Barbara Jordan and the ongoing struggle for voting rights

ABSTRACT

This essay examines the voting rights advocacy of Congress member Barbara C. Jordan. Drawing on some of Jordan’s lesser known speeches, including an address commemorating the 75th anniversary of the nineteenth amendment and congressional testimony on the Voting Rights Act of 1975, I highlight how Jordan rhetorically refigured dominant understandings of the meaning of the vote based on gender, race, and ethnicity. Although she was certain to commemorate past suffrage successes, Jordan also contested and nuanced these notions, reminding her audiences that the quest for equitable voting rights was a long, ongoing, coalitional struggle.     

Examining Secondary Special Education Teachers’ Literacy Instructional Practices

This study presents findings from a survey of secondary special education teachers who teach reading. Respondents were 577 special education teachers from a large Midwestern state who completed an online or mail survey. Results based on quantitative and qualitative analyses indicate predominant foci of secondary special education teachers’ reading instructional practices were teaching vocabulary and comprehension, engaging in ongoing formative assessment, and incorporating technology into instruction. Major themes included the widespread use of commercial reading programs and a bifurcation of instructional roles. These findings are discussed in relation to the national discourse on adolescent literacy and current schooling initiatives including the Common Core State Standards and Multi-tiered Systems of Support.     

Metacognitive strategy use of eighth-grade students with and without learning disabilities during mathematical problem solving: a think-aloud analysis

The purpose of the study was to investigate the metacognitive abilities of students with LD as they engage in math problem solving and to determine processing differences between these students and their low- and average-achieving peers (n = 73). Students thought out loud as they solved three math problems of increasing difficulty. Protocols were coded and analyzed to determine frequency of cognitive verbalizations and productive and nonproductive metacognitive verbalizations. Results indicated different patterns of metacognitive activity for ability groups when type of metacognitive verbalization and problem difficulty were considered. Implications for instruction are discussed.     

An Expert Derived Feedforward Histology Module Improves Pattern Recognition Efficiency in Novice Students

Histology is a visually oriented, foundational anatomical sciences subject in professional health curricula that has seen a dramatic reduction in educational contact hours and an increase in content migration to a digital platform. While the digital migration of histology laboratories has transformed histology education, few studies have shown the impact of this change on visual literacy development, a critical competency in histology. The objective of this study was to assess whether providing a video clip of an expert’s gaze while completing leukocyte identification tasks would increase the efficiency and performance of novices completing similar identification tasks. In a randomized study, one group of novices (n = 9) was provided with training materials that included expert eye gaze, while the other group (n = 12) was provided training materials with identical content, but without the expert eye gaze. Eye movement parameters including fixation rate and total scan path distance, and performance measures including time-to-task-completion and accuracy, were collected during an identification task assessment. Compared to the control group, the average fixation duration was 13.2% higher (P < 0.02) and scan path distance was 35.0% shorter in the experimental group (P = 0.14). Analysis of task performance measures revealed no significant difference between the groups. These preliminary results suggest a more efficient search performed by the experimental group, indicating the potential efficacy of training using an expert’s gaze to enhance visual literacy development. With further investigation, such feedforward enhanced training methods could be utilized for histology and other visually oriented subjects.     

Knowledge,nutrition and coaching pedagogy: a perspective from female Brazilian Olympic gymnasts

It is acknowledged that knowledge and knowledge bases are an important part of coach and athlete learning and that the coach – athlete relationship is crucial to knowledge created, shared and used. This said knowledge about nutrition as constructed by elite gymnasts would seem particularly important in a culture long associated with weight control practices and disordered eating. This paper provides an insight into the ways that 10 Brazilian Olympic gymnasts construct ideas pertaining to nutritional knowledge across generational periods (between 1980 and 2004) where significant organisational change in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics in Brazil occurred and included the introduction of dieticians. Drawing upon different knowledge types and paying attention to the coaching context, the life histories of 10 Olympic gymnasts were used to open a window on knowledge construction pertaining to nutrition by three generations of gymnasts. The findings draw attention to two main illustrative themes. Firstly, coaches’ personal knowledge, whilst perceived as incomplete by gymnasts, reinforced a narrative of weight loss for gymnasts regardless of generation. Secondly, the younger generations of gymnasts perceived that the introduction of dieticians into structured provision enabled them to use better structured knowledge, and with it a sense of increased autonomy and corporeal learning via the construction of tacit embodied knowledge leading to healthier practices. Reflections are given to the role of the coach, dieticians and pedagogical actions, and the continued reshaping of knowledge in elite gymnastics.     

From 1883 to 2019; Variables Influencing Body Procurement at McGill University

McGill University has continued to maintain whole body dissection as an integral component of its medical school curriculum. To better explore the factors influencing body procurement at McGill University, records of body receipts were collected from their paper and electronic records and analyzed from 1883 to 2019. The data collected allowed for discussion on the number of bodies received at McGill University each year, the age at death of the bodies, their sex, as well as religious affiliation and language spoken at home. As bodies of the deceased have a long held and unique status in law, this information was considered in light of historical and legislative data and, in the case of religion and language, it was compared to census data for Montréal, Québec, Canada. Overall numbers of bodies procured by McGill University have varied throughout the years, with no discernable target number over time. The current body donor profile at McGill University is likely to be a male in his 70's and likely to speak French at home. However, the strong connection of the University with the Anglophone community of Montréal is reflected by the significantly higher proportion of English-speaking donors when compared to the general population of the city. In regard to legislation, it appears that the most recent legislations did not affect the rate of procurement. However, when legislations were embraced by religious institutions in 1883, there was a 261% increase in bodies sent for dissection, over the following two decades.     

A Matter of Regionalism: Remembering Brandon Teena and Willa Cather at the Nebraska History Museum

In 2010–2011, the Nebraska History Museum featured two temporary exhibits: “We the People: the Nebraskan Viewpoint” and “Willa Cather: A Matter of Appearances.” We argue the public memories of Brandon Teena and Willa Cather contained in the exhibits are distanced from regional politics when articulated alongside the nostalgic regionalist rhetoric of the Nebraska History Museum. Specifically, both exhibits not only discipline the memory of trans* performance within problematic material and symbolic contexts, but also place these memories within a rhetoric of regional optimism that has critical consequences for restricting counter-public formation. In performing this reading, the essay argues that critical regionalism has the potential to offer a nuanced perspective on the geopolitical dimensions of memory places by exploring understandings of the relationship between “local” and “national” commemoration at these sites.     

Effect of precooling and acclimation on repeat-sprint performance in heat

Abstract

This study determined whether precooling would have an additive effect on repeat-sprint cycling performance in heat following partial acclimation. Ten males completed three trials; Pre Acclimation (Pre Acc) and two Post Acclimation trials, one with precooling (ice jacket and slushy; Post Acc +PC) and another without (Post Acc). Trials consisted of a 30-min baseline period followed by a 70-min repeat-sprint protocol in ～35°C and 60% relative humidity. Separating pre and post trials were five heat acclimation sessions. Although no significant differences were found for performance variables, inferential statistical analysis resulted in moderate effect sizes, which suggested more work (J · kg^?1) was performed in Post Acc compared with Pre Acc. Further, ‘possible’ and ‘very likely’ benefits were found for every performance variable for Post Acc compared with Pre Acc, while ‘possible’ benefits were found for Post Acc, compared with Post Acc +PC, for peak power output (W and W · kg^?1). Moderate to strong effect sizes suggested lower core temperatures in both post acclimation trials compared with Pre Acc. Sweat loss was significantly higher (P < 0.05; 23.1%) in Post Acc +PC compared to other trials. In conclusion, no additional performance enhancement was seen when partially acclimated individuals precooled prior to repeat-sprint performance in heat.     

Replication of the Mere Presence Hypothesis: The Effects of Cell Phones on Face-to-Face Conversations

Research on the mere presence hypothesis shows mixed findings for the effects of cell phone presence on various conversation outcomes. The current study performed a partial replication of Przybylski and Weinstein’s (2013) study, which showed that strangers were likely to report lower levels of relational quality and empathy (among other variables) when a cell phone was placed in their view, particularly when their conversations were rated as meaningful. The results of the current study failed to replicate Przybylski and Weinstein’s (2013) findings, because cell phone presence did not significantly influence relational quality or empathy, nor was meaningfulness a moderator of cell phone presence on conversation outcomes. Changing norms in cell phone usage and competing explanations for cell phone effects are explored as possible explanations for the failure to replicate.     

Identifying and developing rugby talent among 10-year-old boys: a practical model

The re-entry of South Africa into the international sporting arena and the resultant need for the identification and development of talent, especially among formerly deprived groups of people, provided the incentive for this study. Its aim was to identify the physical, motor and anthropometric variables that will enable coaches to identify 10-year-old boys, based on their abilities, who could become successful rugby players. Altogether, 173 ten-year-old boys with no rugby experience from a cross-section of the population were selected at random and subjected to 14 physical and motor tests and 14 anthropometric measurements. From 22 schools which participated in the Western Transvaal primary schools under-11 rugby league, the three top teams (n = 45 individuals) were selected and also tested. The results from these three teams were used as the criteria for rugby talent among 10-year-old boys. To establish the best predictors of talent, a stepwise discriminant analysis was conducted: this indicated eight variables (four motor and four anthropometric) that discriminated maximally between the talented and the rest of the players of this age. With classification functions based on these eight variables, 93.8% of all the subjects were classified correctly, indicating good validity. A canonical analysis, based on the selected variables, was then conducted on all the under-11 teams that played in the league in the region (n = 330), and they were ranked according to the scores of the first canonical variable from the most to the least talented. By comparing these results with the players who were chosen for the region's primary schools team, a success rate of 88% in prediction of talent was established. We conclude that this is a successful and practical method to aid the teacher and the coach in selecting and developing talent among 10-year-old rugby players in South Africa.