Florence Nightingale (1820–1910)

Conclusion Florence Nightingale once quoted from an address on education delivered at the Universities of St Andrew's and Glasgow, which perfectly reflected her own standpoint: ‘[…] education is to teach men not to know, but to do’ (Nightingale, 1873, p. 576). It would seem fair to judge Florence Nightingale's contribution to education by the practical effect which her reforms had. A letter written to her by Benjamin Jowett should stand as her epitaph: There was a great deal of romantic feeling about you 23 years ago when you returned home from the Crimea […] and now you work on in silence, and nobody knows how many lives are saved by your nurses in hospitals; how many thousand soldiers […] are now alive owing to your forethought and diligence; how many natives of India in this generation and in generations to come have been preserved from famine and oppression and the load of debt by the energy of a sick lady who can scarcely rise from her bed. The world does not know all this or think about it. But I know it and often think about it (31 December 1879). Original language: English Alex Attewell (United Kingdom) Assistant curator of a hospital museum in the west of England before joining the Florence Nightingale Museum, London, in 1989. He became an Associate of the Museums Association in 1993 and Curator of the Florence Nightingale Museum in 1994. He often lectures, gives broadcasts and organizes temporary exhibitions in the area of his expertise.     

Problematising social mobility in relation to Higher Education policy

This paper problematises the concept of social mobility through an exploration of it in relation to Higher Education policy in England. Based upon a content analysis of a number of key policy documents from distinct eras, it identifies definitions and understandings of social mobility within them, exploring how such references have changed over time, and critiquing the differences between the imagined ideals of what policy rhetoric seeks to do and the reality of policy implementation. In particular, it considers the characterisation of social mobility as an individualised concern; it positions aspirations of improving social mobility within the market of Higher Education; and it ultimately asks whether Higher Education can solve the government's social mobility problem.     

Socioeconomic status and physical fitness in youth: Findings from the NHANES National Youth Fitness Survey

ABSTRACT

This study examined the associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and musculoskeletal (MSF) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in youth. The sample consisted of boys and girls between 3-15 years. SES was categorized utilizing family-income-to-poverty ratio (FIPR). All analyses were standardized for age and sex. For each test of physical fitness, SES was used to estimate mean fitness test percentile and 95% confidence intervals, controlling for race/ethnicity and physical activity. Odds ratios were calculated for the likelihood of having low fitness by SES category. In general, the high SES group had a better composite MSF, body composition, and CRF profiles than low and moderate SES groups. Statistically significant differences were identified for relative grip strength, plank, body mass index, and cardiovascular endurance time (all p < 0.05). Additionally, the odds of low/poor MSF fitness were 1.7 and 1.6 times higher in the low and moderate SES groups (respectively) compared to the children from high SES families. The moderate SES group had an odds of poor CRF 1.6 times higher than the high SES group as well. Children and adolescents from high SES families tend to have higher mean fitness and were less likely to have low/poor fitness.     

Franz Rosenzweig and the Elementary School Teacher: A Midrashic Re-Viewing of an Experiment in Adult Education

This article proposes to read events of the educational past not as history but as midrash. It juxtaposes an historical account of a watershed experiment in adult education (Franz Rosenzweig's Freie Judisches Lehrhaus) with an ethnographic account of a presently practicing elementary school teacher. These accounts are generically different and historically distant from one other, but, through association and conversation, there emerges from them some challenging suggestions about how knowledge is born of speech, how learning includes teaching, and how teaching is predicated on desire. Viewing the Lehrhaus project from a “midrashic” stance, invites an enlarged reading of it as an educational experiment and poses questions about the interpretative potential in the intersections between narrative research genres.     

E-Mentoring in Physical Education

Mentoring can be a critical component of teachers' professional development and retention, yet logistical and fiscal challenges often limit the amount of contact a protégé can have with a mentor teacher. This investigation explored a school district initiative to address this need for more mentor interaction by supplementing traditional face-to-face mentoring with electronic mentoring. Thirty elementary physical education teachers participated in a year-long program that involved workshops, school visits, videotaped lessons, and electronic mentoring via chat rooms. Data were collected from chat room postings and analyzed for frequency of response and quality. In addition, a series of interviews were analyzed via constant comparison process to further understand teachers' perceptions of electronic mentoring. In general, teacher postings were minimal in frequency and quality. The limited use of the chat rooms was likely linked to the teachers' perceptions of electronic mentoring, which included several concerns with the technical and human dimensions of the process.     

Communication anxiety and teacher communication competence among Native American and Caucasian students

This study compared self‐reported communication anxiety and student perceived teacher communication competence among fifth and sixth grade Native American and Caucasian students being taught by Caucasian teachers. A survey of 67 Native American and 51 Caucasian students was conducted in an elementary school located on a Northwestern reservation. Native American and Caucasian students differed significantly only on their communication anxiety associated with approaching new people. No significant difference was found on factors of communication anxiety more specific to classroom communication. Native American students perceived the teachers to have significantly less communication competence. Additionally for Native American students, perceived teacher communication competence predicted reported enjoyment of classroom communication, fear of classroom communication and willingness to approach new people. For Caucasian students perceived teacher communication competence only predicted willingness to approach new people.