Occupational expertise has always been constituted and afforded recognition and status in work contexts, however, these contexts are becoming increasingly interconnected and interrelated, underpinned by, 'intangible assets'. To explore this complex process and its implications for vocational education and training (VET), this article uses the…

Professionalism is an important issue for policymakers in post-16 education because of its established links to competence, morale and staff continuity. Arguably, it is the pursuit of professionalism that ensures high quality teaching and learning, satisfied students and stakeholders, and the ongoing esteem of the general public. However, despite…

This article explores the findings from my professional doctorate that focused on professional services staff in a university in the North West of England and their perceptions of identity. With little literature surrounding the identity of professional services staff, this paper asks if professional services staff relationships with academic…

This article considers the effect that student-teacher relationships have on engagement with school and how students go about making their voice heard. In order to do this, it draws upon data from a year long ethnography in an underperforming school in England. The site was particularly useful in addressing these questions as it offered different…

This article examines how teachers' professional development motivations are affected by introjected regulation. A theoretical thematic analysis of teacher interview and survey open response data is conducted, exploring the extent to which teachers perceive themselves to be motivated by factors such as self-esteem and the regard of others.…

As part of a revival of interest in character education, English schools are required to teach the new 'three Rs': resilience; respect for 'fundamental British values'; and responsibility for one's own well-being. School inspectors evaluate children's resilience, whilst the Department for Education has offered financial incentives to schools that…

This paper examines the extent by which the four domains of the sustainable early childhood leadership model were evident in the experiences of New Leaders in Early Years (NLEY) participants. This original piece of research explores the impact of pedagogical leadership and focuses on participants recruited to a national pilot to make a difference…

Digital badges are graphical representations of an accomplishment. Open badges are a subset of digital badges that allow the badge owner to demonstrate achievement and the viewer to see the criteria for the badge. Open badges offer the opportunity to evidence and reward skill development, and to learn that existing formal qualifications do not. In…

Open badges are portable, digital credentials that offer the opportunity to reward learning in both formal and informal settings, providing an inventory of competencies and interests. Previously, a comprehensive framework of open badges in the 'Working Scientifically' strand of the National Curriculum in England (ages 5-16), extending into post-16…

This paper considers Early Childhood Education for Sustainable Development from the perspective of two pioneers, Maria Montessori and Rudolph Steiner. These pioneers advocated for strong community ethics based on social justice, peace and equality. This is discussed in relation to current practices in England. Although the Early Years Foundation…

The academy has tended to marginalise young children as researchers (YCAR), even in matters affecting them, which denies young children agency and amounts to social injustice. Drawing on the YCAR study, which adopted a qualitative "jigsaw" methodology to co-research with children aged four to eight years (n = 138), their parents,…

Digital badges are graphical representations of an accomplishment. Open badges are a subset of digital badges, an image file in which additional data, metadata, are embedded. Not only will an open badge contain a description of the badge, the criteria, the issuer and issue date, but also, when appropriate, standards, tags, expiry date and…

Community-based interventions have long been seen as mechanisms via which to target marginalised youth in relation to personal development. Research surrounding such interventions has often highlighted the promotion of a range of pro-social behaviours and attributes which, in turn, facilitate an increased sense of social inclusion. This paper…

This paper deals with a short biography of Paul Dirac, his first celebrated work on quantum mechanics, his first formal systematic use of the Dirac delta function and his famous work on quantum electrodynamics and quantum statistics. Included are his first discovery of the Dirac relativistic wave equation, existence of positron and the intrinsic…

Reflecting on the experience of being a participant in the Work of Teacher Education (WoTE) research, and drawing on conceptualisations of teacher education as "domestic labour," I argue that teacher educators' closeness to classroom practice acts as a determining factor in their symbolic annihilation, a concept usually applied to study…