically examines the White Paper, Opportunity for all, published by the UK Government's Department for Education (DfE) in March 2022. This has a number of recommendations for schools in an attempt to 'level up'. In particular, there is a promise to deliver 'a fully trust-led system with a single regulatory approach [and] a clear role for every part of the school system'. Such a system provides a serious challenge to the way that Religious Education (RE) structures in England are currently built: in short, when Local Authorities no longer have schools under their control – what is the point of a SACRE? Arguing that the 'local settlement' for RE serves two purposes – a curricular purpose and support and monitoring purpose – this paper will suggest that future RE curricula will be planned at the Trust level, with the monitoring and support functions being moved from the local to the regional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Several cross-sectional studies have investigated the incidence of urinary Congo-red dye positivity in women with preeclampsia (PE), compared to unaffected pregnancies, and reported very high sensitivity and low false positive rate in the diagnosis of PE. Objective: To determine the performance of the urinary Congo-red dot paper test at 35–37 weeks’ gestation in the prediction of delivery with PE at ≤2 and >2 weeks after assessment. Methods: This was a prospective observational study in women attending for a routine hospital visit at 35+0 to 36+6 weeks’ gestation in a maternity hospital in England. Urine samples were collected and the Congo-red dot paper test was used to assess the degree of Congo-red dye positivity. The test uses a scoring system from 1 to 8 and the higher the score the greater the degree of Congo-red dye positivity. We examined and compared the degree of Congo-red dye positivity in the groups that delivered with PE at ≤2 and >2 weeks with those that remained normotensive. Reproducibility was assessed by examining the inter- and intra-observer reliability of scoring on stored images with the researchers blinded to previous results. Results: The study population of 2140 women included 46 (2.1%) that subsequently developed PE (2.1%). The urinary Congo-red dot test was positive in 8.3% (1/12) and 2.9% (1/34) that delivered with PE at ≤2 and >2 weeks from assessment and in 0.2% (4/2094) of the unaffected pregnancies when the cutoff for Congo-red dye positivity was ≥5. The respective values when the cutoff used was ≥3 were 66.7%, 23.5%, and 16.5%, respectively. The intraclass correlation coefficient for the inter-observer reliability was 0.926 (95% CI 0.890–0.953, p<.0001) and Cohen's kappa coefficient for the intra-observer reliability was 0.904, p<.0001. Conclusions: The performance of the urinary Congo-red dot paper test at 35–37 weeks’ gestation in the prediction of PE is very poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In principle, it is possible for a couple to get married in a register office in England or Wales for £127 (including the cost of giving notice and a certificate). In this article, we draw on empirical research to show how limited this option is in practice. Its availability is constrained by the scarcity of register offices limited slots for weddings, and the addition of other fees not provided for in the regulations. Its accessibility is often not obvious from local authorities' websites, and the administration of such a wedding varies hugely, with some local authorities treating it as a no-frills legal procedure, and others regarding it as a significant ceremony that is incomplete without music or a reflective introductory speech by the superintendent registrar – even if the couple wanted neither. With significant numbers of couples having a register office wedding because the marriage ceremony they choose to have to reflect their beliefs is not legally binding, there is a need to address these issues of availability, accessibility and administration so that couples are not put off or discriminated against. Further research is also needed to explore how these issues impact those with limited means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nineteenth century witnessed the creation of a 'paper Panopticon' designed to capture information about offenders in England, especially those who were transported to Australia. This article considers the effectiveness of this new record-keeping system and asks whether convicts had some agency within it. These questions are explored through a macroscopic analysis of the recording of convict ages in nineteenth-century England and Australia, made possible by the Digital Panopticon project. By using the methodological opportunities opened up by digital technologies, we can test the accuracy of historical records in new ways, and in the process develop a better understanding of the encounter between state authority and convict agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Digital Poverty (DP) in England by adopting the DP Alliance's theoretical framework that includes both Individual Determinants (individual capability and motivation) and Circumstantial Determinants (conditions of action). Such a framework is interpreted as an expression of Strong Structuration Theory (SST), by situating the connection between social structure and human agency in an intertwined relationship. We focus on new potential vulnerabilities that are connected to DP in England by drawing on a survey conducted on a randomised stratified sample (n = 1988) of parents aged between 20–55 with children at school. Exploring parents' experience in the COVID-19 era, we identified economic factors and having children with disabilities as important predictors connected to Digital Poverty. Additional socio-demographic traits (such as age and education), parental status, lifestyles and digital behaviours also play a role in predicting some of the determinants linked to Digital Poverty. This paper adds to SST by empirically exploring how individuals use the Internet according to their metabolised embodiment of external determinants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of the "signs and tokens" described in alchemical texts relate to colour, from the Crow's Bill signifying putrefaction to the philosophical solvents disguised as Green Lions, Red Dragons, and Grey Wolves. While the process of yellowing, or citrination, often appears in medieval recipes, it seems to have interested commentators less than the more familiar processes of blackening, whitening, or reddening. Yet beyond these canonical colours, yellowness turns out to be ubiquitous in alchemy and its associated craft practices, both in Latin texts and vernacular translations. This paper uses source criticism and experimental reconstruction to interrogate the role of yellowness at the beginning, middle, and end of practice, focusing on fifteenth- and sixteenth-century England. As starting ingredients, yellow vitriol and litharge offered the potential for transmutation but also posed problems for identification and preparation. As an intermediate stage, yellowness offered promising signs of future success, in the form of dramatic colour changes and unexpected products. But yellowness also offered an end in itself, as appears from the many citrination processes attested in recipe collections which aimed to imitate the properties of gold – suggesting that yellowing was prized as a significant indicator of chemical change across diverse areas of craft practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The housing market in England is in crisis, in terms of both availability and costs of housing. Although it is not a solution for everyone, many advocates of the tiny house movement promote developing small houses that are financially affordable and environmentally sustainable. There is limited research on tiny houses, and the hidden costs of developing this type of housing have not been investigated. This paper addresses this gap through exploring the perceived transaction costs associated with developing tiny houses in England, and how these costs can be reduced. It was found that there are considerable transaction costs in different stages of the development process, including searching for information, finding suitable land, obtaining planning permission, and constructing the house. The paper concludes that tiny houses require enabling legislation in planning policy so that planning permission is easier to obtain. Also, awareness of tiny houses needs to be raised so that local planning authorities and the public understand the concept better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an account of the everyday workplace learning of cycle technicians. Derived from an ethnography of working cultures and practices at a bike shop in the North of England, this paper rests on a critical reading of Communities of Practice theory in order to explore the complex and heterogeneous learning of cycle technicians. Drawing on a series of vignettes constructed from the ethnographic data, the paper demonstrates the variety of experiences of both formal and informal learning that characterise the trajectories of new cycle technicians as they enter the industry. In addition to providing an account of a qualified and specialist workforce that is under-represented in extant research literature, the paper also provides an exemplar for ethnographic research as a vehicle for exploring working practices through a Communities of Practice lens, using the paradigmatic theoretical elements of the theory. The paper concludes by arguing that for cycle technicians, and perhaps other occupations as well, Communities of Practice theory can generate rich and complex accounts that do justice to the richness and complexity of the craft and practice being observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs data from the 2021 UK census to initially explore sub-state (English, Welsh) national identities among minority ethnic groups. This shows that these identities remain much more exclusive of people in minority groups than is a British identity, and that this exclusion is particularly marked with respect to English identity. The analysis then builds on this observation using similar data to examine English identification among the White British ‘majority’ in a ‘superdiverse’ city – London. Attributes which are typically shared by London boroughs in which identification as English deviates most from the national average, and multi-variable analysis which considers the ethnic structure of the borough in which an individual lives alongside other key factors (age, education, social class) suggest differences in identification between people living in boroughs that are characterised by more established and extensive ethnic diversity and those in boroughs transitioning from a previously more homogeneous (white) ethnic structure. In exploring how the articulation of a specific national identity might relate to ethnically-diverse or ‘superdiverse’ contexts, the paper uniquely contributes to recent research which calls for a stronger focus on how people who do not belong to migrant-minority groups might respond to living in such contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contributes to research that examines how state actors support the financialisation of land via the development process and how planning systems have facilitated the accumulation of privately-owned land-based wealth. The empirical focus is the specialist residential land promoter sector in England. This is a particularly appropriate case study because of how this sector of the land market has become integrated with the planning system via crisis-driven planning reform that has facilitated the commodification of planning risk and the financialisation of land. The paper examines the business models and strategies of land promoters to show how they have been shaped both by the politics of planning reform as well as the financial objectives of their funders. The research is in dialogue with international literature on the relationship between planning and the land market, how this relationship is shaped by risk and uncertainty, and the role of state regulation in reshaping the physical environment in accordance with financial logics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to make a conceptual contribution to the role of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) in regard to global education within state global heritage (multicultural) schools – using England as a representative example – in an age characterised by epistemological, historical and cultural securitisation. This paper recruits ideas and concepts taken from Lefebvre and Bourdieu in a discussion focussed on the IBO's potential role in resistance to the dominant neoliberal imaginary and cultural securitisation. However, in order to be a force for democratisation, the IBO must itself democratise through a reconceptualisation of the school spaces it operates in/produces. It will also involve a process of reassessing its notion/positioning of what constitutes symbolic (and therefore valuable) cultural capital. This will mean untethering global education from the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. This paper highlights the possibility of a new space for global education, operationalised by moving beyond the 'IB school' to the potential of the more informal IB supported school. It is argued here that the IBO has the potential to galvanise a new wave of inclusive global education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Menasseh ben-Israel petitioned to re-admit Jews to England in 1655. Historians have been aware that Menasseh utilized the ideas employed by Simone Luzzatto in Luzzatto’s efforts to avoid the expulsion of the Jews from Venice. Luzzatto employed the humanist language of reason of state, while Menasseh’s writings were all exegetical in nature prior to 1655. How did Menasseh, a messianist whose writings focused on explaining Jewish thought, who had shown no interest in humanist political discourse, come to employ the humanist ideas of reason of state popular in the mid-seventeenth century? Furthermore, Luzzatto’s petition is a meek request to allow Jews to continue to reside in the Venetian ghetto, while Menasseh addresses Cromwell as an ambassador of one nation to the leader of another boldly requesting to be admitted to England without disabilities. How can we explain this dramatic change in tone? This paper traces the links, as well as the crucial differences, between these two petitions by examining several other petitions on behalf of Atlantic Jewry as well as the international developments in the intervening period. This paper argues that these factors were critical in the development of Menasseh’s thought as well as his choice of language and tone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advances debates at the intersection of geographies of children, youth and families, digital geographies, and geographies of home. We argue that social, seasonal and limited time are vitally important for understanding the new landscape between gaming and gambling and have wider analytical purchase for geographers. This paper reveals parenting practices connected to the multi-billion-dollar industry of paid-for currency in digital games used to access gambling style systems and chance-based mechanisms such as loot boxes. We use this timely example to develop new digital geographies of home from original interviews with families based in England on their everyday lived experiences of gambling-style systems in digital games as well as data from video ethnographies with children and young people and interviews with international game designers. This paper challenges current understandings by examining how parents make sense of gambling-related harms and demonstrates the spatial and temporal dynamics of purchasing decisions, rules, and associated conflicts in domestic space. We argue these systems in digital games shape and are shaped by family geographies. This paper concludes by outlining its relevance for the social and health sciences at a time of intense legislative interest in the increasingly blurred space between gaming and gambling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex and enduring mental health problems require greater treatment resources, usually in the form of multidisciplinary support, including providing psychological therapies. This paper reports on an NHS, tertiary-level specialist psychotherapy service offering Psychodynamic therapies with longer-term, exploratory transdiagnostic approaches to support complexity and sustained personality functioning. This paper adopts a naturalistic study design evaluating the effectiveness of Psychodynamic therapy using pre- and post-outcomes across a 10-year period. A total of n = 474 participants self-report pre- and post-outcome measures were used as the marker of effectiveness along with therapist assessments during intake and engagement. The findings showed that Psychodynamic therapy was effective in reducing psychological distress based on service-user self-report and therapist assessments. While intake scores varied by socio-demographic factors, the rate of change across most groups was similar. There were several limitations relating to data quality and completeness which reflect the naturalistic design. Despite the limits of a naturalistic design, this study provides evidence of support for the place of Psychodynamic therapies within NHS mental health care, catering to those with complex and enduring mental health problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve education performance at home, countries cross nationally policy-borrow from jurisdictions ranked highly in international league tables. This paper examines a practical example of one such instance of policy borrowing, Teaching for Mastery (TfM). Over a six year period, interviews were conducted with teachers working in primary schools in the East Midlands region of England. The focus of these interviews was to explore informants' experiences of enacting TfM and their analysis of the UK government's motives for undertaking this borrowing. Applying Baudrillard's ideas around hyperreality and image to these data indicated two key themes: 1) TfM discourses masked crucial aspects of the original policy, with the result that 2) TfM became non-relational to the original and thus hyperreal. The paper suggests strategies that might mitigate against policy becoming hyperreal and concludes that government must carefully consider its motives for engaging in the borrowing process from the outset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the policy process around initial teacher education (ITE) during the pandemic of 2020 was experienced by the leaders of ITE programmes across England.Education policies,it is argued, are solutions to perceived problems, revealing latent values that drive action. Group interviews with leaders of ITE programmes across the education sector, focused on the lived experience of ITE policy developments during the first wave of the COVID-19 period (March to July 2020). The analysis drew upon three policy drivers derived from an examination of teacher education policy (prior to the pandemic) in four 'high performing' English-speaking countries (according to PISA). The three policy drivers: the economy and global competitiveness (the rationale for change); accountability and regulatory framework (the technologies for change); and the core purpose of schooling and teacher professionalism (the values underpinning change); show how the temporary policy shift soon reverted back to previous priorities. Agency and autonomy were experienced by teacher educators which enabled them to exercise expert judgment, but there were also the significant 'gaps' in the expertise of policymakers. The research reveals how values influences policy formation, creating divisions within England's ITE community, and isolating it from international policy trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article builds on the foundations provided by the History of Parliament Trust, utilising previously unconsidered documents from the papers of the Dukes of Hamilton to chart and analyse the conduct of parliamentary elections in later eighteenth-century Lancaster. It shows that these elections were more contentious than previously thought; the full range of political issues at play in these elections, and the engagement of the freemen electorate with these; and forms of electoral management and organisation in use that were not known in the borough until now. It places these new insights in the context of Lancaster's electoral politics through the long eighteenth-century, and draws out developments in this period that played an important role in the borough's nineteenth-century elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philosophy for Children is a pedagogical approach practised worldwide. Although well known for its contribution to democratic teaching and learning its contribution to critical research is relatively unknown. In this paper we present the use of a Community of Enquiry (CoE), as conceptualised in Philosophy for Children, as a qualitative research method that foregrounds participant voice. Framed through Freirean critical pedagogy and social transformation, we present research undertaken with primary pre-service teachers in England, exploring their emerging teacher identity, and detail the method of how a CoE was enabled. We conclude and advocate that a CoE aligns with a research axiology concomitant with ethical critical practices and argue for an environment that enables the researcher, and participants, to generate data collaboratively and collectively through democratic dialogue. Finally, our findings show that a CoE can have much to offer qualitative critical scholars beyond its originally intended pedagogical contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ways in which working-class boys negotiated the content and delivery of physical education at a 'typical', white working-class secondary school located in the north of England. The study utilised a quasi-ethnographical case-study design conducted over a non-continuous three-month period involving covert and overt participant observation, guided conversations, and group interviews. A total of 48 key stage 4 (Year 10 and 11) male pupils were selected to take part in eight focus groups following the observation of approximately 340 key stage four (KS4) pupils in PE lessons. The data revealed that the vast majority of these male pupils arrived at the school with a narrow sporting repertoire as result of the upbringings and lifestyles made up of 'traditional' working-class activities such as football and fishing. Their strong predisposition for recreational involvement in these activities impacted directly on what the young males would, and could, do during PE at school and in this way were able to influence (to lesser and greater degrees) the content and delivery of their PE experiences. The findings of the study, therefore, go some way explaining how PE in many working-class secondary schools may come to influence the long standing, class-related adult participation anomalies that continue to exist in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests have given renewed impetus to campaigns against racial inequality. In education, the issue of curriculum – and particularly the history curriculum – has been at the centre of campaigns to "decolonise the curriculum". While barriers to the teaching of "diverse" British histories in England's classrooms have long been recognised, relatively little research has been done on the crucial role of history teacher educators and teacher training in developing a diverse profession, practice, and curriculum. This paper seeks to address these gaps through analysis of interviews with history teacher educators, trainee history teachers and key stakeholders. In particular, it explores the responses of history teacher educators to recent calls for curriculum reform, charts how these demands for change have influenced thinking and practice in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in history and identifies ongoing challenges to the development of more inclusive curriculum and pedagogic practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current police recruitment research is often focused on disproportionate outcomes based upon identity-based categories such as race, ethnicity, or gender. National government statistics and political discourse support this research agenda, indicating a significant recruitment gap in representation in England and Wales. This gap has resulted in the design and use of 'in-house' positive action initiatives for police recruitment, with little examination of their impact or otherwise. To understand this research gap, this paper applies a labour market lens to police recruitment. This study contributes to existing research by exploring how police recruits navigate the recruitment process using their social resources. It represents 27 in-depth, participant-led, long-form interviews within an English Constabulary, informed by the theory of Social Embeddedness. It explores how candidates who did not receive positive action navigated and perceived their recruitment process, whilst using their friends, family, and acquaintances for both instrumental and pastoral support. This is contrasted against those candidates that utilised positive action initiatives. The results illustrate developed social embeddedness within police recruitment in the researched constabulary. Recruits who drew heavily upon social contacts experienced instrumental and pastoral support throughout the recruitment process. Some stages of recruitment were more socially embedded than others, resulting in some specific, instrumental advantages. The nature of this social support evidences how disproportionality can be generated in police recruitment. Candidates using positive action initiatives experienced negative, pastoral social support, and temporal instrumental support – illuminating a very different journey during their presocialisation into policing. This finding underpins evidentially informed positive action interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By integrating mobilities research with practice theories, this paper uncovers the interdependencies between tourism, transport and mobilities that allows for a more comprehensive analysis of individual mobile practices and their connections with other mobilities and tourism practices at a destination. By analysing train travel as a performance, practice entity (materials, meanings and competencies) and practice bundle, we also bridge the structure–agency gap in transport and tourism research. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork on three longdistance branch lines in Northern England, we unpack train mobilities in the tourism context to show the interconnectedness of and the competition between seemingly unrelated practices. Our findings reveal the structures and dynamics that shape rural train travel within the tourism context. Moreover, train mobility is transformed through various micro-changes that occur through tourists' performances and changes in the practice elements, such as the presence of skilled or unskilled travellers. We furthermore show that train tourism is an interlocked system of what we have termed 'multimodal mobility bundles' involving the interplay and competition between different mobilities and practices and the role of governance in shaping these dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractEthnic inequalities in housing in England are entrenched and long-standing. Minority ethnic groups are more likely than the White British population to experience housing disadvantage and deprivation. In recent years, little attention has focused on what steps housing policy is taking to promote race equality. This study fills this gap in knowledge. Focusing on four key housing policy interventions, it traces the policy approach to race equality in England since 2000. A paradigmatic shift is revealed. Previously, policy actively promoted race equality. Inequalities remained but progress was made tackling disadvantage. In contrast, the contemporary policy approach is characterised by non-intervention. This shift is related to the retreat from multiculturalism and increasing influence of postracial notions about the fading legacy of racism, allied with neoliberal understandings of inequality as the product of individual responsibility and choice. In conclusion, the paper calls for research to scrutinise these presumptions and explore whether policy is following a similar trajectory in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A previous paper on RIS3 assessed its potential to influence growth strategies and their delivery. It held that significant further investment work was needed in tools and techniques, data and intelligence, and innovation in leadership capacity and capabilities. It further asserted that such investment was needed to be part of a commitment to a long-run learning and evaluation process. This paper considers synergies and dissonances between these national approaches to development in England. In particular, it explores how far RIS represents a step change from previous approaches to innovation-led growth. Alternatively, is it more accurately an incremental facelift and rebranding of previous orthodoxies? Does it add value to or detract from national policy for England? What roles might the approach play in the so-called ‘devolution revolution’? Can the (small scale, ‘light touch’) Advisory Hub approach support and promote those roles? What, if anything, might the England experience have for other nations and regions of Europe? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing rates of gender-based and sexual abuse, coupled with a rise in misogynistic influencers online, have become a growing issue in UK and Irish schools. This paper reports on the findings of a postlockdown study in England and Ireland that piloted workshops on gender-based and sexual violence. While most student responses were positive, we found that roughly 10% of girls and 20% of boys were resistant. In this paper, we explore these critical responses, focusing specifically on male resistance. Our findings indicate that new strategies, which avoid the concept of 'toxic masculinity', are needed to help boys move from defensive to empathetic engagements. We also find that the neoliberal, meritocratic ethos of many schools has fostered a problematic framing of gender-based violence as genderneutral. We conclude that it is vital to adopt an intersectional, whole-school approach to educating about sexual violence, which acknowledges male victimhood, while also emphasizing gendered privileges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the risks to Early School Leaving (ESL) as perceived by young people who are Early Leavers or at-risk of Early Leaving, and their educators in one region in South England. It draws on 38 interviews and focuses groups with 39 young people and 53 adults working in various roles across 11 educational settings including mainstream and specialist schooling, alternative learning provision and vocational education and training, as well as the local authority. Guided by a holistic framework to examine risks to ESL [Brown et al. (2021. "A Conceptual Framework for Researching the Risks to Early Leaving." Journal of Education and Work 24 (7–8): 723–739. )], the paper analyses findings according to five different categories of risk: personal challenges; familial circumstances; social relationships; institutional features of school/work and structural factors of policy, economic disadvantage and the educational system. The findings highlight that while educators focused upon structural factors and personal challenges, young people themselves identified social relationships and institutional features of school as the most significant influencers on ESL risk. The contribution of this paper is two-fold; firstly, in presenting a comprehensive analysis of the multiple risk factors to Early Leaving; and secondly, in reflecting on the difference in emphases between young people's perspectives of the key constituents of risk and those of the educators who support them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School-based education in England has undergone significant changes since 2010, with a huge expansion of academies, schools outside local authority control, funded directly by central government. Academies and local authority (LA) maintained schools are subject to different legislative and regulatory frameworks. This paper focuses on the governance of LA maintained schools, single academy trusts (SATs) and schools that are part of multi-academy trusts (MATs). The research involved analysing legislative provision, policy documents, and documents addressing the governance arrangements of a sample of 23 secondary schools. Our findings reveal a fragmented state-funded secondary school system as regards overall governance, school admissions, the curriculum, and the use of funding. Significantly schools in MATs, which are governed by the trust board, lack the autonomy of either SATs or maintained schools and are instead under the ultimate control of the trust board. The paper argues that there is a need for greater consistency regarding the governance of state-funded schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human geographers have analyzed the co-constitutive relationship between race, gender and sexualities across different spaces and social contexts and have called for intersectional approaches in discussions of identities, power and space. This article applies an intersectional framework to the processes of sexualization, racialization and exoticization that shape the daily lives and erotic/romantic encounters experienced and narrated by participants to two different projects: gay and bisexual men from a North African background living in Belgium; Italian gay men living in England; non-White gay men living in Italy. By discussing qualitative data collected during interviews with these men, and through a continued dialogue about this data between the authors, the paper explores both the effects of these processes on the lives of participants, and the strategies they enact to navigate their social worlds. The focus is on two elements, central to participants' narratives: the specificity of the intersectional experience of encountering men who expect a specifically gendered and racialized performance based on 'roughness' and 'wildness', and the capitalization on these exoticizing and racializing images to increase one's desirability on the dating/hook-up scene and everyday social and work life. By highlighting these elements, this paper shows the importance of applying an intersectional approach to analyses of the entanglements of racialization and sexualization in order to complicate linear accounts of these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the lived experience of citizenship of working-class girls from a marginalised ex-mining town in northern England engaged as community researchers in participatory action research. The research aimed to better understand the relationships within their local community. Qualitative methods were used to examine the girls' experience of the research and its impact on their sense of community, which is discussed using the lens of 'lived citizenship' (Kallio et al. 2020). We conclude that children's experience of participatory research approaches can be understood as subjective or lived citizenship. This contributes to understanding how they perceived their acts of citizenship, particularly in relation to others in their community. Supporting the international literature on subjectivity in citizenship studies and the critical appreciation of intersectionality in in participatory research, this paper demonstrates how such involvement can lead to positive subjective outcomes in groups experiencing marginalisation, such as working-class girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a Foucauldian theorisation and an in-depth study with eight disabled student activists in England, this paper explores how persistent marginalisation and ableism in higher education has triggered a wave of activism among disabled students, who, just before the advent of the pandemic, had organised a structured movement, Disabled Students UK. We employ Foucault's ideas of the care of the self and others to discuss the formation of disabled students as activist subjects fighting discrimination in English higher education, in a moment in which the intersection between inclusive policies and austerity measures exposed the ableism rooted in academic practices. This paper promotes discussion on the nurturing relationship that exists between the individual and the community in constituting disability activism and disabled activists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of a wider study into the educational attitudes and experiences of white, working-class male pupils in the north of England, this paper explored the ways that male pupils in years 10 and 11 navigated and experienced the six-level (A-F) academic banding system present in their British mainstream secondary school (Ayrefield Community school – ACS). Following an initial four-week period of both covert and overt observations (including guided conversations), three distinct groups of male pupils emerged. Influenced in part by Paul Willis' seminal study (1977) of males in a working-class school environment, these three 'lads' groups were representative of pupils in the top, middle, and bottom academic bands and were subsequently named Performers, Participants and Problematics respectively by the researcher. Following this initial phase of observations, a total of 74 male pupils from these top (n = 29), middle (n = 26) and lower (n = 19) academic bands were specifically selected to take part in a total of 14 group interviews with the aim being to explore the lads' experiences of, and attitudes towards, being taught in academic bands, as well as their views on education and qualifications more generally. Passages from these group interviews are combined with guided conversation responses to make up the findings presented in this paper which are then explored and explained using some key concepts from Norbert Elias's field of figurational sociology alongside key academic literature linked to the use of academic banding in schools. The paper suggests that despite the fact that all male pupils at ACS were exposed to very similar working-class upbringings and social pressures as part of their wider social figuartions, members of each of the three lads' groups became part of, and were subsequently influenced by, the specific, school-based figuartions that emerged as a result of their allocation to their respective academic group. Influenced by the increasingly diverse and complex social relations within these school-based figuartions, the lads from the three different groups seemed set to achieve relative 'success' at school, albeit on route to different destinations, for different reasons, and towards quite starkly different end goals – all whilst still being very much aware of, and influenced by, the wider social figuration of which they were inextricably a part. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how the transition to parenthood reshapes foodwork in families by drawing on ethnographic, longitudinal research conducted with parents of young children in the south-east of England. It utilizes the conceptual framework offered by practice theory and unpacks how parents' interpretations, techniques, and emotions surrounding eating transform as feeding and eating become routinized. The findings demonstrate the profound influence of feeding young children on the perception and practice of commensality at home. Mealtimes are increasingly recognized as crucial moments for transmitting manners and tastes across generations. Moreover, the analysis reveals that caregiving and other practices have a ripple effect on adults' eating practices, leading to changes in their food priorities, meal schedules, practical arrangements, and even the division of labor along gender lines. The findings underline the complexity of implementing institutional advice, for instance on "good" child feeding, as it requires changes in parents' own food practices and emotional relationships with food. By emphasizing the lived experiences of practitioners, this paper supports the growing call to incorporate identities, such as gender, into practice theoretical analysis, ultimately enhancing our understanding of how practices evolve and endure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the creative group and individual interviews with young people aged 11–18 years old in England and Wales in 2018, this paper assembles data that addresses the changing nature of intimacies in young people's digitally-networked lives. Informed by Lauren Berlant's work (2008, viii), it maps how platforms such as Instagram and YouTube circulate certain 'fantasies of the good life' that orient young people towards heteronormative future imaginaries. It argues that publicising intimate relationships on social media works to both reify and unsettle fantasies of monogamy, marriage and domesticity by highlighting their inherent precarity. It also illustrates how smart technologies such as the virtual personal assistants Alexa and Siri reconfigure the good life fantasy. Moving beyond simplistic moral panics that seek to discipline young people's digital intimacies, this paper aims to engage with the nuances of young people's digital sexual cultures. Overall, this paper argues that attending to this complexity can enable practitioners to better attune to and support young people to navigate contemporary digital relationships and sexuality issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the role of private planning consultants as intermediary-actors and their implications in relation to planning theory and practice. To do so, the paper focuses on niche consultants involved in servicing neighbourhood scale plan-making in England, clarifying that they hold crucial agency in local planning processes and adding to the understanding of consultancy roles and co-production dynamics in planning. The paper draws together the literature on private sector consultancy and on intermediaries, along with theoretical work highlighting the diversification of planning, the rise of the collaborative turn and the effect of regulation on creating niche markets in planning expertise. The conclusions drawn help clarify the 'action on others' that planning consultants, as intermediary-actors, have in collaborative governance and planning in and beyond neighbourhood planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Police education and training, in common with education at all levels, was seriously affected by the onset of lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. Police organisations in England and Wales sought to cope by moving training and education programmes online, almost overnight. This paper presents findings from interviews conducted with Learning and Development leaders in 17 police forces in England and Wales to gauge the capacity of organizations to provide blended learning (BL) in the pre COVID period and plans for the future. Findings indicated that although there are challenges, the appetite and capacity to adopt BL methods in forces range on a spectrum. The paper and makes recommendations to support the rollout and use of BL in police education generally and proposes a theory of change to assist the introduction of BL in police organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2010, government policy in England has positioned further education almost exclusively as employment-orientated training for school leavers whilst also imposing severe budget cuts. During this period, values-based pedagogies that foreground social justice for students, many of whom come from low-income households, have been undermined. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, there is evidence that the mental health and well-being of further education students has suffered but little is known about the pandemic's effects on teachers.This paper presents analysis of primary research data drawn from interviews with a small sample of further education teachers and managers in the English West Midlands about their mental health and well-being during the pandemic. The paper frames the research data by acknowledging that both mental health nursing and further education teaching are currently riven by contradictions with an epistemological basis anchored in meritocratic and neoliberal policy. Using Lefebvrian theory, our analysis suggests that for further education staff, the pandemic has sharpened the tensions experienced in an already precarious professional role. Key findings were that the further education funding regime drove a 'business as usual' management attitude during the pandemic, and an intensification of work and the erosion of pedagogical practice negatively affected staff's mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising inflation and slow growth globally have led to governments focussing on value for money, and in the sphere of higher education policy that is often translated into graduate outcomes. In England, the Office for Students (OfS) has created the progression metric which for full-time, first degree and UK domiciled students requires courses to have 60% of graduates with positive outcomes 15 months after graduation. This paper utilises simulations to evaluate the likelihood that the OfS’s approach will fail to identify courses below the threshold (false positives) and incorrectly identify courses at or above the threshold (false negatives). The simulation adapts the levels of positive outcomes within the population (20-90%), sample size (40–1000), percentage sampled (30-90%) and crucially confidence intervals applied (90%, 95% and 99%) to identify courses below threshold. The three main findings are: the choice of 90% CI minimises the likelihood of false positives compared to 95% or 99% CIs; second, larger samples are essential to reduce likelihood of false positives; and third, preferring the 95% confidence interval instead of 99% for taking regulatory action will result in more courses incorrectly identified as below threshold. Governments that choose a statistical approach to regulate educational standards, like the application of confidence intervals to identify provision below quality standards, should utilise simulations to check the likelihood of false positives and false negatives since failure to do so could lead to both: (a) courses below standard not being identified and (b) regulatory action taken incorrectly against provision at or above standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social isolation and loneliness are reported as having significant impacts on health, especially for older people. Policy concern has led to the creation of interventions to try and tackle these issues, including the funding of community-based support groups. The National Lottery Ageing Better Fund, 2015–2022 supported voluntary and community sector projects across England, to work with people aged 50 and over to reduce social isolatioand loneliness, through the delivery of area-based activities. One organisation, adopted and implemented a peer research model named Volunteer Listeners, designed and executed by older people as part of their approach to their local evaluation of National Lottery funded projects. This paper documents the peer research model used, its challenges, and its successes, to add to the evidence base about the reality of using participatory approaches, specifically with and for older people researching a health and social care related topic. There are very few published studies discussing how and why older people become involved in evaluation work as peer researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares approaches to accountability in US charter schools and English academies. We examine the development and main characteristics of these two types of schools before assessing how they are accountable, to whom, and for what. Drawing on both primary and secondary sources, we explore the consequences of the accountability mechanisms in each jurisdiction. Our comparative analysis assesses the different and multiple forms of accountability to which charter schools and academies are subject. We discuss the similarities that exist in the two jurisdictions, albeit that the most consequential sanctions – closure of charter schools and transfer of academies – differ between countries. The final section concludes and highlights policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I argue that a new term, ‘thematic discretion’, can help us understand police decision-making in cases of youth image-based sexual abuse (YIBSA). YIBSA can be defined as harmful image-sharing practices amongst young people, inclusive of the non-consensual sharing of private sexual images, upskirting and cyberflashing, alongside other actions. I will be drawing on findings from a doctoral research project investigating YIBSA, which utilised a mixed methods approach, comprising of quantitative analysis of freedom of information requests from 40 police forces in England and Wales, as well as 26 qualitative interviews with police and non-police practitioners, also based within England and Wales. Research findings established that YIBSA is highly complicated, and as a result, police officers utilised discretion at a considerable rate, alongside crafting their own guidelines to direct their decision-making, which is argued to be steeped in sexist and victim-blaming narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on interviews and a focus group with fathers1 who attended four dads’ groups in the South of England, this paper introduces the concept of ‘dadness’. Dadness is in circulation in the public sphere and has been noted in a handful of published sources, yet it has not received academic attention. This article conceptualizes ‘dadness’ and presents it as a useful concept within contemporary fatherhood and family studies, as well as noting the term’s accessibility. The term dadness is understood by men in this study as combining their individual fathering identity and their values about the fathering role, with actual day-to-day fathering practices. Interpretation of the data infers eight aspects of dadness that draw together existing conceptualizations of fathering and fatherhood in terms of accessibility, engagement and responsibility; ‘active fathering’; warmth, positive engagement activities, decision-making, responsiveness, care; intimacy; and embodiment. Dadness describes both how men think about fatherhood and enact their fathering practices, and is accessible (it is a term men readily understand and feel able to use). This article invites a debate about whether the concept of dadness has a wider potential outside of the specific context of a small-scale study in southern England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:Purpose:Methods:Findings:Conclusion:The provision of inclusive education in schools is a global priority. However, provision in schools is often criticised for being varied and inconsistent, often perpetuating a rhetoric of exclusion [Warnes, E., E. J. Done, and H. Knowler. 2022. “Mainstream Teachers’ Concerns About Inclusive Education for Children with Special Educational Needs and Disability in England Under Pre-Pandemic Conditions.” Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs: JORSEN 22 (1): 31–43. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-3802.12525]. These concerns are raised across schooling and subject areas; and Physical Education (PE) is no exception.The present paper reported results from a scoping review of the literature conducted to answer questions about PE teachers’ subjective interpretations of the meaning and importance of inclusion, the ways PE teachers facilitate inclusion for diverse learners, and the barriers they encounter.The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines (extension for Scoping Reviews) informed this review. Adopting elements of the SPIDER tool (Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, Research type) the database search was conducted in three stages: 1) hand search of titles from key PE journals; 2) systematic search of six databases (EBSCO host , ProQuest, JSTOR, PubMed/Medline, PsycINFO and Web of Science), and 3) search of Google and Google Scholar . Of the 4007 records identified, 64 studies met the eligibility criteria and were included in this review. Thematic analysis was carried out to identify key themes.Results suggest that inclusion is an important matter in PE provision across different national contexts. The various meanings that teachers attributed to the notion of inclusion appeared to provide a reference point/parameter of how inclusion was enacted in practice. Although the idea of inclusion was supported, most teachers were cautious about what was possible in practice. The most frequently mentioned barriers included the ‘child’, inadequate professional learning, and limited resources and support. Despite the various challenges teachers faced, they reported making efforts to implement a range of inclusive practices, including grounding tasks in students' needs, adopting student centred pedagogies, offering choice, promoting positive peer interactions and teaching by utilising differentiated instruction.Acknowledging the subjective nature of such a review, we conclude that findings reinforce but also extend those from previous reviews. The novel contribution lies with the observation that teachers not only faced common barriers to, but also identified shared features of effective inclusion,irrespective of the group of learners they were asked to reflect upon. We have identified key implications for teacher educators, and provided recommendations for future research, which include conducting research in diverse national contexts with cultural responsiveness, better understanding the relationship between teachers’ perceptions/understandings and practices in the context of their complex and diverse environments and cultures, exploring what teachers learn about inclusion, and providing tangible, evidence- informed pedagogies for inclusion as these are implemented in various contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the resurgence of deviant leisure cultures in football, with a focus on virtual football violence. Despite advancements in curbing violence in UK football stadiums, new challenges emerge online. By analysing social media discourse from three English Premier League matches in 2022, the study reveals the prevalence of several forms of virtual violence, including threats of physical and sexual violence, emotional violence, and discriminatory violence. The research highlights the resurgence of ‘traditional’ norms of masculinity, aggression, and misogyny facilitated by anonymity in online spaces. Paradoxically, the results show that fans engage in derogatory language while simultaneously condemning similar actions by others. This phenomenon is particularly evident in the category of discriminatory violence, where comments are frequently challenged, indicating a ‘raising of consciousness’ and a growing intolerance to certain forms of discriminatory language. However, despite some evidence of social consciousness and pushback against discriminatory language, the prevalence of virtual violence remains concerning on multiple levels. This underscores the need for continued efforts to promote respectful discourse and foster inclusive environments online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores teachers' anxiety about work at 75 timepoints between October 2019 and July 2022, covering the period before, during and towards the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in England. We find the work-related anxiety of headteachers increased substantially throughout the pandemic – much more so than amongst more junior staff. Female teachers experienced a greater impact than men, particularly amongst those with young children. Differences were also observed in work-related anxiety between independent and state schoolteachers, though only during the first lockdown. We illustrate how providing onsite instruction, live online lessons and working longer hours were all associated with raised levels of work-related anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of geography in debates around education and labour market inequality is an enduring public policy concern. This paper argues that local economic contexts have a role in shaping the kind of university and career trajectories working-class young people are exposed to. Drawing on multi-sited data on working-class young people in different local contexts across England, it underlines the importance of regional economic development, the geography of elite universities and the spatial patterning of widening participation networks and activity. In the capital, a sophisticated widening participation infrastructure exists – including multiple partnerships between schools and the third and private sectors – which far exceeds the networks and support found elsewhere. Combined with London's high economic capital and elite career pathways, this infrastructure greatly facilitates systems of support designed to drive aspirations to elite universities and careers. Whilst advocating for a fairer distribution of educational opportunities nationwide, we argue that, without acknowledging the origins of spatial imbalances within the UK, any attempt at simply 'spreading out the same' opportunities risks offering a superficial response. If long-term change is to be truly advanced, a more systematic dismantling of how economic functions and social relations are configured spatially must first be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore how social work students can support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning (LGBTQ+) young people in schools. Drawing on the reflective practice portfolio documents of four students who worked with LGBTQ+ young people in a school as part of a social workers in school (SWIS) student placement project, the article uses thematic analysis to identify how the students were able to support young people identifying as LGBTQ+. The article subscribes to a poststructuralist theoretical framework which sees gender and sexual identities as multiple, fragmented and constructed in relation to others and within the systems of knowledge and power that exist in schools. The article demonstrates the benefit to schools of having social work students on practice placement. The students' own reflections critically contemplate the way in which they were able to spend more prolonged periods of time with young people than the teachers could, both with individuals and LGBTQ+ groups. The students' reflective portfolios show the value of the school placements to their own development of knowledge and skills [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers in Lady Agatha's Boarding School (Lady Agatha's) find teaching Sex and Relationships Education (RSE) uncomfortable. This paper investigates one aspect of the discomfort that they feel, namely the impact RSE has on their professional status as teachers. I use focus group data to reflect on the professional and personal location of teachers at Lady Agatha's and to explore their understanding of RSE through the recurring themes of professionalism and professional reputation as symbolic capital; deprofessionalisation and risk as symbolic violence; and the connects and disconnects between the doxa and illusio of the school. Findings suggest that by interrogating the sites of symbolic violence which generate RSE discomfort, we can start to unpick the fabric which creates discomfort about RSE, allowing both for a deeper understanding of RSE discomfort in teachers and an opportunity to address this discomfort as a barrier to RSE delivery at Lady Agatha's. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher shortages are a significant global problem disproportionally affecting "hardest-to-staff" schools and subjects. To better understand (inter)national policy responses to teacher shortages, this paper uses a Bacchian-inspired approach to critically examine proposals suggested as solutions in policy documents from England and Australia, and thus how the problem is being thought about especially in relation to hardest-to-staff contexts. We contend that the problem representations in the policy documents are narrowly conceived and need to be considered differently through the lenses of (re)professionalisation and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In shallow water off the coast of West Sussex in England lies the wreck of a French built, English warship, lost in 1706. The remains represent a hybrid of French construction and armament with English organisation and adaption. This paper brings the site's investigations up to date, discussing new records relating to the structure and internal layout of the main site, as well as the discovery of several new areas, rich in guns and other artefacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]