A Critical Review of Students’ and Teachers’ Understandings of Nature of Science

Science & Education - There is widespread agreement that an adequate understanding of the nature of science (NOS) is a critical component of scientific literacy and a major goal in science...     

Education as Séance: Specters,Spirits, and the Expansion of Memory

In this essay I propose that education be conceived as séance: a place where ghosts are summoned in order that we may come to (speaking) terms with them. Against the backdrop of my own summoning of the ghosts haunting my childhood visits to a nearby castle, I draw on the work of Jacques Derrida to provide a theoretical rationale for the importance of spirits and ghosts. The concepts of inheritance and hospitality place a central role in understanding how to come to terms with ghosts. I conclude with a reflection on the summoning of ghosts in education, and the role of the curriculum as medium in this séance.     

Reported Research Funding in Four Early Childhood Journals

Funding for research in the area of early childhood is an ongoing challenge. The present research objective was to identify the frequency of acknowledgment of federal funding in articles published by four leading early childhood journals from 1999 to 2008. We conducted a content analysis of 1,338 publications found in Early Child Development and Care, Early Childhood Education Journal, Early Childhood Research and Practice, and Early Childhood Research Quarterly. Approximately 28% of the sample (368 articles in the target journals) reported funding in general. More specifically, 43% of the sample (160 articles of the 368 articles funded) reported federal funding. It is concluded that external funding, particularly federal funding for early childhood research may be the exception rather than the rule.     

Stress and risk for depression in competitive athletes suffering from back pain – Do age and gender matter?†

Back pain (BP), a prominent problem for competitive athletes, is a primary reason for limitations in athletic performance and daily life restrictions. As studies on the relationship between psychological variables and BP in athletes are scarce, the aim of this study was to investigate stress and depression in competitive athletes with BP. In a cross-sectional design, data of 154 competitive athletes (51% female; M_age?=?18.81 years, SD_age?=?5.05 years) were collected, assessing Performance stress, Socio-emotional stress, Risk for depression and Psychological well-being and the two BP parameters BP Intensity and Disability. Two multiple linear regressions were conducted to predict (1) BP Intensity and (2) Disability from Performance stress, Socio-emotional stress, Risk for depression and Psychological well-being. Multiple linear regressions demonstrated that Performance stress (β?=?.21, p?=?.01) was the only significant predictor of BP Intensity (F_1,142?=?6.68, p?=?.01, R²?=?.05), whilst Risk for depression (β?=?.24, p?=?.01) was the only significant predictor of Disability (F_1,142?=?8.46, p?=?.01, R²?=?.06). Neither gender nor age explained a significant amount of variance in the models. Study results showed that, as in the general population, the variables stress and depression are related to BP in competitive athletes. In particular, BP intensity was found to be associated with stress and BP-related disability was associated with depression, whereas age and gender showed no association with the BP parameters. A longitudinal investigation is warranted to determine the direction of the observed relationships.     

Women's Participation in Sport in Portugal during the New State Regime

The period of Portuguese history known as the New State (1930–1974) was marked by a strong ideology that had a great impact upon gender relations and on women's status and their participation in sport. During this period a variety of arguments grounded in aesthetics, morals, health and women's biology were put forward not only to encourage women's involvement in sport but also to control the kinds of sports in which women could be involved, as well as the intensity of sports practice. In spite of the state's attempt to control women's involvement in sport, there were women who resisted this control by pursuing sport, thus showing the existence of spaces within the sports figuration that were used to express ideas different from those disseminated by the regime. In this context the campaign for women's sport, which developed in the 1930s, was important. This paper seeks to examine women's participation in sport and in particular in all-female sports clubs and the controversies that surrounded the campaign for women's sport and the creation of such clubs.     

‘Strong mothers make strong children’: sports,eugenics and nationalism in Brazil at the beginning of the twentieth century

Based on post-structural feminist and gender studies, the present article analyses the importance given to the practice of physical education, sports and exercise as part of the national policy to strengthen the Caucasian-Brazilian population at the beginning of the twentieth century, emphasising the priority made of the White female body as the most important instrument in strengthening the so called ‘White race’. All the editions of the Revista Educação Physica, the first magazine published specifically for physical education and sport in Brazil, was the primary research source. Other books, manuals, reviews from scientific congresses and official publications from the Brazilian Government at the time were also examined. Via the technical analysis of the contents of the aforementioned publications, it was possible to conclude that the Brazilian nationalist discourse at the time sought what was called the ‘refinement of the White race’ by strengthening its women while, at the same time, systematically ignoring Black women.