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It is well documented in both the British press and mathematics education literature that many consider A-levels (qualifications for secondary school leavers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland) to be insufficient preparation for undergraduate mathematics study in the UK. A-level Mathematics and Further Mathematics are not solely intended for those wishing to go on to study undergraduate mathematics, though this is often the only mathematics study and preparation available to, and done by, most students. A number of British universities now require applicants to perform well on entrance examinations or "extension" papers in addition to achieving certain grades in A-level Mathematics and, sometimes, Further Mathematics. This article outlines research which used the Mathematical Assessment Task Hierarchy (Smith et al., 1996) and builds upon the work of Darlington (2014) to describe the mathematical skills required to answer the questions in extension papers. These are then contrasted with skills required at A- and undergraduate level. Each of the three extension papers analysed (Advanced Extension Awards, Sixth Term Examination Papers and university admissions tests) were found to differ from each other, as well as from A-level and undergraduate examinations. This suggests that there are benefits for students doing such papers before university mathematics study. The advantages of doing these papers are not only for admissions tutors, who can use them as additional indicators of candidates' aptitudes, but also for the students themselves as they gain insights into the nature of undergraduate mathematics and related further mathematical challenges.

In Ireland and the UK it is accepted practice that agencies with formal responsibility for delivering school examinations allow examination candidates, and in many cases their teachers, to see their examination papers once they have been marked. Returned papers can carry various pieces of information; as well as the total score given for a performance, additional information is included in the form of the annotations left on the examination paper by the marking examiner. As far as we know there has been no research into how this information affects those who come into contact with it. The study uses teacher interview and survey data to explore whether a sociocultural approach to analysis can illuminate the factors that might influence their interpretation of those annotations. These analyses suggest that a key influence on the valid interpretation of an examiner's annotations is a teachers' involvement in examining activity. The analyses support further conceptualisation that these teacher-examiners' interpretative capacity is related to their positioning in a boundary zone between two different activity systems. (Contains 3 figures, 4 tables and 4 notes.)

Initial Teacher Education (ITE) for the post-compulsory sector (PCE) in the UK is currently under review. Despite earlier plans to substantially increase the use of technology in ITE the Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) consultation findings recommend that "we will expect that teachers do develop their skills in this area to a limited extent on a mandatory basis" (LLUK, 2011b:12). This is a disappointing departure as other commissioned work such as that from the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) (2009: 8) review of workforce development identified that this area was in need of continuous updating. This article will consider the need more than ever before to explore what Barnett identifies (2007: 1) as the links between teaching and learning in higher education and "pedagogic bungee jumping" with the development of cultures supportive to experimental technology use in ITE focusing upon a group of teacher educators in a West Midlands ITE Partnership (higher education institute (HEI) and partner colleges).

In the United Kingdom, the number of young people (16 to 24 years-old) not in education, employment or training (NEET) was estimated to be c.763,000 in October to December 2019. The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of NEET young people attending alternative education provisions that focus on physical and mental health in promoting positive outcomes. Semi-structured interviews with young people (n = 18), parents (n = 10), and staff (n = 8), analysed using Constant Comparative Method, were conducted in an alternative education provision in England and Wales. Analysis led to the identification of themes around motivation, empowerment, and confidence. The findings illustrate that young people in alternative education provisions benefit from an approach that placed health, well-being and confidence building at their core. This paper outlines the implications for policy-makers and practitioners in designing alternative education provisions with physical activity as part of the core curriculum.

Each year, the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy Special Interest Group organises an Invisible College which precedes the annual BERA conference. The day opens with a Scholar Lecture which is delivered by an academic who has made a significant contribution to the field. This paper represents the 2019 Scholar Lecture, which charts the journey of health within physical education over recent decades through to the present day. Whilst the notion of maintaining health through physical education is long standing and contributing to healthy active lifestyles is generally accepted to be a key goal of the subject, it is argued that the road to securing and retaining the position of health within the curriculum has at times been tricky to navigate. There have certainly been many successes en route, but equally some challenges and seemingly even a few obstacles and diversions. Specifically, this paper outlines the journey of health from the 1980s, during which time there was revived interest in health and a significant growth in health-related courses within physical education curricula within and beyond the United Kingdom. This coincided with the introduction of the National Curriculum in England and Wales, as well as with my own doctoral studies and initial physical education practice. Consequently, I highlight key influences and influencers in the area and on my thinking during this period, as well as some of the key developments, outcomes and messages emanating from this early work. Equally, I explore some of the issues and challenges health and health-related learning within physical education have and continue to face. The paper then turns to focus on recent progress and positive developments in the area and concludes with some proposed future directions for research and practice and reflections on the next leg of the journey for health within physical education.

The lives of children within Armed Forces (Service) families often pass unnoticed by wider society. Working with schools that have a high percentage of Forces families, it was realised that understanding of particular issues they face was largely limited to teachers in schools where they were concentrated, mostly close to Services accommodation. Various changes taking place within society, and the likely increased geographical spread of Service pupils throughout the UK, suggested that the particular needs of Service children should be embedded within initial teacher training (ITT), in order to offer parity with children with other particular educational and social needs. Kingston University timetabled sessions on Service families within initial teacher training and built a range of extension activities. This paper reports on the processes involved, their delivery and associated outcomes. It draws on a range of feedback and analysis, from questionnaires sent to participants, interviews with staff involved, and a wider circle of influencers including military units, welfare support agencies, associated charities, research organisations and university colleagues. Suggestions are made for how this work could be built upon, developed and extended in future, to the benefit of all involved.

Abstract In this paper, we present the findings from our critical analysis of the health discourses evident with physical education (PE) curricula in each UK home nation--England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We carried out a critical discourse analysis of those curriculum documents that talk directly to PE teachers about how to organise, enact and assess PE curricula in schools. The results from our analysis uncovered that, with the exception of the curriculum in England, all PE curricula conceptualise health and wellbeing holistically. However, our analysis also uncovered complex health landscapes within curricula, where discourses move from notions of supporting and enabling pupil health and wellbeing towards a more concrete (and measurable) concept of health-related learning, often associated with public health goals of promoting physical activity. Furthermore, although the public health discourses are presented in a way that suggests that young people will develop knowledge and skills to support their health, closer scrutiny reveals that they may be more associated with discourses of risk, promoting 'healthy' behaviours to avoid 'ill health'. We conclude by suggesting that PE teachers need to develop a critical understanding of the health discourses within their PE curriculum. This will help them to navigate, interpret and enact curricula in an informed way, enabling them to challenge discourses that are deficit in nature, where pupils are taught how to be healthy, rather than having the freedom to learn about themselves and their health.

This paper considers the potential significance of a concept of lifelong learning in the context of digital disruption. Having noted some contemporary contrasts in the visibility of lifelong learning policy, it revisits the earlier more widespread dominance of the concept, identifying not only variety but also tensions that are inherent and constituent. Drawing on examples from England and Singapore, difficulties arising from compass, scope and fluidity of goals are discussed, illustrating how lifelong learning can lose its meaning. The paper then turns to the prospects for a new concept of lifelong learning that may be more sustainable and meaningful in a context characterised by digital and other changes to the nature of work, suggesting that such a concept must be both life-facing and work-facing.

In the light of the government's recent White Paper, we outline the history of the academisation programme, positioning it as part of the neo-liberal privatisation drive which has been sustained since the 1988 Education Reform Act under governments of all stripes. We contest central claims made for the supposed benefits of academisation, and call for a national campaign to bring all schools and education services under democratic local authority oversight, in line with policy endorsed at the 2019 Labour Party conference.

This paper provides a 'home international' comparative analysis of education policy on social and emotional wellbeing, drawing on the case of the UK and its four distinct education systems of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have developed more holistic policy in this area, which stands in stark contrast to the disparate policies of England. These divergences in policy are likely to account for differences observed in the awareness, perceived value and 'take up' of policy by schools -- what we refer to here as differences in 'policy traction' between the different systems of education. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland had the highest rates of 'policy traction' compared to England where schools appeared adrift about policy in their jurisdiction. We consider these findings in light of challenges and opportunities for policy learning.

This paper reports the findings of a project "Digital Futures in Teacher Education" (DeFT) undertaken as part of the third phase of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) UK Open Educational Resources (OER) programme. It builds on previous work (Gruszczynska and Pountney, 2012, 2013) that has addressed attempts to embed OER practice within the teacher education sector, and which has informed practice in teaching and learning in the school system involving digital literacy (Burnett and Merchant, 2011; Davies and Merchant, 2009). A framework for digital literacy is outlined, drawing heavily on socio-cultural models of digital practice (Merchant, 2011), that has the potential to re-imagine teachers and teaching, as well as learners and learning and which, at the same time, address the 'why' as well as the 'how' of digital literacy. This framework takes into account current debates (primarily within the UK but of relevance to European perspectives) focusing on issues of ICT, digital literacy and media literacy in the curriculum, which reflect a tension between digital literacy as a set of skills and competencies on the one hand and understandings that arise from sociocultural and communicative practices on the other. Current understandings of digital literacy in the context of teacher education and OERs are explored and the potential for digital literac(ies) for openness is examined. This draws on data collected in the context of the DeFT project and includes meanings and perspectives on digital literacies as expressed by project participants. The effectiveness of a methodology that prizes reflexivity and participation is examined including a range of voices, including children's voices, in the meaning-making process and recommendations on the basis of the findings are made. In terms of a digital future for teacher education the paper highlights the need for practices, learning packages and tools to continue to evolve, in close cooperation with their potential users, and linked directly to classroom and schools as the site of this production.

Further education (FE) has traditionally been a rather unspectacular activity. Lacking the visibility of schools or the prestige of universities, for the vast majority of its existence FE has had a relatively low profile on the margins of English education. Over recent years this situation has altered significantly and further education has undergone profound change. This paper argues that a combination of related factors--neo-liberalism, globalisation, and dominant discourses of the knowledge economy--has acted in synergy to transform FE into a highly performative and marketised sector. Against this backdrop, further education has been assigned a particular role based upon certain narrow and instrumental understandings of skill, employment and economic competitiveness. The paper argues that, although it has always been predominantly working class in nature, FE is now, more than ever, positioned firmly at the lower end of the institutional hierarchy in the highly class-stratified terrain of English education.

This paper examines the King's Oxfordshire Assessment Project, which took place in the UK and explored the use of coursework as a means of terminal assessment. In particular, it considers the findings of the six English teachers who were involved. In a standards-based curriculum all six teachers supported 100% coursework. The paper looks at how, in the ritual of atomised standards-based assessment, a basis for holistic coursework can be maintained. It considers the importance of guild knowledge within the system as well as the need for structural support. It considers also some of the difficulties that can be found with this type of assessment. (Contains 1 footnote.)

Developing sustainable professional development which facilitates teachers of mathematics to develop effective mathematics pedagogy has been a key aim in recent years. This paper examines how lesson study can be used with networks of teachers as a vehicle to promote and sustain professional development. Drawing on findings from a year-long study involving four schools, the paper highlights how through the process of collaboratively planning a lesson, observing and discussing it, teachers were facilitated to adopt approaches to mathematics teaching that are aligned with the factors identified as effective mathematics pedagogy. It also illustrates how lesson study can support teachers to engage in a collaborative network, develop their professional knowledge, and reflect on their teaching practice. (Contains 1 table.)

How do teachers respond to a mathematics curriculum innovation? This paper reports some of the findings from a UK Research Council (ESRC)-funded project investigating how teachers in English secondary schools (students aged 12-16 years) responded to innovation. A Gatsby Foundation funded program implemented new materials; the project investigated processes and expectations of implementation. In this paper, we consider the "gap" between innovation and proposed practice from the position of the practitioner, employing the work of Foucault (1995) and Deleuze and Guattari (1998) as a framework for analysis. The paper takes a theoretical position, arguing that teachers construct individual and constantly changing amalgams of practice. These are founded on "difference" and understood in ways, which are shifting, and partial rather than "known" via a sense-making process. Expectations of a strong correspondence between innovation and teacher response have undermined alternative perspectives that regard the interruption and re-routing of innovation as productive of viable outcomes in sites of practice.

This paper focuses on widening participation and accessibility in relation to mental health issues and undergraduate psychology students. Sections 1 and 2 set the context and outline the scope and aims of this paper. Section 3 presents evidence of the student experience from the Improving Provisions for Disabled Psychology Students (IPDPS) project. Students in this project all had some form of disability as defined by the DDA (2005). Section 4 provides examples of ways in which learning and teaching about mental health can be designed from an inclusive and accessible perspective. These examples are drawn from work done by the Mental Health in Higher Education (mhhe) project in conjunction with the Psychology Network. Finally, Section 5 notes that research into other minority groups studying psychology reflects very similar findings to those reported about mental health and psychology teaching and learning, and also highlights the need for further research into these areas.

Religious education was established as a compulsory curriculum requirement in all schools by the 1944 Education Act. It was intended to provide instruction to all pupils in the basic tenets of the Christian faith and ensure that every successive generation of pupils understood the role of Christianity in British history and the national sense of British identity. In examining the sociohistorical context in which this groundbreaking education act emerged it is evident that at that time religious education had a very clear purpose and unambiguous raison d'être. It was a key element in the socialisation process of children which familiarised them with the prevailing societal norms of behaviour, social values and dominant beliefs. By the second decade of the twenty-first century this certainty about a rationale for RE had been lost. Widespread confusion had developed about what the point of religious education actually was, and inspections of RE teaching revealed the subject to be in a parlous state (OFSTED in: Religious education: realising the potential, 2013; in: School inspection handbook, 2019). In 2016 the Religious Education Council of England and Wales established the Commission on Religious Education (CoRE) in an attempt to bring some clarity back into the subject. In the years between 1944 and 2021 social norms, values and beliefs had changed significantly and consequently the world RE teachers were seeking to socialise children into was and is very different. The solution proposed by the CoRE is to concentrate on teaching 'worldviews' to prepare pupils to respect the diversity of beliefs in contemporary society. Far from saving the subject, however, this shift of focus can be seen in many ways which are explored in this paper to be more likely to hasten the end of RE as a curriculum subject and to accelerate its replacement by an enhanced form of citizenship education.

In the international context of concerns about standards in writing, this article addresses the role of grammar in the teaching of writing. It considers both current and historical perspectives on the teaching of grammar and offers a critique of research which attempts to determine the impact of grammar teaching on writing, but which does not investigate how the grammar teaching was pedagogically linked to teaching writing. The article argues that there has never been a critical theorisation of how grammar might support the development of writing, and thus there has been very limited research which has explored this relationship. Drawing on the findings of a current research enquiry, the article offers a possible theorisation for a pedagogically robust role for grammar in the teaching of writing. (Contains 2 footnotes and 2 figures.)

In "The English Patient: English Grammar and teaching in the Twentieth Century", Hudson and Walmsley (2005) contend that the decline of grammar in schools was linked to a similar decline in English universities, where no serious research or teaching on English grammar took place. This article argues that such a decline was due not only to a lack of research, but also because it suited educational policies of the time. It applies Bernstein's theory of pedagogic discourse (1990 & 1996) to the case study of the debate surrounding the introduction of a national curriculum in English in England in the late 1980s and the National Literacy Strategy in the 1990s, to demonstrate the links between academic theory and educational policy.

There are growing expectations on schools to promote health and physical activity and helping schools to effectively do so is considered a priority. This paper reports on selected findings from a research project that was concerned with supporting secondary schools in the effective promotion of physical activity and establishing their needs in this regard. Specifically, the paper explores secondary school teachers' experiences of and perspectives on promoting physical activity. The study involved an online survey with secondary schools across the United Kingdom, plus interviews with teachers from eight schools from different regions in England. The findings highlighted a number of issues concerning the promotion of healthy, active lifestyles generally, many of which seem to be long-standing. For example, issues associated with the status and place of health, the amount and nature of the training and support provided or accessed by teachers in the area, and schools' effectiveness in promoting and engaging all pupils in healthy, active lifestyles were identified. These findings led to questions regarding the extent to which teachers are adequately and appropriately equipped to effectively promote physical activity and to recommendations to improve the support for and practice of schools in this area.

Those in the teaching profession are facing additional challenges when responding to cyberbullying due to the unique features of publicity and severity. Such features are known to negatively impact on young people's cyberbullying experiences. Teachers' views on publicity and severity of cyberbullying are currently unknown. The current research draws on data from 10 focus groups with 63 teachers (10 males) who taught across primary, secondary, and college educational levels in the UK. Reflexive thematic analysis identified three themes: (a) role of severity, (b) differential roles of publicity, and (c) bystander intentions. Participants discussed the role of severity, where visual acts of cyberbullying were perceived more severe than written forms, suggesting the type of cyberbullying is an important indicator in perceived severity. Participants acknowledged how cyberbullying can transition from private, semi-public, and public incidents, which influenced their perceived intervention strategies. Finally, levels of publicity were discussed regarding young people's bystander intentions, with public incidents of cyberbullying instigating positive and negative bystander intervention. The findings are discussed in relation to practical implications, especially the need to promote awareness for teachers on the issues of publicity and severity in cyberbullying.

In UK higher education, minority ethnic students are less likely to graduate with a good degree than their White British counterparts, even when prior attainment is considered. Until recently, concerns about this ethnicity degree awarding gap have not received the research attention it deserves. In this paper, we contribute to this gap in knowledge with a focus on how students make sense of the difference in degree outcomes by ethnicity. Informed by 69 in-depth interviews with minority and majority ethnic students at a UK university, we explore their views towards the ethnicity degree awarding gap, why it exists and what would be their solution to reduce this difference. Although some students perceived the awarding gap as a reflection of individual aptitude, others have attributed social barriers for degree outcome differences. We present five recommendations as suggested by students for policy and practice. Firstly, the provision of greater economic support for minority ethnic students, which will improve access and a more diverse student population. Secondly, to establish an institutional commitment to challenge and eradicate all forms of racism on campus, including microaggressions. Thirdly, to increase representation of minority ethnic staff and students in higher education to improve students' sense of belongings and aspirations, with the emphasis on greater staff diversity. Fourthly, to diversify the curriculum with a wider range of values and perspectives incorporated into teaching. Finally, universities need to be proactive and reflective to ensure structural barriers are reduced or eliminated through additional support or alternative provisions.

This paper makes the claim that student teachers' learning depends a great deal on the individual school department where they are working, its social practices and the relationships of the teachers involved in initial teacher education (ITE). The paper considers how using a Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) lens to view data generated on school ITE activity helps to focus vital social, cultural and historical dimensions of practice. The research uses an activity system as a descriptive heuristic to explore whether understandings of the object and tools of school-based ITE activity systems are shared. The findings illustrate differences in the kinds of teacher learning possible, afforded in relation to the ways in which the object of the ITE activity system was constructed, and the tensions that emerged in interaction with other related activity systems. The necessity of negotiating and renegotiating the system's object regularly is emphasised in order for collaborative work in ITE to be successful in helping create opportunities that develop teachers through expansive learning. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

The author has been asked by the Editor-in-Chief to write about the impact of fees on the sector. He does so with concern for the impact on and implications for applicants, students, graduates and their families. Home and European Union undergraduate tuition fees are of course only part of the fee picture for higher education institutions (HEIs), but are by far the most topical and controversial, especially in England. From the Browne Review (Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance (2010), the Government's White Paper on higher education (BIS 2011) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) consultation document on teaching funding (HEFCE 2011) they know the key ingredients but they do not yet know how the cake will come out of the oven. In this commentary he attempts to identify some of the trends that may develop as a result of these policies and how they may affect students and their families, employers and existing or new providers of higher education, all in the context of international developments in higher education.

The last three decades have seen an intensification of commercialization throughout the public sector in general and state schools in particular. Policies designed to introduce business ideologies, structures and practices have operated in tandem with a push to include the corporate world in the running, governance and provision of educational services. Together these policy instruments are eroding the influence and power of education professionals and precipitating a transformative shift in the nature of public education. A specific threat which these policies may encourage is the use of corporate propaganda techniques targeted at schools which may harm children, undermine the proper purposes of education, subvert the moral and social fabric of school life and damage the foundations of civil society. This paper argues that educators must recognize the dangers of commercialized schools and organize to protect civic education, speak up for its values and preserve the distinctiveness of educational practice operating within non-commercialized public spaces. Such a strategy also offers the opportunity to redefine the central role of educators as servants of the twin professional ideals of children's civic welfare and democratic citizenship.

School diversity in the UK is not a new phenomenon. However, recent reforms to "modernise" the secondary school system towards greater diversity of provision, primarily in England, needs to be explored in more detail. The article begins by proposing three phases in the development of state-funded school diversity and provision between 1944 and 1997. It then goes on to consider such reforms with the introduction of a Labour government in 1997. We argue that school diversity under New Labour represents a distinct fourth phase within this broad policy agenda. While there is some continuity in the expansion of school diversity this most recent phase is characterised by greater governmental intervention and a stronger commitment to provide greater resources for schools in disadvantaged communities. However, the paper then critically analyses the relationship between recent programmes of education diversity and equity. In particular, we go on to discuss the extent to which critics' fears about the emergence of a two-tier system are justified. We conclude that while the fourth phase in the UK school diversity agenda may aim to be more equitable, complementary and collaborative it perhaps fails to recognise that the education system today is more competitive and consumer-led.

This conceptual paper contributes to the discussion of the role of regional government and regional Triple Helix constellations driving economic development and growth within regional boundaries. The impact of regionalism and subsidiarity on regional Triple Helix constellations, and the questions of governmentality, governance and institutional development at the regional level, were investigated. It is emphasized that the position of regional authorities in the structure of government and policy boundaries is best implemented at the regional level (the principles of regionalism and subsidiarity), and that localized policy practices represent a more precise view of government-industry-university interactions (the principle of governmentality). In addition, the regional Triple Helix context as a prerequisite for stakeholder engagement, enhancing innovation capabilities and entrepreneurial behaviour, was studied. The paper identifies the drivers behind regional competitiveness and economic development and investigates the positive externalities from strong Triple Helix constellations, as well as the impact of government support and institutionalized cooperation on value creation and value capture at the level of the locale. The paper offers a stylized model of the conditions for value creation and value capture, and presents a critical overview of the debates about the rationale for regional governments. Examples are drawn from Scotland, England and other, comparable parts of Europe.

The part of the higher education sector in the United Kingdom in which providers are not publicly-funded (including for-profit, not-for-profit and charitable) has been expanding considerably under Government encouragement. This paper aims to clarify the practical and public policy issues now emerging, by tracing the history of the emergence of this policy in the wider context of trends in higher education policy in the United Kingdom, and with reference to the changes brought about by devolving higher education to the "devolved administrations" of Scotland and Wales. It examines the claims made by alternative provider lobbyists that they will be able to provide something for students which would be different and better. It looks at the mounting evidence, including the findings of the Quality Assurance Agency, the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee, that a number of alternative providers were guilty of bad practice and even fraud in taking advantage of the availability of Student Loan Company funding for their students. The penultimate section describes the attempt by a small group of alternative providers to form an organisation for leaders of the sector and to dissociate themselves from these trends and emerging problems. The article concludes with the implications of the White Paper, "Success as a Knowledge Economy," and the Higher Education and Research Bill, both published in May 2016 for the risks and implications of this significant proposed reconstruction of the system of United Kingdom higher education.

The paper draws on the Wolf (2015) report ("Heading for the Precipice: Can Further and Higher Education Funding Policies Be Sustained?") and other quantitative data, specifically that derived from HEFCE's Participation of Local Area (POLAR) classifications. In addition it explores key literature and debates that associate higher education in further education (HE in FE) with the pursuit of social justice. This enables an interrogation of conceptualisations of vocationalism as well as a consideration of its articulation with class and gender. Whilst the paper is set within a particular and English socio-economic context, it addresses issues that have a much broader global significance. The paper argues that whilst HE in FE has limited traction in facilitating social mobility it does serve as a resource in the struggle for social justice.

Children identified with special educational needs (SEN) and behavioural difficulties present extra challenges to educators and require additional supports in school. This paper presents views from special educational needs coordinators (SENCos) on various strategies used by educators to support children identified with SEN and problematic behaviours. The data were collected from telephone interviews with six SENCos from the UK's South West Peninsula. The SENCos were invited to participate because their school was participating in a cluster-randomised trial of a teacher classroom management course (Incredible Years). Using thematic analysis to analyse the data, this paper illustrates strategies deemed by SENCos to be successful in the support of children identified with SEN. The management strategies generated by participating SENCos were then mapped onto those taught as part of the classroom management course for comparison. Findings indicate that strategies from the training programme appear to be appropriate for children identified with both SEN and behavioural difficulties.

This paper addresses a particular gap in the further education (FE) literature offering an analysis of Incorporation within a theory of social change developed by Fligstein and McAdam, in their work "A Theory of Fields". The authors argue that FE was subjected to the introduction of a quasi-market in advance of wider neoliberal reforms in the English public sector. The paper analyses the development of Incorporation arguing the marketisation of the sector developed a logic of its own which the authors term the "logic of Incorporation". This logic overdeveloped areas of "market" interest while neglecting other crucial areas such as teaching and learning, professionalism and the curriculum. These neglected areas are explained using the concept of "unorganised social space" (taken from an undeveloped concept in Fligstein and McAdam's work) which remain unstable and unresolved because the very logic of Incorporation blocks the discussion of other logics, discourses or alternatives. The paper concludes that the logic of Incorporation leaves many important areas underdeveloped including the strategic place or purpose of FE itself. It proposes that FE has yet to find the stability of a "strategic action field" needed to maintain itself and should be returned to some form of local or regional government ownership and control.

This paper examines the positioning of the Welsh education system within contemporary policy debate and analysis. It begins by outlining some of the ways in which education policy and provision in Wales differs from that of its neighbour, England, and then goes on to critique how these differences have been represented in both the media and by members of the educational research community. Indeed, the paper argues that these representations constitute a form of misrecognition. It is tempting to counter this misrecognition with assertions of the superiority of the "Welsh way"--and certainly pronouncements of a "crisis" in Welsh education appear to be as much politically-driven as evidence-based. However, such an approach would underplay the very real challenges that face Wales--challenges which are both like and unlike those facing England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The paper concludes that we need a serious engagement with national divergences across the four nations of the UK--as well as elsewhere. The case of Wales highlights the need to undertake not only comparative analysis but also "relational" analysis if we are to enhance our understanding of the changing politics of education.

This paper considers whether there are aspects of spiritual pedagogy specific to the education of children who are sick and asks how these concerns are to be addressed. The context of the enquiry is England and Wales where the promotion of the spiritual development of children is a legislative requirement. The focus of the study is on sick children whose treatment requires extended stay in hospital. Such children have hardly been noticed in the continuing debate about spiritual education. Our enquiry has involved analysing literature published in English in the UK and North America. We have supplemented this analysis with primary data from semi-structured interviews with three hospital schoolteachers, two hospital chaplains and the founder of a hospice for children and a "respice" for young people. We argue that what emerges as important in the spiritual education of the sick child has significant implications for the spiritual education of all children.

This paper presents a personal reflection on the history and contribution of child and family guidance within the profession of educational psychology. It argues for a return to a child and family orientation within practice to ensure there is a better focus on children's needs. A recent change in the range of therapeutic options makes it more likely that modern child and family guidance will be both effective, cost-efficient, and less stifled by interprofessional ossification. The future of child and family guidance is considered in terms of the working party on the role of the educational psychologist in England and Wales.

Sets the current public debate about gender and schooling in England into a historical and a United Kingdom-wide context, addressing the highly politicized context in which educational research on gender has taken place over the past 20 years, discussing the feminization of teaching, and examining attacks on English schools for failing boys as a discourse of derision. (SM)

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.

Focussing on the ideological aspects of privatisation, this paper explores ways in which "freedom" has been activated discursively to justify actions involving changes to both the structure and the content of formal education in the UK. Empirically, the paper will analyse examples in England of UK Government "new provider" rhetoric relating to "Academies" in order to address both the claims and the counterclaims made by governments, educational producers and others for the privatisation of education and physical education (PE) within it. The paper suggests that such changes may have significant implications not only for teachers of PE, but also the educational entitlements of pupils and specifically, their opportunities to enjoy a liberal, comprehensive, high-quality PE. Privatisation may also consolidate rather than help erode and eradicate existing social hierarchies and associated distributions of educational social and physical capital.

Background: The UK, like most countries across Europe and other advanced economies, has experienced an alarming rise in the levels of young people (aged between 16 and 24 years) who are detached from both the labour market and the education and training system. In the UK, there are nearly a million 16-24-year-olds who are recorded as being not in education, employment or training (NEET). For governments throughout Europe, the need to address high levels of youth unemployment and social disengagement has become an urgent priority. As a result, policy-makers are faced with the challenge of developing effective interventions to prevent these levels being sustained over the longer term, with potential scarring effects on successive generations, and concomitant economic and social impacts. Purpose: This paper will inform the development of policy and practice targeted at NEET prevention and reintegration of those young people who have become NEET, with suggestions for areas to be addressed and methods and mechanisms which might be incorporated into programme implementation. The paper highlights gaps in our knowledge and understanding of the size, characteristics and geographical distribution of young people in the NEET group in England, and questions the continued relevance of the term "NEET" to capture youth disengagement. Sources of evidence: After drawing on Europe-wide data to present a picture of the scale of youth unemployment throughout the continent, official UK data are used to drill down to specific issues which are the focus of the piece, in particular, the regional disparities in the size of the group whose destination is "unknown". This is discussed in the context of a range of literature relating to the emergence of the term "NEET" and the characteristics of the NEET group. A review of current policy intervention in England to tackle the NEET "problem" is also presented. Main argument: This paper will suggest that the implementation of effective policy interventions to address the "NEET" issue is highly problematic, due to three overriding concerns. These are: (a) a lack of clarity in the definition of this group in England; (b) inadequacies in determining with any precision how many under-18s there are in this group, or where they are located, leading to large numbers whose post-education destination is "unknown"; and (c) misguided stereotyping of NEET young people's behaviour, attitudes and aspirations. These problems have partly been exacerbated by budget cuts and changes to guidance and support services, as well as inadequacies in mapping and tracking systems. Conclusions: The paper concludes with recommendations that policy development must, in the first instance, be underpinned by robust and reliable data about the size and composition of the group, derived from impartial, independent mapping and tracking services. Furthermore, policies designed to reduce the NEET population should include measures which tackle NEET prevention, re-engagement strategies for the hardest to reach groups and active labour market policies for the young unemployed.

This paper compares access to full-time undergraduate higher education (HE) by members of less advantaged social classes and ethnic minorities across the four "home countries" of the UK. It uses data on applicants to HE in selected years from 1996 to 2010. In all home countries students from intermediate and working-class backgrounds retained a broadly level share of a rising total participation in HE, while ethnic minorities increased their share. Intermediate-and working-class students were more likely to study within their own home country, as were ethnic-minority students in England, but minority students from Northern Ireland and Scotland were much more likely than white students to study elsewhere (usually England). Some aspects of the admissions process appear to have been "unfair" to lower class applicants; this was the same across the UK although the relative success of applications from colleges and independent schools, which might accentuate or mitigate inequalities, varied across the home countries. In England and Wales, ethnic-minority applicants were less likely to be offered a place but they compensated (only partially in the case of older universities) by gaining entry through clearing; in Scotland they were as likely to be offered a place but less likely to enter HE. The paper discusses the potential of such comparisons for benchmarking and for policy learning. It concludes that the similarities between the home countries are more substantial than their differences, and that administrative and political devolution in the 1990s has had little impact on inequalities in HE. There is no evidence of a significant impact of the divergence between market policies in England and the more social-democratic policies of the devolved administrations.

It is the intention of the UK government to enhance progression routes for apprentices to higher education. However, little research has been carried out into why former apprentices pursue higher education or the experiences of this transition. This paper seeks to redress this gap by reporting three case studies of former apprentices who had completed or were completing a higher education qualification in England. Each case study represents a different route to higher education: progressing to a full-time higher education course; pursuing a part-time route to sustain full-time employment; and undertaking a career change during the transition to higher education. The paper addresses their experiences of the apprenticeship, the decision-making to progress and the perceived outcomes of their transition so far. Analysis draws on Fuller and Unwin's expansive-restrictive framework and conceptual lenses for understanding learning. The findings revealed that although their apprenticeships were restrictive in different ways, progression was pursued for a number of reasons involving the context in which apprenticeships were completed, the relationship to their employer, the higher education context and their understanding of learning. Experiences of boundary crossing were particularly associated with more complex descriptions of personal transformation and learning as becoming.

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

It is a decade since the last review of the geographical understandings of pre-service primary teachers. Examining the range of research about novice primary teachers' geographical and environmental knowledge and understanding, it is clear there have been limited follow up studies, and there remain important gaps in the research. Research relevant to this topic was identified through journal, research book and conference proceedings searches, where these were accessible. It is evident that more research now exists into pre-service primary teachers' senses of geography, geographical and environmental knowledge and environmental attitudes. For instance, it appears that they have an information oriented view of geography but are not clear about the meaning of the term "environment", that there are misunderstandings in such aspects of their geographical knowledge as climate change, that they may not adapt their behaviors though they appreciate a need for care for the environment, and that they have limited experience in planning for and teaching geography in primary schools. Furthermore, studies are lacking into their understanding of such aspects of geographical learning as fieldwork, map work, geographical enquiry and a wide range of topics in physical and human geography. While there is some information, little is known really about their teaching of geography to younger children. In view of the increased focus globally on geographical knowledge in the school curriculum, this raises serious questions about geography teacher educators' understanding of their trainee primary teachers, in part because tutors seem rarely to undertake such research. This appears to be an embedded situation, resulting in negligible evidence to challenge the status quo and improve pre-service primary teachers' geographical knowledge. Is it really a concern? Four responses are presented, but the paper concludes that more needs to be known.

The supposed benefits of teachers' use of information and communications technology (digital technology) are well reported throughout the academic literature--most often involving issues of enhanced learning outcomes, increased pupil engagement and more efficient management and organisation of learning. This paper uses survey data from 683 teachers in 24 secondary schools across the UK to analyse the factors influencing how these benefits are being experienced. In particular, the paper explores the complex relationships between teachers' perceptions of technology-related benefits and a range of individual, classroom, school and system-level issues. A number of mediating issues and influences are identified and discussed throughout these analyses. In particular, it is suggested that teachers' perceptions of the benefits of using technology are influenced more by institutional rather than individual characteristics. A number of possible reasons are discussed, highlighting the importance of social and cultural contexts of digital technology use in education. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)