Discriminant analysis of the physiques of schoolboy rugby players, hurlers and non-team members

The subjects were 31 successful schoolboy rugby players and 25 successful schoolboy hurlers; 34 non-team members acted as controls. Thirty-one anthropometric measurements were taken on each subject: height, weight, sitting height, five skeletal lengths, six skeletal diameters, 13 muscle circumferences and four skinfolds. The non-players were significantly smaller than both the rugby players and the hurlers in weight, biacromial diameter, bideltoid, neck, chest, flexed arm, upper and lower thigh and calf circumferences. The non-players were significantly smaller than the rugby players in arm length, femur diameter and waist, hip and relaxed arm circumferences. The non-players were significantly smaller than the hurlers in femur length, biiliac and ankle diameters. There were no statistically significant differences between the rugby players and hurlers. Discriminant analysis produced a function containing terms for height, weight, fat free weight, humerus diameter and neck, bideltoid, forearm and calf circumferences which correctly assigned 83 (92%) of the subjects to 'player' and 'non-player' categories. When the function was applied to the 15 members of the rugby team of a different school, 14 were placed in the 'player' category and one subject was given a borderline classification. It is concluded that there were differences in physique between the team members and non-members and that the techniques used in the study were effective in quantifying them.     

Paradise elementary school

This paper is a fictionalized account of the development, within an elementary school, of four distinctive schools-within-schools. Questions and issues arising in developing such programs are discussed, the theme of each of these four is described, and advantages that staff find in the arrangement are presented.     

Rural primary school teachers as change agents in the third world: Three case studies

During the past two decades considerable interest has been shown in the use of primary school teachers as change agents — rural animateurs — in the rural areas of the Third World. The concept is not new. Its origins certainly go back to British colonial administration in Africa, but it has been increasingly advocated as a solution to the pressing problems of rural underdevelopment, illiteracy and urban migration.This paper examines the theoretical basis of the concept both historically and in more recent writings; examines three national case studies, from Thailand, Iran and Cameroon; and from these seeks to draw general propositions that might have a wider validity.     

Education,Class and Culture: the Birmingham ethnographic tradition and the problem of the new middle class

The ethnographies of youth culture and schooling produced by the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies and its followers had a major impact on educational sociology during the late 1970s and 1980s. Despite this invaluable contribution, important theoretical and methodological problems emerged in their treatment of class and culture. In particular, the untheorised presence of the ‘new middle class’ and a confusing notion of ‘dominant culture’, weakened the coherence of their analyses. This article traces these problems from the early studies of youth culture through to more recent school ethnographies. It concludes by stressing the relevance of critical concepts like class and culture within contemporary debates emerging from the ‘new’ educational settlement     

Defending Public Schooling

This is a perilous time for the dream and promise of education. With Betsy DeVos heading the Department of Education, some states are already making moves to privatize education. Arizona is promising $5,000 per child for parents to spend as they like. What kind of private school charges only $5,000? I worry about the kind of education that middle-class and working-class kids will get in the kind of privatized schools they'll be sent to.