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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]

This paper explores English national identity through qualitative interviews with English-identifying voters in rural South-West England, amidst post-Brexit and COVID-19 uncertainties. Analysing 16 in-depth interviews, the study uncovers micro-level foundations of English identity, revealing a multifaceted view where participants consider it an absent identity. As members of the dominant cultural group, they define Englishness by their perceived 'normal,' distancing anything diverging from their norms as foreign. The study suggests a connection between English identity and reactive resentment towards perceived asymmetrical identity norms compared to neighbouring devolved nations. These findings shed light on the nuanced nature of English identity in rural areas and contribute to discussions about fostering a progressive and inclusive English identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we make initial advances towards building an argument for the inclusion of Critical Literacy Awareness within the new Early Career Framework in England. Using illustrative examples from recent research projects, we argue that post-2010 education policy has discursively divided practitioners, structuring relationships between different groups of teachers in schools as hierarchical and competitive, rather than collegial and supportive. We argue that such hierarchies may be a contributing factor to the teacher retention crisis, given that research indicates teachers working in schools with a collegial culture are more likely to remain committed and motivated. We propose that engagement with CLA may enable early career teachers to critique and resist dominant discourses which differentiate and hierarchically divide them from their colleagues, and therefore, the utility of CLA should be explored within future iterations of the Early Career Framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the global neo-liberal reform movement in education continues to evolve, so does the simultaneous transfiguration of the profile and status of primary school teachers in England. Reform continues to delineate the aims and purpose of primary education in increasingly essentialist terms. This paper explores English primary school teachers' perceptions and experiences of teaching, and of being a teacher, in a period of considerable change. Extending the existing research literature about primary school teachers, it explores the progressively strategic nature of policy enactment and the tactics employed by teachers to manage conflicting demands. The paper draws upon rich qualitative data from two sets of interviews with 22 primary teachers employed in the South-East of England. Thematic analysis facilitated findings about teachers' encounters with, and responses to, neo-liberal policy reform, notably in relation to accountability and managerialism. The view that 'nothing is ever good enough' reflects recurrent data affirming the relationship between school leadership and teachers' demoralisation, as well as perceived reputational decline more broadly. Findings highlight the emergence of the primary practitioner as 'tactician', and of a particular brand of survivalism necessary for a context that acts to pedagogically and philosophically constrain the purpose of primary education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ways that private equity practices of financialised value extraction have migrated to the water sector in England. In line with the financialisation literature more broadly, we show how private equity investors have found innovative financial mechanisms for increasing investor returns that are unrelated to productive activity. The resulting financialised, highly-indebted corporate structures create costs and risks for utilities which raise concerns for social equity. The regulatory response to these financial innovations has been slow and had limited effect. The regulatory toolbox, governed by a narrative of competition, has consistently been biased towards investors and misses much of the scope of financialised corporate extraction. A review of the activities of a major private equity investor, Macquarie, active across numerous infrastructure sectors in the UK, illustrates the dynamic way in which infrastructure funds are moved across investments and sectors in ways that can escape regulatory processes and increase investor returns. The paper shows how the regulator is caught in an impossible bind in meeting the contradictory and contested interests of investors, end users and the state such that we question whether the socially equitable regulation of financialised infrastructure can ever be possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines populous perspectives of the government's responsibility to intervene in situations of possible parental neglect of children in England, Finland, Norway, and California (USA), and ask if institutional context, defined as child protection system and children´s wellbeing situation, are formative for people's perspectives on government responsibility for children in vulnerable situations and how they view children´s future. With representative samples of populations responses to a survey vignette using ordered logistic regression, findings indicate that the institutional context shed some light on differences on state responsibility. However, similarly to welfare state research, there are differences and contradictions in important dimensions that require further investigation, especially on citizens perceptions of neglect and on intrusive interventions. Citizens with a comparatively higher education are evidently much more supportive of state responsibility for children and child protection interventions than other citizens. This finding is similar to those of other studies of state responsibility. Overall, there is a high level of support in populations for the provision of public services to children and families in vulnerable situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The systemic changes in the education policy landscape in England under the academies reform movement have nurtured a growing prevalence of educational organisations such as Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) operating as meso-level institutional actors that shape the implementation of policies and mediate between social structures and individual contexts and environments. This paper presents findings from an analysis of instructional improvement efforts in two MATs drawing on data from interviews with 13 executives and school leaders. Insights from neo-institutional theory provide an important lens for examining the ways in which logics of state, market and community influence executive leaders' decisions and practices towards system-wide instructional reform. Findings demonstrate the different ways in which executive leaders perceived these logics influencing their actions and how school leaders experienced the expectations from the executive leaders in the wake of multiple accountability demands. The contextual analysis of institutional logics provides new knowledge on the perceived impact of the macro level policy development and implementation at the meso- and micro-level structures, beliefs and practices revealing the complexity of instructional reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statutory regional spatial strategies were abolished in England, United Kingdom in 2010. There are, however, increasing calls in favour of a re-introduction of statutory comprehensive spatial strategies at the regional level to enhance integrated economic growth and address exacerbating spatial inequalities. Through a survey and in-depth interviews conducted with experts and policymakers of the North-West region of England, this paper explores whether the introduction of such statutory strategies could find justificative grounds through policy integration of transportation, housing, and employment policies. We conclude with a set of mechanisms that could foster this re-introduction serving regional geographies beyond the North-West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, several European countries have undergone reforms that modified the distribution of allocated powers and/or the geographical area of intervention of local authorities. This paper focuses on the institution of metropolitan governments. National legislative and executive powers usually claim that they want to provide densely urbanized areas with a more integrative level of action. As a result, the public authorities in large cities would get a greater capacity to deal with issues such as economic growth, increased soil sealing, socio-spatial inequalities, etc. This paper explores the motivations and forms of such metropolitan reforms in three European countries within the last decade, with the creation of Combined Authorities in England, of métropoles in France and of citta metropolitane in Italy. We argue that the forms of metropolitan government that have emerged in the three countries are embedded in very different institutional systems (Section 2). Considering the strategies of key protagonists, we show that the new modes of governance differ across and sometimes within countries (Section 3). In particular, the spatiality and the autonomy of the new metropolitan governments vary in the three countries (Section 4). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies new arrangements between the state and non-state actors in the public sector, one that extends current understandings of education privatisation, the transformation of public services 'by substitution' and, specifically theories of the 'shadow state'. Drawing on data from the Political Economy of Teacher Education (PETE) project, the paper's context is the current situation of post-qualification teacher development in England and its point of departure the Teaching and Leadership Innovation Fund (TLIF) initiative, in the wider context of Conservative political interests in promoting 'social mobility' through enhancing 'teacher quality'. Through a political economy analysis of public records, course information, Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and interviews, the paper offers an emerging typology of enterprises to describe the organisations that won TLIF funding to provide Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for teachers in designated 'Opportunity Areas'. Further, the paper extends available theorisations of the shadow state by identifying three kinds of shadow state structure – autonomous, intermediate and co-created – in relation to CPD provision under TLIF. This provisional identification is offered for critical examination beyond the immediate context of English CPD policy. The paper argues that these different relations of power and interdependence represent a new political economy of teacher development in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 2013 the local public health function in England was returned from the National Health Service (NHS) to local government, reversing the transfer to the NHS made in 1974 with the abolition of the medical officer of health. Although many in the field had long felt that local government was the appropriate home for public health given its wide-ranging responsibilities for the social determinants of health, the timing was poor. Local government was in the third year of what continued to be an unprecedented ten-year period of austerity imposed by central government with cumulative cuts of the order of 40% for many local authorities. And despite an initial commitment to a ring-fenced public health grant, this grant has been cut each year since 2015–2016 in addition to the wider local authority funding cuts which have had inevitable knock-on effects on the public health function. Crucial public health services such as early years, smoking cessation and sexual health services have all been cut. Despite these cuts the UK government continues to claim a commitment to improving public health and tackling inequalities in health. This study examines the government's discourse on funding local public health services, and the ways in which it has responded to critics through a detailed documentary analysis of key government white papers, ministerial statements and its responses to criticisms, particularly from parliamentary select committees and professional bodies. The paper concludes by considering the implications for effective local public health action in a national regime of austerity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the experiences of gay men living and working in rural areas of Ireland and England. Fieldwork conducted in both countries, finds that gay men who live in the rural space share many similar experiences, concerns and worries. While life outside the cities can bring a number of distinct advantages, such as tranquillity, and a more relaxed pact of life, the men also report numerous challenges which include social isolation, powerful hegemonic narratives around rural masculinity, and a pervasive heteronormative culture. The rural context shapes how the men negotiate their sexual identity, and mediates the nature of their sexual citizenship. In assessing the men as sexual citizens, the paper highlights the tendencies of sexual citizenship to promote a de-sexualised, de-politicised, and de-radicalised gay identity; tendencies which are exacerbated by the context of the nonmetropolitan, small town, and rural spaces. The paper concludes that, while the men may be considered, constitutional sexual citizens, with legal citizenship rights, there remains a legacy of stigmatization, which leads to compromised citizenship on a number of levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how academic support prepares undergraduate students for their workplace experience, involving cohorts of students from two universities in England, who offer an undergraduate level, three-year, Early Childhood Studies (ECS) degree. By adopting an interpretive approach, questionnaires were administered to the students concerned (n = 65), to seek their views and opinions on the placement experience. These were administered prior to them attending their first placement and then again on their return. The study found that students were more prepared than they originally perceived themselves to be when undertaking placement, and that a lack of confidence derived from fearing the unknown. The findings indicated that tutor and peer support were most valued as preparation tools and it is suggested that this support is a major factor in the confidence levels of students. This paper argues that the explicit knowledge gained from studying a degree course, and the tacit knowledge and skills that are gained through placement should be viewed as a combined approach rather than two separate entities which should, in turn, aid in confidence building. This is of significance both nationally and internationally for those who may be considering including a workplace experience within their programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at how trends in contraceptive prescribing by General Practices in England were affected by the Covid pandemic and lockdown. It compares English prescribing data from May 2014 to May 2021, including the period of 'lockdown', from April 20-June 20. A retrospective analysis of the English Prescribing Dataset which reports monthly on prescribed items from English General Practices was carried out. Data on all forms of prescribed contraceptive methods were extracted using British National Formulary (BNF) codes, and total quantities tabulated by method, then transformed into 'months of contraception provided' by each method. Prescription of the combined oral contraceptive pill reduced by 22% during the period of lockdown compared to the same three months in 2019. Prescriptions of Progestogen-Only pills remained stable. This continued a trend in oral contraceptive prescribing evident from May14. Prescription of long-acting methods reduced during the period of lockdown, with the greatest reductions in implants (76% reduction from pre-lockdown levels), intra-uterine systems (79% reduction from pre-lockdown levels) and intrauterine devices (76% reduction from pre-lockdown levels). These rates of contraceptive provision recovered quickly after the period of lockdown ended. The disruption of face-to-face contraceptive consultations in General Practice during a Covid-19 'lockdown' has resulted in a reduction in oestrogen –containing methods compared to progestogen-only methods, which require less face-to-face monitoring. Implant and intrauterine contraceptive device prescription reduced by three quarters over the first three months of lockdown, but rebounded in the next year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an exploratory study of English and Swedish teachers' perspectives on the role of homework in year-one children's learning of number. In order to ensure cultural integrity, data were analysed independently by two colleagues in each context. Analyses yielded three broad but cross-culturally common themes reflecting culturally situated notions of common sense. These concerned the existence of homework, the purpose of homework and the role of parents in homework's completion. While homework was unproblematic for all English teachers, half the Swedish cohort spoke against it, arguing that variation in home background would compromise principles of equity. All teachers who set homework, whether English or Swedish, spoke of homework as a means of supporting children at risk of falling behind their peers, a process by which children practice routine skills. English teachers' homework-related justifications were located in a discourse of target setting that was invisible in the Swedish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A lack of regional data on the occupational structure in England and Wales during the interwar years has so far prevented extensive study of this time period. In the current paper, we fill this gap by reconstructing the occupational structure at the district level, based on a recently-digitized register for 1939 and by linking this dataset with the population censuses of 1911 and 1921. The resulting data reveals significant regional differences in the expansion of the tertiary sector, and the relative decline of agricultural and industrial activities. For industry, we find an increase in the level of geographical concentration during 1911–1921, to decline by 1939. The primary sector followed a similar pattern, whereas activities in the tertiary sector became less concentrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores public health policy implementation through partnership working at the local level by examining how local actors from public health, and the wider workforce make sense of and work on social inequalities in health. An ethnographic case study was used to examine policy implementation in one local strategic partnership in north-west England during a period of significant resource constraint. Semi-structured interviews were the primary method of data generation. Sensitising concepts from figurational sociology were used to develop a theoretical account of how local policy implementation directed at narrowing social inequalities in health tended to give rise to relatively fragmented and short-term services, projects and practices, which focused on lifestyle factors and behaviour change. Theorising partnership work as figurations goes some way to explaining the apparent paradox among participants who expressed a relatively detached appreciation of wider social influences, alongside emotional involvement in their work. This process of individualisation explains how local professionals tended to conceptualise health inequality and the social determinants of health as personal troubles. Individualisation meant that the social reality of working in partnerships on difficult issues was simplified. Thus, any scope for working on the social determinants of health tended to be overlooked. The extent to which this was intentional or a matter of struggling to see opportunities, or a mixture of the two, was difficult to discern. Although the policy landscape has changed, the findings give some insight into understanding how local collaborative processes reproduce local public health work underpinned by lifestyle choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the contentious transition to viability-driven planning in England, whereby development viability and the potential for land value capture dominate the work of planning. Drawing on interviews and fieldwork in London and the north east of England, the paper reflects on the variable outcomes and challenges in places with different development markets, political cultures, development histories and capacities for action. It finds that viability-driven planning is further entrenching already existing spatial disparities and inequalities and draws conclusions about the state of English urban policy in the context of a broader shift towards the marketisation of planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a comprehensive account of Irish teachers' perspectives on life inside schools in England, as reported in empirical studies. The research literature shows that Irish teachers report experiencing intense pressure from the inspectorate, but also internally as a consequence of the demands placed on English schools. Within these low-trust environments they experience what they feel to be unsustainable and time-consuming workloads which compound and perpetuate the pressure and stress they feel. Of most significance are Irish teachers' views on the motives of English schools, which they interpret and perceive to be dictated by and for the inspectorate as opposed to serving the best interests of students. Overall, Irish teachers' experiences in English schools are shaped by the overarching and inescapable pressures of high-stakes accountability and are far from positive. [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]

Decent, affordable housing continues to be a major concern for policy-makers, providers and society at large. This paper contributes to the debate over the future of social housing in England by reviewing the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP). The AHP (2011–2015) saw the level of grant funding reduced dramatically; with the shortfall to be filled from housing associations own resources, increased rents and borrowing. To understand the implications of the AHP, this paper utilizes the concept of financialization. Financialization is a multifaceted process that seeks to explain the increased role and power of the financial markets in society. Specifically, the paper shows that the AHP leads to increased debt levels in the social housing sector, is predicated on short-termism and accumulation by dispossession. Finally, by employing financialization the paper also addresses debates about the nature of housing policy and how it can best be conceptualized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although housing crises are rooted in both demand-side pressures and supply-side blockages, perceived regulatory impediments to building new homes are the softest target for policy reform. Critics argue that the English planning system's case-by-case consideration of development applications hands excessive power to existing homeowners, who regularly veto those applications, thereby generating uncertainty for the development sector, impeding supply, and amplifying wealth inequalities. Drawing on interviews with planning and development actors, this paper explores the potential of rules-based zoning, in which consultation is restricted to plan-making and compliant applications proceed 'automatically', to address the supply sub-component of the housing crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, notions of teacher professionalism have been associated with increased accountability, standards, performance assessments, and teacher testing, and impacted by alternative pathways into the profession that downplays professional education and foreground subject content knowledge expertise and opportunity to learn on the job. This paper examines the relationship between teacher professionalism and teacher education in Australia and England. It analyses the ways in which professionalism is constructed in teacher education policy and related directives in each country. We argue that professionalism in these countries is being (re)constructed through performance management, standards and increased accountability as managerial professionalism. Teacher education policies fail to acknowledge the importance of preparing research literate teachers and teacher-researchers. They also fail to capitalise on opportunities for teacher education research to inform evidence requirements for accountability purposes. In these ways, teacher education policies in Australia and England are de-professionalising teachers and teacher educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers findings from a small-scale qualitative research project that explores the inclusion of migrant children in education, drawing on the examples of learners in a multi-ethnic primary school in northern England. It takes a creative approach to methods, combining the use of picturebooks, photography, group discussions and observations. Against the background of migrant children's rights and the political and socialising roles of education, the research develops a framework for the inclusion of migrant children that involves educational access in terms of access to the curriculum as well as to the learning environment, both spatially and socially. The paper argues, then, that this understanding of inclusion can allow learners and educators to cross the tightly constructed borders of the deficit model of migrant abilities and identities and enter a space that recognises migrant learners' agency and allows more complex and co-constructed ways of knowing and learning to emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article continues research into social mobility in England in the nineteenth century by examining the links with different occupational structures, socio-economic and industry/occupation, for a specific location. This allows an examination of the impact of the characteristics of these structures on occupational and thence on social mobility. Occupational mobility has long been recognised as a major determinant of social mobility and has been the subject of a number of papers, usually to determine how much a specific variable affects the level and type of mobility observed. Rarely do these analyses consider the location’s occupational structure, and its changes, as a determinant of the level of mobility. This paper finds that much of the variability of occupational mobility of a locality is determined by the characteristics of the different industries and occupations in that location. Industries and occupations provide a context within which other factors, such as literacy, operate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the process of policy formulation and implementation in relation to children commonly described as having ‘special educational needs’ and disability (SEND), in Cyprus and in England. Drawing on qualitative research evidence from key primary documentary sources including legislation, statutory and non-statutory guidance and reports, it provides a comparative analysis of the content and the spirit of policy in both countries over the cycle of a century. The findings indicate that Cypriot policymakers have engaged in a process of ‘policy snatching’ from England, following four phases: charitable segregation and categorisation; enlightened legitimisation and categorisation; integration, ‘special educational needs’ and categorisation; inclusion, SEND and categorisation. Using the analogy of Aesop’s well-known fable ‘The Hare and the Tortoise’, the paper concludes that England, symbolically characterised as the hare, appears, overtly at least, to have moved ahead; while Cyprus, characterised as the tortoise, has been following slowly behind. However, progress has been slow in both countries, and the hare may well have fallen asleep. It is argued that whilst some common ground exists between the two countries, there is an inherent danger in transplanting selected elements of policy texts from one socio-cultural historical context to another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A combination of development constraint, low wages in seasonal employment and market intrusion by more affluent households generates housing access and affordability difficulties in many rural amenity areas. In response, residents' groups and public planners have sometimes sought to prioritise 'local needs', restricting the occupancy of new housing to key workers or others deemed 'local'. Drawing on examples from England, this paper illustrates how these down-stream interventions are often rendered ineffective by the upstream and structural drivers of housing access inequality, revealing a need for up-stream reforms focused on community control of land and the tax treatment of housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research frameworks for archaeology in the UK have a long history. Since the 1990s research frameworks have been developed in formal programmes initially driven by state heritage bodies. These were intended to facilitate better decision-making in development-driven archaeological projects, and to provide an interface between archaeologists. However the effectiveness of such frameworks is limited by a number of constraints. These include 'internal' boundaries created by historic environment professionals: chronological borders; professional borders; disciplinary borders; and borders limiting access and regulating control. There are also boundaries created by others, which include institutional and resourcing constraints as well as the geographical limits of modern administrative boundaries. This paper discusses these issues through the prism of the border region between England and Wales, a borderland zone with long histories of conflict and co-operation. Some suggestions are offered for future changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embroidery made and used in early medieval England (c. 450–1100) was considered fine art. Today 43 surviving examples known or believed to have been made in early medieval England have been stylistically and technically analysed, and placed within chronological timeframes. Recently the embroideries and their makers' positions within early medieval society have also been explored, and 'life' biographies have been written for some pieces. Until now, the viewers' experiences of encountering and interacting with embroidery have never been fully investigated. This paper uses sensory archaeology as a technique to access the early medieval 'mindset' in order to explore how people actually engaged with embroidery as opposed to what each piece was meant to show or tell them. The early 10th-century embroidered stole and maniple, which were rediscovered in the tomb of St Cuthbert in Durham Cathedral in the 19th century, are used as a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses upon the practice of conservation applied through the planning systems of three European countries, Ireland, the Netherlands and England, here termed conservation-planning. The values and validated practice of conservation-planning are considered in terms of the concept of Authorised Heritage Discourses (AHDs) that are internationally-shaped but nationally articulated in each country, and by a distinct conservation-planning social entity that may be described as an 'assemblage'. The post-2008 period has seen over-arching economic similarities in economic and political forces affecting conservation-planning practice in each country. In each case public-sector austerity measures have been accompanied by ideological re-positionings over the role of the state and a greater emphasis upon 'selling the historic city' has been accompanied by a declining public-sector capacity to manage change within the frame of traditionally established AHDs. The partial withdrawal of the state has in each case resulted in adjustments in the construction of the assemblage and thus in the 'ownership' of the AHDs with a greater involvement of the private sector in these processes. Despite similarities in conservation discourse, shaped by an international AHD, differences exist between the countries considered, which we can better understand by reference to the conservation-planning assemblage in each country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is interest in the circular economy as a framework for transition from a linear take-make-dispose model of production and consumption, to a circular model which decouples economic growth from resource consumption. However, there is limited understanding of how that applies to the city through governance lens. This paper examines evidence from 28 municipalities in London to unpack the 'government' and 'governance' of circular economy in the city. It examines the 'governmentality' of circular economy in planning practice and reflects on what austerity localism and scalar politics might mean for the planning and governance of circular economy in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The right to education for all children, including asylum-seeking children, is enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, there is little research available to describe the educational provision provided to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) in England. Crucially, it is not known whether the educational needs are met by the provision available to UASC. In the most recent figures, the number of UASC in England has risen by 130% since 2013, to 4,480. Schools, 'virtual schools' responsible for children in care, social workers, and policymakers wish to know how this population is currently being served and how they might better serve them. This paper presents the findings from a mapping exercise on education available to UASC in England including 12 semi-structured interviews with virtual school heads, teachers, social workers, and charity education providers; document analysis; a workshop at the Department of Education with key stakeholders; and summary statistics. It highlights gaps in data and provision; conceptualises types of provision into bespoke, mainstream, and English language; and analyses how provision interacts with assessment and support needs. What emerges is a framing of provision through an integration lens and an agenda for future research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current drought and water scarcity management in England and Wales is reactive rather than proactive and the array of instruments and measures focuses primarily on what to do when in a drought, but less on how to prevent a drought or to plan ahead for a drought. This paper presents the results of a workshop that was held in late 2016 with stakeholders and researchers from UK drought and water scarcity management – the environment ministry (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), the Environment Agency, water companies, the economic regulator and water consultancies using the explorative scenario technique. The workshop offered the opportunity for unconstrained blue-sky thinking about drought management options based on the question What can happen? and it is useful in cases where there is fairly good knowledge regarding how the system works at present, but one is interested in exploring the consequences of alternative developments in drought management. The workshop developed four scenarios on the topic of resilient drought and water scarcity management in England and Wales in 2065: (1) 'Accepting decline', (2) 'Rising to the challenge', (3) 'Enjoying their luck' and (4) 'Passive acceptance'. The corresponding narratives are presented as are limits of the workshop but also potential uses of the scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public participation in archaeological research is interpreted in various ways in different European states. Even though public participation is promoted by international organizations (e.g. UNESCO and Council of Europe) and the academic community, the extent to which the practitioners can implement these ideas is a matter of what is allowed (or encouraged) by cultural heritage legislation in every country, and of archaeologists' attitudes towards public engagement. This paper considers the English and Italian systems, and in particular the consequences that legislation has on fostering or forbidding public participation, especially in relation to archaeological field research. It will start with a brief comparison of the relationship between the state, archaeological management, and public participation in both countries, then it will examine the legislation regulating archaeological research in England and Italy, to compare the strengths and weaknesses of both systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relationships and sex education (RSE), as set out in the recent Bill making RSE compulsory for all English schools, should be appropriate to the religious background of pupils. This paper suggests that this appropriateness is best found by gaining the best understanding about religious young people’s lived experiences of relationships and sexuality. Our in-depth qualitative research with three Christian young men aged 17-18 from a large charismatic evangelical church in the Midlands region of England investigated experiences of romantic relationships, focusing on the ‘ethical moments’ in which Christian ethical principles of sexual abstinence are negotiated. By attending closely to both the theological and the non-religious discursive resources that these negotiations draw upon, we demonstrate the different ways in which abstinence becomes meaningful in study participants' lifeworlds. We conclude that a sex education based on ethics in practice might engage best with religious young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the small but growing body of literature on the factors that influence the behavioural nature of planning practice. In this contribution, we specifically focus on fear and fearfulness as emotions that can be seen as having a significant bearing on the emergence of norms of practice. Using case-study evidence from England, we draw upon work in behavioural psychology to argue that in some contexts fear can become a natural reaction for planners; and that helping to create a more positive atmosphere for planning decisions—a space for hope—is something we should all consider important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much comparative research into education-related beliefs has exploited questionnaires developed in one culture for use in another. This has been particularly the case in mathematics education, the focus of this paper. In so doing, researchers have tended to assume that translation alone is sufficient to warrant a reliable and valid instrument for cross-cultural research, prompting concerns that a number of necessary equivalences are unlikely to have been addressed. In this paper, we consider the nature of these equivalences before examining the literature of a different field, healthcare research, to synthesise an approach to instrument adaptation that is pragmatic but rigorous. Finally, we demonstrate how this pragmatic approach, incorporating extensive cognitive interviews, enabled us to adapt and refine a mathematics-related beliefs questionnaire, developed in Flanders, for use with students aged 14–15 in England and Spain. Analyses indicate that the instrument so developed is multidimensional, reliable and cross-culturally valid. Some implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The three main programmes of the Geneva-registered International Baccalaureate (IB) have grown substantially worldwide over the past decade, although the programmes have found a natural ‘home’ in the United States. This paper charts the growth of the IB in the United Kingdom (UK) revealing that involvement there, mainly in England and mainly with the original pre-university Diploma Programme (IBDP), peaked at about 230 schools in 2010, but since then the IBDP has begun suddenly to decline. Yet, in no other country has there been a fall in IBDP provision. This paper offers some key explanations for this phenomenon, where a lack of funding and continued lack of university recognition in the face of Advanced Level (A-Level) reform and numerous ‘baccalaureate’ developments has led to many state-funded schools in particular dropping the IBDP. Thirdly, this paper discusses a number of implications, both for the IB itself and education in the UK in general. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores the circumstances in which individuals become secondary school teachers in England and France. Using a social constructivist theoretical framework, it specifically considers how national contexts play out in this decision. The findings presented in this paper draw on a corpus of 60 interviews with a sample of teachers based in English and French secondary schools. They show that national frameworks remain relevant to an exploration of teachers’ identities and cultures, as French and English interviewees draw on distinctive reasons to explain why they became secondary school teachers. While becoming a teacher is often thought of as a ‘vocation’ or as the result of ‘intrinsic’ factors, this paper highlights the role of national contexts, as well as of gender and social class, in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Vocational qualifications in England are undergoing another round of reform. This paper starts by reviewing the alleged weaknesses of English vocational qualifications, but argues that these do not necessarily establish a case for radical reform. The issue is not so much whether the system needs to be changed as the nature of the change that is needed. The paper argues for a more deliberative and incremental approach and proposes five principles upon which this should be based. These are the following: that the process of change is as important as the content of change; that institutions matter; that the purposes of reform need to be clear, consistent and realistic; that reforms should help to create a more unified qualifications system; and that the interests of the UK’s other home countries should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Surplus food redistribution has been promoted as a way of reducing food waste and food poverty. Informed by an exploratory qualitative case study of third sector actors in north east England, this paper explores the logics of surplus food redistribution. The framings and qualities (logics) ascribed to surplus foods as they flow through the food chain are examined, following an economy of qualities approach. Existing literature constructs surplus food and those involved in its utilisation as beyond market mechanisms and relations. This is challenged by the research that suggests the practices are never independent of their market attachment and reflect a continuum of food system flows and relationships, concerning the management of economic, environmental and social qualities and relations. The paper concludes that unless a distinction is drawn between genuine waste to be recovered and surplus to be redistributed for community benefit, surplus food as a resource is unlikely to be fully utilised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interventions in the field of early childhood education policy, drawn from global policy flows, are reconfiguring the work of early childhood educators in Australia. One such intervention is the requirement to designate an ‘educational leader’ (EL) in each service for young children and their families. This policy intervention has its origins in England's Early Years Professional Status initiative. This paper compares the pedagogical leader imagined in regulatory reforms with the educational labour described in interviews with childcare educators in Queensland and Victoria, Australia. The paper argues these educators are being called upon to navigate the tension between ‘imagined’ and ‘actual’ policy effects and that this is a key part of the work of educational leadership. Such leadership includes re-constituting ‘teachers’ in early childhood services as ‘learners’ who are ‘led’ by ‘ELs’, requiring major shifts in professional knowledge and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the beliefs and practices that constitute gender among Gypsy-Traveller women and then attempts to discern the consequences that flow from these. It analyses gender ideology and expectations among women and the shared investment in the moral identity attached to being a good Gypsy-Traveller wife. The paper argues that ‘Gypsy-Traveller woman’ cannot be understood as an identity that stands apart from gender and racial oppression. It is within this context that the tension between change and permanence in gender relations is played out. It argues that the maintenance of cultural taboos embodied and symbolised in the surveillance of womens' bodies is an important issue that problematises the construction of Gypsy-Traveller women. It posits that the appeal to morality may represent as much an avoidance of anxiety as a defence of marked gendered divisions within Gypsy-Traveller society. The paper suggests that the demands of cultural survival play a significant role in framing the degree to which women are willing or able to challenge the status quo. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Academies (and free schools) in England and independent grant-aided schools,fristående skolor(orfriskolor), in Sweden have been the subject of much academic debate, but there is a paucity of comparative research relating to policy development or outcomes. This paper adopts a comparative perspective, outlining the historical context, then comparing the policy goals and development of the two programmes from their inception. It is argued that the policy goals of the two programmes are underpinned by similar ideologies, but the policy outcomes have differed in terms of the extent and type of ‘privatisation’. Two broad themes related to equality of opportunity are then explored: access to schools, and school composition and segregation. It is argued that the extent to which differential school access and segregation can be attributed to the introduction of independent schools in Sweden and academies in England, is far from clear; it would be wrong to assume that there is a single, simple explanation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Delivering optimal and equitable palliative care is an international challenge. There are few cross-national comparisons examining challenges in expanding palliative care along public health lines. This paper presents a critical review of palliative care in the USA and England, which share similar challenges but have different contexts of healthcare. Beyond some obvious differences in the organisation of palliative care, a set of underlying common issues can be identified. A key tension in both is balancing attention ‘downstream’ in the dying phase, as well as ‘upstream’ earlier in the course of serious illness. In both, the dominant models of palliative care provision have resulted in excellent care towards the end of life for some patients, but there remain major deficiencies in care for the majority. England has a National Strategy for End-of-life care; the US has no equivalent, although a number of influential agencies have published statements. Achieving a public health approach in palliative care requires international consensus on the meaning and target population of palliative care, replacement of prognosis based understandings of entitlement to palliative care with a needs-based approach and development of an evidence base for cost-effective partnerships between providers across the specialist–generalist divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment and the documentation of learning is an international issue in early childhood education (ECE) and has increasingly become a way for governments to exercise direct control over the practitioners working with young children. This paper details recent statutory guidance about assessment and documentation for English ECE settings and deconstructs the latest English ECE policies, highlighting that these often give contradictory messages to practitioners. It suggests that practitioners are caught up in playing a game: trying to make compatible assessment practices that address both the scientific discourse of empiricism and a more recent internationally influenced sociocultural discourse, as outlined by Soler and Miller. However, we concede that it is unrealistic to reproduce practices that have deeply culturally embedded significance elsewhere. The paper therefore outlines key challenges for English practitioners: how to use documentation as a generative assessment tool and how to make assessment more collaborative. We suggest that addressing these issues through building pedagogical knowledge could enable practitioners to develop greater confidence when playing the assessment game. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Education reform is increasingly based on emulating the features of ‘world-class’ systems that top international attainment surveys and, in England specifically, East Asia is referenced as the ‘inspiration’ for their education reforms. However, the extent to which the features identified by the UK Government accord with the situation within East Asia is problematic. This paper examines the relationship between the English representation and the ‘reality’ of East Asian education systems, using school autonomy as an illustrative example. We focus on Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai, which are cited extensively to legitimate policies providing greater autonomy for schools in England. We argue firstly that the English representation has been largely discursive and inaccurate; has failed to recognise the variations across the region; and has been selected to endorse the Government’s ideological preferences. Secondly, the scope, form and nature of school autonomy vary markedly, and are operationalised in each society in ways reflecting the prevailing sociopolitical priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ideas about the difference between rural and urban areas are woven into the fabric of English society. This paper asks how two different campaigns against urban expansion and rural homebuilding in England – one interwar and one more contemporary (related to the production of the ‘National Planning Policy Framework’ document) – represent the difference between ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ and how they use these representations to justify and naturalize their arguments. Utilizing interpretive textual analysis to compare the two periods, we show that, whilst planning has undergone significant paradigm shifts during the period between the two campaigns, in both archives a dominant ‘rural idyll’ is (re)produced and reinforced through the representational themes of beauty, nature, purity, an elite educated class, and a traditional social order. This is strongly contrasted to the representation of the ‘urban sphere’ as an unnatural, ugly, modern, and socially fragmented dystopia. ‘Urban’ areas are therefore constructed as the constitutive ‘Other’ to the rural idyll. In this way, the apparently natural urban characteristics associated with built-up areas are represented as ‘out of place’ within the rural sphere. These representations work to justify the argument that ‘development’ is a threat to the intrinsic characteristics of the countryside and should not be allowed to take place. This rural idyll/urban dystopia binary is argued to continue to have an important influence on shaping policy debate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since devolution in the late 1990s, education policy in England has diverged further from that in Scotland and also from policy in Wales and Northern Ireland. In this paper we review the roots and trajectory of the English education reforms over the past two decades. Our focus is the schools sector, though we also touch on adjoining reforms to early years and further and higher education. In so doing, we engage with various themes, including marketisation, institutional autonomy and accountability. Changes in governance arrangements for schools have been a defining feature of education reforms since devolution. This has been set against an evolution in national performance indicators that has put government priorities into ever sharper relief. In theorising the changes, we pay particular attention to the suggestion that the English education system now epitomises the concept of ‘network governance’, which has also been applied to education in a global context. We question the extent to which policies have in practice moved beyond the well-established mechanisms of ‘steering at a distance’ and undermined the very notion of an education system in England. We conclude by considering possible futures for education policy and how they may position England in relation to other parts of the UK and the wider world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]