Communities of Ruin: Humanitarian Violence and the Amazon's Uncontacted Tribes

This essay investigates portrayals of ‘uncontacted tribes’ of the Amazon by the humanitarian organisations and the popular texts that aim to study and save them. These portrayals rely upon a convergence of figures of racial, gender and sexual deviance recuperated from the age of high imperialism, with newer configurations of the human which emerged in the wake of the Second World War. How might we account for the fact that these objects of preservation are presented – save for a few crucial exceptions – as degraded, almost dead or simply not there? By way of addressing this question, I offer the production of the ‘uncontacted’ as one site for examining the imbrication of humanitarianism and violence.     

法国的医学教育

在过去10年中,法国的卫生保健和医学教育制度已进行了很大的改革.本文调查了法国的医学课程、医学生的选择、执照颁发和继续医学教育,并讨论了法国医学院校面临的挑战.     

Vocational education,on-the-job training,and labour market integration of young workers in urban West Africa

Young people in Africa encounter many difficulties in entering the labour market and in searching for decent and productive jobs. Research on the links between formal education and vocational training and their economic returns are especially crucial in understanding the inadequate demand for their labour. This article presents evidence based on the 1-2-3 Surveys conducted in seven West African countries; the surveys provide a consistent and comparable picture of the urban youth employment situation in these countries. The analysis also indicates that vocational education could be helpful in integrating the formal sector and that it often offers better earnings and better firm performance than general education, especially at higher levels of schooling. Overall, young workers with no formal vocational education and training face poorer working conditions, while those who have had a traditional apprenticeship in a small firm occupy an intermediate position. Finally, on-the-job training plays a crucial role in the informal sector of the West African cities.     

Exploring and developing reciprocity in research design

The researcher–participant relationship has the potential to be reciprocal, a relationship in which each contributes something the other needs or desires. Participants devote their time, effort, experiences, and wisdom to inform and shape the researcher’s study. The researcher’s scope, depth, and nature of inquiry introduce vulnerability to participants’ lives. In turn, researchers are susceptible to variable involvement and apathy from participants. While neither the relational aspect of research nor its potential for reciprocity is new, we are concerned that the concept is overshadowed in the current, positivistic culture of evidence in education research. Using vignettes from our special education research, we describe the affordances of a stance of reciprocity, illustrating the contours of the component in recruitment, participation, analysis, and presentation. We ask: How do truth traditions support reciprocity? How do we authentically reciprocate participants’ efforts throughout the research process? And finally, how might qualitative work embrace reciprocity and lead education research to a broader conceptualization of evidence, one that expands the transformative potential of our collective work?     

Student adjustment to higher education: the role of alternative educational pathways in coping with the demands of student life

The present longitudinal study measured student adjustment to higher education, comparing 50 participants from alternative schools (Steiner, Montessori, New Schools) with 80 students from the traditional school system. We hypothesized that students from alternative schools adapt better, because of greater perceived social support, academic self-efficacy, and task-oriented coping styles. Measures were taken during the last school year (baseline characteristics), and at the beginning of the first and last terms of the first year in higher education. The quality of adjustment was assessed through academic results, and physical and psychological well-being. The following instruments were used: the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory by Spielberger (1983), the 13-items Depression Inventory by Beck et al. (1961), the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations by Endler and Parker (1990), and semi-directed interviews. Results show that students from alternative schools adjust better to higher education: they report less anxiety and depression symptoms, and show greater life satisfaction and academic achievement.     

Arm coordination and performance level in the 400-m front crawl

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the Index of Coordination (IdC) and the propulsive phase durations can differentiate performance level during a maximal 400-m front crawl swim trial. Sixteen male swimmers constituted two groups based on performance level (G1: experts; G2: recreational). All participants swam the 400-m front crawl at maximal speed. Video analysis determined the stroke (swimming speed, stroke length, stroke rate) and coordination (IdC) parameters for every 50 m. Both stroke and coordination parameters discriminated performance level. The expert group had significantly higher values for speed and stroke length and lower values for the relative propulsive phase duration and IdC (p < .05). However there was no significant change in coordination parameters for either group throughout the trial. This suggests that, when associated with greater stroke length, catch-up coordination can be an efficient coordination mode that reflects optimal drag/propulsion adaptation. This finding provides new insight into swimmers' adaptations in a middle-distance event.     

An Exploratory Investigation of the Effect of Certain Selected Factors Upon Performance of Sixth-Grade Children in Arithmetic

Using samples of Chinese middle school students, the 2 experimental studies presented here examined the effects of goal content and goal context on test performance, free-choice engagement, and test anxiety within the framework of self-determination theory. Students’ learning goals were induced as intrinsic or extrinsic with the learning contexts of either autonomy-supportive or controlling. Results suggested that as the more recent extensions of self-determination theory, goal content and goal context effects existed among our samples of Chinese middle school students. However, there was some inconsistency between the authors’ findings and previous findings in Western culture.     

The Role of Postural Support in Young Adults’ Control of Stationary Kicking

Purpose: The requirement for postural stability during the performance of motor skills has been clearly demonstrated in infants, but the necessity for such a postural substrate is not well documented in adults. The present study investigated the role of postural stability during a ballistic ball-kicking task in adults by providing varying degrees of external postural support. Method: In the 1st experiment, 30 participants performed 20 maximal-velocity kicks under each of 3 conditions: grasping a rigid stable handle, light fingertip touch, and grasping a suspended elastic tube. A 2nd experiment with 16 participants varied the position of the stable handle to examine if the handle position in Experiment 1 might simply act as a fulcrum to enhance torque generation. Results: In Experiment 1, ball velocity was significantly higher in the stable-grasp condition in both men and women with the men showing greater improvement relative to the other conditions. Experiment 2 showed that the position of the stable handle did not significantly affect kicking velocity, indicating that the handle was not simply acting as a fulcrum during the kick. Conclusion: Together, the findings suggest that postural stability may be a rate limiter in the performance of dynamic motor tasks in adults.