Background: Only 5.9% of working adults with a learning disability are in paid employment and their family-carers are similarly likely to be unemployed, as they continue to take on an extended caring and advocacy role as the welfare state retreats. Despite social policy efforts to stimulate employment for people with a learning disability, there…

Most children growing up in contemporary homes in post-industrial countries use digital media as part of everyday literacy activities, such as to connect with distant family and friends, watch their favourite programmes, play games and find information. However, conceptualizations of the Home Literacy Environment (HLE) have not yet adapted to the…

During the current global pandemic, parents and carers in England and across the UK have been asked by the Government to 'home school' their child/ren, and a plethora of resources have been produced and made available to assist with this. The perceived detrimental effects of being absent from school have been a driver for the Government in…

Student-mothers who study vocationally related higher education programmes are a relatively under-researched group. Specifically, there is a paucity of research into the emotions that these learners experience. This article discusses a qualitative investigation that examined the emotional narratives that a group of vocational student-mothers…

This article focuses on the influence of early life experiences and socio-cultural context on coach learning in the sport of rugby league. It draws on the findings of a study that investigated the influence of cultural context on the development of elite-level rugby league coaches in England and Australia. The article focuses on the influence of…

There are over 200, 000 children in the UK who are affected by parental imprisonment [Barnardo's, 2014. Children affected by parental imprisonment. http://www.barnardos.org.uk/what_we_do/our_work/children_of_prisoners.htm]. Children with a parent in prison are expected to engage in a great deal of physical and emotional caring to support their…

This paper presents the experiences of mature students at a satellite campus of an English higher education institution. Twenty students over age 25 who fit various widening participation criteria were interviewed at four points during their first two years of bachelor's level study at a higher education (HE) centre in an area underserved by HE.…

There is now a growing body of literature which is centred upon the negative outcomes that occur for many families, and by extension, children who experience the imprisonment of a father. Typically, families suffer the consequences of living with stigma and financial difficulties, while children are often affected by the accompanying secrecy and…

Young adult carers are four times more likely than other students to drop out of higher education and are amongst the under-represented and disadvantaged groups targeted in the National Strategy for Access and Student Success in Higher Education in the UK. Non-completion of studies has implications not just for the individuals themselves, but also…

This exploratory study considers young carers' perceptions of factors contributing to their adjustment and benefit finding within their caregiving role. Benefit-finding, defined as the "process of deriving positive growth from adversity", is a key construct within the domain of positive psychology. A strengths-based perspective was…

Migration, global mobility and language learning are well established as independent and interrelated fields of study. With nearly one fifth of children in British primary schools classed as speakers of English as an Additional Language (EAL), there remains much to explore in the field of heritage language research. This paper reports on a survey…

Not all parents across England are happy about sending their children back to school, following the lifting of lockdown measures in March 2021. Our qualitative research, listening to accounts from eighty-five such families, finds that these concerns stem from COVID-related anxiety, most commonly linked to protecting members of the household at…

Twenty years ago, the author co-led an extensive study for the UK Department of Health on the parenting role of imprisoned fathers in England and Wales. Against a background of children's needs and rights, it examined the place of fatherhood in their lives, the meaning of paternal absence to a child, and the particular significance for children of…

The aim of this article is to make a contribution to understanding the ethos of action learning, by exploring how it was influenced by the early family experience of Reg Revans as the originator of action learning. In order to do so, it examines what is meant by the term 'ethos of action learning' in terms of its values and beliefs. The paper…

The widespread marginalisation of heritage languages in public and political discourse coupled with the association of proficiency in host languages with personal and professional gain have led many diasporic communities to shy away from transmitting their heritage languages at home (Curdt-Christiansen 2016): a context considered to be optimal for…