Guideposts and Roadblocks to the Career-Long Scholarly Engagement of Physical Education Teacher Education Faculty

Purpose: Scholarship is essential for the growth and development of the physical education field. Over time, scholarship expectations have changed, forcing faculty members to alter time spent for research, teaching, and service. Social-cognitive career theory (SCCT) presents a model for understanding performance and persistence in an occupational environment. The interconnected aspects of SCCT have different emphasis related to self-efficacy, outcome expectations, or personal goals pursuit. This study explored physical education teacher education (PETE) faculty members’ continuing engagement in scholarly activity through SCCT. Method: Data collection included interviews with 9 senior PETE faculty members who met the criteria for “productive scholars over time.” Curriculum vitae were collected to verify productivity. Results: Data analysis revealed guidepost themes that included collaborating, finding balance, defining a research process, and maintaining a strong work ethic. Roadblocks encountered included other obligations and lack of support for research. Conclusions: Participants demonstrated strong self-efficacy; held high, positive expectations for success; and set very specific, clear, and deliberate goals. Participant behavior was moderated by their personal attributes (capacity to build relationships, set goals, and maintain interest and passion) and was tempered by the environments in which they worked. Fostering similar behaviors has the potential to guide future and current PETE faculty members in creating supportive and encouraging atmospheres for sustained productivity. The lack of literature relating to this topic warrants the need for more research exploring the influential factors and benefits gained from sustained scholarly productivity over time for PETE faculty members.     

Fingertip force and electromyography of finger flexor muscles during a prolonged intermittent exercise in elite climbers and sedentary individuals

The aim of this study was to characterize forearm muscle fatigue identified by the decrease in electromyogram median frequency and/or fingertip force during intermittent exercise. Nine elite climbers (international competitive level, USA 5.14a on sight) and ten non-climbers were instructed to maintain a fingertip force of 80% of their maximal voluntary contraction force on a dynamometer mimicking a rock climbing grip during a 5 s effort/5 s rest cycle for 36 repetitions (i.e. 6 min of exercise). Elite climbers lasted twice as long as non-climbers (climbers: 3 min; non-climbers: 1 min 30 s) before the force could no longer be maintained (i.e. the failure point). After this moment, fingertip force decreased and stabilized until the end of the exercise around 50% maximum voluntary contraction force in non-climbers and 63% in elite climbers. Electromyogram median frequency showed a greater decrease in non-climbers than in elite climbers before the failure point. No change in median frequency was observed after the failure point in elite climbers or in non-climbers. These results confirm that elite climbers are better adapted than non-climbers for performing the intermittent fingertip effort before the failure point. After this point, the better fingertip force of elite climbers suggests different forearm muscle properties, while the electromyography results do not provide any indication about the fatigue process.     

The impact of an open campus program upon high school students' sense of control over their environment

Students in an experimental and a control high school were compared in the fall and spring on their Locus of Control scores. An Open Campus policy was instituted in the experimental school, which essentially gave its upperclassmen the same freedom and responsibilities as those of a community college student. The experimentals increased significantly more than controls in internal control. Students reported that the Open Campus experience led to: after school jobs, greater time to pursue own interests, feelings of freedom, autonomy, and responsibility, a decline in grades due to “goofing off,” and less time for social activities.     

The learning worker,organizations and democracy

A current turn of interest in notions of the ‘learning economy’ and the ‘learning society’ is fuelling discussions on promoting education, training and learning in contemporary organizations and workplaces. Although the education of workers has been variously theorized and practised throughout the 20th century, the current debates are marked by a prevailing economic perspective that places emphasis on constructing ‘learning organizations’ and on ‘human resource’ learning in service of organizational strategies for innovation and competitive advantage in economic activities. Critics point out that economic and managerial models scarcely attend to the human subjectivity of the learner‐worker and the worker's diverse learning interests. Broader socio‐cultural ends of worker learning such as lifelong human development and participatory citizenship in democratic society are very often overlooked. This article offers a critical discussion of current conceptions of learning organizations and learning workers. It argues that the prevailing focus on techno‐economic imperatives and of obscured managerial elite interests in organizations currently circumscribe and delimit learning in production organizations. It proposes that a more comprehensive approach to learning in organizations attends explicitly to the needs and interests of workers as learning persons. Taking a longer view, it proposes that organizational and worker learning may generate not only improved work practices but may regenerate links between lifelong learning, societal democratic citizenship and civilized organizations.     

Policy discourse analysis: negotiating gender equity

This analysis of activists' and bureaucrats' politicking for gender policy in Australia demonstrates the utility of discourse analysis. Feminist policy initiatives are special: they challenge hegemony and they circulate counter discourse. Policy elites try to manage and discredit them. Traditional policy frameworks are used to identify policy with policy mechanisms, policy communities, value shifts and the like. But the use of policy discourse analysis for this Australian story elicits key strategies for constructing and managing a counter narrative and maintaining a counter public of outsiders using insiders to institutionalize gender policies even as equity and social justice value priorities recede.     

Understanding student article retrieval behaviors: Instructional implications

This study evaluates the use of full-text databases amongst 425 undergraduate and graduate students in western New York. A review of literature implicated convenience, time issues, article retrieval option knowledge, and the appreciation and understanding of research article quality as potential predictors of full-text reliance. These variables were then evaluated via survey response and frequency counts, by conducting correlations, a one-way ANOVA, and stepwise regression analyses. The findings suggested that convenience, appreciation and understanding of research quality, and time management issues played a significant role in the prediction of student full-text reliance. These findings as well as the relationships among independent variables are discussed. Implications for instruction are then addressed.