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This paper discusses the findings of two studies that critically analysed teachers' perspectives on the operation of the standards and inclusion agenda in primary schools in England. The studies were carried out in 2010–2011 and 2019, respectively. Through the application of Q methodology, the paper examines whether teachers' perspectives of standards and inclusion have changed over time. Analysis of the data strongly suggests that teachers have experienced significant difficulties including children with SEND while at the same time trying to operationalise the objectives of the standards agenda. The research concludes that there needs to be a focus on developing effective strategies to include children with SEND within the hostile environment of the standards agenda. Within such an environment it is suggested that focus needs to move away from concentrating on 'children with SEND having difficulties' to the creation of inclusive educational settings which welcome all learners. In addition, it is argued that Statutory Assessment Tests (SATs) should also be revised to consider the needs of all learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Between 2018 and 2025, a national implementation programme is funding more than 500 new mental health support teams (MHSTs) in England, to work in education settings to deliver evidence-based interventions to children with mild to moderate mental health problems and support emotional wellbeing for all pupils. A new role, education mental health practitioner (EMHP), has been created for the programme. Aims: A national evaluation explored the development, implementation and early progress of 58 MHSTs in the programme's first 25 'Trailblazer' sites. This paper reports the views and experiences of people involved in MHST design, implementation and service delivery at a local, regional and national level. Methods: Data are reported from in-depth interviews with staff in five Trailblazer sites (n = 71), and the programme's regional (n = 52) and national leads (n = 21). Results: Interviewees universally welcomed the creation of MHSTs, but there was a lack of clarity about their purpose, concerns that the standardised CBT interventions being offered were not working well for some children, and challenges retaining EMHPs. Conclusions: This study raises questions about MHSTs' service scope, what role they should play in addressing remaining gaps in mental health provision, and how EMHPs can develop the skills to work effectively with diverse groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the entanglement of democracy and social justice in education and the relationship to social mobility, this paper critiques the individualising nature of social mobility in policy discourse as inimical to human flourishing and education as a public good. The rhetoric of social mobility which responsibilises individuals for their success, without due regard to the systemic changes needed to enable this and the societal barriers to social mobility experienced disproportionately by some groups in society, is detrimental to social justice. A conception of education as a pathway to social mobility must be located in a wider vision of civic engagement in a more inclusive and fairer society. Yet civic engagement in education at the local level has been eroded, as illustrated in this paper by the example of an evolving model of school governance in England. As a corporatist, market driven reform, this model exemplifies how local democratic ties between schools and engagement with their communities can be undermined. Social mobility to enable opportunities, access and participation in democratic civic society becomes a fantasy when society is riven with systemic inequalities, lacks the necessary conditions to enable human flourishing and links to community engagement in education for democratic renewal are downplayed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Derived from an ethnography of working cultures and practices at a bike shop in the North of England, this paper rests on a critical application of social practice theories of literacy (Literacy Studies) in order to explore the complex and heterogeneous literacy practices 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 underpin the literacy practices of the cycle workshop. 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 literacy practices. The paper also suggests that ongoing debates concerning transferable workplace skills can be enriched through considering situated, contextualised literacy events. The paper concludes by arguing that for cycle technicians, and perhaps other occupations as well, Literacy Studies can generate rich and complex accounts that unpack the textual practices found alongside the occupational expertise and competence being observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes ecological systems theory as a conceptual basis for defining and examining the main aspects of 'system leadership' in a large-sized multi-school group, such as a multi-academy trust (MAT) in the context of England. The theory provides a sound framework for understanding the processes and interactions involved in this notion of leadership which is framed within an educational ecosystem as a complex set of interconnected elements. Such an approach focuses on MAT leadership strategies able to create and guide a holistic conception of educational change in the market-oriented and decentralised educational system of England. Data were drawn from interviews with eight MAT leaders and analysed alongside documentary evidence. The findings provide specific insight into the daily work of executive leaders acting as system leaders seeking to create and sustain achievement-centred and practice-focused systems MAT-wide. They demonstrate the social and developing as well as the organisational aspects of system leadership in MATs and the ways in which different elements of the environment influence executive leaders in thinking and acting systemically. This paper adds value to existing knowledge on MATs and the ways in which they are led by system players. It broadens the frame of reference of leadership beyond the individual school to consider features of the broader system and environment. Complexity and ecological perspectives provide essential tools to understand more deeply educational change and have the potential to analyse notions of leadership across multi-school groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The skillsets of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates are widely recognised to be important for economic prosperity. At the same time, it is broadly accepted that in England there is a need to increase the number of people studying STEM degree courses and working in STEM. However, despite decades of interventions post-16, STEM participation rates remain lower than projected requirements. Some research reports suggest a lack of positive attitudes towards these subjects and aspirations amongst some social groups. As these debates continue, official reports such as those released by the Department for Education show these patterns from the labour market and higher education (HE) extend to both attainment and participation in science and math in school. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, the authors summarise the authors' findings from the analysis of official reports, policy documents and major research reports focussing on attainment in school science and math and post-compulsory STEM participation. Findings: The authors identify the problematic ways in which STEM subject choices are made across the student life cycle and then discuss how the leaky pipeline metaphor can be ambiguous and needs to be used with caution. Research limitations/implications: Some aspects identified here warrant further research and will be of particular interest to researchers, practitioners and policymakers. Originality/value: In this new report, the authors identify the problematic ways in which STEM subject choices are made across the student life cycle in England and then discuss how the leaky pipeline metaphor can be ambiguous and needs to be used with caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is a principal theme in Jane Eyre. Born into the family of a curate in a rural parish, Charlotte Brontë started her study at home and then was educated in several schools. Taking the issue of education as a central perspective, this paper investigates the situation of the circulation of literary discourses in the processes of writing, publishing, reading, criticism and reproduction of this novel. It tries to analyze the situation of rural governance in nineteenth-century England and its impact on Jane Eyre and the following literary discourses, aiming to shed new light on the universal mode of literary production in this age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of family trajectories during childhood in explaining inequalities by maternal education in children's math and reading skills using harmonized, longitudinal, and nationally representative surveys, which follow children over the course of primary and lower secondary school in four high‐income countries (England, France, Germany, and the United States). As single parenthood and family transitions are more likely among less educated parents and are associated with fewer resources for children, we explore whether growing up outside a stable two‐parent family mediates educational inequalities in math and reading scores. Results show a strong educational gradient in family trajectories in the four countries, but this varies by child age and by country. Children who experience a family transition record lower test scores, although the magnitude differs by the type of postseparation arrangements. Overall, family trajectories are strongly associated with children's math and reading scores but, because of the importance of selectivity in family trajectories, they play only a modest role in explaining the skills gaps by maternal education, considerably less than determinants such as income. The penalties associated with not living within a stable two‐parent family are always larger in the United States and England than in France and Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the participation of children and young people within government consultation processes. It considers the recent Department for Education consultation on its statutory guidance for schools for Relationships and Sex Education in England. The paper is based on a Freedom of Information request for the consultation responses categorised as from 'young people'. We identify two issues in our interrogation of the data. First, there is evidence that a substantial proportion of responses were not submitted by young people. Second, the consultation approach did not include all the features necessary for meaningful consultation. We consider the implications for the youth consultation on policy matters that affect them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite extensive research looking at the phenomenon of burnout, little is known about how individuals working in traditionally high-burnout occupations understand the term. Interviews were conducted with six teachers working in state schools in England centring on how the term burnout was understood and how it was used or encountered. Reflexive thematic analysis was employed from a critical realist perspective to analyse the data generated. All participants described burnout as a stress-related condition, yet for some participants the point at which stress became burnout was unclear leading to an understanding that burnout was the point at which one was unable to work. Many participants highlighted an individualistic understanding of burnout, perceiving it as representing an individual deficit rather than an organisational failing. This was often reinforced by where the term was encountered (at work or in the media) and was linked to the stigma many participants associated with burnout. This paper concludes that individualistic framings of burnout obscure its organisational determinants while reinforcing notions that mental well-being is something which should be personally – and privately – managed by individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates how the July 2005 London terrorist attacks affected Muslim teenagers' education plans and decisions. The attacks triggered a violent backslash against the Muslim community, which could have affected their incentives to continue in full-time education. I examine panel data on educational attitudes from the "Next Steps" Survey in England and use the month the survey was administered to divide individuals into treatment and control groups. I find that the attacks negatively affected the education plans of Muslims, but not those of any other major religious group. The probability of planning to continue in non-compulsory full-time education decreased by around 4.4% points for Muslims after the attacks. This corresponds to a 69% increase in individuals who were not sure whether to continue or drop out of full-time education. However, this change in plans appears to be a temporary reaction, since it did not affect students' actual decisions two years later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing consensus that existing arrangements for policy making in education are far from optimal. This paper is about policy making and the roles of—and relationships between—elected officials, civil servants and academics in the making of policy. It aims to open up a conversation about new ways of making education policy that make better use of academic expertise by shedding light on policy making from the perspective of a former policy broker. With specific reference to England, experiences of the world of policy are drawn on to provide an account of the following: the disconnect between academic research and policy; what good policy advice looks like; and, most significantly, what an expert policy advice mechanism in education could look like. The mechanism put forward is one possibility for further discussion within the academic community in the first instance: an independent group of diverse academic experts to provide trustworthy and transparent policy advice to the education ministry. It is envisaged that by bringing a set of insights together here, understandings of the world of policy making will be enhanced and further thinking and conversations about mechanisms for expert policy advice in education will be induced, starting with this flagship journal's readership. The subsequent accumulation of these discussions may then, in time, lead us towards better policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a reflective piece on the thought processes individuals and teams have when engaging in decoloniality work in Teacher Training/Education. We argue that until the self is decolonized, the process of decolonialization becomes rhetoric. We also question how much we can decolonize whilst working in the academy whose very culture, symbols and practices are borne out of colonialism and the period of enlightenment; whose very raison d'être is to elevate some knowledge over others and to claim cultural and academic superiority. The current political landscape in England approaches anti-racism as a political ideology that must be avoided in schools and education and this ideological battlefield is evident in teacher education. We aim to recognize the tensions and resistance to decolonialize, which demonstrates the messy and contingent process of moving between shifting positions and subjectivities. It confronts the challenge of the teacher–practitioner who must balance their own moral and philosophical grounding whilst attending the political imperatives of the work. This can take the form of according with the policies and procedures of the institutions in which they are situated which can often be balkanizing and debilitating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses prospects for the relationship between educational studies and educational practice, with reference to the current institutional and policy context in England. Drawing on the sociology of educational knowledge and practice, it is argued that educational studies can be conceptualised in contrasting ways, by considering internal structures, external relations and how disciplinary problematics are defined, but also by how educational practice is portrayed. To develop the analysis, Bernstein's work on knowledge structures and academic and professional discourses is articulated with philosophical work that distinguishes between different conceptualisations of practice prevalent in the humanities and social sciences. This enables critical reflection on three arrangements of educational studies (the foundation disciplines, the new science, and the deliberative traditions) each with their own internal dynamic, socio-epistemic assumptions, relationship to policy, and implications for the future production of knowledge. This process of reflection is illustrated with reference to some recent developments in England that illuminate the current position of educational studies in relation to educational policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines ideas about mental health, wellbeing and school education to illustrate important issues in the relationship between mental health and education. The Covid crisis has amplified the pre‐existing mental health problems of children and young people in England and recognition of the opportunities in schools to address these. The paper gives an overview of child and adolescent mental health services and how they position the role of schools. It examines prominent concepts of mental health and their relationship to wellbeing, setting this in a discussion of 'mentally healthy' schools, mental health in special educational needs and whole‐school approaches. This analysis shows how the relationship between mental health and wellbeing has not been adequately worked out, using this as the basis for arguing for the dual‐factor mental health model which separates mental illness/disorder from wellbeing as two related dimensions. The paper then translates the dual‐factor model into a two‐dimensional framework that represents the distinctive but related aims of school education (wellbeing promotion) and mental health services (preventing, coping, helping mental health difficulties). This framework involves a complex conception of wellbeing, with schools playing an important role in promoting wellbeing (beyond emotional wellbeing), tiered models and establishing school‐wide social emotional learning. It is about a whole‐school curriculum approach that involves considering what is to be learned and how it is taught. It contributes to a more nuanced concept of wellbeing that has a place for meaningful learning and challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite extensive research on attainment grouping, the impact of attainment grouping on pupil attainment remains poorly understood and contested. This paper presents evidence from a study conducted with 2944 12–13 year olds, from 76 schools in England, who were allocated to between‐class attainment groups ('setting') in English and mathematics over the first 2 years of secondary schooling. After controlling for prior attainment, pupils in the top set performed significantly better than pupils in the middle and bottom sets in both English and mathematics. The findings indicate a widening gap in attainment, especially in the case of English. Findings, especially in the case of mathematics, provide more evidence of a relative benefit for pupils placed in top sets than a relative detriment for those in bottom sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern knowledge‐based societies human capital is the single most important determinant of regional inequalities in productivity and standards of living. Using a newly constructed data set that allows the analysis of educational attainments at different levels of geography, this paper evaluates spatial inequalities and the degree of convergence in the distribution of human capital across areas in England and Wales during the second decade of the 21st century. Our results show this was a period characterised by a large increase in educational attainment and skill intensity. However, the growth in skill intensity was far from uniform across space. In particular, we find strong evidence of both absolute σ‐divergence and β‐convergence in the distribution of skills. Thus, even if low‐skill areas grew on average more than other areas with higher skill intensity at the start of the period, the stochastic dominance analyses provide strong evidence of an unambiguous increase in absolute inequalities so that by end of the decade the skill gap between low‐ and high‐skill areas had significantly widened. We present new spatial and aspatial evidence that sheds light on those inequalities and the changes in the spatial configuration of human capital over the last decade. Despite the implementation of policies aimed at reducing regional inequalities, many low skill areas struggled to attract talent so that the gap with most skilled areas widened over that period likely contributing to the persistence of the well‐documented large spatial economic inequalities in this country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a longitudinal study in the North of England with 13 educators in schools, colleges and universities during two lockdowns. The project was designed to 'unlock' education by providing spaces to co‐create new ways of thinking about education in light of the Covid‐19 pandemic. Focus groups were conducted with school and college teachers as well as university staff at the end of the first and second English lockdowns, in summer 2020 and spring 2021. An initial analysis identified issues with expectations and communication between educators and executive management as well as a lack of agency of educators, and how participants framed them as impacting on their identity as educators. Therefore, the framework of tactics of intersubjectivity was adopted to explore how educators discursively positioned themselves and others through constructions of similarity and difference, realness and power, and how their professional identities were affected by the experience of working through the pandemic and by those around them. Whilst educators took opportunities to authenticate their identity and reimagine education, their agency was undermined by top‐down governing involving little successful communication, leading to denaturalising and illegitimising experiences for educators. Executive management were perceived as lacking engagement with staff and understanding of the implications of their decisions on them. The findings call for relationship building and recognition of educators' voice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's experience of harm and abuse has a profound impact on their health and well-being. In response, school-based prevention programmes have been developed and delivered by external organisations with the aim of improving children's awareness and understanding of forms of harm and abuse which may affect them, encouraging them to seek help if needed. In September 2020, Relationships Education became statutory within the primary school curriculum in England and this ratification is likely to increase demand for externally delivered classroom-based programmes, which address the broad range of topics to be covered within this field. However, evidence is required to understand the impact and acceptability of such programmes. This paper presents qualitative findings from a larger mixed-methods study. Focus group discussions with 29 children explored their responses to one Healthy Relationships programme delivered to primary school children aged 10 and 11 in England. Analysis focuses specifically on responses to the topics of sexual abuse prevention and help-seeking. Children's widespread support for the programme indicates that topics are relevant and the opportunity to explore these issues is valued. However, for effective programme implementation, schools and parents need to be prepared, and prevention messages should continue to be embedded throughout children's school lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This action research study aimed to ascertain the usefulness of a modified version of the reflective approach to teaching practicum debriefing (MVRATPD) strategy in ascertaining the degree to which students in a United Kingdom university faculty of education achieved module learning outcomes (LOCs). Using purposeful convenient sampling, twenty-seven(n = 27) students on the education studies pathway at the university, studying the module entitled international and comparative education, participated. The usefulness of the MVRATPD is revealed in several ways. It is primarily a reflective assessment instrument as purported by Minott. It revealed a direct fulfilment of several module objectives linked to several LOCs. However, for this study, it was not useful in capturing data about all 4 LOCs. Specifically, it captured no data related to LOC 2. The conclusion is that the MVRATPD, in its present form should not be the sole determinant of the degree to which LOCs are achieved. It is however, a complementary indirect reflective instrument for assessing LOCs and a user-friendly, practical and uncomplicated data collection tool i.e. using three reflective questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which sets standards for children's care, development and education in England from birth to five years old. Analysing the EYFS, as comprised of knowledge and discourses that inform, and are informed by broader cultural understandings of childhood and development, we argue that the way in which the current EYFS (2017) frames young children's behaviour promotes largely instrumental strategies for behaviour management which perpetuate overly static understandings of childhood and children's development and promote neo-liberal ideals that might be said to be detrimental to children's rights and their overall well-being. Importantly, we argue that the EYFS imposes discourses about responsibility for managing one's own behaviour on young children which simultaneously overlook the multidimensionality of children's lives and contradict other aspects of the EYFS and English early years policy. The paper makes suggestions about how the EYFS can be reimagined "otherwise" using the lens of governmentality, exposing power relations and the production of taken-for-granted "truths" about children's realities that appear in contemporary policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The pre-registration BSc Nursing course in the UK is renowned for being challenging due to its requirement for 2300 hours each for theoretical and practice-based learning. It is therefore inevitable that some students may need to interrupt their study at some point during the course. In many cases, these students do not return and leave the course, which has an impact on the future nursing workforce. Aims: To examine the reasons why pre-registration student nurses interrupt their studies and consider ways to enable them to return successfully and complete the course. Methods: The research project was based in one higher education institution (HEI) in the North West region of England. Interrupted students due to return to study in semester 1 of the 2022/23 academic year (n=95) were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews. Findings: Health, including mental health was the dominant factor leading to the interruption of study for the students. Conclusion: This research has led the HEI to introduce an improved support package for students. Alongside other recommendations it is hoped the changes will reduce attrition and lead to an improved interruption/return-to-study experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How have funding, art education, and politics affected the development of performance and interdisciplinary art? In England in particular, performance as an experimental and radical art practice developed largely from underground activities, political action and a range of art forms. Funding bodies, colleges and art institutions eventually accommodated, albeit to a limited extent, this activity. As financial circumstances were sometimes difficult, artists often provided their own support structures and organisations. Some of these became established as they became successful. Performance art split from the theatrical and became defined as live art. In more recent times, conditions shifted again, and critical, experimental, or avant-garde theatre, film, music, etc., found refuge within contemporary art. Performance however, became increasingly confined and restricted by: the regulatory and academic requirements within universities; the need for evidence for some form of public or social purpose by funding bodies; and the increasingly hostile social and political circumstances. This research draws partly from personal experience and reflects on cultural conditions since the 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious education in England is experiencing change of 'spring tide' proportions during the third decade of the twenty-first century. This paper offers a flavour of aspects of education theory informing the development of a locally agreed syllabus in the English context. After offering some background contextual information, the paper proceeds to demonstrate some implications of the absence of education theory in religious education discourse in recent times. The body of the paper lays out ways in which a remedy for this has been sought through syllabus development, followed by a discussion identifying practical implications. These include (i) a focus on the importance of teaching and professional responsibilities of each teacher and (ii) attention to curriculum making. The paper concludes by reiterating a desire to bring the educational position of religious education into the open so as to articulate an educational orientation that can secure the value at this point in history of bringing anything concerning religion to children and young people at all. This paper is of course limited as to what can be achieved entirely in this respect; greater consideration of this belongs in a further paper. However, it is hoped the matter will be seen as a pressing one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: People with intellectual disabilities are a marginalized group whose health experiences and outcomes are poor. Lack of skill and knowledge in the healthcare workforce is a contributing factor. In England, there is a new legislative requirement for mandatory intellectual disability training to be given to the existing healthcare workforce, including doctors. There is a lack of evidence about effective models of educational delivery of such training in medical schools. We undertook a scoping review to assess the range of intellectual disabilities educational interventions and their effectiveness. Methods: We included any study from 1980 onwards which reported an educational intervention on intellectual disability, or intellectual disability and autism, for medical students from any year group. Databases searched included PUBMED, ERIC, Scopus and Web of Science as well as searches of grey literature and hand searching two journals (Medical Education and Journal of Learning Disabilities). 2,020 records were extracted, with 1,992 excluded from initial screening, and a further 12 excluded from full-text review, leaving 16 studies for inclusion. Data was extracted, quality assessed, and findings collated using narrative analysis. Results: We found a variety of intervention types: classroom-based teaching, simulation, placement, home visits, and panel discussions. There was substantial variation in content. Most studies involved lived experience input. Across studies, interventions had different learning outcomes which made it difficult to assess effectiveness. Overall study quality was poor, with high use of non-validated measures, making further assessment of effectiveness problematic. Conclusions: There is a need for more consistency in intervention design, and higher quality evaluation of teaching in this area. Our review has drawn attention to the variety in teaching on this topic area and further research should focus on updating this review as curriculum changes are implemented over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the intergenerational effects of deindustrialisation on the processes and experiences of education at 'Lillydown Primary', a state primary school in a former mining community in the north of England. Complicating Avery Gordon's notion of 'haunting', and drawing on conceptualisations of affect and community 'being-ness', it highlights how contemporary experiences of education continue to be affected by historical and cultural relations and rhythms of everyday life, even though most of Britain's traditional industrial base is now gone. The paper draws on data from ethnographic research carried out at the School and explores the complex ways in which historical, class-based relations and modes of 'being' continue to haunt across time and space. Its findings suggest that by coming to know the fullness of a social haunting – the loss, injury and the 'goodness' of the past – schools may have the potential to engage working-class children in educational processes and experiences from which they might otherwise feel excluded, alienated or detached. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the transition regime concept in a case study of how the regime in England has been reconstructed since the 1980s. It explains how the former transition regime evolved gradually up to the 1970s. Thereafter the regime proved unable to cope with an acceleration of de-industrialisation and the government's switch to neo-liberal social and economic policies. These changes destroyed many working-class routes into employment. The resultant push onto academic routes, which had the attraction of continuing to lead to jobs, meant that the enlarged numbers exiting the routes could no longer rely on employment that offered secure middle-class futures. The paper explains how the next 30 years became a period of radical regime reconstruction. Government education, training and welfare policies and changes in the economy and occupational structure, were the context in which schools, colleges and higher education institutions, employers and other training providers, together with young people, 'negotiated' new routes from points to entry to exits into different classes of employment. At the beginning of the 2020s, the reconstructed regime was delivering the fastest education-to-work transitions in Europe, with lower than average rates of youth unemployment and NEET. Then came the challenges of COVID-19, lockdowns and Brexit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, both international law (notably the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) and domestic legislation have led to a new emphasis on children's rights in the field of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in England and additional support needs (ASN) in Scotland. Scotland has moved ahead of England in extending these rights, but research has pointed to shortfalls in the practical realisation of the rights agenda in both jurisdictions. The Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in temporary school closures, has created further barriers to the realisation of children's educational rights. The Scottish Government has developed a Children's Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment framework, and proposed new legislation incorporating the UNCRC into domestic legislation promised to generate further pressure for improvement in the delivery of rights. In England, there are less focused channels for influencing policy delivery. In the context of the domestic rights on SEND and ASN and the pandemic response, this paper provides a comparative assessment of the potential contribution of Children's Rights Impact Assessments (CRIAs) to the protection of children's rights, finding their potential not yet fully realised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the link between young people's well‐being and the creative arts is strengthening, there is a lack of research which focuses on the roles that artists play to help teachers and parents engage young people in the creative arts. This paper explores the benefits of and barriers to artists working in education in six European countries (England, Iceland, Germany, Greece, Italy and Austria). Using the '5A's model of creativity' and a view of professional development taking place within 'landscapes of practice', the data were analysed in order to explain how creativity is operationalised in the different contexts. Our study highlights the need for policy at a national and transnational level to value the creative arts in order to help teachers cross boundaries and utilise the full potential of the creative arts in schools. Our study also highlights that further research is needed into how artists shape teaching and curriculum and how schools engage parents in the creative arts in order to build an evidence‐base relating to young people's positive mental health that can affect policy at these levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pupil Premium funding has been provided to schools in England since 2011, to help overcome socio-economic segregation between schools, and reduce the poverty attainment gap. Yet there is little evidence such an approach is effective. Some important stakeholders are considering whether Pupil Premium should stop or be re-routed. It is therefore essential to know whether the policy has helped in the eight years since its inception. Evaluating the impact of such a funding policy is fraught with difficulties because of changes over time in the economy, legal definitions, prevalence of disadvantage, and metrics used. Previous research has generally ignored these, and the role of length and depth of disadvantage. Hence, previous estimates of the attainment gap are insecure. This paper introduces a new analysis, based on the National Pupil Database that considers changes in the prevalence of FSM-eligibility, private school attendance, GDP and the duration of individual poverty. Net of such factors, the results show that segregation has declined unexpectedly since 2011, suggesting that the Pupil Premium may be working. The policy should continue, while research looks at the long-term impact on the poverty gap. Meanwhile, the funding could be re-calibrated to be fairer to areas with longer-term disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decentralization policy in English education has resulted Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs)-groups of schools governed and led by trustees. Research illustrates that many of these organizations are failing to connect with the school communities they serve. This paper uses documentary analysis and interviews with 30 MAT Board Members to examine this key area. The paper reveals that although there are some strategies in place to overcome this issue, that failure to implement fundamental processes such as communication strategies are leading to fragmentation and feelings of disconnect, and this raises questions as to the extent to which MATs are in touch with and serving their school communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why you should read this article: • To recognise some of the factors that can make it challenging for nurses to access training and maintain competence in using medical devices • To learn about development of an electronic medical device training passport that aims to better identify nurses' training needs • To understand the benefits of an electronic medical device training passport for nurses, nurse managers and clinical leaders Background: All nurses, particularly those working in critical care settings, are required to use medical devices when providing patient care. However, inconsistent practice and variations in documentation can make it challenging for nurses and nurse managers to identify what medical device training is required and when. Aim: To develop and evaluate the use of an electronic medical device training passport to identify the training needs of nurses in intensive care units (ICUs). Method: A pilot study was conducted in a multi-unit critical care department in London, England, to determine if the passport could make it easier to identify ICU nurses' medical device training needs compared with existing practice. Nine participants were first asked to identify their needs using existing spreadsheets or paper records, then asked to identify them using the passport. The participants were also interviewed to identify their training requirements before and after using the passport. The data were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings: The electronic passport significantly improved identification of medical device training needs compared with paperwork or spreadsheets for all device groups, except for medical devices used on high dependency units (P≤0.005). However, there may be issues related to nurses' behaviours and expectations, particularly that staff do not always recognise their need for training. Conclusion: The findings of this pilot study suggest that the use of an electronic medical device training passport has many benefits and could make it easier to identify ICU nurses' training needs in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do early years practitioners construct what it means to be professional? How do they perceive the relationship between Froebelian theory and practice, if at all? What value do they attach to early years qualifications? This paper explores these questions drawing on data from thirty-three interviews with early years practitioners working in six settings in England as part of a Froebel Trust funded research project. Analysis of the data suggests that these practitioners construct versions of professionalism which tend not to acknowledge Froebelian theory and early years qualifications as relevant to their practice. To counter this perspective, we argue that a different approach to professional development, explicitly informed by Froebelian principles, could help to develop early years professionals' ability to justify their early years principles and practice, whilst they fulfil the statutory requirements made of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late 1970s, Britain has moved from a Keynesian welfare state model toward a mode of governance where economic reasoning replaces politics. Education in England has not escaped this shift from government to governance described as neoliberalism. This shift toward a new governing rationality has taken shape within the English education system since the 1980s through new public management regimes and networked governance; it has accelerated with academies, or schools run outside of local authority oversight. This paper explores how Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs), or chains of academies directed by a centralized Trust Board, takes neoliberalism's governing rationality further as opaque networks of power are consolidated. Through tracing the narratives of MAT CEOs, government officials and union organizers, this paper shows how network governance enables neoliberal rationalities to predominate within MAT structures where authoritarian practices become normalized. Democratic ideals become bumps in the road to market-orientated progress requiring removal from education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widespread changes in communication associated with new technologies have led to a growing interest in digital literacy. Although the concept of digital literacy suffers from a lack of agreed definition, this paper suggests that reading and writing with technology remains a key point of concern. The written word, a central feature of evolving patterns of communication, is now used in new ways and often in combination with different media as new devices and physical practices are recruited to the task of meaning making. The influence of different ways of thinking about these new communicative practices has led to the development of the diverse body of research outlined here. Tracing these strands in current research and writing about digital practice is used in order to identify how literacy has both expanded and diversified. Because it is now a significant aspect of full participation in social and cultural life, reading with technology raises important questions for education. This paper suggests that in England policy in this area is poorly articulated and argues that there is a pressing need for more focused classroom research to develop practices that support digital literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the experiences of staff, parents, governors and students at a secondary free school in the West Midlands of England in relation to the inclusion of students with special educational needs (SEN). The paper is based on a qualitative research project carried out at a school that opened in 2015, with the explicit aim of examining the extent to which it developed as an inclusive school, particularly for children with SEN. In the paper, we draw on the classic distinction between 'education' and 'schooling' to identify tensions and overlaps between process and outcome oriented practices and examine the views of different stakeholders on how such practices impact on inclusion. By focusing on the day-to-day practices of the school and linking them to broader notions of schooling and education, we provide a complementary perspective on the current research on free schools, which is overwhelmingly quantitative and focused on admissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I begin by discussing the persistent problem of relations between educational inequality and the attainment gap in schools. Because benefits accruing from an education are substantial, the 'gap' leads to large disparities in the quality of life many young people can expect to experience in the future. Curriculum knowledge has been a focus for debate in England in relation to educational equality for over 40 years. Given the contestation surrounding views about curriculum knowledge and equality I consider the thinking of two philosophers, Jacques Derrida and Emmanuel Levinas, and their work on justice, to trouble the curriculum framework and discourse of knowledge promoted through the policy text of The Importance of Teaching: The Schools White Paper (2010) and later associated policy reforms to the General Certificate of Secondary Education ( GCSE) curriculum in England. The Schools White Paper aims to make the curriculum more challenging to students by introducing tight controls in terms of the assessment framework and curriculum knowledge. I argue that, when considered through Derrida's perspective on language and meaning and Levinas' view on the ethical responsibility for the other, the reforms present obstacles to the search for a just curriculum. I look to the work of Sharon Todd and Paul Standish for a re-imagination of curriculum as or through relations in the light of Derrida's and Levinas' philosophies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overrepresentation of independently educated athletes amongst Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics was described as 'One of the worst statistics in British sport'. Whilst the ensuing debate referred to independent schools en masse, the sector is far from homogenous. Within the UK independent (private) sector, a small subset of schools has educated a significant number of international sportsmen and women. Despite this record of success however, little research exists on young athletes in independent schools. Answering calls to study independent school sport, this paper uses semi-structured interviews with pupils and staff involved in sport in six independent schools in England to explore why some schools consistently produce international athletes. A dual theory framework combining the Eliasian notions of process and figuration, with Bourdieu's concept of distinction is employed to offer a sociological perspective on the sporting success of the schools studied. The findings reveal striking differences in institutional attractiveness, coaching, the sporting potential of the pupil intake, and facilities between the least and the most successful schools studied, where a number of intra and inter school practices contribute to an increasingly professionalised sporting environment. In concluding, a novel and more variegated perspective on the under researched and often difficult to access field of independent school sport is offered. The proposition being that through reconciliation of the notions of distinction and status rivalry, we are better able to understand the repeated success of some independent schools in supporting the development of talented young athletes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing and diversifying participation in science remains a key educational policy concern for governments across the world. Science capital has been proposed as a useful theoretical lens that can explain patterns in science aspirations among young people aged 11-16 – but to date it has not been explored in relation to educational outcomes among older age groups. This paper reports findings from a new survey of 7,013 17/18 year old English secondary school students. It replicates and extends previous findings, showing that among older students, levels of science capital remain patterned by gender, ethnicity, cultural capital and science set. Comparison of effect sizes with previous findings from a younger cohort also reveal that, overall, levels of science capital seem to decrease with age. However, the proportion of students with 'high' science capital remained stable while the proportion of those with 'low' science capital increased. Analysis also revealed a small but significant increase in the proportion of boys with high science capital. Findings confirm that science capital relates to outcomes at age 17/18, with high science capital students being relatively more likely to be pursuing post-compulsory STEM qualifications and routes. Implications for educational policy and practice are identified, particularly with regard to goals of diversifying and increasing science participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of research evidence is increasingly seen as critical to improving practice across many areas of public policy. At the same time, the role of relationships and relational work have become far more widely recognised in many fields of professional practice. This paper brings together these two developments by focusing on the relational features of evidence use. Drawing on two studies of educational evidence use, in England and Australia, the authors explore how concepts from studies of inter-professional collaboration – 'relational expertise', 'common knowledge' and 'relational agency' – might help in making sense of how research evidence is used and how such processes can be supported. The authors argue that these concepts can help in terms of: supporting more interactive approaches to evidence use; unpicking what is happening within the relational aspects of evidence use; and specifying what is involved in high-quality evidence use relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the factors central to the practices and realities of historical educational support for destitute and neglected children in the Manchester Certified Industrial Schools (MCIS) to determine how the schools acted to support the lives of children who were removed from parental guardianship. In nineteenth-century England, the most vulnerable children, destitute and often neglected (specifically, those considered to have improper guardianship), posed a serious challenge to public order in urban society. This study employs primary records to trace the experiences of four children during and after MCIS enrolment. Prior to the current study, none of these records had been used in research. The analysis of records demonstrates that MCIS officers supported and followed up students even after they were discharged to help them survive without their parents and become conventional members of society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the development of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in England, in terms of impact and opposition. Since the early 2000s CRT has become a significant intellectual space for race-conscious scholars and activists in England. The current paper traces the growth of CRT in the field of education (where it has had the greatest impact since its arrival). It identifies the academic research, writing, networks and events that have established CRT in England. It discusses the substantive concerns of English CRT and how these are both similar to and distinct from CRT as developed in the USA. In England, CRT has also met with opposition. This paper examines the discourses of derision voiced by its antagonists, arguing that much of this antagonism has an atavistic quality, being rooted in long-standing antipathy towards race-conscious social analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]