In 2010, the Department for Education in England decided to reform the vocational qualifications offered in secondary education (i.e., for 14-18 year olds) in order to increase their rigour and status. They set out new criteria that vocational qualifications needed to meet, which changed their nature in fundamental ways (e.g., content, assessment…

This autobiographical narrative inquiry uses an ascribed, stock Chinese metaphor to make sense of my career trajectory. My thinking with the metaphor reaches back to my childhood, follows how various metaphorical images surfaced longitudinally in my research program, and characterizes the increasing incommensurability between my local work…

Utilising semi-structured interviews, this study investigated various educational determinants contributing to college major selection and career choice of 40 undergraduates who had been admitted to a social work programme in southwestern United States. Major key principles of the life course approach were incorporated in this study to elucidate…

This paper outlines a theoretical framework which offers an explanation of the complexity of how teachers define their effectiveness in relation to their classroom practice. The research from which this framework emerged was a two-year, mixed method study of 81 primary and secondary school teachers. The use of repertory grid interviews combined…

There has been renewed emphasis on the vocational in recent policy documents concerning provision for the 14-19 age group. More open acknowledgement of the vocational/academic divide within English education has appeared alongside the creation of increased vocational opportunities for young people. Research undertaken for the Transforming Learning…

This paper outlines the main substantive findings from the latest stage of a research programme which began in 1982. The most recent project was designed to provide an interim snapshot through a questionnaire survey of the progress of a group of young men and women whom we have been following since the start of their secondary education when they…