Search

Fair access and widening participation currently occupy a prominent position in the UK higher education agenda, but these terms remain ambiguous. In this paper we identify two prominent strands of policy in the government's approach to access and the widening of participation and contrast these with a third, more progressive perspective. The academic strand seeks to attract 'gifted and talented' young people into an unreformed higher education system. The second strand, which we term the utilitarian approach, posits a need for reform. However, this is undertaken largely to meet the requirements of employers and the economy. In contrast, a transformative approach values diversity and focuses on creating a system of higher education that does not place the burden of change upon potential entrants. This framework is used to explore some of the implications of the government's White Paper The future of higher education. First, the purpose of higher education is discussed, with particular reference to the distinction between economic and social objectives. Second, the government's view of the structure of the higher education sector is examined, by scrutinizing the notion of institutional differentiation and the role of the access regulator. We conclude that within a more differentiated higher education sector different aspects of the access discourse will become dominant in different types of institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive science-informed approaches have gained considerable influence in education in the UK and internationally, but not much is known about how teachers perceive cognitive science-informed strategies or enact them within the contexts of their everyday classrooms. In this paper, we discuss the perceptions and experiences of cognitive science-informed strategies of 13 teachers in England. The paper critically explores how the teachers understood and used cognitive science-informed strategies in their teaching, their views of the benefits and challenges for different subjects and groups of learners, and their reflections on supporting factors and barriers for adopting the strategies in their schools. The teachers' accounts illustrate some of the many complexities of adopting cognitive science-informed approaches in real-life educational settings. Drawing on their narratives, the paper emphasises the importance of acknowledging different contextual dimensions and the dynamic interactions between them to understand when and how teachers enact cognitive science-informed approaches in their classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the Swann Report in Great Britain in 2005. The issues investigated by Swann remains resonating both in Great Britain and beyond and the significance and the legacy of the report remain subjects of significant debate. There were 51 papers presented over the two days conference at the University of Birmingham. The subject of Gary McCulloch's article is about class and more particularly the education of the middle age class. Christine Mayer's article is providing details on the changing educational practices for girls and women between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries in Germany.

This paper examines responses to the trend for increasing participation in tertiary education, linking developments in higher education with those in apprenticeship systems, in Australia and the United Kingdom. In both sectors, expansion proceeded for several decades, but was robustly criticised in both countries. The expansion of access to these two forms of tertiary education, therefore, was contested and potentially precarious. The paper finds, through analysis of official data, that participation in higher education and in apprenticeship was actually almost static, or fell, in both countries in the 2010s. Yet criticism of expansion continued in media commentary during this decade. The paper both explains and takes issue with the arguments against expansion, which have been influential in both sectors. It discusses some ways forward to understand the phenomenon better, and also the need to address the problems caused by the restriction of opportunities. Comparative analysis between the two sectors has not previously been undertaken. It is argued in the paper that such analysis enriches the theoretical lenses through which expansion of access may be viewed, and that it may suggest avenues for future research, and perhaps, for advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: General practice is increasingly used as a learning environment in undergraduate medical education in the UK. Aim: The aim of this project was to identify, summarise and synthesise research about undergraduate medical education in general practice in the UK. Methods: We systematically identified studies of undergraduate medical education within a general practice setting in the UK from 1990 onwards. All papers were summarised in a descriptive report and categorised into two in-depth syntheses: a quantitative and a qualitative in-depth review. Results: 169 papers were identified, representing research from 26 UK medical schools. The in-depth review of quantitative papers (n = 7) showed that medical students learned clinical skills as well or better in general practice settings. Students receive more teaching, and clerk and examine more patients in the general practice setting than in hospital. Patient satisfaction and enablement are similar whether a student is present or not in a consultation, however, patients experience lower relational empathy. Two main thematic groups emerged from the qualitative in-depth review (n = 10): the interpersonal interactions within the teaching consultation and the socio-cultural spaces of learning which shape these interactions. The GP has a role as a broker of the interactions between patients and students. General practice is a socio-cultural and developmental learning space for students, who need to negotiate the competing cultures between hospital and general practice. Lastly, patients are transient members of the learning community, and their role requires careful facilitation. Conclusions: General practice is as good, if not better, than hospital delivery of teaching of clinical skills. Our meta-ethnography has produced rich understandings of the complex relationships shaping possibilities for student and patient active participation in learning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on developments relevant to education in Great Britain as of October 1973. Nigel Grant, reader in education at the University of Edinburgh, joined the Editorial Board of "Comparative Education" magazine. The eight session of the Standing Conference of European Ministers of Education was held in June 1973, which focused on "The Educational Needs of the 16-19 Age Group." UNESCO released its latest publication "Present Problems in the Democratization of Secondary and Higher Education." The Schools Council and the Standing Conference on University Entrance published the Working Paper 46, entitled "16-19: Growth and Response, 2. Examination Structure" and Working Paper 47, "Preparation for Degree Courses."

Vaccines and treatments produced during the global coronavirus crisis demonstrated the importance of university research and teaching. There was widespread celebration of university–industry partnerships and collaborations across disciplines and geographical locations. However, simultaneously, higher education institutions in England faced serious financial and organisational challenges throughout the pandemic, which has implications for the relationship between teaching and research, for who undertakes each, and for the students' experience of teaching and learning (some of whom become the next generation of researchers). The rapid movement to online learning created further tensions within an already demoralised, precarious and divided workforce. This paper considers the potential social good of universities' two core missions, research and teaching in a post-pandemic world, exploring the inherently political nature of the link, as well as its encoded inequalities and dysfunctions. Drawing on documentary and secondary data analysis, this paper explores, first, the long-standing sectoral and institutional discrepancies through analysing trends in student recruitment rates and research funding. Second, it investigates how student and staff experiences of the link between research and teaching were changing in the pandemic, pointing to substantive equity issues in how the pandemic response affected access to research opportunities and to research-led teaching. The paper argues that a more equitable and inclusive university that appreciates the research-teaching nexus and is flexible and collaborative in nature is key to contribute to tackling global and local challenges, such as environmental destruction, climate change, conflict and socio-economic inequities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that the 2004 Bodycote International Paper Competition attracted entries from students in universities and industrial research laboratories across Great Britain, continental Europe and the U.S. Six papers were shortlisted and the authors were invited to submit full length papers, from which four were chosen by a panel of academics and industrial experts to give oral presentations in front of an invited audience. The prize winners were S. Sridharan and E.H. Jordan.

Emergency legislation introduced internationally since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic saw the closure of all levels of educational settings and a shift to remote teaching. Drawing lessons from an independent child rights impact assessment (CRIA) in Scotland, United Kingdom, this paper reviews the impact of COVID-19 measures on children and young people's rights to, and experiences of, education during the current crisis. Findings highlight that while measures sought to preserve the best interests of children and their basic rights to safety, a distinct lack of consultation on the impacts of the measures undermined the interdependency and indivisibility of children's human rights. Three human rights principles – participation and inclusion, non-discrimination, and mutual accountability of family and the State – were identified as being particularly significant in this assessment. Looking forward, findings point to the need for extending the range of perspectives involved in child rights impact assessments in times of crisis – where human rights are at even greater risk of being breached – and the significance of a children's rights-based perspective for re-imagining education altogether. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A combination of structural barriers, inadequate student welfare provision and the absence of psycho-social and academic support make higher education access for forcibly displaced students challenging. Many of these students will have experienced many stressful and potentially traumatic events that may have or may continue to impact their mental health and wellbeing. This article draws on reflections by educators and findings from eight interviews with students who participated in a twelve-week preparatory course for access to higher education for refugees and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom. The paper firstly problematizes trauma as an organizing concept and challenges the dominant deficit approaches in forced migration studies when working with displaced students. Then, based on qualitative data collected from students and educators, it explores how creative skills were integrated and the importance of the student's voice as a culturally sustaining pedagogical approach to strengthening trauma-informed teaching approaches. The programme was designed to strengthen individual agency and promote well-being and mental health. Finally, this paper argues that working collaboratively with forcibly displaced students from an asset-based stance appeared critical in creating and sustaining a welcoming higher education environment which could contribute to promoting mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the summer of 2014, Professor Mike Collins – one of the four founding members of the Leisure Studies (LS) Association – submitted a paper to LS that offered a retrospective review of the first 30 years of the journal (1982–2012). Sadly, whilst the paper was under review, Professor Collins passed away. Mike’s commentaries have always been significant; we include this piece in this particular issue of the journal because it underpins the range of articles we have selected that we feel address some of the central tenets of ‘leisure’. Held alongside the Editors introduction, this article speaks as much as anything else to the state of the field, its futures and its potentialities. Serving as a companion piece that looks to the multiple pasts, genealogies and histories of leisure (and indeed LS), we, the Editors, offer below a necessarily abridged and posthumous version of Professor Collins’ original submission to the journal. Any omissions, errors, mis-representations and mis-understandings are the result of our own editorial hand for which we unreservedly apologise. We hope we have been able to keep the spirit, critique and engaging style that, no doubt, Mike would have presented in a final version of this manuscript. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional view since the early 2000s has been that participation in higher education (HE) is a risky pathway for disadvantaged young people in England; the social risk of entering an alien environment combines with the financial risk of rising costs and questionable long-term returns. This riskiness has been constructed as a major barrier to participation. However, national administrative data cast doubt on whether this analysis still holds true. Despite significant rises in tuition fees, the proportion of disadvantaged young people entering HE has continued to rise, with advantaged groups seemingly being more price-sensitive. Data from recent qualitative studies has also suggested that young people are now less attuned to risks. This paper considers whether circumstances in wider society have shifted perceptions of risk. The volatility resulting from the global financial crisis appears to have repositioned HE as a less risky option than early entry to the labour market, especially with more jobs becoming 'graduate', while the social risk has declined as HE has diversified. The paper draws on theoretical perspectives from Beck, Boudon, Simon and Kahneman to argue that many disadvantaged young people now view HE as a form of 'insurance' against an uncertain future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article comments on the relationship between educational research and the practice of teaching in Great Britain. There has been pressure on teachers to ensure that their work is informed by research. The Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, whereby practicing teachers are helped to come together to share their thinking about their practice, both among themselves and with researchers who seek to offer relevant and helpful research-based ideas. Teachers need a knowledge of, at least a respect for and a readiness to learn about, their students' community cultures. According to the author that the knowledge that educational research can offer teachers can at best only complement the other kinds of knowledge upon which teachers need to draw.

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 investigates social class inequalities in English school qualifications. The analytical focus is pupils' outcomes in General Certificates of Secondary Education (GCSEs). The original aspect of this paper is the operationalisation of data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), which facilitates analyses from 1991 to 2013. We observe a general trend of improved educational outcomes in more recent cohorts of school pupils, which is consistent with national results. The central empirical finding is that there is a persistent social class gradient. Pupils growing up in families in less advantaged social classes have less favourable school GCSE outcomes. This is especially concerning, because having fewer good GCSEs is likely to limit children's participation in more advanced education and restrict their options in the labour market. Changes in the structure and content of GCSEs lead us to conjecture that sociological analyses of social class inequalities in school qualifications will continue to be important. We highlight the limitations of using administrative educational data, and we outline the data resources that would better facilitate the study of social class inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the continuity and changes in Clarke’s ideas about the State and community in education, especially in relation to a rapidly changing political situation in England in the 1930s and 1940s. His ideas evolved in the intellectual context of British idealism. Moreover, in response to the threat to democracy arising from Fascism or Totalitarianism, the distinction between the State and community was a key theme in Clarke’s ideals of liberal democracy. Additionally, this paper also proposes the implications of Clarke’s ideas for future educational development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, the author considers the contribution of creativity to pastoral care in education. Since its advent in English schools in the early 1970s, pastoral care has placed the affective realm and individual enrichment centre stage in both its curriculum aims and teaching approaches. These principles have, however, had much to contend with over the past 50 years; from the obtrusive effects of state intervention in schools, to the challenges confronting young people growing up in increasingly complex societies. For many teachers and practitioners, engaging young people in creative pursuits has come to be regarded as a necessary counterpoint to increasingly performative school cultures and an essential means to enabling vibrant forms of positive self-expression. The power of creative activities has received new impetus as a pastoral concern in light of two national trends. The first as creative arts provision in the curriculum in English state secondary schools declines as a consequence of Government qualification reforms, and second as an increasing number of young people are referred to Alternative Educational Provision with mental health issues. As a consequence, many pastoral educators have turned or, indeed, returned to creativity and creative practices as a primary means of supporting and enriching the lives of young people, particularly for those who now struggle in contemporary school environments. In light of these developments and drawing on research and practice in the field of creativity and pastoral care, this paper aims to cast further light on creativity in pastoral education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the ‘mainstreaming’ of charities into schools. There have been growing concerns about the permeation of business and business values in education, but relatively little attention has been paid to the ways in which schools are increasingly engaged in the ‘business’ of fundraising for charities. Drawing on survey data from the WISERDEducation Multi-Cohort Study (WMCS), the paper outlines young people’s relationship with charities. The data show that young people have a high degree of engagement with charities, in which schools play a significant part. There are likely to be many positive aspects to this engagement, inasmuch as it fosters and reflects young people’s sense of collective responsibility. However, there are also issues about the extent to which this high level of involvement marginalises other approaches to promote the social good and increases the permeation of business values and business into school. The paper concludes that the current mainstreaming of charities into schools is not necessarily a self-evident ‘good’ and that this under-researched phenomenon deserves greater critical attention within and outwith schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the literature on complementary schools as sites of learning and social and cultural identification. We draw on a small-scale multi-method qualitative study conducted in Albanian and Bulgarian community schools in London to explore the agendas of ‘new’ Eastern European complementary schools with respect to learning and heritage and their impact on migrant students’ identities and experiences with education in the UK. Findings demonstrate that different models of complementary schooling and students’ experiences of mainstream education affected students’ views in different ways. The paper explores how the ‘hard’ and ‘boring’ culture of Bulgarian complementary school resulted in students’ expressions of greater liking for learning in mainstream school and valuing of its multiethnic context. It further examines how practices in another complementary school and students’ wider social experiences resulted in a stronger sense of Albanian heritage identity in students, but in more problematic views of UK cultural diversity. In elaborating these themes we seek to draw some implications for policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents information on the various papers published in the 2006 issue of the periodical "Studies in the Education of Adults." In one of the papers the author presents information on how academics participating in the Research Assessment Exercise in Great Britain have been much exercised by the possible use of metrics, including citations and journal ranking, as a proxy for the objective measure of the quality of research. Another paper explores critically a number of popular discourses of pedagogy in adult education theory and practice. A papers presents information on a recent email survey of professors of education in the United States and in Great Britain. A paper reports on a research with archaeologists working in the Yucatan in Mexico to try and create an archaeology that is less damaging to local environments, cultural resources and local communities than many archaeological projects. A paper presents information on activity theory and situated learning perspectives in education.

One of the most significant and far-reaching shifts taking place in contemporary British higher education is that from an institution-centred approach to a learner-centred approach. This paper explores the implications of this new dynamic, proposing in Section 1 three ways in which institutions will be challenged to adapt: in their overall perception of and goals for their students; in their educational objectives and focus, and in the structure and mode of delivery of their programmes and courses. The proposals challenge the existing status quo, and reference is made to some of the theological principles said to underpin current practice. Section 2 takes this further, similarly examining the alternative from a theological perspective, focusing on the dual yet related issues of communion and selfhood (with individualism). The knotty question of the Church's role in society provides the backdrop for the summary and conclusion, which suggest that institutions would do well in this instance to accommodate societal change rather than stand against it. Such accommodation is not necessarily negative; indeed, there are many ways in which it can be seen as healthy and theologically sound. While the intention of the paper is to provoke discussion before promoting new pathways, its underlying message is one not only of challenge but also of hope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sport is often framed as a panacea for social disharmony, especially within the context of marginalised youth populations, and is widely promoted as a mechanism through which a multiplicity of social policy objectives can be achieved. Yet while political rhetoric has long pointed towards sport's transformative abilities, the basis for such claims remains unproven. Theory-based approaches to evaluation have been posited as a useful device to explore the impact of specific initiatives and indicate where best practice may operate. The aim of this paper is to highlight one such theory-based framework that has been devised by practitioners in recent years around the operationalisation and evaluation of sporting interventions in criminal justice settings and which has come to be adopted as the dominant 'theory of change' across sport and criminal justice practitioner settings in the UK, but has, as yet, eluded academic scrutiny. To address this omission, the present discussion offers an in-depth analysis of this framework with the aim of discerning more clearly 'what might work' within sport and criminal justice contexts. In turn, the paper aims to stimulate further academic debate around the instrumental role of sport within criminal justice and the value of such frameworks for both policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a conversation that took place via Zoom on 6 September 2022, between Adriana Schneider Alcure and Bruce Adams, curated by Pedro de Senna. In it, Alcure and Adams discuss their experiences, respectively, at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and Middlesex University, London (MDX). Both universities offer BA courses in theatre directing, but follow very different models. Both universities also offer MAs in Theatre Arts (MDX) and 'Artes da Cena' (UFRJ), with similar interdisciplinary ethea. Mediated by de Senna's experience of both cultural contexts, Adams and Alcure talk about commonalities and differences, addressing two key pedagogical questions: in what ways can directing be taught, if at all? And: what is the role of theatre (and theatre directors) in society? The conversation is not directly transcribed, but edited and organised by de Senna, drawing on the themes explored, and addresses contemporary theatre director training from an intercultural perspective. The exchange touches on questions of academic and artistic labour, student cohorts, curriculum design, interdisciplinarity; and the relationship between 'training' and 'education', when it comes to the performing arts in general, and theatre directing in particular: are these terms even adequate? It is clear that these questions are imbricated with those relating to the purpose of, and access to, the arts and education more broadly, in societies that, while very different, have more in common than might at first be acknowledged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on qualitative interviews to explore the educational experiences amongst the UK-born adult children of refugees from Vietnam, Sri Lanka (Tamils) and Turkey (Kurdish). Second generation from refugee backgrounds are characterised by diversity and as a group are increasing numerically. However, little is known about the specificity of their experiences as they have been either subsumed within or have fallen between the research agendas on new migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and the body of research on larger established minorities. This paper sets out to fill a gap in the literature by exploring the perspectives of second generation from refugee backgrounds. We examine the impact of policy-particularly dispersal and mobility-on education, the ways in which inter-generational relations and the aspirations of both parents and their children can be shaped by refugee histories, how schools fail to alleviate barriers to parental participation and racism within school settings, especially-though not exclusively-within schools that are less ethnically diverse. We conclude that the policy context and refugee backgrounds shape educational experiences and aspirations but also significant are the structural divisions that reproduce class and race-based inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The broad aim of this paper is to track the evolution of adult literacy policy in the UK across three decades, highlighting convergences between policy phases and the promotion of democratic learning spaces. It is anchored onto the argument that, although it is generally accepted that democratic learning spaces are perceived as beneficial to adult literacy learners, policy has often deterred its promotion and, therefore, implementation. The paper identifies three block phases of adult literacy development: the seventies to mid-eighties, the mid-eighties to mid-nineties and the mid-nineties to the Moser Committees. The features of each of these phases are highlighted to map out convergences and divergences to the ethos of democratic learning spaces. The paper argues that, with the evolution of policy in adult literacy, the ethos of democratic learning space continuously diminished, such that as policy evolved year on year, the principle of democratic learning space found itself at counterpoint to policy. We draw on two theoretical frameworks, the NLS view of literacy and Bourdieu's capital framework to explain these divergences and conclude that the dominant perception of literacy and the prioritised capital in the context of policy appear to limit the vestiges of democratic learning spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2011Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sectorpresented Ireland with an opportunity to rethink the issue of patronage in Irish primary schools, as well as to consider how ‘religious education’ might be approached in such schools in the future. This paper suggests that, for the first time since 1831, Ireland had an opportunity to provide ‘state schooling’ for all children, regardless of their religious beliefs or lack thereof. The paper proposes educatingallchildren in the state in non-denominational secular settings, leaving faith formation to the private domain of parents and communities. Although the concept of ‘secularism’ has negative connotations for those who belong to a religious community, this paper suggests that it provides a framework for inclusive and egalitarian education, offering children and young people the opportunity to learn alongside their peers, irrespective of religious backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper adds to a growing body of literature which views global citizenship education as part of a broader social and cultural process of subjectivity production. Rather than focus on global citizenship in relation to pedagogy or curriculum content, as much of the previous research literature has done, this paper examines it in relation to the practice of travel. Drawing on data generated in ethnographic fieldwork in two UK schools, the paper explores the way in which the young people in these settings used travel to position themselves as successful, mobile, global citizen subjects. The paper argues that these subjectivities were negotiated as part of a dynamic process: one which took place across multiple spaces, in a myriad of different relationships, and in the deployment of a number of different power relations. The paper concludes with some thoughts about the practice of school travel and how it might effectively be focused upon in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper introduces the concept of the absent curriculum on the premise that the study of curriculum has been prone to privileging curricular presence to the exclusion of curricular absence. In order to address this imbalance and to articulate a theory of absence in the curriculum, the paper applies ideas derived from the philosophy of critical realism—‘absence’ and ‘totality’—to curriculum theory to conceive of the absent curriculum. The paper outlines three components of the absent curriculum: the null curriculum at the level of national curricular policy, the unselected curriculum at the level of school curricular planning and the unenacted curriculum at the classroom level of teacher delivery. This conceptual framework is illustrated by a case example of how the absence of the history of Muslim contribution from the teaching of the National Curriculum for history in four English schools formed an absent curriculum which prompted some of the research sample of 295 British Muslim boys to disengage from their learning of history. The paper concludes that the absent curriculum is a hidden curriculum that suggests to groups whose histories are missing from the national curricula that they are relatively insignificant citizens in the community of the nation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article focuses on the papers presented at the 2001 British Accounting Association Special Interest Group in Accounting Education's Annual Conference, which was held in Glamorgan Business Centre of University of Glamorgan, Wales. The conference, which received generous sponsorship from Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, attracted an international audience with delegates coming from Australia and the U.S. Of the 55 delegates attending, just under half of them were involved in presenting a paper. The conference opened with a plenary session by professor James E. Rebele, who gave his personal view of the uncertain environment facing accounting programmes and accounting education research in the U.S. Before the conference dinner, prizes were awarded for the best paper and the best emerging paper at the conference. A special award was also presented to commemorate the contribution to accounting education of the recently deceased professor Frank Wood. The conference closed with a plenary debate opened with an address from professor Stephen Zeff, who called on academics to make accounting more interesting by concentrating more on the why and less on the how, providing examples from the recent history of standard setting in Great Britain.

Much debate about the relative merit of academic and vocational media courses in the UK is framed by a wider national and international discussion about the status of vocational education more generally. This paper reports the initial findings of a small scale study (set against larger, publicly available data on vocational education) which seeks to examine teacher and student perceptions of the key differences in academic and vocational media courses in the UK – both of which involve elements of production work as well as critical and theoretical perspectives – through a series of interviews with teachers and students, as well as scrutiny of the work they produce. The study hopes to shed some light on the skills, knowledge and criticality required by students on both types of course, as well as beginning to address some of the polarisation that takes place in discourses around academic and vocational education. Rather than suggesting that the choice for students in media education is one of 'either vocational or academic', this paper will explore the idea that these two concepts are simply lenses through which students and teachers view very similar kinds of learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to debates on graduate migration, by discussing graduate migrants' career trajectory development, using structure-agency perspectives to explore career path management in a host country. Drawing on qualitative research with Polish graduate migrants in the UK, it demonstrates diverse attitudes towards career trajectories of those who obtained their degree from home country universities, and enrolled into some form of further education in the host country. This paper outlines three Polish graduate types in the UK, based on the time, type and motivations for further training in the UK. These are: Continuers, Switchers and Late Awakeners. It argues that graduates have become accustomed to life's uncertainties, and recognise the need to take diverse and flexible routes to advance their careers, including further education and various types of employment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the physical education (PE) and physical activity experiences of a group of South Asian, Muslim girls, a group typically marginalised in PE and physical activity research. The study responds to ongoing calls for research to explore across different spaces in young people's lives. Specifically, I draw on a ‘middle-ground’ approach, using Hill Collins' matrix of domination and the notion of intersectionality. These concepts offer the possibility to explore the kinds of settings (physical, social and cultural) in which girls undertake PE and physical activity, how these spaces influence experience and how the girls navigate these spaces. The study is based in a large, urban, co-educational, secondary school in Yorkshire, England (95% of the students are from minority ethnic communities, 91% are Muslim and 63% live in the top 10% most deprived neighbourhoods in the country). Data generation involved three phases: observations, creating research artefacts in focus groups and in-depth interviews. The findings reveal the diverse ways the girls are physically active. They also demonstrate a complexity to their involvement which is contingent upon space, discourses and people. For example, discourses of competition, ability and peers are more significant within PE; whilst family, religion and culture feature beyond this context. The paper concludes by acknowledging the girls' heterogeneity and agency in the ways they strategically navigate spaces in their quest to be physically active on their terms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Much of the literature on degree-level education in Geography is concentrated on 'western' countries such as the USA, UK, Canada and Australia. This paper, in contrast, includes a strong focus on Turkey. Its aim is to compare the development of Turkish education in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) with the UK experience. While identifying some common features, the paper also highlights important differences, particularly the extent to which Engineering, rather than Geography, has led GIS education in Turkey. The paper examines the reasons for this, and in reflecting on the possible relevance to Turkey of the UK experience, it sets out some potentially valuable ways forward in which Turkish Geography could strengthen its role in GIS provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the authors' extensive involvement in e-learning development activities in social care and social work education since the 1990s to explore trends and developments in uptake of technologies for learning and teaching. The paper utilises predictions of papers and reports written between five and ten years ago to critically reflect on past, present and possible future developments for technology use in the sector. The paper tracks milestones in the authors' experiences and reports on evaluative activity associated with later projects that offers some insights into technological preferences of educators, as well as highlighting wider issues in higher education and society impacting use of technologies by both staff and students. The paper's final section touches on a small selection of areas of technology development that may impact the sector and closes with a cautionary view of the ethical minefield posed by personal and professional use of Internet tools and sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the origins of the concept of personalisation in public sector services, and applies it to school education. The original conceptualisation stressed the need for ‘deep’ rather than shallow, personalisation, if radical transformation of services were to be achieved. It is argued that as the concept has been disseminated and implemented through policy documents, notably the 2005 White Paper, it has lost its original emphasis on deep personalisation. The focus in this article is particularly upon gifted and talented students whose education provides the best case example of how the theory of personalisation might work in practice. Two examples of the lessons in a sixth form college are used to illustrate the character of personalised pedagogy in practice. The implications for theory and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of design for learning has arisen as education faces up to the implications of modern pedagogy, student diversity, and the affordances of information and communication technologies. This paper examines some of the benefits and issues for teachers in further and higher education surrounding the idea of learning design and its practical implementation in blended learning. It looks particularly at questions of documenting and representing learning designs so that they can be communicated to others. It explores the differing requirements of representations at various stages in the planning and sharing process, and for different communities of users, finding that multiple perspectives on a learning design are usually necessary. However, few representations to date have succeeded in capturing the essence of a good piece of teaching. Ways of representing designs as dynamic processes, rather than static products, may need to be developed. The paper is based on the outcomes of work with practising teachers during the UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)-funded Models of Practice Project, part of JISC's Design for Learning Programme, which runs from 2006 to 2007. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the future of Schools Library Services in the North West region of England based on a research project recently undertaken by the Centre for the Public Library and Information in Society at the University of Sheffield on behalf of MLA North West. The research has revealed somewhat of an identity crisis for Schools Library Services in the region, encouraged by educational policy, changing public library service priorities and subsequent issues surrounding service perceptions, awareness and ownership. The research has revealed a desire within the sector for a more visible alignment of Schools Library Services within the empirical services to children and young people agenda. Particular opportunities exist within the literacy development remit, building upon best practice examples in the region concerning reader development projects and family learning initiatives. Recommendations include the formation of a regional professional network designed to promote a seamless library service to children from early years to young adulthood including staff training, advocacy and proactive service marketing under a strong and identifiable regional brand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first examines the New Labour government's redefinition of equality of opportunity in Britain, mainly with regard to education and the ways in which it mediates 'opportunity'. In doing so, it also draws on wider social policy issues, such as the use of education policies to combat social exclusion. Second, the paper reviews European Union policies and selected documents that address questions of social inclusion, social cohesion and the role of education in achieving those policy goals. The main argument is that both New Labour policies in Britain and the examined EU documents promote rather minimal understandings of the term 'equality of opportunity', while, education, in both cases, is given an enormous burden to carry in balancing increasingly liberalised market-driven economies, with the requirements of a socially just society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The publication of A-level examination results in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has become one of the major diary items in the news media's calendar. This paper is based, in part, upon the findings of an inter-disciplinary study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). It explores two key questions about the relationship between the education sector and news media in the UK. Firstly, it asks why educationalists appear to have become pessimistic about the possibilities for raising the quality of media debate about education. Secondly, it takes the example of the annual coverage of A-level results, in order to discuss why education news coverage tends to adhere to templates that many educationalists criticize as producing ritualistic and polarized coverage. The paper concludes by exploring some suggestions for those who are seeking ways to influence the quality of education news coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how technological change and globalization has influenced the return to education and occupation in Great Britain over the period 1973 to 1994. A number of papers in the literature have documented increasing demand for individuals who possess higher skill endowments than their peers. Both education and occupation can be interpreted as an individual's observable skills and how technology and trade have actually influenced returns to different educational and occupational levels is something that has not been investigated in Great Britain. For the empirical analysis estimates are based upon pooled cross sections over time and also pseudo panel techniques to control for unobservable heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wales was the first UK country to incorporate the UNCRC into domestic law and the first to appoint a children's commissioner. Wales is distinctive in the strong links between education and the promotion of the Welsh language as evidenced in successive Welsh language strategies. With regard to children with special educational needs, the 2018 Additional Learning Needs and Educational Tribunal Act makes provision for children's voices to be heard in their own right. This paper examines the complexities in hearing the voices of children with severe and profound learning difficulties (SPMLD), and how these can be addressed in the language context of Wales. It concludes that there are cautious grounds for optimism about our ability to hear the views of children with SPMLD, as long as we are prepared to acknowledge the resource implications. However, there is a need for more debate about the potential tensions between the Welsh language strategy and making provision for children with special educational needs in their preferred language. This debate needs to be informed by research on the impact of immersion education on progress, access to the curriculum and inclusion for children with SPMLD, and on their views about all aspects of their provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of ongoing discussions about how best to conceptualise, confront and ultimately eradicate racism, this paper seeks to critically examine the relevance of ‘post-racial’ thinking, both in a general sense, but also in relation to education. The argument is framed around a concern that multi-cultural, and to a lesser extent, anti-racist approaches have become hostage to the very same essentialising practices around ‘race’ thinking that they seek to challenge. This is best illustrated in the plethora of racial, ethnic, geographic, national and religious categories that are currently deployed my many educational institutions in the furtherance of ‘equality and diversity’ policy objectives. In setting out some of the underpinning ideas and controversies linked with the idea of ‘post-racial’, the paper offers some tentative suggestions as to how a ‘post-racial pedagogy’ could be manifested in pedagogical practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifty years after the production of Circular 10/65, which confirmed comprehensive education as the national policy for secondary education in England and Wales, it is possible to trace the idea of comprehensive education from the 1940s to the 1960s, to understand the position of the Labour Party in its development, and to assess the nature of the contribution of Circular 10/65 itself to comprehensive education in Britain. There were strong connections between the 1944 Education Act and Circular 10/65. In particular, Michael Stewart, the Labour Party education policy review of 1957–1958, and the 1958 report Learning to Live that arose from this, played a key mediating role. Awareness of public opinion through the then novel device of market research and a determination to consolidate ambitious reforming ideals into a practical strategy for educational reform over the longer term formed part of the party’s revisionist approach under Hugh Gaitskell, and helped to provide the basis for Labour’s policy on comprehensive education when it returned to power in 1964. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction to the articles appearing within the issue is presented which include the institutional use of research by British teachers, the online mentoring system used by teachers in Brazil, and the educational system in Poland.

The paper privileges thevoicesof British social anthropologists examining their perceptions of how their research expertise was acquired. Reference is made to the case of education research in Britain, which, by comparison with social anthropology, reveals limited capacity as measured through performance audits of scientific research quality. The paper endeavours to facilitateknowledge transferby uncovering and theoretically classifying the origins of research capacity. Life history interviews provide the data which illuminate the grounded nature of symbolic capital. The intellectual formation of the sample is characterised through Pierre Bourdieu’s theorisation of symbolic capital. The results indicate that research capacity can be characterised in terms of a transmission of symbolic capital, including that gained in the field through institutional affiliations whose reputational assets enhance the power of academics to play the game. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Conservative trends across western schooling contexts are signalling an explicit devaluing of social and moral learning within their official curriculum mandates. These mandates are increasingly privileging the ‘academic rigour’ of traditional subject disciplines. This paper draws on interview and observation data from a case study of a large and highly diverse English secondary school to explore this school’s prioritizing of social and moral learning. Such prioritizing is supported at this school by its ‘Academy’ status—which in the English context allows schools a measure of freedom over curriculum as part of broader government moves to increase school autonomy. The paper’s focus is on how these conservative trends are understood and disrupted to support a critical view of existing curriculum and a desire to modify and re-shape it to support more relevant and connected learning for students. The paper describes particular examples of practice at the school in the areas of Citizenship and Religious Education to illustrate this approach. Engaging with social and moral learning along these lines is argued as productive in working within and against the constraints of current conservative curriculum priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reflects on the findings of two studies one completed in 2010 and another in 2019, which employed Q-methodology and post Q-sort semi-structured interviews to an investigation of teachers', in the West Midlands, perspectives of the inclusion agenda. The findings of the 2019 study, demonstrate commonality of findings with that carried out in 2010. The findings reveal that teachers in both studies employed integration and inclusion interchangeably in their attempts to define and operationalise inclusive education. Second, the findings of both studies demonstrate that teachers support inclusion at a theoretical level but in practice find it a difficult concept to operationalise. The 2019 study, though, denotes that a significant barrier to inclusion is whether children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) should or should not be included in SATs. The article details and reflects on the findings of both studies and concludes that the continuous use of SATs needs to be reconceptualise especially in how they enable the inclusion of all children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This paper draws on data that formed part of a major three-year longitudinal study (2008–2011), which set out to investigate basic skills (BS) provision and needs in the British army and its relationship to operational effectiveness. Using mixed methods, the findings draw on qualitative data from 60 semi-structured interviews with 26 young recruits and interviews and survey data with 1518 recruits, with an average age of 19.6 years. The research also uses testimony from their line managers and trainers. The first part of the paper looks at educational BS provision that the army provides. While the benefits of this provision are discussed, there is a debate about the extent to which BS programmes provide recruits with qualifications rather than enduring and transferable skills, which would make them more operationally effective and useful to the army organisation. The second part deconstructs the concept of what is meant by being ‘operationally effective’ and the role BS play in reaching this ultimate military objective. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper uses Basil Bernstein’s work on pedagogic discourses to examine a largely neglected facet of the history of vocational education – the liberal studies movement in English further education colleges. Initially, the paper discusses some of the competing conceptions of education, work and society which underpinned the rise and fall of the liberal studies movement – if indeed it can be described as such. The paper then draws on data from interviews with former liberal and general studies lecturers to focus on the ways in which different variants of liberal studies were, over time, implicated in inculcating certain forms of knowledge in vocational learners. Whilst it is acknowledged that liberal and general studies always represented contested territory and that it was highly variable both in terms of content and quality, the paper argues that, at least under certain circumstances, liberal studies provided young working-class people with the opportunity to locate their experiences of vocational learning within a critical framework that is largely absent from further education today. This, it is argued, can be conceptualised as an engagement with what Bernstein described as ‘powerful knowledge’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]