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The main purpose is to investigate what resources young emergent bilinguals use to communicate a multimodal response to children’s literature. In particular, attention is paid to the ways students translanguage as part of the learning process.

An ethnography-in-education approach was used to capture the social and cultural aspects of literacy learning in an English-only context. A multimodal transcript analysis was applied to video-recorded data as a method for examining semiotic resources and modes of learning.

The results revealed that students used technology, paper-based resources and peers to construct meaning relative to books. Experimentation or play with the affordances of the tablet computer served as avenues to determine the agentive selection of resources. As students wrestled with constructing meaning, they gathered multiple perspectives from peers and children’s literature to involve symbols and representations in their texts. Signs, multiple language forms and meaning came together for the social shaping of situated perspectives.

This study addresses the call for educators to engage in multiliterate, multimodal practices with young learners in the contexts of classrooms. It provides insight into the need to create multilingual learning spaces where translanguaging freely occurs and the meaningful ways early childhood learners use technology. To fully understand what emergent bilinguals know and can do, they must be afforded a variety of semiotic resources at school.

As part of the 2007 International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership (IIMHL) Leadership Exchange and Conference, an international group of professionals met at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. The focus of this exchange was the behavioural health workforce, leadership projects, and models of leadership and policy. As a part of this leadership exchange the working group (Cincinnati Group) developed the following action plan. The group set as our agenda the production of some tangible projects and useful guidance for IIMHL. These are summarised in this article.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss methodological issues connected to being a member of a stigmatised group invited to take part in a research study.

This paper draws on experiences of interviewing young parents and their families about teenage parenthood. The paper reflects on how the feelings of young parents about being under surveillance all the time, by official agencies and in their communities, could lead to resistance to “official” visitors, role confusion relating to access, and a great deal of image management, all of which potentially influenced the interviews.

Participants may feel that they should consent to an interview because of their position as a member of a group accustomed to being under surveillance, but they can take the opportunity to use the interview to demonstrate their competence, in this case as mothers. Interviewing members of a stigmatised group such as teenage parents empowers them to challenge negative stereotypes normally encountered in discourses of teenage parenting, thus subverting a sense of feeling bound to take part in an interview and turning the encounter around to assert a positive identity.

The “positionality” of the researcher as an influence on the research process has been widely examined, the positionality of the participants less so. This paper highlights how members of a stigmatised and potentially vulnerable group position themselves, and by so doing, can use the interview as part of the process of asserting a valued identity.

Explores some key issues in appraisal for staff in institutions of higher education. Considers the need to address specifically the issues of equal opportunities in appraisal, and makes a case for team appraisal. Examines the problems of unwilling appraisers chosen by post rather than person and proposes that there should be an Ombudsperson for dissatisfied appraisees. Discusses the ethics of appraisal, together with the varying appraisal agendas of different constituencies of staff. Consideration is given to the real purposes of appraisal and the policy of delegation to the lowest level. Deplores the proposals to link appraisal to performance‐related pay and argues for the retention of appraisal′s developmental focus.

The Executive Leadership and Management Programme (ELMP) and the advanced programme (AELMP) were founded in New Zealand in 2004. The Blueprint Centre for Learning was contracted by the then Mental Health Workforce Development Programme to develop and deliver a leadership and management programme for staff in the mental health and addictions sector. The programme is now managed under Te Pou (the National Center for Mental Health Research, Information and Workforce Development). The Blueprint Centre for Learning is the only New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) and ISO 9001 accredited training provider focusing on mental health in New Zealand. Blueprint's focus is on ‘living the learning' and the organisation has a spirit of ‘passion for people and potential’. While some basic statistics indicate the success of the programmes, it is timely to conduct a more in‐depth qualitative evaluation of them. Thus, the aim of this project was to examine the outcomes (personal, professional and organisational) perceived to have occurred as a result of attending the programmes.

This paper explores a mental model for decision making that is focused on discovery and collaboration. The model consists of six components: self‐awareness, development orientation, systems perspective, emotional orientation, complexity dynamics, and generative conversation. As an interactive model, the components create a mental frame that enables the decision maker to achieve greater insight and develop creative opportunities that enhance the ability to see decision‐making as a complex process.

The purpose of this article is to outline the ways in which staff of a post‐1992 UK university set about enhancing the student experience, at a time when the institution had poor student evaluations as demonstrated by the UK National Student Survey and other indicators. Using a range of interventions led by the PVC (Academic), a concerted effort is made to improve classroom teaching, assessment and feedback, and the ways in which actions taken in response to student feedback were reported back to students.

The article reviews some of the literature available on the NSS and on bringing about changes in universities, and demonstrates how such approaches were put in place.

Over a period of 18 months, it was possible to report significant changes in practice, resulting in demonstrable improvements, both in NSS scores and staff morale.

The article uses a reportage approach, describing the steps taken as part of an evidence‐informed approach: potential future work will be undertaken by a new team, following a wide‐ranging restructuring of the university.

It was necessary to recognise that teaching staff felt they were already working very hard, so changes had to be both manageable for staff and demonstrably leading to measurable improvements.

The article argues that a top‐down approach alone is insufficient to bring about rapid changes in a difficult context, and describes how diverse agents' enacted improvements.

The quality enhancement approaches described here are shared by a number of universities with similar aims: the originality of the approach lies in its coherence and collaborative nature, which combined evidence‐led leadership and cross‐institutional commitment.

Inspired by an exciting revival of interest in the working methods and processes of the creative arts, the purpose of this paper is to make use of the auteur approach to film production, to further develop knowledge about sensuous methodologies in qualitative research.

An exegesis of the authors’ particular experiences in producing and disseminating a short documentary film is used to construct a framework from which to analyse affective modes of engagement within the parameters of qualitative research.

Qualitative researchers are characterised as creative artists who bring their precise aesthetic choice to bear on an audience through a mix of technical competence, distinguishable personality and interior meaning.

One way for qualitative research to have affective impact is to use the working methods and procedures of the creative arts.

A research culture is required where risk is permissible and engagement with the creative arts is given greater recognition in future qualitative projects.

As a mode of creative arts enquiry, film making can allow a degree of the emotional meaning and feeling within a study to come through into the analysis and the viewer's/reader's affective experience. This is often difficult to come by in more scientifically‐driven research approaches.

The quality improvement in colonoscopy study was a region wide service improvement study to improve adenoma detection rate at colonoscopy by implementing evidence into routine colonoscopy practice. Implementing evidence into clinical practice can be challenging. The purpose of this paper is to perform a qualitative interview study to evaluate factors that influenced implementation within the study.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with staff in endoscopy units taking part in the quality improvement in colonoscopy study, after study completion. Units and interviewees were purposefully sampled to ensure a range of experiences was represented. Interviews were conducted with 11 participants.

Key themes influencing uptake of the quality improvement in colonoscopy evidence bundle included time, study promotion, training, engagement, positive outcomes and modifications. Areas within themes were increased awareness of quality in colonoscopy (QIC), emphasis on withdrawal time and empowerment of endoscopy nurses to encourage the use of quality measures were positive outcomes of the study. The simple, visible study posters were reported as useful in aiding study promotion. Feedback sessions improved engagement. Challenges included difficulty arranging set-up meetings and engaging certain speciality groups.

This evaluation suggests that methods to implement evidence into clinical practice should include identification and empowerment of team members who can positively influence engagement, simple, visible reminders and feedback. Emphasis on timing of meetings and strategies to engage speciality groups should also be given consideration. Qualitative evaluations can provide important insights into why quality improvement initiatives are successful or not, across different sites.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the experiences of conducting focus groups amongst acquaintances in naturally occurring settings, where participants were known to each other and participation was less about being recruited, and more about being there when the focus group took place.

This was a qualitative study of multi-generational experiences of teenage parenting, and used interviews and focus groups. The study took an ethnographic approach, using case studies with a small number (4) of families, plus supplementary interviews, and focus groups with teenage parents and parents-to-be.

Using focus groups in naturally occurring settings alongside other qualitative data collection affords insights into the research topic that would not otherwise be available.

The paper discusses the challenges and benefits of using naturally occurring groups, and reflects on the way the findings from these groups illuminated aspects of the study concerning relationships. It argues that naturally occurring groups have advantages over conventionally organised focus groups that contribute to a deeper understanding of relationships between members.