Manchester Metropolitan University

About: Manchester Metropolitan University is a education organization based out in Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 5435 authors who have published 16202 publications receiving 442561 citations. The organization is also known as: Manchester Polytechnic & MMU.

Education and employment outcomes of young adults with a history of developmental language disorder

Abstract: Background: Developmental language disorder (DLD) presents a considerable barrier for young adults to engage in further education and training. Early studies with young adults with DLD revealed poor educational achievement and lack of opportunities to progress in education. More recent studies have provided more positive findings. Relatively sparse data exist, however, on current cohorts and the factors that predict outcomes. Aims: To examine educational and employment outcomes in young adulthood in a sample of people with histories of DLD, compared with an age-matched peer group without DLD. We ask: How do educational pathways and early jobs compare between those with and without DLD? Are young adults with DLD receiving similar levels of income as their peers? To what extent are language and literacy abilities associated with outcomes? Methods & Procedures: Participants included 84 individuals with DLD (67% males) and 88 age-matched peers without DLD (56% males). Participants were on average 24 years of age. They completed a battery of psycholinguistic, literacy and nonverbal skills assessments. Data were also collected on educational qualifications, current educational status, extent of educational support received, employment status, history and support, as well as current income. Outcomes & Results: Those with DLD obtained lower academic and vocational qualifications. Higher educational/vocational qualifications were associated with better language, better reading and higher PIQ. There were few differences between the two groups in terms of engagement with education but the mean age at leaving education was significantly earlier in the participants with DLD. Substantially more participants with DLD reported receiving support or dispensation from their educational institution. There was no significant difference between groups in the proportion of young people currently employed, though a higher proportion of the age-matched peers was in work full-time. Participants with DLD were much more likely to be in non-professional occupations. However, when examining pay in relation to types of occupation, the groups’ incomes were broadly comparable. Conclusions & Implications: At the group level, young people with a history of DLD more commonly have less skilled employment and more rarely achieve professional roles. At the individual level, there is considerable variation with smaller but not trivial proportions of young adults with a history of DLD showing good educational and employment outcomes. There are positive aspects to early adult outcomes for some young people with a history of DLD.

Unbecoming teachers: towards a more dynamic notion of professional participation

Abstract: This article considers teacher professionalism from a neglected perspective. It analyses assumptions about the dynamics of professional participation implicit within competing academic and policy constructs of professionalism, including the currently iconic concept of ‘communities of practice’. All entail notions of becoming and being a professional. However, data from the project ‘Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education’ (TLC) reveal significant instances of ‘unbecoming’: a majority of the tutors participating in the project were heading out of further education (FE) teaching. This illuminates a broader problem of exodus from the sector, in a political context which privileges economic goals and targets at every level, and in which the current climate of performativity increasingly impacts upon pedagogical relationships—contextual conditions which are also highly relevant to schooling and higher education. Drawing on exemplar case studies of two tutors, and on the theorization of learning cultures emerging from the TLC project, a Bourdieusian analysis of these dynamics is developed in terms of the interaction of habitus and fields, and ‘communities of practice’ critiqued. Paying particular attention to policy‐driven changes in and to the field of FE, and to the cross‐field effects in FE of policies in other sectors of education and beyond, the article argues for a more dynamic notion of professional participation. This might underpin ‘principles of procedure’ for improving teaching and learning, and policies to support diverse forms of teacher professionalism throughout the education system.

Ecological effects of atmospheric reactive nitrogen deposition on semi-natural terrestrial ecosystems

Abstract: Evidence that enhanced reactive nitrogen deposition is affecting semi-natural terrestrial ecosystems comes from historic increases in plant tissue N concentrations, correlations between tissue N concentrations and present-day total atmospheric N deposition, changes in plant amino-acid composition and effects on N assimilation. The ecological significance of such changes in biomarkers is uncertain.This paper explores the ecological significance of reactive atmospheric N deposition through a review of previous experimental findings and new experimental evidence from an acidic and a calcareous grassland, both showing phosphorus limitation, and a N-limited Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull heathland in upland Britain. Nitrogen addition in the range 0-20 g N m -2 yr -1 initially (years 0-4) increased the growth of Calluna and a decline in some subordinate species. In subsequent years, shoot extension was not stimulated, but winter injury was observed from 1993 onwards, suggesting a strong interaction between N supply and climatic conditions. By contrast, the grasslands showed a small decrease in the cover of higher plants in later years (6-7) of the experimental treatments (0-14 g N m -2 yr -1 ) and no growth stimulation. All N treatments reduced the bryophyte cover in the acidic grassland. There were marked effects on below-ground processes, including a sustained stimulation of N mineralization in the grassland soils, and an increase in the bacterial utilization of organic substrates in the heathland, as measured in BIOLOG plates. The results strongly suggest the importance of atmospheric N deposition on microbially driven processes in soils, and are discussed in relation to the scale of potential ecosystem changes and their reversibility by pollution abatement.