Drawing on the findings of a Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) funded, multi-institutional, regional project, "Transitions West Midlands", this paper works with Further Education (FE) students' transition narratives as they look forward to, and back from the move from FE to HE and explores the role of the local,…

This paper is situated in relation to a critical mass of largely censorious commentary around global policy trends purportedly undermining, or even realigning, universities' 'traditional' ethos, but where the student perspective on this appears to have been largely ignored. Drawing on interviews with German and English undergraduates, it applies…

Objective: Evidence suggests that younger mothers engage in poorer health behaviours, resulting in increased cancer risk. We aimed to better understand the health behaviours of younger mothers and the factors that influence their lifestyle choices, in order to improve cancer prevention within this population. Methods: A multiple focus group,…

Having noted that some use of Bourdieusian concepts in educational research is superficial, this paper offers a view of the distinctiveness of Bourdieu's concepts via the example of misrecognition, which is differentiated from the concept with the same name in Fraser's work. An account is given of a recent research project on white middle-class…

This paper presents selected findings from a wider study on the expression of health within physical education (PE) curricula in secondary schools in England and Wales. The study revealed that the expression of health in PE broadly reflected ideologies associated with promoting "fitness for life" and "fitness for performance"…

This article presents the findings of ethnographic case studies of three girls on the autistic spectrum attending mainstream primary schools and illustrates the difficulties they experience and the ways in which these are often unrecognised. The observations of the girls and subsequent individual interviews with their mothers, class teachers,…

Questionnaire and interview findings from a survey of three Year 8 (ages 12-13 years) science practical lessons (n = 52) demonstrate how pupils' data collection and inference making were sometimes biased by desires to confirm a personal theory. A variety of behaviours are described where learners knowingly rejected anomalies, manipulated…

Muslim boys, once regarded as passive, hard working and law-abiding, have been recast in the public imagination in recent years. Now the stereotypical image is of volatile, aggressive hotheads who are in danger of being brainwashed into terrorism, or of would-be gangsters who are creating no-go areas in English towns and cities. This timely and…

Based on a three year action research project, this study examines one strand of that research, namely the impact that "purpose", "i.e." exploring the range of rationales for studying a subject, has in helping white trainee teachers embrace cultural and ethnic diversity within their teaching. Through "purpose"…

This study focussed on secondary school (11-18 years) pre-service teachers' (n = 73) knowledge of and attitudes towards risks associated with alpha, beta, and gamma radiations. A multi-method approach was used with physics, chemistry, biology, and history graduates undertaking the one-year initial teacher training, Post Graduate Certificate in…

This article explores 11- to 16-year-old students' explanations for phenomena commonly studied in school chemistry from an inclusive cognitive resources or knowledge-in-pieces perspective that considers that student utterances may reflect the activation of knowledge elements at a range of levels of explicitness. We report 5 themes in student…

Primary school teachers' responses to interview questions about science concepts are described and compared in general terms with views of scientific concepts held by children. Some possible implications of the findings for the development of primary science are outlined. Sample interview questions are included. (Author/CW)

Presents findings from a case study into the development of student understanding of chemical bonding. Reveals significant progression in student understanding but also highlights issues of how such progression should be addressed. Emphasizes factors associated with blocks to appropriate concept development. (33 references) (Author/MKR)

Describes attempts to instruct 12 children, aged between 10 and 11, during a 12-hour course in LOGO that proper attention should be paid to the external angles through which the turtle rotated. Results suggest that using LOGO to draw closed figures may lead to confusions about angle that are not amenable to conventional intervention techniques…

Argues that gendered identities are in context more fluid and shifting than depicted in feminist leadership texts, drawing on a small case study of female (British) headteachers. Femininities are varied and shaped by the roles women undertake, the leadership context, and the amount of power women have access to. (Contains 65 references.) (MLH)