Fiona Hallett

The postgraduate student experience of study support: a phenomenographic analysis

This study seeks to examine variation in the study support experiences of a group of students on a taught masters programme in the United Kingdom. Whilst this offers a very specific UK focus, the article draws upon related work in Australian, American and African contexts on study support, academic development and academic literacy. A phenomenographic analysis is used in order to ascertain the variation in perceptions of study support within the postgraduate student group under study, and the resulting ‘outcome space’ is analysed with respect to current thinking about learner development. This study concludes with an examination of how the tensions and conflicts that arise through a lack of shared meanings and aspirations can serve as an indicator of the need for a common understanding of both the range of student profiles in higher education, and of what we mean by study support.

Do we practice what we preach? An examination of the pedagogical beliefs of teacher educators

This article is located within the context of teacher education in the UK which, in the last decade, has seen the introduction of government-led Qualified Teacher Status standards for initial teacher training. The study resides in the work of a university in the North-West of England, which is involved in the initial and postgraduate professional education of teachers. It examines firstly, the belief systems held by tutors engaged in this part of Higher Education, which might be characterised as their personal epistemology, and secondly, raises questions around these core beliefs, and how they are manifested at the pedagogical interface. The focus of the research rests on a perceived lack of congruence between the espoused ideology of tutors involved in initial teacher education, and the expectations of general classroom practice in this field. The degree to which this may have an impact on the concepts of teaching transmitted to course participants is examined, alongside a consideration of the clash of cultures experienced where dissonance exists between individual ideology and pedagogic identity. Examination of the same issues for tutors involved in postgraduate education, which is not subject to government-led standards, is used to contrast the pressures within each field.

Study support and the development of academic literacy in higher education: a phenomenographic analysis

This article seeks to understand the process employed, across a university in England, to support the acquisition of academic literacy. Whilst this offers a very specific UK focus, this article draws upon related work in Australian, American and African contexts around study support, academic literacy and academic development. A phenomenographic analysis is used to interpret variation in lived experience of study support of three participant groups: students, tutors and support staff, and the resulting ‘outcome spaces’ are analysed with respect to the role of a variety of study support mechanisms in the development of academic literacy. This study concludes with an examination of how the tensions and conflicts that arise through a lack of shared meaning and aspiration can serve as an indicator of the need for a deeper understanding of both the range of student profiles in higher education and of what we mean by study support.

Shifting codes: education or regulation? Trainee teachers and the Code of Conduct and Practice in England

In 2009, the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE) introduced a revised Code of Conduct and Practice (2009) for registered teachers. The code also applies to all trainee teachers who are provisionally registered with the GTCE and who could be liable to a charge of misconduct during their periods of teaching practice. This paper presents the results of a small-scale piece of research that utilises Q-methodology to ascertain trainee teacher alignment with the code. Our research concludes that trainee teachers in the sample have a high degree of homogeneity in relation to prioritising specific areas of the code, namely those pertaining to ethical behaviours. They do not prioritise those areas of the code relating to classroom-based skills which they have yet to develop. The paper questions the efficacy of a code which represents an aggregate of a code of conduct, a code of ethics and a set of standards for practice.

Beyond Diaspora: The lived Experiences of Academic Mobility for Educational Researchers in the European Higher Education Area

Abstract This chapter presents an analysis of the lived experiences of academic mobility for three educational researchers, at various stages of their research career, from different European national contexts. Lived experiences were explored by examining the metaphors used by each educational researcher to convey their experiences of academic mobility. These metaphors were then explored in further depth via individual interviews. The purpose of this analysis is to extend the debate around academic mobility, which often fails to differentiate between academic mobility and mobile academics. In addition, this chapter explores the impact of the desire for, and experience of, academic mobility on the complex, hybrid and changing process of academic identity formation. In conclusion, the chapter questions whether conventional ideas of research in the social sciences and humanities are essentially connected in one way or another to the nation state, or whether research is fundamentally an international occupation.

Spaces of inclusion: investigating place, positioning and perspective in educational settings through photo-elicitation

ABSTRACT This paper presents findings from a collaborative research study which sought to explore perspectives and understandings of the concept of inclusion, as played out in schools and colleges in northwest England, via the use of images. The research had two parts: in the first part, children and young people took photographs in their school setting that they felt represented inclusion or exclusion, offering an explanation for their choice. Some of these photographs and the accompanying comments were anonymised and formed the second part of the research that sought the viewpoints and perspectives of student-teachers, serving teachers, teaching assistants and academics via seminars and workshops. It is the responses received in the seminars and workshops that form the focus of this paper. Four images and a range of responses to them have been selected for discussion and are framed within three key inter-related themes of place, positioning and perspective. Such an analysis is made to consider how self-positioning might inform diverse interpretations of the cultural construction and visual representation of inclusion and exclusion.

Visualising Inclusion: Employing a photo-elicitation methodology to explore views of inclusive education.

This case study details a research project that explored meanings, perspectives and understandings of inclusion, using a photo-elicitation methodology. Children and young people were provided with disposable cameras and invited to take photographs in their school setting that they felt represented inclusion or exclusion. Some of the anonymised images taken were then discussed with a range of groups of adults that included student teachers, serving teachers, teaching assistants and academics. In this case study the researchers detail the methodological framework and methods employed. Two examples of images are discussed in order to draw out how photo-elicitation worked in action and the reflections that ensued.

Architectures of oppression: Perceptions of individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome in the Republic of Armenia

This article presents a phenomenographic analysis of perceptions of individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome in the Republic of Armenia. The primary objective is to apply and develop existing theory in a unique national context and across a broader respondent group than in previous studies. As such, the research compares and contrasts the views expressed by individuals with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEN/D), the parents of individuals with SEN/D and lay members of the public. Social comparison models developed by Hedley and Young (2006), Huws and Jones (2015) and Locke (2014) are utilised as lenses through which to analyse the conceptions, attitudes and beliefs of each respondent group. The particular social, cultural and political history of Armenia offers an insight into the challenges of, and opportunities for, autism research in the former Soviet Union.

To Believe, To Think, To Know…To Teach? Ethical Deliberation in Teacher-Education

In this chapter, we wish to summarise our recent work on promoting and developing ethical deliberation in teacher-education (TE). We first provide some background to our personal interest in the role that ethics and moral philosophy can potentially play in TE, before briefly summarising the philosophical and theoretical frameworks through which we have approached the topic. Next, we outline the various research methods and trials that we employed in exploring, first, the demand for, and, second, the most effective ways of promoting and developing ethical deliberation in TE. Finally, we highlight and reflect upon the difficulties that we experienced in employing the (almost default) methods of role-play and dialectic, and recommend the consideration of what we call meta-discussion as a valuable tool for developing ethical deliberation.

THE DILEMMA OF METHODOLOGICAL IDOLATRY IN HIGHER EDUCATION RESEARCH: THE CASE OF PHENOMENOGRAPHY

The premise of this chapter is that methodological ‘tribes’ in higher education create ‘territories’ of research practice that do little to encourage those new to research to reconceptualise methodology. This premise is based upon the perceived absence of dialogic space, beyond an expert academic community, that would allow open critique of the degree to which research methodologies make sense for those ‘on the ground’. As such, it is argued that practices of this nature signify methodological process over genuine debate around methodological theory, which can serve to encourage methodological idolatry. Phenomenography has been selected, and analysed, in this chapter as an example of a research methodology used in higher education, in order to reveal both the encoded messages of phenomenography and the layering of meaning that such messages convey. The chapter concludes by arguing for a repositioning of research methodologies as ontologically coherent heuristic devices that enable us to generate and test theory, rather than as processes of discovery that may lead us to unsubstantiated claims of knowledge generation.