The status and safety of teaching: A longitudinal study of why some young people in England become teachers, and why others do not

There are long-term and severe teacher shortages in England, particularly in the sciences. Current research in this area typically examines the teaching motivations of those already pursuing the profession. The existing literature thus provides insights into why some people teach but fails to tell us why others choose not to teach, or why those who identify as women and White British are most likely to teach. This thesis provides original contributions to understanding teacher shortages by studying the teaching trajectories of young people over a period of 11 years. This qualitatively led study draws upon primary data as well as secondary data from ASPIRES; a national research project tracking young people’s career aspirations from age 10/11 to 21/22. The empirical data analysed are: 1) 60,000+ survey responses from young people at six different ages, and 2) 146 interviews with 13 young people (and 17 of their parents) who had expressed an interest in teaching—five of whom specialised in science—and were longitudinally tracked through education and into the world of work. This study found that young people surveyed at six ages between 10/11 and 21/22 reported being more open to teaching than is reflected in teacher recruitment data. Applying an ‘identities in practice’ theoretical framework (Holland et al., 1998), the reasons why some participants became teachers, whilst others did not, were found to be influenced by the ‘status’ of teaching (perceptions of whether teachers are professionals who use their gifts to benefit others), and the ‘safety’ of teaching (perceptions of whether teaching is a secure, accessible profession which enables a good lifestyle). How the ‘status’ and ‘safety’ of teaching influenced participants’ teaching trajectories was strongly influenced by their intersectional identities as well as the social and cultural norms surrounding teaching. This thesis ends with recommendations for improving teacher recruitment

“Living Next to Living History”: When Official History Meets Vernacular Commemoration in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia

ABSTRACT “Living Next to Living History”: When Official History Meets Vernacular Commemoration in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia Emily MacLeod Louisbourg, Nova Scotia is a town imbued with a spirit of the past. It was only a mere decade after Louisbourg’s final siege in 1758 that inhabitants had begun to resettle on the fortification’s ruins. Louisbourg was one of the first historic sites to be considered for designation under the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (1919), which resulted in two waves of expropriations, one in 1928 and another in 1962. Due to the initial removal of twelve families in the 20s and fifty-two properties from the extensive 1962 expropriation, there remained a silence in Louisbourg’s official narrative. This thesis examines the importance of both official and vernacular knowledge in (re)creating the Louisbourg narrative – how both sides engage with history and how this contributes to an attachment to place. The decision to create personal archives, genealogies, and festivals suggests that Louisbourg residents are coming to terms with the implications of living near living-history. Ultimately, however, the park exists in the town Louisbourg, but it is not of Louisbourg. The fluidity of history is severed by this disconnect. In order for these two solitudes to mediate the distance between professional and amateur historians, both sides must come together to weave their individual threads into the larger fabric that is Louisbourg’s evolving historical narrative

Public Understanding and Knowledge of Rip Currents and Beach Safety in the UK

Rip currents present a severe hazard for water users on beaches and account for the greatest cause of lifeguard rescues worldwide. The physical dynamics of rip currents are well studied, and more recently, the social and behavioural science research surrounding human interaction of rip currents has been expanding, providing a social perspective and feeding into public education strategies. The aim of this study was to assess levels of public understanding of rip currents and beach safety on UK beaches. A questionnaire was undertaken (N = 407) during the summer of 2012 on four beaches. Beach users had a poor knowledge of rip currents (n = 263), but those who have been caught in a rip have a higher level of knowledge. Conversely, beach users had a good understanding of what the beach safety flags indicated (n = 314), and most people complied with this flag system (n = 339). In addition, people previously educated on rip currents had a higher knowledge, and lifeguards proved to be the most effective form of education. The study presents an insight into UK beach users’ knowledge of rip currents and provides more evidence with which to pilot a rip current education scheme within the UK

Using median survival in meta-analysis of experimental time-to-event data

Abstract Background Time-to-event data is frequently reported in both clinical and preclinical research spheres. Systematic review and meta-analysis is a tool that can help to identify pitfalls in preclinical research conduct and reporting that can help to improve translational efficacy. However, pooling of studies using hazard ratios (HRs) is cumbersome especially in preclinical meta-analyses including large numbers of small studies. Median survival is a much simpler metric although because of some limitations, which may not apply to preclinical data, it is generally not used in survival meta-analysis. We aimed to appraise its performance when compared with hazard ratio-based meta-analysis when pooling large numbers of small, imprecise studies. Methods We simulated a survival dataset with features representative of a typical preclinical survival meta-analysis, including with influence of a treatment and a number of covariates. We calculated individual patient data-based hazard ratios and median survival ratios (MSRs), comparing the summary statistics directly and their performance at random-effects meta-analysis. Finally, we compared their sensitivity to detect associations between treatment and influential covariates at meta-regression. Results There was an imperfect correlation between MSR and HR, although the opposing direction of treatment effects between summary statistics appeared not to be a major issue. Precision was more conservative for HR than MSR, meaning that estimates of heterogeneity were lower. There was a slight sensitivity advantage for MSR at meta-analysis and meta-regression, although power was low in all circumstances. Conclusions We believe we have validated MSR as a summary statistic for use in a meta-analysis of small, imprecise experimental survival studies—helping to increase confidence and efficiency in future reviews in this area. While assessment of study precision and therefore weighting is less reliable, MSR appears to perform favourably during meta-analysis. Sensitivity of meta-regression was low for this set of parameters, so pooling of treatments to increase sample size may be required to ensure confidence in preclinical survival meta-regressions

Public Understanding and Knowledge of Rip Currents and Beach Safety

Rip currents present a severe hazard for water users on beaches and account for the greatest cause of lifeguard rescues worldwide. The physical dynamics of rip currents are well studied, and more recently, the social and behavioural science research surrounding human interaction of rip currents has been expanding, providing a social perspective and feeding into public education strategies. The aim of this study was to assess levels of public understanding of rip currents and beach safety on UK beaches. A questionnaire was undertaken (N = 407) during the summer of 2012 on four beaches. Beach users had a poor knowledge of rip currents (n = 263), but those who have been caught in a rip have a higher level of knowledge. Conversely, beach users had a good understanding of what the beach safety flags indicated (n = 314), and most people complied with this flag system (n = 339). In addition, people previously educated on rip currents had a higher knowledge, and lifeguards proved to be the most effective form of education. The study presents an insight into UK beach users’ knowledge of rip currents and provides more evidence with which to pilot a rip current education scheme within the UK

Emotional Mental Imagery as Simulation of Reality: Fear and Beyond—A Tribute to Peter Lang

AbstractThis article pays tribute to the seminal paper by Peter J. Lang (1977; this journal), “Imagery in Therapy: Information Processing Analysis of Fear.” We review research and clinical practice developments in the past five decades with reference to key insights from Lang’s theory and experimental work on emotional mental imagery. First, we summarize and recontextualize Lang’s bio-informational theory of emotional mental imagery (1977, 1979) within contemporary theoretical developments on the function of mental imagery. Second, Lang’s proposal that mental imagery can evoke emotional responses is evaluated by reviewing empirical evidence that mental imagery has a powerful impact on negative as well as positive emotions at neurophysiological and subjective levels. Third, we review contemporary cognitive and behavioral therapeutic practices that use mental imagery, and consider points of extension and departure from Lang’s original investigation of mental imagery in fear-extinction behavior change. Fourth, Lang’s experimental work on emotional imagery is revisited in light of contemporary research on emotional psychopathology-linked individual differences in mental imagery. Finally, key insights from Lang’s experiments on training emotional response during imagery are discussed in relation to how specific techniques may be harnessed to enhance adaptive emotional mental imagery training in future research

Spontaneous cognition in dysphoria: reduced positive bias in imagining the future.

Anomalies in future-oriented cognition are implicated in the maintenance of emotional disturbance within cognitive models of depression. Thinking about the future can involve mental imagery or verbal-linguistic mental representations. Research suggests that future thinking involving imagery representations may disproportionately impact on-going emotional experience in daily life relative to future thinking not involving imagery (verbal-linguistic representation only). However, while higher depression symptoms (dysphoria) are associated with impaired ability to deliberately generate positive relatively to negative imagery representations of the future (when instructed to do so), it is unclear whether dysphoria is associated with impairments in the tendency to do so spontaneously (when not instructed to deliberately generate task unrelated cognition of any kind). The present study investigated dysphoria-linked individual differences in the tendency to experience spontaneous future-oriented cognition as a function of emotional valence and representational format. Individuals varying in dysphoria level reported the occurrence of task unrelated thoughts (TUTs) in real time while completing a sustained attention go/no-go task, during exposure to auditory cues. Results indicate higher levels of dysphoria were associated with lower levels of positive bias in the number of imagery-based future TUTs reported, reflecting higher negative imagery-based future TUT generation (medium to large effect size), and lower positive imagery-based TUT generation (small to medium effect size). Further, this dysphoria-linked bias appeared to be specific in temporal orientation (future, not past) and representational format (imagery, not non-imagery). Reduced tendency to engage in positive relative to negative imagery-based future thinking appears to be implicated in dysphoria

A Systematic Online Living Evidence Summary of experimental Alzheimer's disease research

BACKGROUND: Despite extensive investment, the development of effective treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been largely unsuccessful. To improve translation, it is crucial to ensure the quality and reproducibility of foundational evidence generated from laboratory models. Systematic reviews play a key role in providing an unbiased overview of the evidence, assessing rigour and reporting, and identifying factors that influence reproducibility. However, the sheer pace of evidence generation is prohibitive to evidence synthesis and assessment.NEW METHOD: To address these challenges, we have developed AD-SOLES, an integrated workflow of automated tools that collect, curate, and visualise the totality of evidence from in vivo experiments.RESULTS: AD-SOLES is a publicly accessible interactive dashboard aiming to surface and expose data from in vivo experiments. It summarises the latest evidence, tracks reporting quality and transparency, and allows research users to easily locate evidence relevant to their specific research question.COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS: Using automated screening methodologies within AD-SOLES, systematic reviews can begin at an accelerated starting point compared to traditional approaches. Furthermore, through text-mining approaches within the full-text of publications, users can identify research of interest using specific models, outcomes, or interventions without relying on details in the title and/or abstract.CONCLUSIONS: By automating the collection, curation, and visualisation of evidence from in vivo experiments, AD-SOLES addresses the challenges posed by the rapid pace of evidence generation. AD-SOLES aims to offer guidance for research improvement, reduce research waste, highlight knowledge gaps, and support informed decision making for researchers, funders, patients, and the public.</p