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I share a different way of writing about research by doing and discussing it. First, the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic forced me to adapt my methods of researching, to catch snippets of data when and where I could, by email, phone, and family chats and then by observing and eavesdropping on passers-by on my daily walks in rural England. Then, to protect identities I adapted my way of writing, crafting partly fictionalised composite stories. I use my short vignettes, Living in Lockdown, to show how I wrote as 'others', and changed roles to fully examine my processes-in-action. Writing narratively and 'telling' stories to engage my audience, led me to parallels within the theatrical tradition, especially the Method Acting approach of Stella Adler. I also found that the archetypal figure of the flâneur (particularly as conceived by Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin) provided a conceptual framework for my walking/watching practices. He, too, simply wandered, seeing what there was to see, but usually in a city. I use these frameworks to reflect on my own work, drawing on parallel methodologies to show how it constitutes research, and explore the role that writing plays overall.

This paper examines the education of the semi-voluntary pre-school workforce in England in terms of the benefits to local communities to capture its utility in real terms. It revisits qualitative research data collected as biographical narratives from ten cohorts of adult women training to work in childcare in English pre-schools during the political reforms of the New Labour Government, 1997-2010. It examines the advantages to their local communities of the women gaining a qualification and found positive educational, social and economic consequences beyond the direct benefits to the women and their own families and the children with whom they worked. The training also created a local resource, raising the level of education received by local children and the learning levels in the communities in which the women lived. There were clear economic benefits in terms of women returning to work and low-cost upskilling of local provision for children but also less tangible changes. There was a greater incidence of networking and social cohesion as a consequence of students broadening their outlook on life. This study supports recommendations that policy makers should be careful to protect initiatives that work, and that grew up slowly to serve the needs of local people. The benefits to local communities may be far greater than those derived from changes imposed from above in the name of "raising standards" and "establishing cost-effective childcare", and once lost such initiatives are hard to recreate.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how individual choice, and the facilitation of individual choices, can be of benefit to society. To do this it selects evidence from a much broader research project that set out to study the student experience of a group of 33 women training to work in childcare (selected from a cohort of 150). Design/methodology/approach – The project employed an emergent methodology, as the researcher sought to draw out the student voice. Psychosocial interviews created detailed narratives that were analysed individually, thematically and holistically to support original theorization that was later linked to Sen's Capability Approach. Findings – In terms of this paper, the significant finding was that the pursuit of individual goals can create public good. Individual actions can lead to unplanned social payback. Social implications – In revealing some of the mechanisms that promote social cohesion and social capital development the research supports people-centred policy-making. By adopting the capability approach as a policy framework and granting people the freedom to choose, governments can create social good by enabling rather than determining individual choice. Originality/value – In evidencing the way that individual choice can promote social good, the research findings create confidence that society can evolve positively without an overarching masterplan. The research is linked to contemporary problems within society and suggests that, sometimes, indirect approaches offer solutions.

Reporting on a study of mature women training to work in childcare, this article demonstrates how some women choose to be part-time mothers, workers and students, wanting 'the best of both worlds'. It presents a theory of integrated lives that contrasts with customary deficit models and shows how a series of reciprocal links bind the women's different roles together, introducing an adaptation of Coser's theory of greedy institutions to demonstrate how this is an inherently stable position. Whilst the theory can stand alone, it is usefully recast as a localised example of a capability set as it frames the co-realisable choices open to the women. Making further links with Amartya Sen's capability approach, it is suggested that we should encourage governmental interventions that enable individual choice and support those women who want to integrate their lives alongside those who seek parity in the public sphere.

Most studies of adult education align this with life change but my research project tells a different story revealing that mature women training to work in childcare were seeking continuity in their lives, engaging with activities that connected aspects of the family, workplace and educational experience and constructing a sense of personal identity through these linkages. The recently completed project studied a group of mature women who enrolled on an Early Years Supervisors' course over a ten-year period in a Further Education (FE) College in Eastern England. This was a vocational course, funded at times by different government initiatives - local, national or European - as part of the broader aim to raise standards within childcare in the UK and because of its work orientation might have been accessed for predominately instrumental purposes: to support a career in childcare work. Expecting that to be the case, I anticipated that the majority of the women would talk about career paths, salary structures and end goals but found that not to be the case. Instead, they discussed a range of alternative motivations that we shall look at further in this paper. First, however, I shall describe briefly the nature of the research, to provide a contextual framework.

In Britain, as in many countries, universal education developed piecemeal over several centuries with the State intervening at intervals to monitor, challenge or direct but never quite taking complete control or responsibility for underwriting the costs. Forster's Education Act introduced compulsory elementary education in 1870, the 1944 Education Act (extending the initiatives of the 1918 Fisher Education Act) made secondary education available for all. In these sectors and in higher education, the State played an active part in shaping the nature of the provision. In comparison, until recently, non-compulsory education within the community and in further education colleges, catering for adults, young children and the less academic, attracted less interest enabling it to continue to develop organically. As someone with teaching experience in all three of the latter areas, I claim that this provision shared a range of common and constructive characteristics that are being carelessly swept aside in the name of progress, masquerading as professionalization, standardization, accreditation, managerialism and instrumentalism. As part of a doctoral thesis I was able to investigate the educational and workplace practices of successive cohorts of mature women who decided to train in childcare work as their own children grew older. . I collected background questionnaire data from a total of 150 students and carried out informal interviews with 33 who studied during a ten-year period roughly coincident with Tony Blair's New Labour government. Their detailed biographical accounts illuminated the ways the women organized their lives, how they managed the competing demands of family, education and workplace and how they viewed the changing workplace practices being imposed from above, and I acquired a breadth of material that will be more fully discussed in the presentation. Here, however, I think it useful to focus on the theoretical background and to consider further the parallels and differences between adult education in general and this specific vocational instance.

Acknowledgements -- Organization of the Book -- Notes on Contributors -- Narrative, Discourse, and Biography: An Introductory Story / Hazel R. Wright and Marianne Høyen -- I. Discourses we live within: Frameworks that structure. 1. Truth and Narrative: How and Why Stories Matter / Janet Dyson ; 2. From Experience to Language in Narrative Practices in Therapeutic Education in France / Hervé Breton ; 3. Narratives of Fundamentalism, Negative Capability and the Democratic Imperative / Alan Bainbridge and Linden West ; 4. Understandings of the Natural World from a Generational Perspective / Hazel R. Wright -- II. Discourses we work within: Of the workplace. 5. Opposing Cultures: Science and Humanities Teaching in Danish Schools / Marianne Høyen and Mumiah Rasmusen ; 6. Shaping 'the Good Teacher' in Danish and Kenyan Teacher Education / Kari Kragh Blume Dahl ; 7. Irish Adult Educators Find Fulfilment amid Poor Employment Conditions / Sarah Bates Evoy ; 8. Nurture Groups: Perspectives from Teaching Assistants Who Lead Them in Britain / Tristan Middleton -- III. Discourses we work through: Challenges to overcome. 9. Punishment Discourses in Everyday Life / Khum Raj Pathak ; 10. Irish Students Turning First-Year Transition Obstacles into Successful Progression / Vera Sheridan ; 11. Care Leavers in Italy: From 'Vulnerable' Children to 'Autonomous' Adults? / Laura Formenti, Andrea Galimberti and Mirella Ferrari ; 12. What Game Are We Playing? Narrative Work that Supports Gamblers / Mica Micaela Castiglioni and Carola Girotti -- IV. Discourses we work around: Managing constraining circumstances. 13. A Danish Prisoner Narrative: The Tension from a Multifaceted Identity During (Re-)Entry to Society / Charlotte Mathiassen ; 14. Inclusion and Exclusion in Colombian Education, Captured through Life Stories / Miguel Alberto González González ; 15. Navigating Grades and Learning in the Swedish Upper Secondary School Where Neoliberal Values Prevail / Patric Wallin ; 16. Adult Education as a Means to Enable Polish Citizens to Question Media Coverage of Political Messages / Marta Zientek -- V. Discourses that explore or reveal diversity: Facing choice and change. 17. Examining a Kazakh Student's Biographical Narrative and the Discourses She Lives By / Rob Evans ; 18. The Needs of Low-Literate Migrants When Learning the English Language / Monica Mascarenhas ; 19. Uncovering Habitus in Life Stories of Muslim Converts / Simone R. Rasmussen ; 20. Participatory Approaches in Critical Migration Research: The Example of an Austrian Documentary Film / Annette Sprung -- VI. Discourses to support diversity: Projects that empower. 21. Decolonizing and Indigenizing Discourses in a Canadian Context / Adrienne S. Chan ; 22. Embedding Feminist Pedagogies of Care in Research to Better Support San Youth in South Africa / Outi Ylitapio-Mäntylä and Mari Mäkiranta ; 23. From Defender to Offender: British Female Ex-Military Re-Joining Civilian Society / Linda Cooper ; 24. UK Senior Citizens Learn Filmmaking as a Creative Pathway to Reflection and Fulfilment / Teresa Brayshaw and Jenny Granville -- VII. Discourses through a Self-reflexive lens: Thoughts from researchers ; 25. Diversifying Discourses of Progression to UK Higher Education Through Narrative Approaches / Laura Mazzoli Smith ; 26. Using Journaling and Autoethnography to Create Counter-Narratives of School Exclusion in Britain / Helen Woodley ; 27. Reflections on a Creative Arts Project to Explore the Resilience of Young Adults with a Muslim Background in Finland / Helena Oikarinen-Jabai ; 28. Discourses, Cultural narratives, and Genre in Biographical Narratives: A Personal Overview / Marianne Horsdal ; Learning from Narratives, Discourses and Biographical Research: An Afterword / Hazel R. Wright and Marianne Høyen -- List of Illustrations -- Index -- About the Team.

PurposeOwing to the specialist nature of biological experimentation, scientific research staff have been largely neglected from the pro‐environmental initiatives which have inundated other areas of higher education. This dearth of studies is surprising given that scientific research is recognised as a substantial contributor to the environmental impact of tertiary institutes. The present study seeks to utilise the current sustainability literature to identify barriers to sustainability in scientific fieldwork and determines which methods or procedures might increase pro‐environmental behaviours in this technical environment. The resultant information serves to provide a comparison with previously identified barriers to sustainability in the laboratory environment and identifies which environmental initiatives might be successful in both the field and laboratory.Design/methodology/approachThis study gathers qualitative data from a sample of scientific researchers presently conducting field experimentation in the agricultural sciences. A "sustainability in science" questionnaire was developed and distributed to all staff undertaking research at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research.FindingsDespite favourable sustainability beliefs and perceptions, almost three‐quarters (71 per cent) of researchers at this institute agreed that they were not conducting their current research activities in the most sustainable way possible. Barriers to sustainability included lack of support, lack of information, lack of training and lack of time. The provision of awards for pro‐environmental behaviours and the application of costs for unsustainable behaviours were the initiatives most likely to encourage research staff to be sustainable in the work environment.Research limitations/implicationsMany agricultural field based research projects manipulate the environment in order to cultivate and develop commercial foodstuffs. Identifying the potential to reduce such waste was an inherent part of the present study. However, identifying the ways in which such environmental manipulation modifies the landscape – whether sustainably or unsustainably – was outwith the scope of the present study and presents an interesting area for future sustainability research.Practical implicationsThe information presented in this paper has immediate practical implication for tertiary bodies and agricultural institutes wishing to adopt more sustainable fieldwork practises.Originality/valueThis is the first study to design a sustainability questionnaire specifically targeting field active research scientists in a tertiary institute.

PurposeThis study aims to identify the current barriers to sustainability in the bioscience laboratory setting and to determine which mechanisms are likely to increase sustainable behaviours in this specialised environment.Design/methodology/approachThe study gathers qualitative data from a sample of laboratory researchers presently conducting experimentation in the biological sciences. A questionnaire, regarding sustainability in the laboratory, was developed and distributed to all bioscience researchers at Aberystwyth University.FindingsAlthough the majority of respondents had favourable attitudes to sustainability, almost three‐quarters (71 per cent) stated that they were not conducting their research in the most sustainable way possible. The factors most likely to hinder sustainable behaviour were lack of support, lack of information and time constraints. However, monetary costs and benefits, closely followed by "other" costs and benefits, were most likely to encourage sustainable behaviour in the laboratory.Research limitations/implicationsThere is a need to extend the present research to other types of biological research, such as field‐based studies. Different biological disciplines may have different consumable requirements and waste streams, thereby changing the barriers to sustainability observed.Practical implicationsThe findings have immediate practical implication for higher education institutions wishing to adopt researcher‐approved mechanisms to reduce the environmental impact of biological laboratory research.Originality/valueThis is the first study to design a sustainability questionnaire which is specific to research scientists and laboratory users. The paper is therefore of immense value to the numerous global higher education institutions with working laboratories which seek to minimise the environmental impact of research.