Sex-differences in elite-performance track and field competition from 1983 to 2015

The purpose of this study was to assess the veracity of the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s assertion that sex-differences in athletic performance in elite-standard track and field competition is of the order of 10–12%. Exponential curves were fitted to the data of selected track and field events of the finals of all IAAF World Championships and Olympic Games from 1983 to 2016. For each curve, the coefficient of determination R² was calculated, in combination the corresponding 95% confidence intervals for the curve constants. Sex-differences were evaluated via differences in the fitted curves between men and women. Mean performances of winners, as well as overall performance means of all participants, were also analyzed. The calculated sex-difference was 8.2 ± 1.0% – 11.8 ± 2.1% for sprints, 10.3 ± 3.3% – 12.8 ± 4.0% for middle and long-distance events, 9.7 ± 2.9% – 13.1 ± 2.9% for relays and 14.2 ± 2.2% – 25.0 ± 4.4% for jumps. This study therefore confirms that the percentage difference accepted by the CAS is appropriate for elite-standard track and field events.     

Hyperandrogenic athletes: performance differences in elite-standard 200m and 800m finals

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the difference in elite-standard track and field performance between women athletes with and without hyperandrogenism reaches the 10–12% difference in performance between men and women, using only results from elite-standard track and field final competitions. Officially available data from two hyperandrogenic women (Caster Semenya and Dutee Chand) were compared with the characteristic performance of 200m and 800m elite-standard finals. The finishing times of Caster Semenya, before her ineligibility to compete in 2009 and after the suspension of the 2011 IAAF Hyperandrogenism Regulations were found to be respectively 1.24% and 1.49% faster than the predicted performance in 800m finals. When compared with the result of the second classified, the difference was respectively 0.65% and 2.08%. The analysis of the finishing times of Dutee Chand did not lead to any conclusions due to the lack of available data. The present study indicates that the percentage difference in performance between women with and women without hyperandrogenism does not reach the 3% difference requested by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for the reinstatement of the Hyperandrogenism Regulations, neither does it reach the 10% accepted range of difference in performance between men and women.     

“Whose World is This?”: A Composite Counterstory of Black Male Elementary School Teachers as Hip-Hop Otherfathers

From a critical race theory lens, the author shares data from a yearlong study on Black male elementary school teachers from the Hip-Hop generation. In this article, the author represents the data from said study as a composite counterstory which highlights how Black males are alienated, adultified, and criminalized in American public schools. Furthermore, in this article, the concept of otherfathering is comprehensively defined as it relates to how Black male teachers mentor and support their students.     

The genesis of a catalog of oral health-related surveys: locating oral health-related datasets

The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), in collaboration with the Division of Oral Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (DOH, CDC), has established a Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Data Resource Center (DRC). One element of the DRC is the Catalog of Surveys Related to Oral Health. The Catalog is a searchable electronic database that includes federal, state, international, and privately sponsored surveys and other datasets. Its purpose is to make researchers aware of surveys that have been conducted and to highlight features of complex surveys that relate to oral health. Other components of the DRC include an Archive of Procedures and Methods, Archive of Procedures and Methods Used in Oral Health Surveys, which is linked to the Catalog; an Annual Report, Oral Health U.S., 2002; and a data warehouse of acquired datasets. A Web-based statistical query system related to oral health is also under development. It is the intention of the DRC to meet the needs of NIDCR and DOH, CDC staff as well as other researchers interested in the status of oral health. The Catalog is available on CD-ROM at no cost and in the future will be made available through the NIDCR Web site.     

“You're My Parent but You're Not”: Dialectical Tensions in Stepchildren's Perceptions About Communicating with the Nonresidential Parent

The nonresidential parent plays a role in the lives of stepchildren and in stepfamily households. The focus of the present study was on the interaction between the nonresidential parent and his/her child who resides as part of a stepfamily household. Grounded in relational dialectics theory, the researchers performed an interpretive analysis of 50 transcribed interviews with college-aged stepchildren. Stepchildren's perceptions of communication with the nonresidential parent were animated by two contradictions: parenting/nonparenting and openness/closedness. These two contradictions form a totality, interwoven with one another. The parenting/nonparenting contradiction reflected stepchildren's ambivalence over parenting attempts of nonresidential parents. Stepchildren wanted nonresidential parent involvement and parenting, and at the same time they resisted it, often finding communication to be awkward and challenging. In addition, stepchildren wanted open and intimate communication with their nonresidential parents, yet they found openness to be problematic and managed these contradictory demands via segmentation. Implications of these findings are discussed, along with insights to guide professionals working with stepfamilies and adults co-parenting children to better understand and interact in ways that promote healthy stepfamilies.     

Moments of becoming: experiences of embodied connection to place in arts-based service learning in Australia

The experience of place in arts-based service learning (ABSL) is personal. It can be difficult to define and challenging to share and build upon. This paper, reporting from a national ABSL project involving three Australian universities, is concerned with experiences of place in forming professional teacher identity. Using a narrative methodology in presenting the stories of six people, pre-service teachers and Indigenous community members, the paper draws on a number of different theoretical frameworks to explore each participant’s experience and its longer-term impact on their thinking. The participant stories revealed the value of spaces between art-making, teaching, and research. The learning experiences led pre-service teachers to reflect deeply in relation to self and to consider the impact of their experiences on both current and future professional interactions. As anticipated, participants found it difficult to communicate these elemental experiences in the written word. The findings have implications for the value of flexible and critical service-learning approaches, particularly in diverse cultural contexts.     

Partnerships in Social Work Education

Historically, society has associated a visit from a child protection worker with the removal of children. In Canada in the 1960s, Aboriginal children were removed from their communities in alarming numbers and were referred to as the “sixties scoop.” This may in part explain the difficulty in recruiting Aboriginal social workers into child welfare practice. This reality prompted the development of a post–bachelor degree certificate aimed at increasing the number of Aboriginal child welfare social workers in northern British Columbia. The results discussed in this article stem from three certificate cohorts and highlight the development of new partnerships and students’ experiences. Two years following the completion of the third cohort, nearly 80% of the students recruited were still employed in the North.     

Teaching: A Job or a Profession? The Perceptions of Educators

Researchers designed a study to investigate educators’ perceptions about whether teaching is a job or a profession. A survey was developed to investigate factors such as individual definitions of a job and a profession, years of experience teaching, grade level or category of education, and individual perceptions of a profession. The respondents were 401 upper-level undergraduate preservice teachers and graduate students who were professional educators. Data collected showed many aspects of individuals’ perceptions of teaching including control of teaching and working situations, ethics, and personal perceptions of being a professional. Based on the findings from the study, researchers concluded that educators believe teaching is a profession.     

Does Educational Preparation Match Professional Practice: The Case of Higher Education Policy Analysts

This study compares the extent to which higher education policy analysts and master’s and doctoral faculty of higher education and public affairs programs match on a set of competencies thought to be important to higher education policy analysis. Analysts matched master’s faculty in three competencies while analysts and doctoral faculty matched in five competencies. The findings suggest possible reasons why analysts and graduate faculty agree or differ on various competencies. Also, the findings raise important questions regarding the preparation of higher education policy analysts and the graduate programs that educate them. This study is an addition to the body of competency literature. Eduardo C. Arellano  obtained a B.A. in Political Science and an M.P.A from the University of Texas at El Paso, and he holds the Ph.D. in Educational Administration from New Mexico State University. He is an assistant professor at New Mexico State University in the Department of Educational Management and Development. His special interests are interactional diversity, competency, and US–Mexico border studies. Mario C. Martinez  has a B.A. in Electrical Engineering from New Mexico State University, an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Leadership from Arizona State University. He is an associate professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in the department of Educational Leadership. His special interests are higher education policy, governance, finance, competency modeling, and strategy.     

Political instability, pro-business market reforms and their impacts on national systems of innovation

We investigate the impacts of political instability and pro-business market reforms on national systems of innovation (NSI) across a range of developing and developed countries. Evidence suggests that national systems of innovation are most likely to flourish in developed, politically stable countries and less likely to prosper in historically unstable countries. While research has shown that pro-business market reforms can be a valuable policy instrument to boost economic development in less developed countries, the extent to which these reforms affect a country's innovativeness has been neglected in the literature. In particular, the degree to which pro-business market reforms may compensate for political instability when it comes to fostering national systems of innovation remains under-researched. Our findings support established arguments concerning the strong influence of political instability on inputs to national innovation systems. We find, however, mixed effects for pro-business market reforms. While results indicate a negative direct influence on NSI, they consistently show a strong moderating effect that counterbalances the negative impact of political instability, especially in those developing country environments where science and technology are lagging. These results provide important implications for policymakers as well as for our understanding of emerging and transition economies and national technological capability.