The concept of pupil voice is widely employed in research from across the world when claiming children and young people have a genuine, legitimate right to be heard on matters they consider important, and when considering ways of engaging them as important 'influencers' of policy and decision making. This article is concerned with problematic issues around power and pupil voice during circle-time. It is argued that the space in which children and young people are 'allowed' a voice is prescribed by adults and is frequently located within interventions for improving schools, pupil behaviour and promoting their social and emotional development. Based on a rigorous analysis of the findings from a small case study about children's experiences during circle-time, and using the concepts of social identity and social representation, this article highlights the dangers of inadvertently creating a climate within which children can feel isolated and threatened, and bullying can thrive.Increasingly, it would seem children are being invited and expected to reveal things in circletime that will need careful and experienced handling from the point of safeguarding the child's well-being, offering the required support, and ensuring the child's protection and confidentiality. It is argued these findings highlight the need for a robust research-informed * Corresponding author. York St John University, Faculty of Education and Theology, York, UK Email: t.leach@yorksj.ac.uk debate about children's lived experiences during circle-time, and the impact of those experiences in terms of children's identities and self-esteem.

This paper explores contested notions of the purpose of education and careers work. The research for the paper examines public sector employee reactions to notion of a psychological contract breach, when cuts in funding put their jobs and careers at risk. It argues that, in this environment, the search for career fulfilment can be marked by feelings of cruel optimism, wicked problems and broken expectations. The findings are then used to present the case for further research, firstly, to address the notion of possible selves, as individuals explore alternative identity affirming career opportunities; and secondly, the impact of changes in public policy on the processes of psychological contracting between students and staff in further and higher education.

This paper contributes to the contested body of work about graduate employability, employment and sustained career building. Educational establishments across the world are expected to equip students with the knowledge and skills for employability, sustainable employment and career development. The protean career concept and the boundary-less career model influence much of today's career literature. To remain marketable, it is said protean careerists are able to repackage their knowledge, skills and abilities to fit the changing work environment. They are said to be 'career actors' who value their freedom, are flexible, believe in continuous learning and seek intrinsic rewards through their work. Hardly surprising, therefore, commentary on protean careers tends to emphasise the 'winners' in the employment marketplace. There are few critical studies that focus on the difficulties that others face when attempting to be 'career actors'. Drawing on the work of Martin Buber and Homi Bhabha in particular, the research for this paper is focused on the way graduates perceive and enact their careers, the evolution of their careers, and how building their careers involves crossing physical, cultural and psychological boundaries. The implications of the research findings for post-compulsory education are discussed in this paper.

The research described in this paper is part of a wider exploration of organisational learning and some of the social-psychological mechanisms which underlie the individual-organisation learning relationship. Adopting a grounded theory approach, qualitative data was obtained during email interviews with fifteen foundation degree students concerning their work-related experiences and the meanings they ascribe to them. The importance of this focus group lies in their potential contribution to the ECM agenda in educational institutions. This group is aspirational, potentially influential, flexible and extremely varied in background, education and training. The TAs and HLTAs work across the institution with often the most challenging of children and behaviours; negotiating and renegotiating their own personal and professional identities against a background of, in many cases, low pay and status. It follows that the pastoral care and support that they receive as para-or emergent professionals will have a significant effect on the pastoral care and support that they, in turn, can give to the children in their charge. The research underlines the impact of psychological contracting and the impact of affirming or breaching people's expectations of feeling safe, being valued as a person and for their work and receiving enacted support for personal, professional and career development. It also emphasises the need for leaders and managers, when bringing about transformational change, to have an informed appreciation of how the processes of psychological contracting can influence people's behaviours.

This paper contains an account of a small-scale investigation into the usefulness of the concepts of the learning organisation and organisational learning when seeking to describe the processes of knowledge creation and deployment within the small, but growing, enterprise (SME). A review of the literature reveals a concern that the relationship between individual and collective learning in organisational settings is little understood. Focussing on this concern it is argued that when planning, leading and managing interventions to encourage and support entrepreneurial learning within organisational contexts, successful outcomes are more likely when leaders and managers have an informed appreciation of how the processes of psychological contracting can often influence people's behaviours.