Measuring the Expertise of Paediatric Rehabilitation Therapists

This article describes the development of a classification system to measure the expertise levels of practicing paediatric rehabilitation therapists. Seventy‐five therapists from five disciplines (physical, occupational, speech‐language, behaviour, and recreational therapy) were involved, along with 170 peers, and 188 parents of children with disabilities. A cluster analysis of 10 indicators of expertise (derived from a battery of self‐completed, peer‐completed, and parent‐completed measures) indicated three levels of therapist expertise—novice, intermediate, and expert. Expertise level was related to various aspects of experience but not to therapy discipline. The classification system will be useful for the education and professional development of paediatric therapists, and for research on expertise in paediatric rehabilitation.     

Explaining student and home variance of Chinese reading achievement of the PIRLS 2011 Hong Kong

Hong Kong attained the top place in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2011, an international study of reading achievement, which arouses keen interest in understanding the reasons behind this remarkable achievement. Although factors associated with reading achievement in English have been widely studied, similar studies using Chinese as a different language system are limited. The present study proposes and tests a hypothetical model that attempts to explain the variance of reading achievement of Hong Kong pupils in the PIRLS 2011 study, focusing on parental and student factors. Data of 3,875 fourth graders from 132 primary schools and their parents or caregivers (n = 3,682) are involved in the analysis. Structural equation modeling supports the hypothesized model as tenable explaining 34% of the variance of reading achievement. Parental background acts as the fundamental factor that exerts an indirect effect on reading motivation, reading self‐efficacy, and reading achievement of students via books at home and early reading abilities. Reading motivation and reading self‐efficacy are found to be significant in influencing reading achievement. Implications for educational practices and future research are discussed.     

‘The miseries of others’: boxing in Hogarth’s Second Stage of Cruelty

ABSTRACT

The violence inherent in boxing has been a topic of public discourse since the early days of the sport, as has its supposed effect on society. In 1751, artist and social commentator William Hogarth weighed in by including boxing references in his four-part work addressing cruelty in 1740s London. In his Second Stage, dedicated to cruelty to animals, he somewhat incongruously includes a poster for a prizefight. This essay examines boxing in early-to-mid Hanoverian London to reveal why Hogarth chose to include this particular fight, using a variety of sources including an unpublished eyewitness account. This examination will allow us to better understand a transformational period in the sport of boxing and its place in 1740s London society.     

The academic and the community meet: two Black,female voices

This paper focuses on some of the life histories and presents experiences of two Black, professional women: one, a university, academic researcher (Doreen), and the other, a state nursery head teacher and research gate-keeper (Syble). We united with a mutual purpose, that is to embark on research into the success of Black children, now adults, of a 1970s Black-led, inner-city community nursery. Although sharing a research stage/agenda, the same gender, racial and social class grouping and thus seemingly having much in common, this paper will show that our stories sometimes vary substantially due to distinctive social, geographical, time-frame, career-choice factors, and personal and professional values. Issues such as identity, culture, citizenship, and race and racism will feature strongly here among some matters arising with regards to femininity and social class. The paper will conclude by emphasizing that among a homogeneous, gender and racial grouping of apparent generalities, individuals exist—a frequent oversight, especially with regards to African-Caribbean people.     

A Theoretical Framework of Benign Power in School Sector Decision Making: A preface

Benign power goes beyond the more traditional, theoretical frameworks of conflictual power advanced by Dahl (1961, Who Governs?, London, Yale University Press), Bachrach and Baratz (1970, Power and Poverty, New York, Oxford University Press) and Lukes (1974, Power, Basingstoke, Macmillan), where in these cases, power is exercised over another to serve individual ends. It is this focus on serving individual ends at the expense of another which has branded these studies' negative (or malign) definitions of power. But why should conflictual power be seen as negative? Power is regarded as benign when it is exercised in discordant relationships between persons to serve either altruistic and/or collective ends and in which the social and political values of democracy, political freedom and social justice are paramount. This paper is devoted to discussion of the theoretical framework of benign power.