Effects of 72-h of exercise abstinence on affect and body dissatisfaction in healthy female regular exercisers

In this study, we compared the effects of a 72-h exercise abstinence period and normal exercise on the affect and body dissatisfaction of 58 healthy women (mean age 26.1 years, s = 8.2) who exercised at least four times per week, and explored the relationship between the changes in affect and body dissatisfaction. Participants completed the UWIST-MACL and Body Dissatisfaction Scale to assess affect and body image, and were randomized to an abstinence or control group. Affect and body image for both groups were re-assessed following the 72-h abstinence period. Compared with the control group, the abstinence group had a significant decrease in hedonic tone and energetic arousal, and a significant increase in tense arousal and body dissatisfaction from pre-intervention to post-intervention. There were no significant relationships between the changes in body dissatisfaction and the components of affect. A 72-h exercise abstinence period resulted in increased affect disturbance and body dissatisfaction in regularly active women.     

Curriculum transition in Germany and South Africa: 1990–2010

At first sight, there is not much to compare, or any reason to compare, German and South African curricular frameworks. The history, nature of their respective transitions, level of development and educational legacies are very different. But the fall of the Berlin Wall and ending of apartheid brought both within a common neo-liberal global framework. A significant literature in comparative education points to increasing homogeneity in education systems and their curricula, while another points to how states and societies transfer, borrow, absorb or deflect such ideas in a manner that confirms difference and diversity, linked to historical specificity. The article probes these questions by comparing the history curriculum changes and their implications in both Germany and South Africa from 1990 to 2010 using a framework derived from Hayden White. It argues first that while the transitions in the 1990s were notably dissimilar, the international testing movement a decade later helped to precipitate common responses in the adoption and strengthening of standards in the early 2000s. However, despite this apparent convergence, the nature of standards developed differed substantially and these differences were linked to respective histories of history education in the transition. This article argues secondly that history curricula of both East and West Germany and a unified Germany had fully elaborated knowledge-focused curricula until the 2000s when competences were introduced. South Africa's 1997 curriculum did not build on past curricula, but its outcomes became hybridised artefacts before being abandoned in 2009 when the period of superficial convergence of form between the two countries came to an end. The article uses a combination of primary and secondary documents.     

The disciplinary dimensions of nineteenth-century gymnastics for US women

This study examines the conditions and terms under which US discourses promoting gymnastics for women institutionalized those exercise regimens as vehicles of disciplinarity between 1830–1870. Specifically, it finds that those texts encouraged practices of medical examination and measurement along with a variety of additional, interconnected and significant disciplinary operations: economies of space, of distribution, and of order; logics of temporality, of individual development, and of social salvation; procedures of monitoring and of rendering normalizing judgments; mechanisms of review and of punishment through exercise; as well as the dynamics of panopticism and of self-monitoring. That array of disciplinary techniques, in turn, was meant to materially effect not only a healthy, orderly, and morally transcendent social body but also enlightened, disciplined, and idealized feminine subjectivities. As a consequence, this paper also asserts that the resistant potentialities of gymnastics for US women between 1830–1870 cannot be evaluated thoroughly without some consideration of modern power's nature, attributes, and applications.     

Diffusion of the National Qualifications Framework and outcomes‐based education in southern and eastern Africa

This article explores policy and curriculum diffusion in southern and eastern Africa through an examination of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and outcomes‐based education. The article argues that the NQF was adopted for different reasons in different contexts, but that discourse coalitions and conferences have been critical in spreading these ideas in a new regional political and economic context. It shows how South Africans have tried to export the idea at the very moment when evidence is revealing little relationship between policy intention and outcome, it is contested at home, and there is a retreat from it in some sectors of education.     

Girls and Occupational Choice: anti‐sexism in action in a curriculum development project

This paper is an interim report on the Girls and Occupational Choice Project at the Institute of Education, London. The research design and methods used are briefly described but the paper focuses on the action research component of this project, and discusses anti‐sexist curriculum development and implementation in a number of schools. The emphasis is on methodological and political issues which arise in doing anti‐sexist action research in the educational setting.     

Contexts of educational policy change in Botswana and South Africa

This article examines how different histories and contexts of political and educational change in Botswana and South Africa have shaped the more regular classroom practice observed in Botswana. It does this through an interpretive synthesis and comparison of four key moments of educational change in Botswana and South Africa during the twentieth century, followed by an examination of more recent curriculum and assessment, teacher education, supervision, and evaluation policy in each country. The article highlights differences in decolonization processes and similarities in economic conditions and spending on education. It shows that processes of educational change have been and continue to be marked by the respectively different histories of gradual and incremental change on the one hand, and rapid, disruptive change on the other. And while recent curriculum and assessment policies show convergence with one another, this is less the case with teacher policies and processes.     

Six elements for technology integration in multicultural classrooms

Abstract

Although the number of computers in American schools multiplies, educational inequity remains evident in the area of technology. The socio-economically disadvantaged, the physically disabled, and the culturally and linguistically different have limited knowledge of and experiences with technology. Equitable access to technology requires the infusion of effective multicultural teaching strategies into educational technology use. These strategies must be broad enough to be inclusive of diverse learners, yet specific enough to be valuable as a guide to multicultural teaching. Similarly, they should allow for individual creativity and personal differences in teaching and learning. In this paper, the author proposes and defines six elements for integrating technology in culturally diverse classrooms: cultural awareness, cultural relevance, culturally supportive environment, equitable access, instructional flexibility, and instructional integration. These six elements are based on research on effective teaching of diverse students. They are not exhaustive of good instructional practices for technology use with diverse learners. Nevertheless, the author found their application in the evaluation of 32 technology-integrated units both informative and effective in identifying how teachers integrated computers for diverse learners. The author recognizes the need for further validation of these criteria and for research on effective teacher use of technology in multicultural settings.     

Two-Part Share Contracts, Risk, and the Life Cycle of Stars: Some Empirical Results from Motion Picture Contracts

What determines the market value of a star? This paper examines the size of fixed payments to leading actors in the U.S. motion picture industry from a sample of contracts between 1959 and 1989. Competing explanations for the size of compensation, including rent capture, risk sharing, signalling, and portfolio optimization by studio executives are explored. The size of fixed payment across all contract types moves with an actor's history of participating in top-20 grossing films over the past five, ten, fifteen, and twenty films. Further, the impact of past top-20 successes is enhanced by the length of the actor's career. When contracts are divided into those with both fixed payments and share payments and those with only fixed payments, the fixed payment in two-part share contracts is influenced to some extent by risk concerns, in addition to the actor's star power. Fixed-payment-only contracts are most strongly influenced by measures of signalling and star power. Data on both types of contract provide strong support for the rent-capture theory: actors are paid rents upfront for the star value they add to the production.