Homophobic-bullying is reported to negatively impact on the psychological, social, educational and cultural lives of sexual-minority youth, denigrating their identity, and emphasising their marginalised status. The long-term implications of victimisation on their ‘journey’ into adulthood remain a poorly misunderstood area of psychology. The present study aimed to explore how sexual-minority young adults construct meaning in the light of their childhood homophobic-victimisation; what coping processes they recall using to survive; and in what ways their childhood victimisation experiences impacted on their self and sexual-identity development, over their life-course. Four female lesbian and bisexual undergraduate university students provided accounts of their childhood homophobic-victimisation and subsequent journey into emerging-adulthood. Data was gathered via semi-structured interviews and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009). Four superordinate themes were identified. Firstly, ‘ Constructing the self, the evolving journey’ explores how participants’ sense of being ‘different’ and undesirable (acquired through bullying) transformed into becoming ‘wrong’ and unacceptable. This transformation coincided with participants’ experiences of homophobic-bullying and sexual-identity awareness. Participants’ transitions from ‘victim to warrior’ and ‘helplessness to saviour’ over the course of their life-span were also explored. Secondly, ‘ Distancing the intolerable’ outlines participants’ cognitive and social processes of distancing themselves from the position of the victim, the behavioural and psychological consequences of victimhood and their sexuality. Such processes continued into emerging-adulthood, despite most participants ‘ no longer being bullied. Thirdly, ‘My bully-the developing interpretation’ explores the changing role of the ‘ blameworthy self, the’ ignorant bullies’ to the biggest bully of all- society, in participants’ understanding of victimisation. Homophobia as an ‘ infectious disease’ and identification of the positive benefits of their childhood-victimisation were identified. Fourthly, ‘Trapped bird breaking free from its shackles’ highlights participants’ sense of confinement to the dominating heterosexual norms and life as a repetitive victim. Participants’ ‘ turning points’ marked their embarked journey of escape, yet their lingering struggles from A qualitative exploration into the experiences of childhood homophobic victimisation for sexual minority young adults. their victimised past continue on. The clinical implications and need for further research are discussed.

This study focuses upon the relatively unexplored area of sexual harassment in British universities. In sum, the thesis suggests that although MacKinnon’s (2004) aim is to enable women to feel more powerful and less stigmatised, the contribution of feminist harassment discourses may, in part, generate in some women an understanding of powerlessness and vulnerability. In particular, it suggests seemingly prevailing discourses surrounding sexual harassment in higher education and considers if and how the women interviewed define themselves through these discourses. Thus, by exploring the power effects of and resistances to these suggested prevailing discourses, it is possible to infer the degree to which these discourses may have constituted the participants’ subjectivities. Further, the thesis argues that feminist harassment discourses may have generated specific effects of power with regard to my participants. That is to say, many of my participants seem to understand sexual harassment as exploitative behaviours rooted in the unequal distribution of ascribed power in higher education. Feminism’s understanding of power as a static and gendered appears to have generated for the participants, at least in part, the understanding that sex at work is used to humiliate and degrade women, maintaining and reproducing ascribed notions of power. For this research, twenty-four unstructured interviews were carried out with women who had identified themselves as having experienced sexual harassment within higher education, either as a student or a member of staff, or who had witnessed events they had defined as sexual harassment. This was a passionately interested form of inquiry, recognising the partial nature of knowledge and identifying my political positionings (Gill 1995; Aranda 2006). The analysis is Foucauldian oriented, understanding power as fluid – rather than possessed – and as generating particular ways of being. In addition, although it notes that the participants did resists specific effects of power, this resistance always takes place from a new point of power and does not, therefore, carry us beyond power into a power free space. The prevailing discourses suggested from my data are: the ‘grades for sex’ discourse; the ‘all boys together’ discourse; the ‘trustworthy lecturer’ discourse; the ‘knickers in a twist’ discourse; and the ‘sexual harassment as unwanted sexual behaviour’ discourse.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the perceptions of refugee children, refugee parents and school staff regarding what they believe contributed to the positive adaptation of refugee children after facing adversity. This research examined how the participants understood the factors inherent in the new social milieu and its effect on refugee children’s mental health and psychological well-being. This included an exploration of resilience and the role of risk and protective factors. Few studies have focused on exploring views from a resilience perspective and studies that have, have also tended to focus on exploring factors through quantitative rather than qualitative measures. This mixed methods piece of ‘real world’ research, adopted a ‘what’s working well’ perspective, aimed to explore the important voices of children, parents and staff. The views of three refugee parents and twenty one refugee children aged between 9 and 19 years old, of various ethnic origins and length of stay in the UK (six months to eight years) were explored through semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis approach. The children’s level of well-being in different domains such as school was assessed using the Multidimensional Student Life Satisfaction Survey (Huebner, 2001). The views of sixty-three staff members were also gathered via questionnaire. Findings from this research reveal the valuable perspectives parents and young people can offer. The psychological construct of resilience was of relevance to the children in the present research, with several themes reflecting factors that have been shown to impact on resilience in positive or adverse way. Young people’s comments suggested that they were not protected from all negative experiences, but were able to succeed in the face of such adversity due to a number of factors that provided a defence against it. The key differences that children identified, that could be protective as well as a risk for them featured in the following main themes: factors within the family, experiences at school and individual/personal characteristics. Staff, parent and child responses were triangulated to provide a rich picture of the potential protective factors operating within the school and family environment. Implications for future practice for schools and Educational Psychologists in areas such as the voice of the child, bullying, home-school and community partnerships and mental health interventions are discussed. Methodological issues are also considered, together with suggestions for future research to create a deeper understanding of the role of culture, schools, coping styles and the community. Further opportunities for research exploring risk and resilience in unaccompanied refugee children are suggested.

This research embraces an eco-systemic perspective of human behaviour (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) and uses participatory action research methodology to explore with young people, and those ‘immersed in the system’ (Carr & Kemmis, 1986) of education, their views and school experiences, to facilitate increased participation, empowerment and professional collaboration to support future school transitions. This study has been carried out in the South-West of England (inner-city and suburban areas), involving young people and their families, schools, alternative placement providers and multi-agency professionals. The following research aims were addressed: 1) To improve our understanding of the views and perspective of young people who have experienced school exclusion. 2) To explore multiple stakeholder perspectives of using a person-centred planning (PCP) approach to support school transition/re-integration and the perceived ‘supports’ and ‘barriers’ to implementation. 3) To explore the use of PCP in supporting positive outcomes for young people, ‘post transition/re-integration’ to mainstream school. 4) To consider the implications for future practice and research. This was a two part study, consisting of two research papers. The participants in paper one of the study were young people (N=12) identified by their settings as having experienced prior school exclusion, with an impending transition (or re-integration) to mainstream education. Paper one explored young people’s perspective to better understand the supports and barriers that have impacted upon their educational journeys, what they attribute as causes for their school exclusion and what they believe will help them in their future. A person-centred planning approach informed the data gathering process (Smull, Sanderson, Sweeney, Skelhorn, George & Bourne, 2005) and semi-structured interviews were analysed using thematic analysis based on Braun and Clarke’s (2006) framework. The individual interviews explored ‘with’ each young person, their views and perspective, and contributed towards the ‘preparing to plan’ stage of Person Centred Planning (PCP) being implemented in paper two. Paper two explored the use of Person Centred Planning (PCP) in supporting young people (N=6) in their school transition/re-integration to mainstream education. This involved young people from study one and a range of stakeholders including their family, friends, school/placement staff and multi-agency professionals. This focussed on exploring multiple stakeholder experiences of the ‘supports’ and ‘barriers’ of using a PCP approach in ‘real life’ practice. It also explored perceptions of the impact and efficacy of the approach over time in supporting young people across key outcome areas, ‘post’ transition/re-integration. Findings from paper one indicated young people’s capacity to express themselves clearly and reflect meaningfully upon their educational journeys. Each young person made their own decision as to how they would participate and contribute their views and how the information would be used. Key findings indicated a range of perceived ‘supports’ and ‘barriers’ that young people identified as having impacted upon them. These encompassed the systems of school, family and community and, consistent with existing research, highlighted the significance of positive and caring relationships, access to help and support and experiencing a sense of belonging (Lown, 2005; Mainwaring & Hallam, 2010; O’Connor, Hodkinson, Burton & Torstensson, 2011).Young people’s causal attributions referred to negative teacher relationships, peer bullying, rejection and perceived injustice. A distinct finding from this study referred to young people’s sense of isolation when they felt that help was being denied at a time when they were experiencing negativity across the contexts of family, school and community. Young people referred to not feeling understood and supported and reflected upon this impacting on their behaviour in school. Findings also indicated that whole school behavioural systems posed a barrier to young people being able to access the help and support of key adults they had identified and to their inclusion in the wider school community. Findings from paper two indicated positive support from all stakeholder groups that PCP enabled the young person to be fully involved in their transition planning, facilitating a positive ethos that embraced equality and collaboration. Exploration of stakeholder views highlighted some negative reflections on the use of PCP, particularly in relation to its ‘time consuming’ nature and a range of key factors were identified as supportive and/or obstructive to implementing PCP in practice. When exploring perceptions of impact and efficacy over time, there were clear indications of positive development for each young person across key outcome areas. The majority of positive reflections were consistent across stakeholders groups and related to increased school attendance, improved emotional understanding, social interaction and academic progress. All individual targets were reviewed ‘post transition/re-integration’ and were deemed to have ‘met’ or ‘exceeded’ the expected levels. Furthermore, there have been clear references to changes made at a systems and environmental level that have underpinned these positive changes and emphasised the role that others play as ‘agents of change’ (Fielding, 2001). These findings have been assimilated and the implications for educational psychology practice and research considered.

Fostering religious commitment in schools and considering children’s cultural diversity arguably enhances pupils’ tolerance and integration, which may have the potential to reduce racism and discrimination. Faith schools are religiously and culturally diverse institutions and typically appreciated for their core values, good behaviour and academic standards. However, their impact on school culture and ethos is under explored. Although, the role of faith has gained attention both in policy and practice, relatively little is known about its impact in the context of primary education. As such, this research explores the complex influence of faith on school culture and ethos. In addition, critical analysis is undertaken to investigate the impact of faith on pupils’ behaviour and understanding in school. The main research aims are to: explore the multiple ways in which faith is manifested in two schools, determine the influence of faith on school culture and ethos, and establish the impact of faith on pupils’ behaviours and understanding in school. This research takes an ethnographic approach to explore how faith is manifested in two primary schools in the North West of England. The ethnography enabled a deeper immersion in to the school culture as data were generated through observations, interviews, focus groups and documentary analysis in two schools: A denomination school, Church of England, and a community school with an Islamic ethos. The research was conducted in the North West of England which has many diverse faith-based schools. Critical Race and Feminist Theories were used as lenses of analysis to examine faith in school. Critical Race Theory is a framework employed to examine the role of race and power in education. This research provides rich ethnographic description and analysis of faith as understood, practiced and experienced in the two schools. The findings reveal two major themes, first, a mismatch between school policy/values and its practice. Second, a lack of integration of staff and children into the school. Despite schools’ efforts to embrace diversity and encourage integration, schools policies were found to be empty rhetoric with regards to fostering religious commitment and cultural diversity. Exploring the issue of recognising cultural diversity within schools, findings indicated that both schools did not acknowledge or teach other cultural traditions, therefore, impacting on issues of integration. Poor behaviour, bullying and racism amongst children were major issues at both schools. Data analysis suggests the source of misbehaviour was due to the lack of emphasis placed on teaching about different religions, insufficient knowledge of cultural traditions and lack of visits to places of worship. This research concludes that there is a need for schools to develop awareness of religions and cultural diversity; thereby, encouraging integration, community cohesion and respect for similarities and differences.