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The purpose of this paper is to assess changes in rates of mental health problems and service utilisation for Australian regular injecting drug users (IDUs) from 2006 to 2012.

Data were taken from Illicit Drug Reporting System national surveys with 914 regular IDUs in 2006 and 883 in 2012. Changes in rates of self-reported mental health problems and service use were assessed.

Rates of self-reported mental health problems increased from 38.3 per cent in 2006 to 43.7 per cent in 2012 – mainly due to increases in anxiety rates. Conversely, there was a decrease in mental health service use from 70.2 to 58.4 per cent by 2012. However, there was a proportional increase in the use of psychologists. These trends remained after controlling for socio-demographic and medical differences between the 2006/2012 samples. K10 scores for 2012 participants validated the use of the self-report measures.

Reductions in stigma, improvements in mental health literacy, and modest increases in anxiety may explain increases in self-report of mental health problems. Stagnant service utilisation rates in an expanding population willing to self-report may explain decreasing service use. The introduction of key mental health reforms also may have contributed, particularly with the increase in psychologist access. This paper highlights the need for improved population monitoring of mental health in disadvantaged groups such as IDUs.

This paper is the first to assess changes in mental health outcomes over time in Australian IDUs. This examination covered a critical era in the mental health landscape, with significant increases in public awareness campaigns and major mental health reforms.

In illustrating and reflecting on my use of constructivist grounded theory methodology, this chapter explores findings of a study involving perceptions of learning of eight career changing trainee teachers enroled across four one-year primary or secondary postgraduate initial teacher education (ITE) programmes in England. Through four sets of unstructured interviews over the course of 10 months, qualitative findings suggest that this group of trainee teachers experience a similar learning process of convergence, change, consciousness and confidence. Diagrammatic modelling of data plays a key role in enacting a constructivist approach to grounded theory by demonstrating coding relationships through constant comparison leading to theory generation. Along with other observations, significant findings include how career changers without prior education experience may adapt and adopt new, professional identities with more confidence more quickly than those with extensive prior education experience, and, alternative teaching placements that occur in the ‘middle’ of a postgraduate course may have a significant effect in a career changers perceived confidence in ‘being a teacher’. Recommendations for ITE programmes, future teacher recruitment policy and researchers employing grounded theory are included. Recommendations for postgraduate researchers in education are scattered throughout this chapter.

This chapter examines the inauguration of the university study of Education in Scotland and its relation to teacher education in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The chapter outlines moves to establish Education as a disciplinary field in higher education and the junctures at which this movement aligns with and is in tension with concurrent moves to advance teaching as a profession. Academisation and professionalisation are the twin poles of this debate. This is not a parochial or obsolete debate. The place of teacher preparation in higher education has been the focus of sustained discussion across Anglophone nations. Three examples – the inauguration of chairs and lectureships, the governance of teacher education and deliberation on the content and purpose of a degree in Education – are used to help explain the apparent paradox between the historic place of education in Scottish culture and identity and the relatively recent full involvement of Scotland's universities in the professional preparation of teachers. Investigating the activities of the first academic community of educationists in Scotland may help to understand continuing struggles over jurisdiction and authority in this contested and yet neglected field.

There is a growing policy imperative to promote positive mental health as well as prevent the development of mental health problems in children. This paper summarises the findings of published systematic reviews evaluating such interventions. A search was undertaken of ten electronic databases using a combination of medical subject headings (MeSH) and free text searches. Systematic reviews covering mental health promotion or mental illness prevention interventions aimed at infants, children or young people up to age 19 were included. Reviews of drug and alcohol prevention programmes and programmes to prevent childhood abuse and neglect were excluded because these have been the subject of recent good quality reviews of reviews. A total of 27 systematic reviews were included. These targeted a range of risk and protective factors, and a range of populations (including parents and children). While many lacked methodological rigour, overall the evidence is strongly suggestive of the effectiveness of a range of interventions in promoting positive mental well‐being, and reducing key risk factors for mental illness in children. Based on this evidence, arguments are advanced for the preferential provision of early preventive programmes.

Despite the fact that almost two million learners in state-funded schools in England learn English as an additional language (DfE, 2020), there is no official policy for developing home languages (HLs), even though the use of HL in classrooms for academic purposes is linked to academic attainment (Smyth, 2012). Cummins' (1976) language interdependence hypotheses were employed as the analytical framework for the original study underpinning this chapter, as it showed the benefits of HL in the classroom. The study included 13 Somali-origin pupils in a Key Stage 2 class (8 boys and 5 girls – 10–11 years) and their 7 parents. Parents and pupils were separately taught HL literacy once per week for 24 weeks as extracurricular activities. HL literacy pre- and post-assessments, semi-structured interviews with pupils and parents and a researcher reflective diary were used for data collection (Abikar, 2020). The data from HL assessments when comparing the pre- and post-assessments showed improvement in areas assessed, except for writing. The semi-structured interview data demonstrated that learning HL literacy was beneficial for: social and spiritual identity, cognitive skills needed in the classroom and fostering communication between the family, relatives and the wider community. Additionally, positive attitudes to learning HL were evident within the study findings. The study strongly highlighted that it would be beneficial for pupils if there were strategies which would help them to maintain their HL; thus, this chapter will argue the case for the introduction of a HL policy for primary education in England. Overall, the study made recommendations for policymakers to introduce HL literacy sessions for the benefit of pupils.

The study aims to examine the nature of gaslighting and how it relates to interpersonal aggression.

It does so first through application of a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) to understand how gaslighting is understood academically. This RAE captured 50 articles, with 12 retained for thematic review. Results were then used to develop a gaslighting behaviour measure, which was then applied in an online study of adults (n = 386; 77.2% women).

Five themes were identified from the REA: components of gaslighting; gaslighting as a tool for abuse; perpetrators as damaged manipulators; experiences and characteristics of victims; and institutional and racial gaslighting. In the ensuing study, results demonstrated that emotional abuse was broadly related both to the perpetration and experiencing of gaslighting, indicating that it may represent an extension of emotional abuse. The relationship to trait aggression was limited and primarily isolated to victims presenting with higher levels of trait aggression capturing more emotional components (e.g. anger/hostility).

The importance of context in understanding the relationship between gaslighting, emotional abuse and aggression was indicated, with some complexity found. Suggestions for future research are made.

Accounting for context in understanding gaslighting is key. Developing and validating measures for gaslighting would assist with the evaluation of this behaviour. When working with those who have a history of emotional abuse, considering gaslighting as a further element is potentially important. It should not be assumed that gaslighting has an association with non-emotional aggression; the type of relationship where it is occurring is important.

This study is the first to consider the development of a gaslighting measure, which is informed by a methodological review of the literature.

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.