A Content Analysis of Ethnographic Research Published in Top Criminology and Criminal Justice Journals from 2000 to 2009

Despite qualitative research having much to offer to the understanding and prevention of crime, academic research in criminology and criminal justice (CCJ) is primarily quantitative. The relatively limited amount of ethnographic research in the field contributes to difficulties in understanding what represents sound ethnographic designs and the most appropriate ways to present such information. The current study examines the relative frequency with which ethnographic research appears in CCJ journals, and more importantly, the content of these articles. We find that less than 4% of all research published in 15 top CCJ journals use ethnographic methods. We present patterns about the methodological (e.g., sample size, type of data collection, and characteristics of participants) and stylistic (writing style, discussion of coding, and policy recommendations) content of these articles. We conclude with implications for our findings and point to substantive areas of research that may need more attention.     

Views of Nature and the Human-Nature Relations: An Analysis of the Visual Syntax of Pictures about the Environment in Greek Primary School Textbooks—Diachronic Considerations

This paper explores the function of the visual syntax of images in Greek primary school textbooks. By using a model for the formal analysis of the visual material, which will allow us to disclose the mechanisms through which meanings are manifested, our aim is to investigate the discursive transition relating to the view of nature and the human-nature relationship between two series of natural science textbooks. The model is applied to a total of 635 pictures; 434 coming from the old series of textbooks introduced in the early 1980s and 201 from the new introduced in 2006. The results show that a) no differences in the codes of the visual representation of nature or human-nature relationship were recorded between the two series of textbooks, b) the environmental rhetoric mediated by the pictorial material of the textbooks appears closer to its lay counterpart than to scientific rhetoric, c) both series of textbooks favor a viewer-picture relation which diverges from the epistemological (subject/object) ideas of the romantic worldview and comes closer to the baroque one that depicts the world as non-linear and disconnected, while gives more freedom to the viewer to proceed to subjective interpretations. Thus, we assert that the baroque approach adopted by both series of textbooks does not aim at the initiation of students to the highly conventionalized ways of expression, and ultimately to the formalized and scientific rhetoric. On the contrary, within a constructionist context, the textbooks’ visual mode allows students to equally share power with a quite familiar world.     

Explorations in using arts‐based self‐study methods

Research methods courses typically require students to conceptualize, describe, and present their research ideas in writing. In this article, the author describes her exploration in using arts‐based techniques for teaching research to support the development of students’ self‐study research projects. The pedagogical approach emerged from the author’s sociocultural theoretical perspective in using symbols and dialogue as mediating tools. Three arts‐based research projects were utilized to assist doctoral students in articulating research interests, framing research proposals, and reflecting on their development as researchers. Data included students’ implementation and assessment of projects; the instructor’s teaching logs; and students’ course evaluations. The projects served to illuminate the subtleties of research interests, self‐understanding and understanding of other’s research, and learning about self‐study by practicing it. Research methods instructors are prompted to consider what happens when students are asked to demonstrate their understanding of research using the arts and when they study the ‘so what’ of using them.     

Muscle performance following an acute bout of plyometric training combined with low or high intensity weight exercise

Abstract

To determine the time course of performance responses after an acute bout of plyometric exercise combined with high and low intensity weight training, a 3-group (including a control group), repeated-measures design was employed. Changes in performance were monitored through jumping ability by measuring countermovement and squat jumping, and strength performance assessment through isometric and isokinetic testing of knee extensors (at two different velocities). Participants in both experimental groups performed a plyometric protocol consisting of 50 jumps over 50 cm hurdles and 50 drop jumps from a 50 cm plyometric box. Additionally, each group performed two basic weight exercises consisting of leg presses and leg extensions at 90–95% of maximum muscle strength for the high intensity group and 60% of maximum muscle strength for the low intensity group. The results of the study suggest that an acute bout of intense plyometric exercise combined with weight exercise induces time-dependent changes in performance, which are also dependent on the nature of exercise protocol and testing procedures. In conclusion, acute plyometric exercise with weight exercise may induce a substantial decline in jumping performance for as long as 72 hours but not in other forms of muscle strength.     

An overview of web-based school collaboration: a history of success or failure?

The notion of school collaboration has become widely recognised as an effective means of fostering cultural links and supporting communication between geographically separated schools. As shall be acknowledged in this paper, school collaboration follows on from a long history of collaborative initiatives across the past 50 years. However, the introduction of digital technologies and the internet in the 1990s has raised new challenges and created new opportunities for ‘telecollaboration’ whilst the growth of social media over the past five years is seen to have transformed the ways in which online collaboration is experienced by most end users. Based on a review of the existing body of literature, this paper offers a critical overview of current models of web-based collaborative programmes – attempting to map out the complex nature of school collaboration and consider the actors and factors that can shape successful implementation into educational practices.     

Critical disability studies and socially just change in higher education

Social justice is an ambiguous and contested term that is evoked in order to address issues of enhancing participation and eliminating discrimination across various markers of difference linked to race, social class, and so on. Historically, disability has been excluded from these analyses because it has been cast in the sphere of abnormality and individual pathology. Notwithstanding considerable progress in the widening participation of disabled individuals in higher education, there are still many issues that need to be addressed in order to remove barriers to inclusion and to eradicate discriminatory regimes. The article, by Anastasia Liasidou of the European University Cyprus, uses some insights from Critical Disability Studies in order to highlight the ways in which certain dimensions of a social justice discourse need to be incorporated into debates about widening participation in higher education on the grounds of disability. Considerable emphasis is placed on the importance of adopting the theoretical and pedagogical underpinnings of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a means to mobilising socially just changes in higher education.