Mentoring is a favoured practice in many fields, including teacher education. This article challenges the uncritical acceptance of the beneficial effects of mentoring, by developing a novel conceptual model which allows to theorise and study mentoring as a discursive practice, focusing on the relations between all actors involved (i.e. teacher…

The so-called Forest School (FS) approach is increasingly common globally, but different practices occur under this title. While FS has been claimed to fulfil the needs of children holistically, practices differ in terms of interpretation of FS in the UK context, so it is likely that opportunities for children vary, yet often both FS practice and…

Background: Research suggests that a better awareness of how staff who directly support people with intellectual disabilities experience their working relationships, will contribute to understanding staff wellbeing and the quality of care they offer. This study aimed to gain insights into the lived experiences of support workers in supported…

This paper explores young people's aspirations and the influence of community drama in shaping these arts-focussed aspirations. Research was undertaken using creative drama methods with young people who attend a youth drama group. The young people identified career and personal aspirations, recognising the hard work and support that it can take to…

Though the promotion of spiritual 'development' is statutory in state-maintained schools in England and Wales, it is neither clear what spirituality is nor how schools might educate in this area. In the literature, one finds an array of divergent conceptions of spirituality and spiritual education. There is, indeed, lack of agreement regarding…

Over 1.6 million children and young people in England have an identified special educational need (SEN), representing 18.4% -- more than one in every six -- of all pupils currently in school. This report describes the lives of young people born in 1999/2000, who would have taken their GCSEs in the academic year 2014/15, and uses the SEN Code of…

This paper presents an innovative narrative data analysis approach, used in a narrative research project exploring student values. The work of three different authors was drawn upon to create a novel, rigorous and synergistic analysis tool. A novel approach to data analysis, using the stories told by one Generation Z (Gen Z) student and the…

Educative mentoring positions mentors and mentees as co-learners within a collaborative relationship, while emphasising reciprocal learning. However, research exploring educative mentoring is limited to teacher-mentors, restricting our understanding of the potential learning opportunities an educative stance provides mentors in other occupational…

The social inclusion of learners with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools has been a dominant discourse in global education and academic research. Concerns have been raised globally, and in England, that learners with SEN underachieve compared with non-SEN learners. Studies have linked challenges faced by learners with SEN to…

Schools in the UK and Europe, North America and Australia are introducing ambitious forms of relationships and sex education (RSE) or school-based sexuality education. For RSE to be effective it must be inclusive, recognising and respecting the needs and experiences of those who have not always been well served by sex/sexuality education. This…

In September 2020, relationships and sex education (RSE) became compulsory in all English secondary schools, and relationships education became compulsory in all English primary schools, marking a significant step forward in the fight to establish children's rights. Although the new RSE regime will help to ensure that many English schools provide…

We investigated the effect of culture and social status on sarcasm interpretation. Two hundred U.K. participants and 200 Chinese participants read scenarios in which the final comment could be either literal or sarcastic criticism and the speaker had equal, higher, or lower social status compared to the recipient. Comments were rated on degree of…

By its very nature ethnography is an emergent methodology. To be ethical the ethnographer needs to manage research ethics in-situ. This need to manage ethical dilemmas as they arise often comes into conflict with increased ethical regulation and procedures from ethics review boards that require the researcher to foresee ethical quandaries before…

This article analyses the activities and early outcomes of an ongoing co-designed and co-delivered research impact project entitled "Decolonising the English Literature A-Level". It draws on examples from three case studies, classroom experiences, and student and teacher feedback to show how efforts to support the decolonisation of…

Lesson study is a collaborative and contextualised approach to professional learning that involves small groups of teachers working together to design and reflect on the teaching of a research lesson. Although it is a well-established approach to professional learning in classroom-based subjects, research on its effectiveness within physical…