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This paper uses the work of Pierre Bourdieu to understand the lives of a set of young White working-class men living in a deprived urban locale in the north of England. All participants were classi...

Equalisation of educational opportunity is seen as a condition for achieving a more equal society. However, the association between educational and material advantage has proved remarkably durable. This chapter argues that far-reaching reforms are required – including action to reduce material inequality directly – if education is to be effective in achieving social justice. It outlines the evidence for persistent inequality, acknowledging that progress has been made but indicating the ways in which broader social inequalities affect educational opportunity. Educational expansion pursued in isolation from other policies to reduce inequality and social opportunity poses a twofold existential threat to the future of education. First, it increases the direct effects of social background on social mobility. Second, this may intensify a legitimation crisis, a growing disillusionment with the ability of education to underpin social progress. The chapter concludes by identifying educational and social reforms that are necessary to reduce these threats.

While proactive geosteering, special inversion algorithms are used to process the readings of logging-while-drilling resistivity tools in real-time and provide oil field operators with formation models to make informed steering decisions. Currently, there is no industry standard for inversion deliverables and corresponding quality indicators because major tool vendors develop their own device-specific algorithms and use them internally. This paper presents the first implementation of vendor-neutral inversion approach applicable for any induction resistivity tool and enabling operators to standardize the efficiency of various geosteering services. The necessity of such universal inversion approach was inspired by the activity of LWD Deep Azimuthal Resistivity Services Standardization Workgroup initiated by SPWLA Resistivity Special Interest Group in 2016. Proposed inversion algorithm utilizes a 1D layer-cake formation model and is performed interval-by-interval. The following model parameters can be determined: horizontal and vertical resistivities of each layer, positions of layer boundaries, and formation dip. The inversion can support arbitrary deep azimuthal induction resistivity tool with coaxial, tilted, or orthogonal transmitting and receiving antennas. The inversion is purely data-driven; it works in automatic mode and provides fully unbiased results obtained from tool readings only. The algorithm is based on statistical reversible-jump Markov chain Monte Carlo method that does not require any predefined assumptions about the formation structure and enables searching of models explaining the data even if the number of layers in the model is unknown. To globalize search, the algorithm runs several Markov chains capable of exchanging their states between one another to move from the vicinity of local minimum to more perspective domain of model parameter space. While execution, the inversion keeps all models it is dealing with to estimate the resolution accuracy of formation parameters and generate several quality indicators. Eventually, these indicators are delivered together with recovered resistivity models to help operators with the evaluation of inversion results reliability. To ensure high performance of the inversion, a fast and accurate semi-analytical forward solver is employed to compute required responses of a tool with specific geometry and their derivatives with respect to any parameter of multi-layered model. Moreover, the reliance on the simultaneous evolution of multiple Markov chains makes the algorithm suitable for parallel execution that significantly decreases the computational time. Application of the proposed inversion is shown on a series of synthetic examples and field case studies such as navigating the well along the reservoir roof or near the oil-water-contact in oil sands. Inversion results for all scenarios confirm that the proposed algorithm can successfully evaluate formation model complexity, recover model parameters, and quantify their uncertainty within a reasonable computational time. Presented vendor-neutral stochastic approach to data processing leads to the standardization of the inversion output including the resistivity model and its quality indicators that helps operators to better understand capabilities of tools from different vendors and eventually make more confident geosteering decisions.

Moral identity, how individuals define themselves relative to various moral attributes, is an important factor in the regulation of moral thought and behavior in organizations. We advance both the conceptualization and operationalization of moral identity through considering the complexity of its content and structure. We do so through integrating self-complexity theory to establish a deeper understanding of how individuals both define themselves as moral beings and structure moral attributes within their self-concepts across various roles (e.g., co-worker, son/daughter, etc.). To date, moral identity has been conceptualized as a global unitary construct. Across five samples, we find that it is dimensional (having dimensions of Benevolence, Justice, Obligation, and Integrity) and that individuals construe themselves relative to each dimension differently across sub-identities/roles. We then assess the effects of this expanded construct across two samples and find that using the complex structure of moral identity, we can predict situated ethical intentions and deviance within and across roles. Further, a within-participants experiment using an additional sample demonstrates that when priming a focal role, the unique moral identity content constituting that role provides predominant influence on corresponding ethical choices.

This paper reports on findings from a three-year ethnographic study of 24 young people in northern England who were classified as not in education, employment or training (NEET), or at risk of becoming so. Drawing on conceptions of opportunity structure and educational marginality, the paper discusses the processes leading to young people becoming NEET after leaving school. It presents findings concerning the family backgrounds, school experiences, and educational attainment of participants, and traces their initial post-16 destinations and their pathways to NEET status. Although most participants did not become NEET immediately after leaving school, restricted labour market opportunities and a lack of high-quality education and training for middle- and low-attaining young people exacerbated social and educational disadvantage. Over time, participants became increasingly restricted to marginal forms of learning. The paper argues that a focus on opportunity structures provides a powerful way of und...

Multiple regression has a previously unrecognized "statistical blind spot" because when multicollnearity and measurement error are present, both path estimates and variance inflation factors are biased. This can result in overestimated t-statistics, and excessive false positives. PLS has the same weakness, but CB-SEM's estimation process accounts for measurement error, avoiding the problem. Bringing together partial insights from a range of disciplines to provide a more comprehensive treatment of the problem, we derive equations showing false positives will increase with greater multicollinearity, lower reliability, greater effect size in the dominant correlated construct, and, surprisingly, with higher sample size. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we show that false positives increase as predicted. We also provide a correction for the problem. A literature search found that of IS research papers using regression or PLS for path analysis, 33% were operating in this danger zone. Our findings are important not only for IS, but for all fields using regression or PLS in path analysis.

Made available in DSpace on 2022-05-01T07:58:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2021-08-09 Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas WWF International Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Large terrestrial carnivores have undergone some of the largest population declines and range reductions of any species, which is of concern as they can have large effects on ecosystem dynamics and function.1–4 The jaguar (Panthera onca) is the apex predator throughout the majority of the Neotropics; however, its distribution has been reduced by >50% and it survives in increasingly isolated populations.5 Consequently, the range-wide management of the jaguar depends upon maintaining core populations connected through multi-national, transboundary cooperation, which requires understanding the movement ecology and space use of jaguars throughout their range.6–8 Using GPS telemetry data for 111 jaguars from 13 ecoregions within the four biomes that constitute the majority of jaguar habitat, we examined the landscape-level environmental and anthropogenic factors related to jaguar home range size and movement parameters. Home range size decreased with increasing net productivity and forest cover and increased with increasing road density. Speed decreased with increasing forest cover with no sexual differences, while males had more directional movements, but tortuosity in movements was not related to any landscape factors. We demonstrated a synergistic relationship between landscape-scale environmental and anthropogenic factors and jaguars’ spatial needs, which has applications to the conservation strategy for the species throughout the Neotropics. Using large-scale collaboration, we overcame limitations from small sample sizes typical in large carnivore research to provide a mechanism to evaluate habitat quality for jaguars and an inferential modeling framework adaptable to the conservation of other large terrestrial carnivores. Asociación Guyra Paraguay and CONACYT Parque Ecológico Asunción Verde Insituto Saite Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Mamíferos Carnívoros Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade Instituto de Biociências Universidade Estadual Paulista-UNESP Departamento de Biodiversidade Laboratório de Ecologia Espacial e Conservação LEEC Instituto Pró-Carnívoros Department of Animal Nutrition and Management Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Instituto de Biociências Departamento de Ecologia Universidade de São Paulo Cidade Universitária, Rua do Matão, Trav. 14, no. 321 Instituto de Biología Subtropical Universidad Nacional de Misiones and CONICET Asociación Civil Centro de Investigaciones del Bosque Atlántico Programa Jaguares de la Selva Maya Bioconciencia A.C. School of Environmental and Geographical Sciences University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga IPÊ-Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas Faro Moro Eco Research Estancia Faro Moro Departamento de Boquerón Instituto Onça Pintada Estacao Ecológica Taiamã Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá Associação Onçafari Rua Ferreira de Araújo, 221, Cj.14, Sala 4, Pinheiros Panthera, 8 West 40th Street, 18th Floor Instituto SOS Pantanal, R. Gutemberg, 328 Centro Programa de Pós-graduação em Biologia Animal Instituto de Biociências Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) Instituto de Ecología Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and CONACyT Ciudad Universitaria Instituto Internacional en Conservación y Manejo de Vida Silvestre Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica Department of Environmental Conservation University of Massachusetts, Amherst Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Biológicas Aplicadas Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México Instituto Literario 100 Col. Centro C.P. Instituto de Biologia Laboratório de Ecologia de Mamíferos LEMA Universidade Federal de Uberlândia Primero Conservation, Box 1588 Namá Conservation Rescate Animal Zooave Fundación Restauración de la Naturaleza, Apdo Projeto Carnívoros do Iguaçu Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana Instituto Latino-Americano de Ciências da Vida e da Natureza Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia Instituto Onças do Rio Negro Fazenda Barranco Alto Departamento de Medicina Veterinária Universidade Federal de Viçosa Instituto de Defesa e Preservação dos Felídeos Brasileiros SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry Wildlife Biology Program W.A. Franke College of Forestry & Conservation University of Montana Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina Wildlife Protection Solutions, 2501 Welton Street San Diego Zoo Global Institute for Conservation Research, 15600 San Pasqual Valley Road Universidade Federal de São João del Rei Departamento de Ciências Naturais Laboratório de Ecologia Manejo e Conservação de Fauna Silvestre Programa de Pós-Graduação Interunidades em Ecologia Aplicada Universidade de São Paulo ESALQ/CENA Universidad Nacional de Córdoba Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales Centro de Zoología Aplicada Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas CONICET Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal IDEA Instituto Nacional de Medicina Tropical ANLIS Ministerio de Salud de la Nación Instituto de Pesquisa e Conservação de Tamanduás do Brasil Instituto de Biociências Universidade Estadual Paulista-UNESP Departamento de Biodiversidade Laboratório de Ecologia Espacial e Conservação LEEC FAPESP: 2014/24921-0 FAPESP: 2018/13037–3 FAPESP: 2018/24891-5

Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-26T17:54:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2018-07-01 The field of movement ecology has rapidly grown during the last decade, with important advancements in tracking devices and analytical tools that have provided unprecedented insights into where, when, and why species move across a landscape. Although there has been an increasing emphasis on making animal movement data publicly available, there has also been a conspicuous dearth in the availability of such data on large carnivores. Globally, large predators are of conservation concern. However, due to their secretive behavior and low densities, obtaining movement data on apex predators is expensive and logistically challenging. Consequently, the relatively small sample sizes typical of large carnivore movement studies may limit insights into the ecology and behavior of these elusive predators. The aim of this initiative is to make available to the conservation-scientific community a dataset of 134,690 locations of jaguars (Panthera onca) collected from 117 individuals (54 males and 63 females) tracked by GPS technology. Individual jaguars were monitored in five different range countries representing a large portion of the species' distribution. This dataset may be used to answer a variety of ecological questions including but not limited to: improved models of connectivity from local to continental scales; the use of natural or human-modified landscapes by jaguars; movement behavior of jaguars in regions not represented in this dataset; intraspecific interactions; and predator-prey interactions. In making our dataset publicly available, we hope to motivate other research groups to do the same in the near future. Specifically, we aim to help inform a better understanding of jaguar movement ecology with applications towards effective decision making and maximizing long-term conservation efforts for this ecologically important species. There are no costs, copyright, or proprietary restrictions associated with this data set. When using this data set, please cite this article to recognize the effort involved in gathering and collating the data and the willingness of the authors to make it publicly available. Inst Chico Mendes Conservacao Biodiversidade, Ctr Nacl Pesquisa & Conservacao Mamiferos Carnivo, BR-12952011 Atibaia, SP, Brazil Inst Conservacao Carnivoros Neotropicais, BR-12945010 Atibaia, SP, Brazil Asociac Guyra Paraguay, Parque Ecol Asuncion Verde, Asuncion 1101, Paraguay CONACYT, Parque Ecol Asuncion Verde, Asuncion 1101, Paraguay Univ Nacl Misiones, Inst Biol Subtrop, RA-3370 Puerto Iguazu, Misiones, Argentina Consejo Nacl Invest Cient & Tecn, RA-3370 Puerto Iguazu, Misiones, Argentina Asoc Civil Ctr Invest Bosque Atlantico, RA-3370 Puerto Iguazu, Misiones, Argentina Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Inst Ecol, Ciudad Univ, Mexico City 04318, DF, Mexico CONACyT, Ciudad Univ, Mexico City 04318, DF, Mexico IPE, BR-12960000 Nazare Paulista, SP, Brazil Univ Estadual Paulista, Inst Biociencias, LEEC, Dept Ecol, BR-13506900 Rio Claro, SP, Brazil Faro Moro Eco Res, Dept Boqueron, Asuncion 9490, Paraguay Inst Onca Pintada, CP 193, BR-75830000 Mineiros, Go, Brazil Inst Chico Mendes Conservacao Biodiversidade, Estacao Ecol Taiama, BR-78200000 Caceres, MT, Brazil Inst Desenvolvimento Sustentavel Mamiraua, BR-69553225 Tefe, AM, Brazil Projeto Oncafari, BR-05428000 Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil Univ Nacl Costa Rica, Inst Int Manejo & Conservac Vida Silvestre, Heredia 13503000, Costa Rica Univ Massachusetts, Dept Environm Conservat, Amherst, MA 01003 USA Univ Autonoma Estado Mexico, Ctr Invest Ciencias Biol Aplicadas, Inst Literario 100, Toluca 50000, Estado De Mexic, Mexico Univ Fed Uberlandia, Inst Biol, BR-38408100 Uberlandia, MG, Brazil Primero Conservat, Box 16106, Portal, AZ 85632 USA Univ Nacl Costa Rica, Escuela Med Vet, Hosp Especies Menores & Silvestres, Heredia 863000, Costa Rica Projeto Carnivoros Iguacu, BR-85851970 Foz Do Iguacu, PR, Brazil Univ Fed Integracao Latinoamer, Inst Latinoamer Ciencias Vida & Nat, BR-85851970 Foz Do Iguacu, PR, Brazil Univ Fed Mato Grosso do Sul, Fac Med Vet & Zootecnia, BR-79070900 Campo Grande, MS, Brazil Fazenda Barranco Alto, Projeto Oncas Rio Negro, BR-79208000 Aquidauana, MS, Brazil Univ Fed Vicosa, Dept Med Vet, BR-36570 Vicosa, MG, Brazil Inst Def & Preservacao Felideos Brasileiros, BR-72960000 Corumba De Goias, Go, Brazil Panthera, 8 West 40th St,18th Floor, New York, NY 10018 USA Univ Fed Mato Grosso, Programa Posgrad Ecol & Conservacao Biodiversidad, BR-78060900 Cuiaba, MT, Brazil SUNY Coll Environm Sci & Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210 USA Univ Sul Santa Catarina, BR-88704900 Tubarao, SC, Brazil Univ Fed Sao Joao del Rei, Dept Ciencias Nat, BR-36301160 Sao Joao Del Rei, MG, Brazil Univ Sao Paulo, ESALQ CENA, Programa Posgrad Interunidades Ecol Aplicada, Lab Ecol Manejo & Conservacao Fauna Silvestre, BR-13418900 Piracicaba, SP, Brazil Minist Salud Nacion, Inst Med Trop, RA-3370 Puerto Iguazu, Misiones, Argentina Inst Pesquisa & Conservacao Tamanduas Brasil, BR-64200025 Parnaiba, PI, Brazil Univ Estadual Paulista, Inst Biociencias, LEEC, Dept Ecol, BR-13506900 Rio Claro, SP, Brazil

This chapter discusses rational action theories of educational inequality. It outlines our current knowledge of patterns of inequality in education and introduces Raymond Boudon’s distinction between the primary and secondary effects of social stratification, often described as the impact of social class on performance and choice. The relative magnitude of these effects is discussed, before considering explanations for their origin. In rational action theories, secondary effects arise largely from the economic and social costs of education, the greater ‘distance of travel’ required for working-class upward mobility, and the desire of all classes to at least maintain their position. The chapter concludes by discussing the specific role of class in rational action theories, highlighting key elements of the conceptions of class required to fulfil this role.

This paper explores the experiences and perceptions of a little-known category of in-service trainee teachers in the Further Education (FE) and Skills sector in England: those who meet the practical teaching requirements of their course mainly through unpaid teaching as ‘volunteers’. The paper reports findings from mixed-methods research which used surveys, interviews and focus groups involving trainee teachers within a large FE–HE partnership. Themes relating to motivations to volunteer, the development of teacher identity within marginal roles, and the risks associated with unpaid teaching are discussed. For increasing numbers of trainees, unpaid teaching provides an opportunity for career entry. However, the quality of teaching experience gained is mixed, with some trainees receiving high levels of support, whilst others experience marginalisation and limitations on their developing teacher identities. The paper highlights the specific challenges to professionalism posed by unpaid teaching within the FE and Skills sector, and relates these challenges to a broader context of insecurity and risk. As work experience becomes an increasingly valuable commodity, this paper illustrates the pressures individuals face as they exchange payment and security for the opportunities volunteering provides.

This paper uses Raymond Boudon’s model of educational expansion to examine the relationship between education and social mobility, paying particular attention to post-compulsory education – an important site of social differentiation in England. The paper shows how Boudon focuses explicitly on the consequences of educational expansion, and argues that his work helps us understand why widening access to post-compulsory education does not necessarily lead to higher rates of social mobility. We investigate Boudon’s key theoretical insights and assess the contemporary relevance of his model. The paper argues that the fundamental assumptions of Boudon’s model not only remain valid, but have been intensified by systemic changes in English post-compulsory education, and its articulation with the labour market.

This paper is based on findings from a longitudinal study of 20 young people who have spent significant periods of time categorised as NEET (not in education, employment or training). Drawing on 3 years of ethnographic research conducted across two local authorities in the north of England, it focuses on the lived experience of a set of young people as they move between various sites of exclusion and participation in the labour market. Central to the paper are the experiences of three individuals and their attempts to begin work in the retail, care and catering industries. The paper illustrates a range of tensions between the aspirations of young people and the opportunities open to them. It provides a critical insight into some of the conditions which characterise work on the fringes of the labour market and the interplay between these and the attitudes, values and dispositions of the young people taking part in the research. The paper's findings challenge popular discourses about young people on the mar...

This paper reports on the first two years of a longitudinal ethnographic study of 20 young people in northern England who have been officially classified as not in education, employment or training (NEET). Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's conceptualisation of space as perceived, conceived and lived, this paper analyses how young people comprehend, use and encounter places and spaces relating to residence, work and learning, and the role of spatialities in reproducing or interrupting aspects of social exclusion and marginality. A number of key themes emerging from the data are discussed, including the interaction of conceived, perceived and lived space in young people's struggles for subjectivity, the importance of agency and biography in shaping how different lived spaces emerge from this interaction, and the possibility of critical incidents causing shifts in lived space that intensify the difficulties young people face in finding appropriate education or employment. A particularly significant finding is that...

The characteristics, experiences and long-term prospects of young people outside the labour market and education have attracted widespread international attention in recent decades, and the specific category of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) has been a policy concern for the UK Government since 1997. This paper examines the analytical and empirical basis of our knowledge of NEET young people, in the light of more general conceptualisations of social exclusion and the individualisation of social risk. It relates the NEET category to a conception of social exclusion in which the central policy focus is on moving young people across a boundary between participation and non-participation, and inequalities within education and employment receive less attention. This focus, allied with discourses of individualisation, obscures the structural basis of inequality in education and training. However, the paper argues that the research evidence shows that individualised approaches based...

Official discourse in the United Kingdom and many other OECD countries emphasises education and training as a vehicle for social inclusion and economic growth. Accordingly, those who do not participate are seen to be at risk of long-term exclusion. However, interventions aimed at re-engaging young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) can be ineffective or counter-productive. This article presents findings from the first year of a 3-year ethnography of NEET young people in the north of England and examines the opportunities and barriers experienced by NEET young people as they attempt to negotiate the complex territory following the end of compulsory education. Drawing on Giddens' structuration theory, we discuss young people's actions and the narratives underlying their decisions about post-school education, work and training. The article explores the limitations young people experience and the interplay of agency and structure for those on the margins of education and employment.

This paper discusses the findings from a one-year ethnographic study of young people attending Entry to Employment (E2E) programmes in two local authorities in the north of England. The paper locates E2E within the broader context of provision for low-achieving young people and of UK government policy on reducing the proportion of young people who are not in education, employment or training. Although discourses associated with these categories of young people often present them in negative terms, the paper shows that this type of conceptualisation is inadequate to understand the lives of young people on the margins of education and employment. The paper also finds that the success of E2E in improving employability is mixed. The programme helps young people to improve their confidence, basic skills and personal effectiveness, as well as provides opportunities to acquire qualifications. However, employability is also linked to broader social and economic factors. Although E2E can help young people gain emp...

This report provides a summary of findings from an ethnographic study of work‐based learning provision for 16–18‐year‐olds who would otherwise fall into the UK Government category of not in education, employment or training (NEET). The research project took place in the north of England during 2008–2009, and investigated the biographies, experiences and aspirations of young people and practitioners working on Entry to Employment (E2E) programmes in four learning sites. The detailed research findings are reported in four papers covering the conceptual background to E2E, and the experiences of learners, tutors and Connexions personal advisers involved with the programme. This report highlights and synthesises some of the key issues raised by these papers and looks ahead to a three‐year longitudinal study of NEET young people which is intended to continue and extend this work, providing an opportunity to follow this group during a period of far‐reaching economic and political change.

This paper uses Bourdieu's concept of field to analyse findings from an ethnographic study of Entry to Employment (E2E) programmes in England. Entry to Employment is a work-based learning programme which aims to re-engage young people with ‘barriers to learning’ inhibiting access to further education, training or employment. The paper examines field positions associated with E2E, such as learner and tutor, distinguishing between the taking of positions by individual agents and the construction of these positions by dominant institutions. The paper argues that official constructions are based on a discourse which positions E2E learners as a deficit category alongside young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) and separates E2E programmes from those in mainstream educational provision. In consequence, although learners are supported and make individual progress, E2E contributes to the exclusion that Bourdieu identifies as the chief means of social reproduction in the education system.

The pair-wise comparison technique is a common approach for completing multi-attribute evaluations. However, this approach has limitations, especially for larger attribute sets, where the use of the technique is time-consuming because it requires a relatively large number of comparisons. The authors conducted an experiment to test the efficacy of three alternative approaches for eliciting preferences, specifically pairs, triads and quads. Ninety-three subjects used one of the three approaches to rank the importance of fifteen items. The results indicate that those employing the pair-wise approach took significantly longer than those using the triad or quad approach. In addition, the triad technique yielded more accurate results (compared to the pair and quad methods). Finally, the quad approach generated fewer intransitivities than the pair-wise or triad approaches. No differences were observed across the three techniques with respect to reliability or perceived ease of use. Implications are provided for both practitioners and researchers.

This paper presents research findings on practitioners working with young people on Entry to Employment (E2E) programmes in the north of England. E2E continues a long tradition of work‐related learning for unemployed school leavers for whom other forms of education or training are deemed unsuitable, and is part of the UK government’s strategy for reducing the numbers of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET). The paper explores the biographies of tutors and their routes into E2E teaching. It also discusses the training and development they have experienced, in the light of the expansive–restrictive continuum of workforce development introduced by Fuller and Unwin. By analysing the dispositions, interpretations and actions of practitioners and relating them to wider policy discourses, the paper also examines the learning culture of E2E. It argues that, although they demonstrate significant levels of care, enthusiasm and teaching ability, practitioners operate within a largely restrict...

Transitions of young people from school to employment, further education or training have been a focus of government policy in the UK for at least the last three decades. Since the late 1990s, numerous policy initiatives have been introduced by New Labour in an attempt to reduce social exclusion through the increased participation of young people in work‐related training. This paper reports on a mixed‐methods research project exploring Entry to Employment (E2E) provision in the north of England. It outlines the experiences of Connexions practitioners working with learners and staff at four E2E providers and illustrates the complexities involved with young people's transitions to and from E2E programmes. The paper shows that a marketised system driven by targets and funding constraints can compromise the ability of practitioners to best meet the needs of young people struggling with often difficult circumstances.

This paper draws on the work of Basil Bernstein to offer a (re-) conceptualisation of creativity for the English further education (FE) sector. It begins by locating creativity within the political economy of FE and argues that teaching and learning is constrained by an instrumental remit for the sector, which prioritises perceived economic needs over broader conceptions of education and training. The paper goes on to analyse the FE curriculum, relating Bernstein's work on generic modes to critiques of competence. It proposes a central role for knowledge and broad conceptions of skill in FE in order to contest an instrumental approach to teaching and learning arising from official discourse on competitiveness. The paper uses Bernstein's typology of vertical and horizontal discourse to argue that creativity needs to be re-defined in a way that recognises the value of principled, conceptual knowledge in vocational education whilst acknowledging the socially constructed nature of creativity and kno...

This paper examines the class distribution of young people, aged 16–17 years, in colleges of further education (FE) using data from the Youth Cohort Study. It finds that, contrary to popular perceptions of FE colleges as being for ‘other people’s children’, middle‐class students as well as working‐class students are well represented. However, this does not imply that FE colleges are institutions of choice; middle‐class representation is often related to lower achievement and, for low‐achieving working‐class students, leaving education entirely is more likely than entry to FE. These findings are explored using notions of habitus and field. Their relationship with studies of the education of middle‐class children is also discussed, and the paper suggests that research on class in FE colleges must come to terms with middle‐class presence.

This article examines the circumstances affecting creative teaching and learning within the specific context of English further education (FE)—a sector which has proved to be particularly fertile ground for performativity. Beginning with an analysis of notions of creativity in education and a description of the peculiar history and policy context of FE, the article problematises the relationship between representations of creativity and the current situation of teachers and learners. Drawing on a range of empirical studies and policy analyses, it is argued that FE is increasingly positioned at the ‘lower end’ of a largely class‐based division of post‐compulsory education in England. In such a division, the authors argue, meaningful creativity is difficult to achieve. Within the performative context of FE, attempts to interpret official discourse on creativity may only serve to reproduce and exacerbate existing inequalities in education.

The unprecedented degree of attention given to the learning and skills sector in England by successive New Labour governments has led to a significant increase in what is expected of the teaching workforce. To help meet these expectations, a ‘step change’ in the quality of initial teacher training for the sector is promised, alongside provisions for career‐long professional development. In this article, the authors argue that the effectiveness of these reforms is likely to be compromised by a combination of under‐funding, poor integration of initial teacher training into human resource policies within colleges, and an over‐prescriptive curriculum. In addition, they consider the re‐definition of teaching roles currently taking place in the sector and warn that this may further undermine the reforms by simultaneously discouraging many teachers from achieving fully qualified status and downgrading their professional standing.

Recent research on post‐compulsory teacher educators in England suggests that there is a high degree of feminisation of this workforce, particularly where further and higher education partnerships are concerned. This process of feminisation has taken place against a background in which English post‐compulsory education has increasingly been brought under state control and direction, with profound consequences for those engaged in the professional development of teachers in the sector. Although teacher education is also highly feminised in other sectors and in many countries, the recent history of post‐compulsory education in England has a number of characteristics that have strongly influenced the gender distribution of its teacher educators. This article examines the locus of power driving the gendered division of labour in post‐compulsory teacher education and attempts to account for it by means of the intersection of structuralist and poststructuralist perspectives. It is argued that the trends taking ...

A significant amount of information systems (IS) research involves hypothesizing and testing for interaction effects. Chin et al. (2003) completed an extensive experiment using Monte Carlo simulation that compared two different techniques for detecting and estimating such interaction effects: partial least squares (PLS) with a product indicator approach versus multiple regression with summated indicators. By varying the number of indicators for each construct and the sample size, they concluded that PLS using product indicators was better (at providing higher and presumably more accurate path estimates) than multiple regression using summated indicators. Although we view the Chin et al. (2003) study as an important step in using Monte Carlo analysis to investigate such issues, we believe their results give a misleading picture of the efficacy of the product indicator approach with PLS. By expanding the scope of the investigation to include statistical power, and by replicating and then extending their work, we reach a different conclusion—that although PLS with the product indicator approach provides higher point estimates of interaction paths, it also produces wider confidence intervals, and thus provides less statistical power than multiple regression. This disadvantage increases with the number of indicators and (up to a point) with sample size. We explore the possibility that these surprising results can be explained by capitalization on chance. Regardless of the explanation, our analysis leads us to recommend that if sample size or statistical significance is a concern, regression or PLS with product of the sums should be used instead of PLS with product indicators for testing interaction effects.

Initial teacher training for post‐compulsory education in England is currently undergoing profound change in terms of central direction of curricula and the provision of financial support for trainees. Within a discourse of the ‘professionalisation’ of teaching in the sector, unprecedented control of the detailed structure and content of training courses has been established and is increasing in extent. At the same time, principles of free access to Cert. Ed. and PGCE courses are being set aside, so that those universities which provide training are simultaneously contending with imposed curriculum change and with a serious threat to student recruitment. This article examines the origins and nature of these developments, considers the political and economic background from which they stem, and discusses in detail some features of the characteristic discourse of the reforms instituted by central government. It goes on to consider the likely effects of the recent and on‐going changes in university‐led train...

Recent research has suggested that flawed status reporting is a serious concern in IS projects. However, the linkage between reporting quality and project performance has not been empirically confirmed. Our investigation consisted of two complementary studies, both of which employed previously validated measures of reporting quality and project outcomes. The first considered the perceptions of 210 IS project members of the quality of status reports they submitted to their project managers. The second considered the perceptions of 485 IS project managers of the quality of project reports they received from project members reporting to them. Both showed that the perceived quality of project reporting was less than perfect and was significantly associated with project task and psychological outcomes. Moreover, the second study results suggested that reporting quality was also related to organizational outcomes. We offer recommendations for project managers.

An integrative model explaining intentions to use an information technology is proposed. The primary objective is to obtain a clearer picture of how intentions are formed, and draws on previous research such as the Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, Bagozzi and Warshaw, 1989) and the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior (Taylor and Todd, 1995a). The conceptual model was tested using questionnaire responses from 189 subjects, measured at two time periods approximately two months apart. The results generally supported the hypothesized relationships, and revealed strong influences of both personal innovativeness and computer self-efficacy.

Group decisions are an important element of successful knowledge management in organizations. Such decisions are difficult to make, however, especially when they involve a large set of attributes that require decision-makers to develop rankings. This paper presents a goal programming model for determining constrained regression estimates of attribute weights. The model is developed using pair-wise comparison ratings that are derived by using triads of the attributes. In addition, metrics are presented for measuring individual and group consensus. A specific application to the health care industry is presented to illustrate results that are obtained from the model.

As we have seen earlier in this book, young people’s participation in education, training or employment is related in complex ways to their individual circumstances and their location within broader social structures. Whilst educational achievement is a central factor in intergenerational patterns of advantage and disadvantage, young people’s experiences of education and the labour market are themselves influenced by these patterns. Rather than acting independently, educational and social achievement form part of a network of factors involved in social reproduction and, more specifically, in processes of marginalization and social exclusion. Burchardt et al. (1999) identify a range of such factors, including individual characteristics such as health and educational qualifications; life events such as job losses or partnership breakdown; characteristics of the neighbourhood in which an individual lives; and institutional factors such as welfare and benefit systems. Before discussing the remaining case studies, this chapter considers more closely the social and cultural matrix in which the experiences of marginalized young people are formed, with particular attention to the ways in which family life, local neighbourhoods and welfare systems interact with and influence educational achievement and prospects for employment.

Education in advanced Western economies such as the UK can be conceived in various ways. Some focus on education’s emancipatory possibilities and its power to transform the lives of individuals and groups. For John Dewey (1966), the main functions of schooling can be summarized as providing social stability and integration; promoting moral and personal fulfilment; and offering individuals the opportunity to rise above the social circumstances into which they were born. However, whilst according to Emile Durkheim (1903/1956, p.123) education is a systematic process of socialization which aims, up to a point, to produce a common social and cultural heritage, it also aims to differentiate and select according to the social division of labour. This functionalist critique has been taken much further, especially from Marxist, feminist and critical race theory perspectives, which see education in terms of conflict and domination rather than social consensus. Pierre Bourdieu has argued that ‘It is probably cultural inertia which still makes us see education in terms of the ideology of the school as a liberating force’ (Bourdieu 1974, p.32). More recently, critical race theorists have focused on how education is implicated in the production and reproduction of racial inequality (Gillborn 2008). According to such critiques, the structure and content of education reflects the power and dominance of certain groups. The value society places on certain forms of knowledge reflects prevailing forms of inequality, and the way that education systems are structured and organized plays a significant role in perpetuating patterns of advantage and disadvantage.

This chapter examines some of the methodological issues connected with the research. It first locates our work within the ethnographic tradition, particularly in relation to questions raised by working across multiple sites using individual young people as the unit of analysis, and the need for a critical ethnography to fully illuminate the lives of young people outside education and employment. It introduces the research project on which this book is based, relating it to other work we have undertaken and outlining the data collection methods used. This chapter also discusses some of the epistemological and ethical questions raised by ethnography, illustrating the discussion with extracts from our data.

Angela McRobbie (2004) suggests that the increasing feminization of the workforce, the weakening of traditional family roles and greater opportunities for the construction of individualized female identities have initiated new forms of class distinction and differentiation, so that the representation and inscription of social divisions has itself become increasingly feminized. Both McRobbie (2004) and Skeggs (2004) see in the positioning of young working-class mothers as ‘the abject of the nation’ (Skeggs 2004, p.23) a particularly powerful element in the process of marking class and value. This transference of class antagonism and conflict from male to female bearers of working-class physicality is recirculated in media and political discourse, giving rise to persistent stereotypes of incontinence, wastefulness and bad parenting, creating ‘tensions and impossibilities’ in the lives of young mothers (Vincent et al. 2010). One manifestation of political discourses of this nature is the proliferation of courses aimed at working-class teenage parents, and as we have seen, we met some of our participants through such provision. In this chapter, we discuss the experiences of Hailey, who was 16 years old and seven months pregnant when she began to take part in our research in March 2011. In a later chapter, we will also trace Isla’s story; both young women, in different ways, were required to confront moral evaluations of their behaviours, and their differing experiences of education illustrate the challenges facing teenage mothers from working-class backgrounds.

During the 1970s, authors such as Paul Willis (1977) in Learning t? Labou? and Bowles and Gintis (1976) in Schooling in Capitalist Americ? problematized in different ways the role of educational processes in maintaining class differences and preparing young working-class people for a future of blue collar jobs. Whilst Bowles and Gintis developed a ‘correspondence principle’ between the class division of labour and the workings of differentiated education systems, Willis proposed that one of the central factors in social reproduction was the resistance of young working-class men to their schooling. One of his key arguments was that the behaviour of the young people he observed was, in many ways, a rehearsal for a future of long-term manual employment. The anti-school culture they created sprang from a partial recognition of the determining conditions of the working-class (Willis 1977, p.3), and the limitations of their own future. However, as Willis puts it, ‘the tragedy’ of this recognition is that it is ‘limited, distorted and turned back on themselves’, through oppositional behaviour which is ultimately self-defeating. Although the material and social circumstances in which youth transitions now take place are substantially different to those existing in the 1970s, it is still possible to discern elements of both of these accounts in the stories of some of our participants. For Danny, disruptive behaviour had effectively ended his schooling at an early age, and although he later returned to education he found the forms of learning in which he engaged deeply unsatisfying. However, unlike Willis’s ‘lads’, Danny had not been part of an oppositional peer-group within school. Indeed, his resistance had separated him from his friends and closed off opportunities to take part even in working-class labour.