Founded in 1851 as the ‘Wesleyan Normal Institute’, Westminster College was a Methodist teacher training college which relocated to Harcourt Hill on the edge of Oxford in 1959. By this time, the Methodist Education Committee had been attempting to relocate the College for thirty years, and had considered a number of locations as potentially suitable, including sites linked to the University Colleges of Hull and Leicester. From 1930, Westminster College operated a four-year training scheme: three years of undergraduate study at a University of London college, and one year of teacher training at the College itself. Teacher training evolved considerably during the early twentieth century, shifting from a vocational training programme certified solely by the Board of Education towards primarily being the responsibility of universities. Colleges like Westminster, therefore, saw their place in education change greatly during this time, further impeded by two world wars and other changes in society. Completed un…
Cigarette smoking (CS) is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity. Despite increasing knowledge regarding the health threats of CS, its global use remains a problem, even among pregnant women, with 8.1% of pregnant women smoking. In addition to maternal health, prenatal CS has been linked to neurodevelopmental disorders, such as ADHD and ASD, which include deficits in language skills. However, there is little research on CS specific effects on language skills. Nicotine, the addictive component of tobacco, exerts its cognitive effects by binding to the neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine choline receptors (nAChRs), among which the subtypes α7 and α4β2, have been linked to cognitive functions such as working memory (WM). Moreover, recent work linked a rare variant in Resistant to inhibitors of cholinesterase 3 (RIC3; NM_024557.4:c.262G>A, NP_078833.3:p.G88R) to a unique ability to speak backwards, a language skill with hypothesised association with exceptional WM capacity. Could RIC3 variants be a potential lin…
What constitutes legitimate order in modern autocracies? This research argues that the persistence of autocratic domination evolves beyond simple mechanisms of repression but represents a dynamic process of nurturing public consent and imitating socioeconomic progress. It explores why and how the autocratic regimes in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are remarkably resilient, despite domestic policy failures, mass protests, and suffocating geopolitical alliances. Drawing on comparative political analysis, this study analyses the stabilisation mechanisms of autocratic self-justification through three complementary sources: discourses, spectacles, and repression. Input discourses serve as a coherent body of political arguments, normalising official narratives about the suitability of existing authority structures and state-building processes. To maintain power, modern autocracies need to adapt to global norms and spectacles. Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan host mega-events to increase their international recognition, exerci…
This study explores how the mind-body connection (MBC) is conceptualised in one-to-one executive coaching in organisations. This study was motivated by the need to meet the increasing demands on executive coaching at this challenging time (Bachkirova and Jackson, 2024; Cannon-Bowers et al, 2023), the need to address the lack of empirical research underpinning this fast-growing area of practice (Bachkirova, 2022), my desire to learn more about it, and to contribute to evidence-based practice (Grant, 2016). Insights from my own executive coaching practice, and the practitioner literature, suggest change can be facilitated more quickly, felt more deeply, and be more readily sustained through coaching with the MBC (Strozzi-Heckler, 2014; Palmer, 2008; Sieler, 2012). It seemed possible, to me, that the connectivity between insight and felt experience may be key. Yet such perceptions lack empirical grounding hence need to be explored. This raises questions about how the MBC is conceptualised in executive coachi…
This thesis explores the lived experiences of stigmatisation processes amongst the Hazaras in Quetta (Pakistan) and the Afro-descendants in Cartagena (Colombia) and how do these diverse dynamics shape the experiences of stigmatisation in each community. The study also analyses the responses to stigmatisation through absorptive, adaptive and transformative resilience strategies at the individual and community levels. In addition, it also explores how these strategies differ or overlap due to the differing historical, cultural, and socio-political contexts of each community. Utilising constructivist grounded theory through qualitative-driven research, the study explores the different processes of stigmatisation and response strategies. This research is based on fieldwork conducted during two extended field trips to Pakistan (Jan-Apr 2019) and Colombia (June-Sep 2019), including a pilot study in Colombia in Jan 2018. In total, 95 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the Hazaras and the Afro-descendant…
Kurt Lewin argued that the life space is the totality of psychological and social facts of an individual in their environment at a certain moment. The life space determines behaviour. This is the first study into how meaningful and useful the theory and concept of the life space are to executive coaching, and it explores the challenges of building coaching theory accordingly. From a critical realist perspective, and by using a conceptual encounter and thematic analysis research methodology, the study explicates for the first time what the life space offers executive coaching, which until now has been largely overlooked in the coaching literature. The life space is meaningful to coaches because it is experienced as a new, naturalistic, dynamic, heuristic, yet familiar concept. The life space is useful because it brings a new language and perspective that sensitises and orients coaches to important practical implications of perceiving the client, the coach and the coaching process as indivisible from the psycho…
Why does Putin’s regime claim Crimea as a part of Russia? How does the construction of national myths help to justify the annexation of Crimea in 2014? Political mythmaking is a process of instrumentalising power narratives that form a bond between the past and the present, reimagining history through elite lenses for their political survival. Myths function as strategic legitimising mechanisms that justify actions of the incumbent authorities. Myths are dynamic due to the constantly evolving political landscape and national interests which they represent. This research explores three dominant Russian myths about Crimea: the return of Crimea in 2014, the Battle of Sevastopol and the Baptism of Prince Vladimir. The 2014 Myth revitalises the legitimacy of Putin in modern Russia. The Battle of Sevastopol evokes Soviet glory in the Second World War, demonstrating the Russian continuous effort to defend Crimea from Western powers. The Myth of baptism of Prince Vladimir aims to link one of Russian state-building ev…
The conventional legal scholarship on the law of self-determination, recognition and statehood in international law makes five arguments. First, although the concept of statehood has not been satisfactorily defined, statehood has been governed by international law in several key aspects. Second, the right to self-determination has become a well-established right under international law, and the creation of the majority of states in contemporary international law, particularly in the UN era, was the result of the application of the right to self-determination. As a consequence of the recognition of the right to self-determination, no state can be created in violation of this right. Third, international law is a coherent system, especially when considering concepts such as recognition and statehood. Fourth, the recognition of a new state is declaratory, and the constitutive doctrine of recognition is unsound. Fifth, secession as a usual method of state creation is not regulated by international law. This thesis…
There is a recognition that continuous development is intrinsic to professional practice, enabling the maintenance of standards and quality coaching. However, coach development is a complex issue, and there is a lack of consensus on what it means. Existing studies have focused on coach development during foundational education and supervision. There is a lack of research that considers continuous coach development more holistically and seeks to understand better how coaches enhance their ability to work with expertise. This study sought to address this issue by exploring executive coaches’ views on their developmental priorities. The study used Q methodology, which uses quantitative statistics to analyse qualitatively collected data. Forty-eight executive coaches based in the UK ranked a set of statements about coach development in a way that represented their view on what was most important when identifying development needs. A by-person factor analysis identified three distinct viewpoints used to create…
Medical practice is replete with emotive images and processes in everyday small interactions as well asissues of life and death. Practitioners can be moved in aesthetic ways. The capacity for, and attention to, personal lived aesthetic experience is easily suppressed in clinical practice where the objective evidence base has primacy. Aesthetic experience has been linked with values in different contemporary fields and could thus be important in healthcare. In this research, ‘aesthetic’ refers to sensory perception and the imaginative dimension. ‘Aesthetic experience’ relates to the latter including emotions, the tacit, haptic, pre-reflective and the embodied. To articulate this rich internal complexity, an arts and practice-based approach was employed that was inspired by connective practices from the field of Social Sculpture. The research aims were to explore and describe the nature of a type of aesthetic experience relevant to the everyday work of health care practitioners; to develop and de…