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An Exploration of College Higher Education Academic Identity using The Bead Collage Technique
Full text linkIn all educational sectors, a performativity agenda impacts academic identity. This study explores the academic identity of college higher education (CHE) lecturers based at a South-West England Further Education (FE) college. Currently, 170 FE colleges in England offer undergraduate degrees registered with the Office for Students (OfS) (AOC, 2024). CHE lecturers are responsible for FE and Higher (HE)Education provision, often juggling the demands of both sectors to ensure quality teaching and learning for their students.
This study recruited twenty-seven participants to conceptualise their academic identity using the bead collage technique during eighteen focus groups. The two-stage approach saw participants engage with the bead collage technique to create bead collages in the initial focus groups, later the participants revisited their bead collage photographs during the ‘chance to reflect’ focus group (between two to four weeks later). Three key themes emerged from the study that formed the basis of the conclusion and recommendations for future practice. These explored the first theme: CHE Role Expectations and Requirements, the second theme: Being a Professional College Higher Education Lecturer and the third theme: The Creative Benefits of the Bead Collage Technique.
The study found CHE lecturer’s contribution to HE students’ teaching and learning requires greater recognition in the sector. Research and scholarly activity connected to pedagogy was acknowledged as promoting research-informed quality HE practices, whereas, often, any additional research beyond the scope of the job role was individually undertaken. The bead collage technique’s unique contribution to creatively engage participants functioned as a successful vehicle for facilitating open, unencumbered discussion. Participants found the opportunity to stop, pause, and consider CHE’s academic identity using the bead collage technique beneficial for reflective practice. The study identified that CHE lecturers consider themselves as pracademics, focusing on pedagogy and student achievements. Research was considered beneficial for pedagogical student focused development, with fewer engaging in research activities beyond the boundaries of CHE required scholarship. The study highlighted that CHE lecturers’ role in the sector should be acknowledged as a valuable contribution to the widening participation agenda for students in local communities to reach their full potential
Better Tomorrows Programme: More young people in Cumbria getting access to quality youth work - Evaluation Report - Year 3.
No full textKey highlights: As a result of the Better Tomorrows programme by the end of year 3:
• More than £2.5 million has been raised from over 50 funders, including a National Lottery
Community Fund grant.
• Over 8,055 new young people engaged in youth work.
• 61 more trained youth workers.
• 46 new youth work jobs funded across Cumbria.
• Over 22,230 hours of new youth work provision.
• It is estimated that ‘for every £1 the government invests in youth work, the benefit to the taxpayer
is between £3.20 and £6.40’ (UK Youth). By the end of Year 3 of the programme, the £2.5 million
invested in Better Tomorrows represents a benefit of £8-16 million.
• Better Tomorrows is an example to others of what can be achieved when someone in a leadership
position identifies an issue, develops a clear vision and takes a collaborative approach to inspire
change.
Context: The Better Tomorrows Programme was initially a three-year initiative (now extended) in
Cumbria launched in 2021, which aims to increase the number of trained youth workers and improve
access to youth support services. It is supported by Cumbria Community Foundation, Cumbria Youth
Alliance and Francis Scott Trust. As of Spring 2025, more than £2.5 million has been raised from over
50 funders, including a National Lottery grant. The programme aims to empower young people
through high-quality youth work, fostering their confidence, skills, and aspirations.
Method: The Better Tomorrows Programme aims to provide quality youth work opportunities for
young people in Cumbria. The evaluation focuses on three main areas: training, youth work jobs, and
improving young people's lives, aiming to provide a holistic understanding of the programme and
capture both intended and unintended outcomes. For more details on the background and evaluation
method, please refer to the Year 1 report.
Findings from Year 3: For reporting purposes, Year 3 is from 1 March 2024 to 28 February 2025
Connections, conflict and (re)configuration: a relational analysis of the enactment of EPPP policy in academy football
No full textThe relational and networked nature of policy enactment work in coaching contexts has received scant attention. This study addressed how interdependencies, ties, and co-constituted interactions shaped the enactment of the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) within academy football. Utilising Crossley's relational theorising as a primary sense-making device, we demonstrate how policy was lived through the everyday relations and interactions of those involved. Using a bricolage of recursive methods within a category 3 academy, the findings highlight how patterns of trust, conflict and homophilic clustering constrained the flow of new policy ideas and reshaped existing lines of influence. Coaches’ agency materialised in collective and contingent ways rather than as an individual act. Policy enactment was positioned as a negotiated and constantly shifting process sustained by the ties, emotions and dependencies of organisational life, with practical implications into how communication systems and organisational arrangements shape coaches' interpretation of policy
The ‘comfy slippers’ of university as places of safety
No full textFor students who are the first in their family to attend university, the transition involves navigating uncharted territory. Students often transform university spaces, initially impersonal and daunting, into ‘places’ of comfort and belonging. Unlike ‘spaces,’ which are neutral, ‘places’ are infused with meaning and attachment, providing both safety and identity (Tuan, 1977). Although university might seem an unwelcoming place for some from working-class or otherwise disadvantaged backgrounds (see Woolsey & Major-Smith, 2025), for others, it can provide a vital refuge from challenging home environments. In this blog post, we draw on the testimonies of four first-in-family students[1] – participants from the Far away from the ivory tower research project to illustrate how universities might provide more than academic opportunities
The rise of the machines: a consideration of the cyborg adventure experience
No full textThis article examines how point-of-view (POV) cameras reshape outdoor adventure experiences, using the cyborg as a conceptual lens to explore how technology mediates being, knowledge, and engagement. Drawing on three reflective vignettes, we consider how wearable technologies influence temporality, spatiality, and subjectivity in adventure. The first vignette shows how POV cameras allow participants to revisit critical moments, prompting reflection on being in the moment and processes of becoming. The second explores how cameras act as technological extensions that reconfigure climbers’ relationships with landscapes. The third examines how human–technology boundaries blur, producing cyborg identities. Collectively, these reflections highlight how technology co-constructs adventure, altering perceptions of time, space, and self. By framing outdoor adventure as cyborg practice, we provoke debate on how educators, practitioners, and participants engage with technology in experiential contexts and reflect on its implications for personal development and professional practice
Artistic Interlude III: The Rhythm of Our Lives: a poetic autoethnography on navigating queer motherhood in healthcare spaces
No full textMudfulness? Nurturing a relationship with nature through serendipitous encounters with mud
No full textThrough reflection on more than two decades of environmental practice and educational research, this chapter draws on autoethnographic techniques to creatively explore young people’s relationship to nature. The playful concept of mudfulness is introduced as offering the potential to develop relationships through serendipitous encounters with mud - through practical conservation and gardening activities or playful adventures outside. The chapter reviews existing research on the sensory appeal and benefits of mud play, highlighting its physical, psychological, and emotional advantages for children. However, it identifies a research gap concerning young people (11+). Two
stories of "muddy moments" involving young people, practitioners, and researchers are shared and interpreted to address this gap. This illustrates the therapeutic and educational benefits of serendipitous encounters with mud, and how this may contribute to nurturing a positive relationship with nature. The chapter closes with final reflections on the importance of muddy play, whatever our biological age
My coach says: The effects of accelerated eccentric and landing cues to elicit change in countermovement jump propulsive and landing performance
No full textHandford, MJ, Bright, TE, Mundy, P, Lake, J, Theis, N, and Hughes, JD. My coach says: the effects of accelerated eccentric and landing cues to elicit change in countermovement jump propulsive and landing performance. J Strength Cond Res 39(6): e730-e741, 2025-The aim of the study was to determine if an accelerated eccentric (AE) cue during a countermovement jump (CMJ) produces distinct kinetic outputs. Eighteen strength-trained men (mean ± SD : age = 25.9 ± 4.5 years; body mass = 87.1 ± 12.2 kg; stature = 181.7 ± 6.2 cm) completed a jump cue ("jump as high and fast as possible") (NORM) or AE ("fast downward, max braking, and jump as high and fast as possible") with 2 types of landing cues: deceleration eccentric (DC) ("decelerate as fast as possible once landed") and dissipating eccentric (DP) ("stop in your own time"). The Hawkin Dynamics Cloud system was used for jump analysis, including additional landing metrics. Subjects performed 4 repetitions of AEDC landling, AEDP landling, NORMDC landling, and NORMDP landling in a randomized order on 2 separate occasions. When compared with the NORM conditions, the AE conditions had significantly greater peak and mean braking velocity (effect size [ES] = -0.77 to -0.89 and -0.60 to -0.83, respectively), mean braking power (ES = -0.56 to -0.59), mean braking force (ES = 0.40-0.46), braking impulse (ES = 0.35-0.41), force at minimal displacement (ES = 0.26-0.32), and peak propulsion force (ES = 0.24-0.26), with a reduced braking phase time (ES = 0.59-1.14). Only landing impulse showed acceptable reliability for landing metrics, with no significant differences between groups. Findings highlight AE's enhance braking (eccentric) metrics and overall CMJ performance. Future research should explore AE in strength-based exercises and further investigate CMJ landing phase metrics
Constructional blending: the five functions of BE supposed to and BE meant to
No full textThe forms BE supposed to and BE meant to are ‘polysynonymous’ and can be used to express a wide range of functions: evidential (hearsay/reportative), deontic (intention/obligation), deontic (prohibition) and predestination. While other verbs in passives can express certain of these functions, only these two have developed the ability to appear in the full range. Following a Construction Grammar approach, this paper focusses on a further, new, function that can be illustrated by the sentence It’s supposed to be good tomorrow (source: BNC KCX4941) Such an example can also contain meant to with no change of meaning. This relatively recent development expresses a ‘report of a prediction’. BE expected to has a similar, but by no means identical function, and can of course also be used with a deontic meaning in a passive construction. However, this new use is not possible with other evidential/hearsay verbs when used in the same syntactic pattern. This paper discusses the semantics and syntactic idiosyncrasies of BE supposed to and BE meant to and concludes that this ‘new’ function is the result of a type of ‘constructional blend’ of the existing hearsay and deontic uses. It is unique to the two focal constructions due to their unique range of use across all the construction types above
Partnerships and Networks in Sports Development
No full textThis chapter explores the continued centrality of partnerships and networks across the sport and physical activity sector, locally, nationally and internationally. Using case studies from England, it illustrates the ways in which partnerships have evolved as both a core pillar to achieve visions expressed through public policy, the processes involved in interagency collaboration, and how partnerships operate to deliver sport development and sport-for-development objectives. We consider how partnerships remain a central organising feature in the management of sport development and how partnerships evolve in response to changing political, economic and cultural forces. Sports partnerships are increasingly collaborating with a range of wider organisations from health, education and community development in the shared pursuit of addressing wider social issues, and the external funding which is required to achieve this in the context of squeezed core budgets. Finally, the chapter encourages a degree of criticality of partnerships and points towards areas of continued research