Thesis and Research Data Repository Leeds Beckett University
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Transformations in social work pedagogy : analysis of immersive worlds and authentic learning
No full textThe research explored the hypothesis that students can develop knowledge, skills and confidence for professional practice within a simulated learning scenario in the virtual learning environment. It was carried out through the lens of cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), located within the socio-cultural context of activity systems and expansive learning. The research explored the problem that traditional pedagogical approaches are not preparing students effectively for social work practice in complex situations.
A practical action research approach was used, merging action with a research process of collaborative inquiry. There were three phases of action and research designed to address the central problem of how to improve the education of social work students in the area of child protection work. The first phase involved development of the Learnscape (mediating artefact), collaborating with subject matter experts, instructional designers and social work practitioners. In the second phase, the mediating artefact was piloted with a small group of MA Social Work students and data was collected using questionnaires and interviews. The third phase involved a wider evaluation of the use of the Learnscape within the context of a core module for all Year 1 MA Social Work students and Year 2 BA Social Work students. Data was collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with students and staff involved in the module where the Learnscape was used.
The Learnscape provided students with situated understandings of social work theories and practices across a range of knowledge domains. This virtual learning environment provided a valuable learning approach that is difficult to achieve with more traditional teaching and learning methods. Learners engaged with a process of adaptation to scaffold their knowledge through engagement with the environment, to resolve conflicts and make decisions in a safe environment. Learning was transformed through reflection on the case study in the virtual learning environment.
The research drew on a number of different theories to explore the nature of learning in the virtual environment as well as the nature of knowledge that is constructed and the affordances of the mediating artefact. Using a constructionist perspective, eLearning theories have been integrated with theories of learning design to form a new pedagogical understanding of immersive learning, which helps students to develop process knowledge as well as a range of knowledge domains for professional practice. Through the research I found that accessibility in eLearning is not only related to the technical aspects of the tool and the instructional design, but also individual learner and teacher levels of knowledge and engagement. The findings from the research are drawn together in a new model for developing and embedding eLearning approaches, integrating technological and pedagogical issues with teacher and learner agencies within cultural and historical contexts.</p
Post-Industrialism: Theory Versus Practice
No full textTransformations in contemporary society have been identified and defined by a number of different sociological approaches such as post-industrial, post-modern, information and knowledge, societies. According to some, like Marsh (2011), these approaches tend to describe the same changes in similar ways but Information Society and Castells’ (2000) network society theories ha ve made significant contributions to our understanding of contemporary society. Various post-industrial theories suggest societies have changed so significantly they require a new label depending on specific characteristics. For example, information society discourses would suggest that the defining characteristic driving this change is information and knowledge.</p
A study of the narrated organisational effectiveness in small value-based tourism firms
No full textAlthough small firms characterise the tourism sector, there is currently insufficient critical understanding of their heterogeneity and they remain largely under-investigated and under-theorised. They have been examined mainly on the basis of a rudimentary polarisation - commercially oriented and non-commercially oriented - or according to their lack of entrepreneurial attitude and managerial skills in comparison to firms quantitatively different or operating in other sectors. Small, non-commercially oriented tourism firms have been identified as mostly lifestyle-oriented, rejecting growth to pursue personal lifestyle choices. This definition does not encompass those small tourism firms, which define themselves by non-profit values, commitment to an ethical vision, and a proactive approach to development and welfare. These firms have hitherto remained unexplored and are therefore the subject of this research and investigation wherein they are referred to as ‘value-based’ firms. Small value-based tourism firms critically reflect part of the contemporary debate on global challenges, the development agenda and the switch from consumerism to citizenship, where civil society and companies are called to take responsibility for others and the environment.
This research, therefore, explores how small value-based tourism firms construct and narrate their organisational effectiveness between their non-profit driving values and the market’s profit rationales. The study adopts a value-driven outlook involving the understanding of the firms’ identity construction process, decision-making process and management. The research examines the background and ideological outline of such firms, exploring the relationships among alternative paradigms of development and growth, non-profit values, small-scale products and tourism. Through a social constructionism perspective, the research designs a qualitative narrative approach, innovative in tourism research. The researcher organised a number of lightly guided interviews with the founders-owners/managers of small Italian tour operators committed to an ethical vision of tourism, and operating in developing countries. Purposive sampling allows the identification of small tour operators with key common pre-determined characteristics. The selected tour operators are all members of AITR – Associazione Italiana Turismo Responsabile –, an Italian consortium gathering firms committed to a responsible ethical approach to tourism. The interviews result in a dataset of first person accounts, narratives and stories that are analysed through a combination of structural narrative analysis and a linguistic approach to the structure of a narrative. ii The narrative analysis reveals common patterns in the way participants make sense of their identity and role, moral standards, and the construction of their organisational effectiveness, decision-making processes and management. This leads to the identification of three main narrative types: the intellectual and educational narrative, the professional and entrepreneurial narrative and the empathic ‘free speech’ narrative. The research proposes a new understanding of small tourism firms that do not define themselves in commercial terms, and reveals a complex realm of firms not matching the lifestyle-oriented paradigm. The three narrative types picture a realm of disruptive, parrhesiastic - ‘truth-telling’ -, innovative, entrepreneurial firms, committed to alternative ideological paradigms of development and growth that challenge the failures and weaknesses of the Western global economy. The research shows three liquid polycentric narrative types trying to re-define concepts like growth, development, entrepreneurship and professionalism for small value-based tourism firms.</p
Making localism a reality : reshaping public service roles and developing active citizenship
No full textThis thesis explores the changing role of public services in supporting active citizenship in the development of communities within an area of the north of England. The study was undertaken in the context of the Government’s ‘localism’ and ‘austerity’ agendas.
Literature was examined against themes of conceptualising, enabling and contextualising active citizenship. A conceptual framework was used associated with the rights and duties of citizenship.
Elements of a Grounded theory methodology provided an iterative approach to knowledge development with an action research method. Case studies of local groups involved focus groups and interviews with four community groups, Elected Members and public agencies. The data was analysed using Attride-Stirling’s (2001) thematic network approach.
A range of tensions were revealed associated with interface between citizens, civil society and local authorities. Community spirit and social cohesion were seen to be weakening because of changing populations; ‘looser’ communities and historical adversity with need for a ‘transformation of civil society’. Citizen motivation for active citizenship is restrained by austerity with tensions around power imbalance between communities and the State. Integrated community leadership is required involving Elected Members although tensions exist because of political association and community group independence. ‘Rules in use’ enable citizens to engage with politics and are important in building confidence. Volunteering is significant with a need to facilitate local support and undertake further research around young people. Implications of findings are that active citizenship should be strategic priority and community resources better connected.
Knowledge has been advanced through better understanding from stakeholders and adapting a framework to measure local active citizenship. Findings have informed a ‘People with Public Service’ framework for local authorities to support active citizenship. The conclusions provide a better understanding of the complexity and tensions with the need to ‘reset’ the social contract between the community and the State.</p
Passenger experience of security at UK airports as a result of terrorism
No full text9/11 created a new paradigm of international terrorism that consequently required a new global risk assessment of terrorism. 9/11 transformed airport security checks for citizens internationally and, for some minorities, these checks have had an impact on their experience of the security process. The West responded to 9/11 at home by creating national legislation to counter terrorism. The UK initially focused on trying to deport suspicious foreign nationals who had the slightest involvement with terrorism, but following 7/7 the government’s focus was to counter terrorism nationally amongst British Muslims extremists consequently impacting at times disproportionately on local Muslim communities.
This research is concerned with the effects of security changes since 9/11 at UK airports on the young passenger experience. Airport security is twofold, when embarking on a journey; the first phase is the electronic screening of passengers by airport security. The second is the potential of passengers being stopped and screened by the police. When disembarking, passengers are subject to immigration checks and possible police checks. In both cases of the police checks, Schedule 7 is the legal means to determine whether the passenger is a terrorist.
University students aged 16-25 were surveyed to obtain data. A number of university students have either carried out terrorist attacks or supported such causes and most terrorists since 9/11 have been aged 16-35. The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 (CTSA 2015) now imposes duties on universities to prevent radicalisation; it also strengthens security arrangements in relation to the border and to aviation.
There are three hypotheses in this research that will test the research questions. The first is whether it takes younger respondents longer to travel through security, and if so why. The second hypothesis asks whether in the opinion of these respondents all passengers are treated the same or should be. Finally, whether passengers agree to the high level of security at UK airports. The findings of these hypotheses will show that first, young respondents in this research did take longer to go through airport security and the reasons why will be explained. Second, that whilst there is overwhelming support for airport security, there is a significant difference in how the white and non-white respondents in this research perceive airport security and how some aspects of security, such as confiscation of liquids, are unpopular and contribute to delays.</p
Surveillance and Its Implications for Contemporary Society
No full textIn the following work, I will attempt to critically analyse the growth of surveillance technology in contemporary society; assessing its different forms and the ramifications this has on actors and groups in society, as well as on contemporary society itself. I will be reflecting upon surveillance society in relation to the growth in Information and Communication Technologies, and changing intimacies, as well as linking this phenomenon to Post-Fordism theory.</p
Risk in the Age of Information
No full text‘In advanced modernity the social production of wealth is systematically accompanied by the social production of risks’ (Beck, 2009: 19). The opening statement of Beck’s contribution to literature on the concept of a ‘risk society’ tells us that the very notion of a risk society is heavily associated with the issue of the production of wealth. The concept of a ‘risk society’ is most commonly associated with the German sociologist Ulrich Beck (2009) who has argued that the development and ‘progress’ of the post-modern society has led to an increase of risks within society, whether it be associated with technological progression or the production of wealth in the modernization of society.</p
Kinetic Thinking: Corporeal Cognition through Dance Practice and Performance
No full textThis thesis explores notions of embodied knowledges within dance through original research into the dance practice and performance of Rachel Krische. The central proposition is that dance is an activity of thinking in movement. It proposes the concept of kinetic thinking: that bodily movement is not illustrating thinking taking place in a separate mind, but is in itself an activity of thinking. This thesis critically engages with the experience that is made available within the practice and live performance of three existing published works: the solo The Swimmer (Hay, 2008), the duet Do Not Be Afraid (Sperling, 2010) and the solo Headphones (Krische, 2014) within Table of Contents (Davies, Buckley, Kaski, Morrissey, Krische & Sperling, 2014). The three works represent a continuous process of engagement with a studio and performance-based practice that allowed an in-depth exploration of the proposition of thinking kinetically. This was informed by contextual research, aspects of which are captured within this document. Framed against the historical legacy of a persistent Cartesian mind-body division, the discussion is explored within the disciplines of dance, phenomenology and embodied cognition. Theoretical concepts of perception, attention, action, somatic awareness, temporality, thinking and cognition are examined and interwoven with descriptions of insights that have emerged from the embodied conceptual tussling happening within practice.
Additionally, details of the published works are presented in a separate supporting volume following the main thesis, providing contextual information that includes credits, synopsis and touring history details. A timeline of the works and professional biography situate them within a wider context of professional practice. Photographs and examples of scores/note-book entries are also provided, alongside video documentation of the three published works that can be accessed via the following link: Web link: https://vimeo.com/album/5065714 . Although I am collaborator and maker within the works, the primary focus of the research presented here is to be considered, not of or through the making of dances, but the doing of dancing. It focuses on knowledge realised through the lived experience of the dancer, recognising both the importance of the dancing body and positioning the dancer’s contribution as central to understanding.</p
Healthcare assistants’ experiences of facilitated reflective learning in the hospital setting
No full textThe Care Certificate was developed to support healthcare assistants (HCAs) in providing care with compassion following the Francis report (2013) which found instances of poor care in one National Health Service (NHS) Trust. The Report recommended that HCAs develop the skills of reflection for learning. Previously, the practice of reflection was the preserve of the professional. This study is the first to explore the effects of facilitated reflective learning (the process of learning from one’s experiences through the facilitation of a more experienced professional) for hospital based (non-professional) HCAs.
A constructivist case study approach was undertaken involving semi-structured interviews with twenty-five HCAs who attended facilitated reflective groups as part of their Care Certificate course. Their data were supplemented with documentary analysis and interviews with seven nurse-educators. Findings indicate that the work environment in the case Trust focused on physical labour and was more suited to the non-reflective learning of standards and tasks, which Francis (2013) warned could contribute to non-compassionate care. The groups provided a supportive environment which facilitated the development of softer skills associated with emotional labour thereby emancipating the HCAs. The facilitated reflective group sessions for HCAs helped transform their approach to practice from task-focused to care-focused. These findings are especially pertinent with the national HCA workforce currently providing around 60% of direct patient care. It is recommended that Trusts, educationalists and policymakers consider utilising facilitated reflective learning groups for their HCA workforce, especially in Trusts where staff are resorting to task based care due to nursing shortages and high dependency/turnover of patients. The case Trust mirrored such circumstances. This study confirms that the provision of facilitated reflective learning groups for HCAs provides a more supportive, empowering learning environment in which HCAs are enabled to be more caring and compassionate.</p
SUITABILITY OF CORNCOB ASH, ANTHILL SOIL AND RICE HUSK ASH AS SUPPLEMENTARY CEMENTITIOUS MATERIALS
No full textCement is the most utilised construction material and the second most consumed
commodity in the world after water. It has been reported that the heavily energy-intensive
processes that are involved in its production contribute about 7 to 10% (per cent) to the
total global anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2), which is the main cause of global
warming; and are expensive economically. It is however possible, that energy and cost
efficiency can be achieved by reducing on the amount of cement, and in its place utilising
Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCMs), which require less process heating and
emit fewer levels of CO2. This research aimed to provide an original contribution to the
body of knowledge by investigating the suitability of Corncob Ash (CCA), Anthill Soil (AHS)
and Rice Husk Ash (RHA) as SCMs by testing them for pozzolanic or hydraulic properties.
Cement was replaced in concrete with these materials by weight, as well as by the volume
of RHA at 0%, 5%, 7.5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30% steps at the point of need.
Durability was investigated using the water absorption and sulfate tests. Results of the
chemical analysis by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) showed that CCA, AHS and RHA contained
the required chemical composition for SCMs, and the mean compressive strengths (fcm)
achieved, when converted to characteristic compressive strengths (fck,cube), were for those
classes that are listed as being durable and suitable for structural applications. The
behavior of these materials in workability, density, gain in compressive strength over time,
water absorption and sulfate tests were also consistent with the characteristics of SCMs.
The good repeatability observed across the range of tests that were carried out indicates
a high level of confidence in the results obtained, and highlights the great potential of
using CCA, AHS and RHA to enhance the durability of hardened concrete, mitigate on
environmental nuisance, reduce the cost of construction and improve the overall
properties of concrete