Reforming special education in Scotland: tensions between discourses of professionalism and rights

In 2001, the (then) Scottish Executive embarked on a process of reform of the SEN framework in Scotland. This paper analyses negotiations between different social actors, principally local authority staff and parents, in the formation of the legislation and its subsequent enactment. Data are drawn from an analysis of responses to consultations, official statistics and parent and local authority staff perceptions of the reforms as revealed in questionnaire surveys. It is argued that policy frameworks based on professionalism and bureaucracy have tended to dominate in Scotland, with a rights framework emerging much more recently. The legislation attempts to strike a balance between the different actors, although, in implementing the legislation, local authorities have sought to neutralise aspects which they felt tipped the balance of power too far in favour of parents. Parents have responded by campaigning as citizen‐consumers, and appear to be having a growing influence on Government.     

An assessment of training volume in professional rugby union and its impact on the incidence, severity, and nature of match and training injuries

A prospective cohort study was used to assess the influence of training volume on injuries sustained by 502 professional rugby union players in England. Training volumes (excluding warm-ups, cool-downs, and recovery sessions), player injuries, and player match exposure times were reported weekly. Higher training volumes (>9.1 hours per week) did not increase the incidence of match or training injuries. However, higher training volumes did increase the severity of match injuries, particularly during the second half, and consequently resulted in a significant increase in the number of days' absence due to match injuries. Although lower-limb injuries were the most common match and training injuries, shoulder dislocations/instabilities resulted in more days' absence during weeks of higher training volumes, but the differences were not significant. The least number of days lost due to injuries occurred during weeks of intermediate training volumes (6.2-9.1 h per week). Training volume was not correlated with final league position. Fitness testing, defence, and rucking and mauling components were identified as being very high- or high-risk training activities. Our results provide evidence of the benefits of modifying the volume and content of rugby union training to reduce the risk associated with injuries to professional players.     

帮助运动员支持1天进行2次训练

1天2次的训练通常是美国橄榄球进行比赛季节早期身体条件训练和许多其他运动项目进行常年运动训练的一部分。额外的训练有助于加速身体条件训练，给力量训练和技能发展留出时间，还有助于在队友中发展同志合作精神。1天2次训练的特点是强调体质的适应性。在夏季训练时，运动员频繁地置身于附加的湿热环境应激下。我们专家组就1天2次训练中的高能量需要、有限的恢复时间和“制造伤口”的心理应激问题进行讨论，基于科学理论和临床经验提出帮助运动员在1天2次的训练中获得最大的成效的策略。     

Developing Peer Groups for the Oregon University System: From Politics to Analysis (and Back)

In the fall of 1997, institutional research staff in the central office of the Oregon University System were asked to build a set of peer comparators for the state's seven diverse public universities. The peer groups were to serve the analytic needs of budgeting, performance measurement, and trend analysis. Because of several critical political issues requiring interinstitutional unity, the peer groups had to be developed and implemented with the participation and support of the seven university presidents. In addition, the peer groups had to be understood and accepted by board members, legislators, and the governor's office. Through a process that combined detailed statistical information with a sensitivity to the political dynamics and judgments of campus presidents and staff, the system office developed a set of peer groups that found acceptance in both the political and analytical environments. Ten conditions that contribute to the creation of peer groups on a systemwide basis are identified and offered as guidance to other university systems.     

Universities and article copyright

The advent of electronic publishing raises many questions about the exercise of digital rights. We examine the problem of who owns the copyright of articles in the context of university attitudes to intellectual property generally and evolving practices in the publishing arena. We conclude that the balance between author and publisher is changing and that universities, as employers, could play a larger part in shifting the balance still further.     

Delineating Professional and Amateur Athletic Bodies in Victorian England

By 1837, the sporting landscape of England was populated by a number of professional pedestrians who competed in a range of events that were extensively covered in the sporting press. These men distinguished themselves from their competitors through their use of ‘colours’ and a range of different athletic clothing. In the later stages of the nineteenth century, the dominance of the professional athlete was challenged through the formation of clubs and associations by a public-school- and university-educated middle class. The somatotype and clothing strategies of the Victorian athlete altered as a result. Their assumption of an innate physical superiority, allied to a preference for the all-rounder with his elegance and style, rather than the muscular, specialized sporting bodies of working-class professionals, were important features of an amateur ethos which drew much of its references from the Classical world. Through a discussion of how middle-class amateur athletes used Classical precedents, science and clothing to create the ‘university athlete’ and the ‘university costume’, in order to reinforce the distinctions between their own bodies and those of the professionals, this paper explores the transition from pedestrianism to organized athletics.     

Learning to Performance at Larson‐Juhl: A Success Story

Often companies diagnose a performance gap, selecting training as the solution. Isolated training events that do not take a complete training approach produce less results, including value to the business, than a more comprehensive and integrated approach. What follows is a success story describing how Larson‐Juhl used a learning to performance approach to combine learning, leadership, and change management competencies to produce documented and sustainable results that added value.     

Emergency knowledge management and social media technologies: A case study of the 2010 Haitian earthquake

The US response to the 2010 Haiti Earthquake was a large effort coordinated by three major agencies that worked in tandem with the Government of Haiti, the United Nations, and many countries from around the globe. Managing this response effort was a complex undertaking that relied extensively on knowledge management systems (KMS). For the first time, however, US government agencies employed social media technologies such as wikis and collaborative workspaces as the main knowledge sharing mechanisms. In this research we present a case study developed through action research of how these social media technologies were used, what influences they made on knowledge sharing, reuse, and decision-making, and how knowledge was effectively (and at times ineffectively) maintained in these systems. First-hand knowledge of the response is used, offering strategies for future deployment of social media and important research questions that remain regarding social media as knowledge management systems, particularly for disaster and emergency management.