Scaramouche Goes to Preschool: The Complex Matrix of Young Children’s Everyday Music

This article examines everyday musical practices and their connections to young children’s learning and development, in and through music. It begins with a discussion of music learning in early childhood as a form of participation and levels of intention in learning. Next, conceptions of child that have dominated early childhood music education discourses are discussed, along with other factors that are known to influence children’s musical lives, such as spatiality, repertoires and the politics of participation. Three illustrative vignettes that stem from the author’s experience as an early childhood music educator and researcher are presented throughout the text. Implications for early childhood education are outlined at the end.     

Teachers’ intercultural competence: a requirement or an option in a culturally diverse classroom?

This paper reports an exploratory study of the development of intercultural competence (IC) in elementary school teachers in Catalonia, Spain, utilising mixed-method quantitative and qualitative assessments. Through enrolment in a teacher training activity, the starting point was the administration of the Intercultural development inventory (IDI) to assess IC. Later, a discussion group was held to reflect on the results of the evaluation and to discuss educational practices in the face of cultural diversity. The quantitative IDI findings indicated that, regardless of the presence of foreign origin students at schools, participant teachers overestimate their level of intercultural sensitivity; there is a tendency to emphasise similarities in all cultures, which can minimise significant cultural differences. Nevertheless, the teachers became interested in cultural diversity after considering their potentially controversial and problematic educational context. Beyond admitted limitations of this study, inherent to small-scale methodological approach, our practice-based reflective proposal highlights obstacles and potentialities for managing cultural diversity in the classroom. These findings support the conclusion that IC is distributed throughout members of a community rather than being strictly an individual attribute. At the same time, the study thus demonstrates a mixed-method training design as an effective means of developing and assessing IC.     

Effect of wetted surface area on friction,pressure, wave and total drag of a kayak

Using theoretical principles, the components of drag (friction D _F, pressure D _PR and wave D _W) of a single-seat kayak were analysed. The purpose was to examine the effect of changes in wetted surface area due to changes in kayaker’s weight and the relative contribution of D _F, D _PR and D _W to the total passive drag as function of velocity. The total passive drag values were based on experimental data collected in a single-seat kayak. Three different kayaker simulated weights were tested – 65, 75 and 85 kg. D _F was the drag component that contributed the greatest percentage (between 60 and 68% at 5.56 m/s the top velocity tested) to the total passive drag for all the velocities tested and simulated weights. D _W was the most affected by the increase in kayaker’s simulated weight, mainly when comparing 65/75 to 85 kg. Results support the importance of a kayak design selection that minimises the kayak’s drag for the individual weight of the kayaker. Also, the results suggest that the path for better hydrodynamic kayak performance should seek changes that can reduce D _F, D _PR and D _W with D _F offering the most potential to reduce passive drag.