This paper explores the experiences of 24 Early Career Researchers working in interdisciplinary and precarious employment conditions in which they are managing collaborations with multiple partners beyond the university as part of the AHRC's "Connected Communities" Programme. These conditions emerge from conflicting sources--from…

This paper investigates the effect of interview mode (telephone vs. face-to-face) on responses to a 13-item module of identity questions covering distinct domains. With increasing moves towards mixed-mode implementation, especially in longitudinal surveys, establishing whether mode effects are likely to influence findings is of practical value. A…

The study explores the nature and mixture of push--pull factors in the journey from higher education into graduate entrepreneurship. Using longitudinal data from 15 graduates of a British university, it compares graduates who started their own business with graduates that did not. Importantly, both groups had initially indicated a strong desire to…

While achieving research independence by becoming a principal investigator (PI) is a key aspiration for many postdocs, little is known of the trajectory from PhD graduation to first PI grant. This interview-based study examined how 16 PIs in science, technology engineering, mathematics or medicine, in the UK and continental Europe, prepared for…

This study was aimed at identifying the critical interactions within work environments that support the development of early career academics as researchers in institutions with lower order research profiles, that is, environments that differ from research-intensive universities. Ten early career academics, five from Australia and five from the…

Recent research demonstrates that despite increased attention and awareness by politicians and decision-makers, people with learning disabilities are still disadvantaged when engaging with the criminal justice system. It has been argued that shortcomings in providing support are because of criminal justice professionals lacking necessary skills…

Graduate employability has become an issue since there are broad mismatches between the acquired graduate skills from university and the required skills by employers. While previous researches have outlined the salient skills that need to be embedded in graduate education, to date no studies have attempted to methodically identify and synthesize…

This paper considers the personal epistemology of adventure sports coaches, the existence of the epistemological chain and its impact on professional judgment and decision-making. The epistemological chain's role and operationalization in other fields is considered, offering clues to how it may manifest itself in the adventure sports coach…

An exploratory survey of Assistants in Scottish educational psychology services (EPSs) was undertaken, guided by four questions: Who are Assistants? Why are they employed/not employed? What do Assistants do? How are Assistants supported and supervised? Twenty-one Assistants and 15 managers were interviewed. It was found that Assistants worked…

The mixed-method study presented in this paper investigates the changes in direct and indirect intercultural contact and language-learning attitudes and effort of international students in the United Kingdom. Seventy international learners of English were asked to fill in a questionnaire three times during one academic year in an international…

Purpose: In response to an increasingly high level of exclusion rates for boys within secondary school in the UK, this study seeks to explore the value of restorative practice and justice for changing student behaviour. Design/methodology/approach: As a piece of action research, the authors aimed to look at how methods of restorative practice…

One response to dealing with barriers to learning in children has been the appointment in the UK of learning mentors. Mentors that have been appointed have come from a wide range of backgrounds. In this small-scale exploratory study, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with a sample of eight mentors in one inner city area, focusing on the…

This paper explores role-play pedagogies in learning and communicating about cutting-edge flood science by flood risk management professionals in local government. It outlines role-play process/structure and evaluates participant perceptions of their learning experiences. Issues were impacts of prior role-play experience on attitudes brought to…

It has been argued that learning science may be complicated, and even compromised, when students hold worldviews that may seem at odds with what is presented in science lessons. In particular, in some parts of the world, there has been considerable concern that students from particular religious backgrounds may reject some science teaching if…

Motivation is crucial to both individual and organisational performance and even a very able and well-trained member of staff will not perform effectively unless they are motivated to do so. Despite this fact, research into the motivation of teachers is limited both internationally and, more specifically, in relation to the English system of…