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This chapter discusses the findings of doctoral research into further education lecturers' and middle managers' perceptions of how Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in the sector is planned and implemented. Thematic analysis revealed that mandatory CPD is perceived to: involve conflicting purposes between those planning it and its recipients (deriving from divergent understandings of professionalism and the role of CPD among stakeholders); and be characterised as mostly generic, didactic, and ineffective, leading lecturers to compensate by engaging in additional, separate forms of CPD. This chapter demonstrates the value of practice-based doctoral study in enabling the voices of educators to be positioned at the centre of an exploration of their own professional learning.

The transgender or Hijra community as they are called in India is one of the most marginalised communities within the country. The caste system which forms the fabric of an Indian mind set divides people into social hierarchies and a child born to a particular caste assumes this as their identity. This social stratification leads to exploitation of lower castes by those belonging to higher castes. The prejudices of various kinds that continue to exist make the life of the underprivileged and the marginalised extremely difficult. Disha, the focus of this chapter, represents one such community which has faced tremendous discrimination and has been denied basic fundamental rights of education and empowerment. Breaking the heterosexual patriarchy was not easy for her, yet she conquered her own demons and societal pressures and is today comfortable in her own sexual identity and is a spokesperson for fellow members of the transgender community. Through her story, this chapter elucidates an understanding of the challenges faced by transgender people in India. A semi-structured interview with Disha was conducted after taking her consent. She felt this would help sensitise the society and also inspire other transgender persons to discuss their experiences. The data collected from the interview enabled the author to identify the themes around which a discourse on this marginalised community could be encouraged. In conclusion, the author suggests a way forward to achieve protection and rehabilitation of transgender community.

This chapter outlines research conducted by Karan Vickers-Hulse (KVH) as part of an educational professional doctorate; Marcus Witt (MW) was one of her supervisory team. Participants were from two initial teacher education (ITE) routes (School Direct and university-led) leading to a PGCE primary teacher qualification. The research was set within the context of continuously evolving policy on the training of teachers and the subsequent impact on developing a professional identity. The introduction of new ITE routes in England (DfE, 2015) aimed to offer a wider range of pathways into teaching, attract more applicants and mitigate the impact of teacher shortages. The research discussed in this chapter explored the experiences of trainees on these routes and the impact on their professional identity formation. This chapter begins with an overview of the literature in the field of professional identity formation, followed by a discussion of the chosen methodology and methods. This chapter concludes with several recommendations for teacher training providers as well as recommendations for future research that may be useful for doctoral students interested in the field of professional identity formation.

This chapter provides an illustration of doctoral case study research and insights to how practitioner research can capture the localised impact of policy shifts.

Social movement organizations are concerned and cognizant of their public image and typically need to maintain positive public perception to gain and sustain support. White supremacist organizations believe that they are highly stigmatized, reviled, and surveilled groups and go to great lengths to protect their desired self-representation. Through a qualitative analysis of close to 2 million Discord chat messages from white supremacist organizations, I find that white nationalist groups attempt to cater their public appearances through three primary axes: organizational, activism, and individual/membership. This chapter uses concepts from Goffmanian sociology, such as Stigma, Impression Management, and Frontstage/Backstage, to highlight how political movements discuss, argue, and debate the public image they wish to deploy. Studies on right-wing movements tend to be “externalist” in the sense that they look at publicly available documents which privilege the views of leadership. This chapter uses a dataset which delves into the social movement “backstage,” enabling us to view white supremacists' private conversations, their impression management strategies, and how they wish to appear on the “frontstage.”

This chapter discusses what the working practices and professionalism of sports lecturers can tell us about the challenges of professionalism in further education (FE). This chapter draws on Jake's doctoral research in which he interviewed five sports lecturers working in FE colleges in England, about their identities and practices. In this chapter, Jake talks about his own experiences as a sports lecturer in FE and how his increasing disillusionment with his role led him to undertake doctoral research in this field. We explore constructions of professionalism within FE, and we show that through a process Jake identified and labelled as ‘competitive mediation’, the sports lecturers he interviewed used their experiences as elite sports people to navigate the highly performative environments in which they were working. The positives and negatives of using this strategy for them, their learners and wider society are explored in this chapter. We suggest that although Jake's research focused specifically on sports lecturers in FE settings, his insights can be applied more widely, we reflect on the importance of considering the impact our own diverse lived experiences may have on our sense of professionalism as researchers and practitioners.

There has been a paradigm shift within research exploring autistic experience in recent decades towards greater participation, agency and voice for autistic researchers and the autistic community more generally (Fletcher-Watson et al., 2019). This approach has shown a greater focus on research oriented towards the priorities or preferences of the autistic community (Fletcher-Watson & Happé, 2019; Pellicano et al., 2014), curtails concerns regarding epistemic injustice and has influenced understandings of autistic ontology and neurology. Co-produced research, characterised by the inclusion of diverse stakeholders, builds trust between participants. Nonetheless, co-production in research requires careful planning and support (Stark et al., 2021), sometimes proving ‘turbulent’ and ‘challenging’ (Worsley et al., 2021). This chapter explores the experiences and reflections of a team of autistic and non-autistic researchers conducting co-produced research amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. With research practices and systems altered due to increased remote work, online communication and limited in-person interaction, this topic is especially pertinent. With the increasing emphasis on involving members of the autistic community in research at all levels of development, the impact of the pandemic on how participatory research is carried out may be complex. This chapter has implications for planning and conducting co-produced research in our new reality, considering both the opportunities and obstacles it presents.