Sixth Form College Research Articles

Transitions to university from vocational and academic colleges: exploring alignment and discontinuity

ABSTRACT The rise in students entering higher education in England with vocational qualifications, or a blend of academic and vocational qualifications, has sparked debate about the correlation between qualifications and degree outcomes. Focusing on Sport and Exercise Science students and mobilising Bourdieu’s theory of practice, this paper explores ‘misrecognition’ of the problem alongside intersectional explanations of differential attainment. Students’ concerns about independent study and levels of support, different modes of delivery, and assessment types, exemplify misalignment between their cultural capital and habitus and the tacit demands of the university. Yet these misalignments are not explained merely by the Level 3 qualification they studied. We argue that the institutional culture (habitus) of sixth form colleges is better aligned with universities than is the culture of Further Education colleges. This alignment facilitates a smoother transition and leads to improved degree outcomes. So, it is partly the context in which students study, and not simply the qualification type, that matters. This problem of variable alignment of learning cultures at the transition to university is more relevant that ever given the introduction of T-Levels and the proposed Advanced British Standard.

Do management practices matter in further education?

AbstractFurther education and sixth form colleges are key institutions for facilitating skill acquisition among 16–19 year olds in the UK. They enrol half a school cohort after completion of their lower secondary education, and this includes a disproportionate number from low‐income backgrounds. Yet little is known about what could improve performance in these institutions. We conduct the world's first management practices survey in such institutions, and match this to administrative longitudinal data on over 40,000 students. Value‐added regressions with rich controls suggest that structured management matters for educational outcomes, especially for students from low‐income backgrounds. For this group, in a hypothetical scenario where an individual is moved from a college at the 10th percentile of management practices to the 90th, this would be associated with 8% higher probability of achieving a good high school qualification, nearly half of the educational gap between those from poor and non‐poor backgrounds. Hence improving management practices may be an important channel for reducing inequalities.

‘They think it’s trendy to have a disability/mental-illness’: disability, capital and desire in elite education

Research has long demonstrated the exclusion and Othering experienced by young people with disabilities in education. This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study conducted in an ‘elite’ sixth-form college in England, set against the backdrop of a shifting social, political, and cultural landscape, where neo-liberal discourses of dis/ability and healthism—centring on mental health and wellbeing—are becoming further embedded in educational policy. Drawing on theoretical work by Bourdieu and Foucault, we demonstrate how the students in this study appeared able to re-make disability as a liberal intellectual identity marker and use it as a form of capital within the bounded college sub-field. However, we argue that these empowered disabled subjectivities were strongly middle-classed and precarious. The findings have implications through advancing current understandings of young people’s complexifying relationships with disability in education, of enduring inequalities around disability, and how social class is implicated in this.

Flipped Classroom Learning: A Case Study in Meragang Sixth Form College

Flipped Classroom Learning: A Case Study in Meragang Sixth Form College

Swords, sandals, and toasted panini: delivering cine-antiquity to sixth form students

AbstractTeachers of Classics in sixth form colleges and secondary schools regularly provide extra-curricular activities alongside their bread-and-butter classes in Latin, Classical Civilisation, Ancient History, and Greek. With the on-going squeeze on the provision of these four classical subjects, it is inevitable that teachers of Classics look to other areas within their schools and colleges both to maintain and to promote the face of Classics. The purpose of this paper is to explain the delivery and the thinking behind a weekly extra-curricular activity called ‘Classics on Film’ that was set up at Peter Symonds College in 2018 and which has now continued for four years. This activity encompasses cine-antiquity; in other words, a class that focuses on films depicting the ancient world. By breaking down this project and some of its results, this paper aims to give teachers of Classics and others awareness of the methods, resources, and challenges when delivering an extra-curricular activity on cine-antiquity. Furthermore, it aims to provide a model that other teachers might adapt or use as a springboard for their own bespoke cine-antiquity activity.1

Food insecurity, poor dietary intake and a lack of free meal uptake amongst 16–17‐year‐old college students in the northeast of England, UK

Food insecurity, poor dietary intake and a lack of free meal uptake amongst 16–17‐year‐old college students in the northeast of England, <scp>UK</scp>

Rachael Caera Ward

Rachael Caera Ward (nee Darlison) was born in Haywards Heath, West Sussex. Her family moved to Winchester in 1997, and she attended the Westgate School and Peter Symonds Sixth Form...

Location and locational capital: an examination of factors influencing choice of higher education applications by working-class students in a sixth-form college

ABSTRACT This paper explores the differential ways that working-class sixth-form students in England utilise cultural and social capital when applying to university. This process is examined in terms of the university and course choices made and associated social advantage and prestige. It employs an interpretive paradigm using qualitative methods and a conceptual framework derived from Bourdieu. Focus groups and semi-structured interviews were employed and a grounded approach to data analysis was utilised. Findings suggest that access to cultural and social capital is limited to familial influence and educational environment had a limited impact on student decisions. When making choices the most notable themes linked to general locality. Locational preference linked to degree of geographical cultural knowledge and led to the development of the notion of locational capital. This corresponded to intentions to avoid certain locations such as “the rural” or “the provincial” and helps to understand choice. These geographical constructions, linked to perceptions concerning Higher Education Institutions, often triggered concerns regarding “fitting-in” and “social class” and for many resulted in limitations on choice. This imposed a limitation on applying to prestigious HEIs.

Repositioned professionals and heterodox: a response to the precarity of reform in further education

ABSTRACT The precarity of professionals working in schools and colleges at a time of change has been strongly accented by the competitive markets that currently characterise education and the influence of its global reforms. In this article, I draw on empirical data from a project located in a sixth-form college to argue that the field of Further Education is being restructured such that professionalism is hollowed out whilst accountability measures undermine leaders’ authority and enable a low-trust culture. I use Bourdieu’s thinking tools to conceptualise the data, including a rich conceptualisation of this site as a ‘field’ and of practices within it as part of the ‘game in play’. I generate four metaphorical lenses through which a perception of heterodoxy is used to clarify alternative positions that are simultaneously adopted by players and from which a response to the changing field of education reform can be offered.

What is the purpose of studying history? Developing students’ perspectives on the purposes and value of history education

This paper reports on an intervention study conducted with the A level students whom I teach at a sixth form college in the north-west of England. The study aimed to survey the students’ perceptions of the purposes of history education, and to broaden their understanding of the debate. The study drew upon data from 82 online forum posts from 41 history A level students. It consisted of two stages: the first surveyed students’ initial perceptions of the purposes of history education; the second aimed to further develop students’ perceptions through the deployment of stimulus material and activities designed to broaden students’ understanding of the issue. Following these activities, students’ perceptions were surveyed for a second time to facilitate comparison. The study data indicate that students who have chosen to pursue their historical studies to a higher level tend to appreciate the intrinsic value of knowing history (as opposed to its extrinsic value, such as developing transferable skills or for the sake of employability). The study also indicates that students’ perceptions of the purpose and value of historical study can be significantly altered by teacher intervention, although the long-term impact remains unassessed.

Hello again, Mr Macfarlane: Tertiary colleges for the twenty-first century

This paper revisits the Macfarlane Report of 1980, the first draft of which recommended the dissolution of school sixth forms, sixth form colleges and other providers of postcompulsory education and training, and the establishment of a national system of tertiary colleges across England – a programme of reform which would effectively have extended the principles of comprehensive education to the post-compulsory level. Whilst the rejection of the Macfarlane committee's plan may represent an opportunity which has been lost forever, the paper presents a case for the revival of tertiary colleges across England. This, it is argued, would provide a much more coherent, 'democratised' system of provision than the current model of further education based on the neoliberal principles of markets, competition, diversity and choice. A national system of tertiary colleges would, I contend, be able to deal far more effectively – and equitably – with some of the significant social and educational challenges now facing contemporary British society, although a concomitant programme of labour market reform is, I argue, also necessary to create sustainable and meaningful employment, and stimulate demand for learning.

Strategic Mergers and Acquisitions in Higher Education: A Case Study from the UK

A recent trend for higher education in the UK sees increased collaboration and partnerships between technical colleges and universities. This represents a significant step in the redesign of the educational landscape that aims to synergise the industry advantages of colleges with the academic strengths of universities. The initial research fort this paper consists in investigations into technical college mergers with universities and university acquisitions of the period 2018-2020, along with an analysis of the advice and guidance circulated by the Association of Colleges (AoC) since April 2016. A case study has then been chosen to illustrate the main features of such merges across higher education. SWOT, PESTLE and Porter’s Five Forces analyses of a merger case study are followed by stakeholder analysis of the Board and Trustees, the companies that are closely or remotely linked to the success of the trust and the links that exist between the various players in this emerging network of educational institutions and organisations. The paper examines published financial statements from Coventry University, analysing the economic and other effects of the mergers. This paper focuses on Better Futures Multi Academy Trust (BFMAT), a collective of sixth form colleges now part of Coventry University Group (CUG). The work examines the Trust institutions and the effects the mergers have had on strategic business development, analysing BFMAT colleges pre- and post- merger, utilising CATWOE and Balanced Scorecard analyses. Some of the benefits noted so far are the increase of the sphere of influence of CUG, a broader recruitment pool, with greater diversity and inclusivity potential, which leads to a better fit with Government policies, market trends and industry demand. Given current data made available by the institutions, the paper presents a range of recommendations for future development and concludes that overall performance is positive, and the alliance represents a good example of a valuable merge. Keywords: strategic business development, education business DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-33-01 Publication date: November 30 th 2020

Students’ experiences and perceptions of studying for A-Levels: implications for enhancing student resilience

ABSTRACT There is growing concern across Advanced-Level (A-Level) providers and universities that many students are experiencing high levels of stress and physical illness, related to academic and/or social aspects of student life. The impact of academic pressure to ‘succeed’ is increasingly evident. There is an urgent need to provide appropriate student support. Two studies are reported which investigate students’ experiences and perceptions of studying Advanced-Levels in England. By gaining insight into this period of study and the challenges encountered by students, the implications for enhancing student resilience can be better understood. Study One involved participants at four sixth forms in secondary schools in England (n = 805). Study Two comprised a larger-scale study of nine institutions offering A-Level education (secondary school, Sixth Form College and College of Further Education), with 2,040 Year 12 and Year 13 students participating in the study. In both studies, students completed a bespoke questionnaire which focused on transition to/from A-Level education and student perceptions of resilience. The findings suggest that much more needs to be done in supporting the mental well-being and resilience of students whilst studying for A-Levels. Indeed, the experience of studying for A-Levels was evidently stressful and anxiety-inducing for many of the student participants. This stage of post-secondary education could be seen as the culmination of all the pressures inherent in the present performativity culture of schools. The transition from A-Level study to university can be a very challenging one for a substantial minority of students.

Informing the development of an E-platform for monitoring wellbeing in schools: involving young people in a co-design process

BackgroundThe use of new technologies and methodologies in young people’s mental health research is needed to allow more frequent and reliable sampling. Mobile applications and e-platforms create exciting potential for the collection of large-scale cohort data, however there are various feasibility and ethical issues to consider. Consultation with young people is needed to inform the research agenda, and ensure these technologies are engaging, useful and safe. This article describes the process of Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) with a sample of young people in London, with the aim of i) informing the development of a mood-monitoring e-platform, and ii) providing feedback and advice for researchers developing web-based technologies in the mental health field.MethodsA total of 26 young people were consulted across four advisory group co-design sessions. All young people were students enrolled at one of the participating London based sixth form colleges, and voluntarily attended a workshop session. Audio recordings of the sessions were analysed using a thematic analysis framework.ResultsWe found that young people were engaged in discussions around mobile health technologies and valued the opportunity to collaborate throughout the early stages of the development process The advisory groups identified key considerations for future web-development work to encourage engagement and prolonged use, including, the promotion of trust and transparency, consideration of accessibility, provision of support, production of engaging and functional design, and acknowledgment of specific contextual influences surrounding young people’s wellbeing.ConclusionsInvolving young people in the development process of e-health technologies contributes to optimising the successful adoption and prolonged usage of new methodologies. The thematic map and informant examples can be used to guide researchers interested in developing web-based technologies in the mental health field and will be directly applicable to the development of a mood-monitoring e-platform.

Leadership in non-white majority schools: the symbolic negation of distance

This project explores whether the embodied cultural capital of non-white students is institutionally recognised in majority non-white schools and colleges by staff leaders at various levels. It does this through a postcolonial lens and Bourdieu’s sociology. Cultural capital is the linguistic, artistic, religious, and historic heritage and knowledge of non-white students. The study explored the extent to which this embodied cultural capital is empowered and legitimised as symbolic capital by staff leaders in order for it to become part of the mainstream institutional ethos and cultural pedagogy of the two secondary schools and one sixth-form college involved in this project. This study looked at how staff leaders understand, recognise, articulate and interact with diverse cultural capital. It will conclude by applying Bourdieu’s concept of ‘the symbolic negation of distance’ to the research sites as a way of explaining how cultural inequalities can be reproduced.

Remarkable lives: Charlotte Wall in conversation with Jerome Carson

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a profile of Charlotte Wall. Design/methodology/approach In this case study, Charlotte provides a short account of her background and is then interviewed by Jerome. Findings Charlotte took comfort in being given a diagnosis of bipolar; it helped explain a lot of her problems. Research limitations/implications It is easier to identify with a single case study and person’s story than anonymised group research data. Each have their place in helping us understand mental health problems. Practical implications Transitions are not always bad. Charlotte talks about how her life changed for the better when she went to sixth form college. The onward transition to university has also been a positive experience for her. This needs to be remembered. Social implications As everyone is currently living through the Covid-19 pandemic, Charlotte’s perspective on the importance of social support for mental well-being is critical. Thankfully, she has loving parents and a partner. There are others less fortunate. Originality/value Charlotte shows us how she embraced her diagnosis of bipolar and her “weirdness”.

The implications of academisation for English Sixth Form Colleges – an exploratory case study

ABSTRACT This article examines the impact of academisation on English Sixth Form Colleges through the lens of the Principals and Governors who lead such organisations – those who have decided to opt for academisation, and those who have not. A comprehensive survey of the Principals or Chairs of 35 Sixth Form Colleges, representing all regions of England, supplemented by a small number of follow-up interviews, generated five distinct but overlapping themes that seemed to resonate with the majority of respondents: Autonomy, Funding, Local Circumstances, Strategy and Quality. Unpacking these themes and identifying their inter-relationships could be helpful to those leading Sixth Form Colleges considering academisation, as well as providing a research framework for future work and a distinctive contribution to the theoretical literature. We believe we demonstrate that academisation can be seen as a significant example of how the marketisation of education has created an illusory set of market freedoms commonly held to be achievable through academisation, that are in fact highly constrained by government policy and accountability mechanisms. The article concludes by considering some implications of the data and our analysis for policy and practice in the Sixth Form College sector, and some suggestions of where further research is urgently needed.

How do young people with education, health and care plans make sense of relationships during transition to further education and how might this help to prepare them for adulthood?

The Department for Education (DfE) has suggested that the key to attainment is a good transition. Within the context of low post-16 participation rates and inadequate transition procedures, and arising from the position that relationships are vitally important to wellbeing, this empirical research aimed to explore the lived experiences of young people (YP) who have transitioned from and to specialist settings. This was achieved by answering the following research questions: How do young people with education, health and care plans make sense of relationships during transition to further education? How might young people’s constructions of relationships help prepare them for adulthood?Informed by a meta-ethnographical review within a qualitative methodological paradigm, an idiographic approach was used to interview four YP in a specialist sixth-form college in a local authority (LA) in the north east of England. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to analyse data from semi-structured interviews and two superordinate themes were constructed. The first theme, ‘People’, contains the subthemes school feeling like a family, decision making, separation/being in it together, and teachers as mentors. Findings suggest that relationships developed within school are different in nature and serve a different purpose to those developed in college. The second theme ‘Purpose of college’, contains the following subthemes: college as a stepping stone and learning independent skills. There are tentative links between YP’s autonomy in decision making and the role of teachers as mentors to preparing for adulthood. Implications for educational psychology practice are discussed and limitations of the study are acknowledged.

Review: Delivering mental health support within schools and colleges - a thematic synthesis of barriers and facilitators to implementation of indicated psychological interventions for adolescents.

Increasing the role of schools and colleges in the provision of mental health services for young people has the potential to improve early intervention and access to treatment. We aimed to understand what factors influence the successful implementation of indicated psychological interventions within schools and colleges to help guide increased provision of mental health support within education settings. Systematic search for studies that have reported barriers or facilitators to the implementation of indicated interventions for adolescent emotional disorders delivered within schools and further education/sixth form colleges (CRD42018102830). Databases searched were EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, British Nursing Index, ASSIA, ERIC and British Education Index. A thematic synthesis of factors reported to impact implementation was conducted. Two thousand five hundred and sixty-nine records and 177 full texts were screened. Fifty studies were identified for inclusion, all of which were of school-based interventions. Eleven analytic themes were developed encompassing intervention characteristics, organisational capacity, training and technical assistance, provider characteristics and community-level factors. Findings indicate the need to select appropriate interventions, consider logistical challenges of the school context and provide training and supervision to enable staff to deliver interventions with fidelity. However, structural and environmental support is required for these facilitators to have the greatest impact on successful implementation. Implementing indicated school-based mental health interventions is challenging. Those involved in planning school-based mental health initiatives must be alert to the impact of factors on multiple interacting levels. There is a lack of research on implementing mental health support within further education and sixth form colleges. Increased utilisation of schools and colleges as a setting for early intervention has been proposed as a means of improving access to mental health treatment, but successful implementation of mental health interventions within educational settings is challenging. Based on a synthesis of current evidence, we recommend that young people and education professionals should be involved in the selection of school-based interventions to ensure they are acceptable and practical to deliver within the logistical constraints of the school environment. Those delivering interventions within schools, as well as staff involved in identifying young people who might benefit from these interventions, must receive high-quality ongoing training and support. Senior school leaders play an important role in championing mental health interventions and developing a school culture that prioritises mental well-being. Health and education policy should be designed to promote a cross-sector focus on the emotional health of young people. There is a lack of evidence on the implementation of indicated psychological interventions within sixth form and further education colleges.

Outbreak strain characterisation and pharyngeal carriage detection following a protracted group B meningococcal outbreak in adolescents in South-West England

Between April 2016 and September 2017, four cases of group B meningococcal disease were reported among sixth-form college students in Bristol, UK. Culture and non-culture whole genome sequencing was utilised and demonstrated that the four genomes of the responsible ST-41 strains clustered closely on a sub-lineage of ST-41/44 clonal complex. The outbreak resulted in two fatalities. A distinct social group associated with one of the cases was selected for vaccination with 4CMenB and pharyngeal swabbing. In vitro culturing, multiple real-time PCR assays (sodC, ctrA and siaDB) and a PorA PCR-sequencing assay were used to detect meningococcal colonisation and a carriage rate of 32.6% was observed. Furthermore, a high proportion of the pharyngeal swabs (78.3%) yielded a Factor H-Binding Protein (fHbp) nucleotide allele suggesting that the antigenic gene is prevalent among non-meningococcal flora, most likely Neisseria commensals. This may have implications for fHbp as a vaccine antigen should it be shown to influence bacterial colonisation.