This research investigates cultural differences and similarities in the perceptions of four British Pakistani and four British white children aged eleven with learning difficulties. This is pursued through four main aims that examine how aware pupils are of their learning difficulties; how they and their significant others perceive their learning difficulties; how they respond to key labels used to refer to them; and to what extent there are cultural differences and similarities between the two groups of pupils. This work has been carried out because there is currently limited research in this area. The pupils’ views are explored in two contrasting Bradford (West Yorkshire) primary schools where the cultural population is either predominantly Pakistani or white. A variety of data collection methods, including semi-structured interviews, a self-image profile, focus group interviews and observations have been used to collect data. The findings indicate that there are more commonalities between the Pakistani and white cultures than there are differences, for example although Pakistani and white children enjoy coming to school and want to do well, they are unhappy, embarrassed, and humiliated about having a learning difficulty and hence face these additional pressures in school. Pakistani children expressed more of an interest in attending university and then embarking on professional careers compared to white children. Peers of average/higher ability perceive children with learning difficulties to be more prone to bullying, slow learners, unpopular and these peers have low expectations of what the children with learning difficulties are able to do. Staff view children with learning difficulties as lacking in confidence and selfesteem, experiencing unhappiness, having a low self-image, working at a slower pace and often lacking motivation. The implications of this research indicate that schools needs to raise the selfesteem and confidence of children with learning difficulties, so that these children are able to view their learning difficulty in a positive way. Schools need to be aware of the pressures that children in the low ability groups face, and schools therefore need to maintain a balance in providing children with a basic skills curriculum matched to the individual needs of children and yet continue to promote their personal development and well-being.

This qualitative research explores upwards harassment in the workplace and is located in the social psychological paradigm.  In this study the targets for harassment are academics working in Post-1992 English Universities and the perpetrators of the harassment, undergraduate students. The study uses attribution theory to explore the academics’ experiences of the harassment.  These accounts clearly show that students are not only verbally harassing academics and making unachievable task demands using electronic communication devices, but that they are isolating, and personally and sexually harassing academics. Academic attributions demonstrated that they perceived that harassment occurs when students themselves are feeling stressed. They felt that these stresses are not only related with course demands and social requirements, but that they are associated with the changing nature of society, the change in the profile of the university student, widening participation and the social political agenda of education. This research highlighted that, as a result of the harassment, academics are feeling heightened levels of anger, fear and guilt, and to deal with these potentially damaging emotions they proactively employ a variety of coping strategies.  This research demonstrated that the most predominant coping choice is informal social support.   However, it is also suggested that academics are themselves inadvertently putting undue stress upon each other. To minimise upward harassment, limit the negative effects of stress and the associated detriment to the health of academics, it is suggested that universities be proactive in working collaboratively with students, Student Unions, Human Resources, Information Technologists, academics and managers, to explore Anti-Harassment policies, and embed the message that harassment of any form, by anyone in the organisation, is unacceptable.

This thesis reports on a research study aimed at examining the impact of informal and formal assessment on the self-esteem of pupils with borderline difficulties and language deficiencies learning in mixed ability English language classes. The thesis adopted a qualitative ethnographic methodology with triangulated methods to enquire into macro and micro views of the main concepts in this study. Thus, data were collected by participant observation within English classes, informal and formal interviews with pupils and teachers at the research site and semi-structured interviews at home with parents and pupils. Questionnaires for 6 teachers, pupils and parents [total n=31] were administered 22 pupils were observed over a period of nine months, spanning 5th September 2005 to May 2006 and 3 parents interviewed due to availability of willing pupils and their parents. This was followed by structured and semi-structured questionnaire administration and interviews with six teachers and pupils [n=22]. The experiences of pupils deemed to be struggling with learning, yet not certificated as having learning difficulties were analyzed utilizing the methodology outlined by [Lincoln and Guba 1985; Creswell 1998; Richards 2005; and Bryman 2004] among others, and the data provided rich ground for a potential development of a substantive theory of learning and self-esteem. The questions focused on the evidence of classroom, and on verbal and non-verbal teacher treatment of the focus group. It also focused on the perceptions and expectations of teachers and students regarding assessment [formal and informal] and how it impacts on pupils’ self esteem. Some themes that emerged in the study included the following: resistance to learning and to authority, ridicule and racism, treats and intimidations, student-teacher infatuation, racial and bullying, counter- school culture, and unfair teaching practices. Findings from this research study are a mixed bag. The evidence suggests that, self-esteem is dynamic and has an inherent executive capacity based particularly on individual competence, beliefs, thinking and feeling components. Furthermore, there was no evidence to suggest that pupils performing poorly suffered low self-esteem.

This research investigates the gendered aspects of organisational culture. Empirical studies of two organisations, both with distinctive divisional cultures were undertaken. Employing and extending the Weberian concept of social closure, I ask whether, and to what extent, different organisational cultures act as means of social closure to exclude and/or marginalise women managers. I design a research typology for studying gender and culture, consisting of gender awareness, management style, time management, public/private divide, informal socialising, and sexuality. I draw on several different theories of power to explain hierarchical gender relations in organisations. I found that a Weberian concept of legal rational authority is still relevant to organisational life, particularly leadership. The concept of discourse, as meaning what may be said at any one time, proved useful, particularly in illuminating the public/private divide. I argue that a concept of patriarchy is still vital for a feminist analysis of organisations and Gramsci’s concept of hegemony helps explain why women are seemingly complicit in their own oppression. The research highlights the importance of an adequate definition of orgnisational culture in order to identify its exclusionary characteristics. Different constituents of culture may act to exclude women in different ways and in different areas, even where a strong equal opportunities policy exists. Key findings include the prevalence of sexual harassment even at senior levels and in’feminised’ areas of work; the positive impact of a nonheterosexual culture on gender relations, and the importance of business demands on management style. At senior levels, long hours, informal socialising, management style, and the acceptance of a public/private divide act in combination or separately to marginalise and exclude women. Whilst women managers fare better in an equal opportunities organisation, men’s resistance to women in organisations becomes more subtle as overt discrimination is outlawed.

This thesis places children at the centre of the research process to develop an understanding of childhood poverty and social exclusion that is grounded in children’s own accounts of their lives. The study examines historical and contemporary representations of children in poverty, and takes a critical, child-centred, look at current anti-poverty policies. For the empirical part of the study child-centred research methods were chosen to explore the economic, social and relational impact of poverty and social exclusion on children’s lives. Forty in-depth interviews were conducted with children living in families in receipt of Income Support. The interviews covered children’s perceptions of their material, social and familial lives. In addition, seventeen parents were interviewed about issues related to their children’s lives. The child-centred approach continued with secondary analysis of the BHPS Youth Survey, which explored whether Income Support/JSA children differed from other children in the sample, in their perceptions of school. Children’s accounts reveal severely restricted social environments and limited access to economic and material resources. Opportunities for social engagement and participation in shared activities were constrained, affecting social lives and social networks. Within school children highlighted fears of bullying and difference, compounded by inadequate resources for full participation in social and academic life. The quantitative data reveals significant differences between Income Support/JSA children and their non-benefit counterparts, with many Income Support/JSA children indicating disillusionment and disengagement with themselves as students and with their schools. Increased Income Support levels and non-stigmatising provision of welfare-in-kind, targeted directly at children, and informed by children’s own perceptions of need, is recommended to facilitate children’s social inclusion and integration. The findings also inform the development of a conceptual framework with which to conceive a child-centred approach to childhood poverty and social exclusion, one that could incorporate children’s own meanings and perspectives.

Very little research has been carried out on bullying in infant school children. In this study I interviewed approximately 300 children aged from four to eleven. Three separate waves of interviews were conducted at approximately six-monthly intervals over two academic years; over 200 children were interviewed twice and 110 were interviewed three times. Children were asked questions concerning their experiences of bullying and victimisation, and also questions designed to determine their popularity. They also rated their peers for popularity, bullying and victimisation. Teacher ratings of popularity, and bully and victim status were obtained by questionnaire. Children’s own definitions of the term bullying were obtained. I discuss the implications of these definitions for existing research. Given the lack of consensus concerning the definition of bullying, a non-arbitrary measurement of bullying was derived from principal component analysis (P.C.A.). The same technique was used to obtain measures of victimisation and peer status. In addition, more traditional measures of these topics were investigated. Results using P.C.A. were broadly similar to those using traditional measures. This substantiates the results from studies which use a narrower range of data sources, although the importance of accurately specifying the time-frame was underlined. Results regarding the popularity of bullies and victims were largely independent of the data source; both bullies and victims were found to be less popular than non-bullies and non-victims respectively. A significant proportion of the variance in the popularity variables was related to the discrepancy between the way children see themselves and how others perceive them. Discrepancy may be an indication of low self-esteem; discrepancy was found to correlate significantly with bullying and victimisation. Low self-esteem may be one of several mechanisms which mediate the relationship between peer status and bully or victim status; the possible policy implications are discussed.