On the making and taking of professionalism in the further education workplace

This paper examines the changing nature of professional practice in English further education. At a time when neo‐liberal reform has significantly impacted on this under‐researched and over‐market‐tested sector, little is known about who its practitioners are and how they construct meaning in their work. Sociological interest in the field has tended to focus on further education practitioners as either the subjects of market and managerial reform or as creative agents operating within the contradictions of audit and inspection cultures. In challenging such dualism, which is reflective of wider sociological thinking, the paper examines the ways in which agency and structure combine to produce a more transformative conception of the further education professional. The approach contrasts with a prevailing policy discourse that seeks to re‐professionalise and modernise further education practice without interrogating either the terms of its professionalism or the neo‐liberal practices in which it resides.     

Cortical and trabecular bone analysis of professional dancers using 3D-DXA: a case–control study

Given the lack of relevant data, the aim of this study was to examine femur cortical and trabecular bone in female and male professional ballet dancers. 40 professional ballet dancers and 40 sex- and age-matched non-exercising controls volunteered. Femoral bone density was scanned by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan. A 3D-DXA software was used to analyse trabecular and cortical bone. Anthropometry, maturation (Tanner staging), menstrual parameters (age at menarche and primary amenorrhea), energy availability and nutritional analysis (3-day record) were also assessed.Compared to non-exercising participants, dancers exhibited significantly higher volumetric density for integral, cortical and trabecular bone, and thicker cortex at the femur. Ballet dancers demonstrated lower body weight compared to controls (p < 0.01). Female dancers had their menarche later than controls, and the prevalence of primary amenorrhea were significantly higher in dancers than controls (p < 0.01). Dancer’s energy availability was below the normal range (<30 kcal/kgFFM/day). Despite the presence of certain osteoporosis risk factors such as low energy availability, primary amenorrhoea and lower body weight, professional ballet dancers revealed higher bone density for both cortical and trabecular bone compartments compared to controls.     

Effect of two different intensity distribution training programmes on aerobic and body composition variables in ultra-endurance runners

The aim of this study was to compare the effects of two different intensity distribution training programmes (polarized (POL) and threshold (THR)) on aerobic performance, strength and body composition variables in ultra-endurance runners. Twenty recreationally trained athletes were allocated to POL (n?=?11; age: 40.6?±?9.7 years; height: 175.4?±?7?cm; weight: 73.5?±?10.8?kg; fat mass 18.4?±?6.0%; VO₂max: 55.8?±?4.9?ml/kg/min) or THR group (n?=?9; age: 36.8?±?9.2 years; height: 178.5?±?4.2?cm; weight: 75.5?±?10.4?kg; fat mass 14.9?±?5.3%; VO₂max: 57.1?±?5.2?ml/kg/min) and performed the 12 weeks training programme. Both programmes had similar total time and load but a different intensity distribution (POL?=?79.8?±?2.1% in Zone 1; 3.9?±?1.9% in Zone 2; 16.4?±?1.5% in Zone 3; THR?=?67.2?±?4.6% in Zone 1; 33.8?±?4.6% in Zone 2; 0% in Zone 3). Body composition, isokinetic strength and aerobic running performance were measured before and after each programme. Both groups decreased fat mass after training (POL= Δ–11.2%; p?=?.017; ES?=?0.32; THR= Δ–18.8%; p?p?=?0.003; ES?=?0.71) and 12?km/h (Δ–4.5%; p?=?.026; ES?=?0.73) and running time to exhaustion (Δ2.4%; p?=?.011; ES?=?0.33). No changes were observed in strength and no significant differences were observed between the group in any variable. Compared with THR distribution, 12 weeks of POL training efficiently improves aerobic performance in recreational ultra-endurance runners.     

Building Faculty Support for Remote Storage: A Survey of Collection Behaviors and Preferences

A seismic retrofitting project required the UCSB Library (University of California, Santa Barbara) to permanently reduce its on-site collections by 120,000 volumes. To accomplish this successfully, a strong collaboration with the faculty was essential. This article describes a planning process in which the library worked with a faculty committee to implement a campus-wide survey of faculty and graduate students regarding their behaviors and preferences in accessing and using the collections. The survey outcomes informed a common understanding of which physical materials should remain on-site and which could be moved to storage with the least impact on research and teaching.     

Exploring Biology Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge in the Teaching of Genetics in Swaziland Science Classrooms

This study explored the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and its development of four experienced biology teachers in the context of teaching school genetics. PCK was defined in terms of teacher content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and knowledge of students’ preconceptions and learning difficulties. Data sources of teacher knowledge base included teacher-constructed concept maps, pre- and post-lesson teacher interviews, video-recorded genetics lessons, post-lesson teacher questionnaire and document analysis of teacher's reflective journals and students’ work samples. The results showed that the teachers’ individual PCK profiles consisted predominantly of declarative and procedural content knowledge in teaching basic genetics concepts. Conditional knowledge, which is a type of meta-knowledge for blending together declarative and procedural knowledge, was also demonstrated by some teachers. Furthermore, the teachers used topic-specific instructional strategies such as context-based teaching, illustrations, peer teaching, and analogies in diverse forms but failed to use physical models and individual or group student experimental activities to assist students’ internalization of the concepts. The finding that all four teachers lacked knowledge of students’ genetics-related preconceptions was equally significant. Formal university education, school context, journal reflection and professional development programmes were considered as contributing to the teachers’ continuing PCK development. Implications of the findings for biology teacher education are briefly discussed.     

The impact of a Curriculum for Resilience Promotion in Deaf Children and Adolescents

Resilience is an interactive process involving internal skills that should be promoted, especially in the early stages of development. This study aims to adapt and implement two themes from the European Curriculum for Resilience Promotion – RESCUR, namely, ‘Developing Communication Skills’ and ‘Establishing and Maintaining Healthy Relationships’, for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students. The study included 37 children and adolescents from three Portuguese regions and its impact was evaluated through the perspectives of the students, their guardians and their teachers. Each 90-minute session was implemented weekly. The sessions followed the RESCUR curriculum structure with necessary adaptations to the mindfulness activities, stories, role-play and worksheets. The mean scores increased from pre- to post-intervention assessment on all instruments, namely, KIDSCREEN-10 (children/adolescents), KIDSCREEN-10 (guardians) and CYRM-28 (teachers). The implementation of adapted curricula promoting resilience seems to be beneficial to DHH children, allowing the development of specific resilience-associated skills, and thus enhancing health, well-being and quality of life.     

Football,Control and Resistance in the Brazilian Military Dictatorship in the 1970s

This study analyses forms of political manifestations related to football (soccer), observed in Brazil in the course of the 1970s. The article observes, in the context of football, the outbreak of a dispute between conservative powers and left wing forces in the Brazilian political scene. In this period, different subjects, linked to opposition groups, also used the communicative space created around the sport in order to externalise their political ideals. Thus, the sport served the interests of both the state and the Brazilian leftists. These actions generated the involvement of football players, artists and the media in general. In this context, the sports press figured as the main mediator of the symbolic battles engaged amidst football players, coaches, managers and fans, and the official acts and actions of the state.     

De Genève à Belo Horizonte,une histoire croisée: circulation,réception et réinterprétation d’un modèle européen des classes spéciales au Brésil des années 1930

L’organisation des classes homogènes selon le niveau de développement mental des élèves et celle des classes spéciales pour les enfants en retard scolaire eut lieu dans les écoles élémentaires de Belo Horizonte, au Brésil, pendant les années de 1930, dans le cadre d’une réforme du système d’éducation, à laquelle participèrent des spécialistes étrangers, et en spécial la psychologue russe Helena Antipoff (1892–1974). Le projet des classes spéciales alors établies et leurs transformations dans le contexte brésilien sont étudiés à partir de données documentaires publiées entre 1930 et 1940. Née en Russie, Antipoff a fait des études supérieures en France (1910–1911), comme stagiaire dans le laboratoire Binet-Simon, et à Genève (1912–1914), à l’Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau, où elle exerça ultérieurement les fonctions d’assistante d’Édouard Claparède (1926–1929). Notre hypothèse est que les classes spéciales créées à Belo Horizonte le furent sur le modèle genevois, et constituèrent un important exemple de circulation et diffusion de connaissances au niveau international, ainsi que de construction de repères dans le domaine de l’éducation spéciale au Brésil. Ainsi, la division des classes par niveau intellectuel mesuré par des tests d’intelligence, l’idée de “l’école sur mesure” proposée par Claparède, le dialogue avec les méthodes suggérées par Alice Descouedres démontrent les relations avec le modèle genevois. En même temps, l’interprétation des résultats des tests comme manifestation d’une forme d’ “intelligence civilisée” et les adaptations des exercices d’orthopédie mentale pour développer cette intelligence demandée par l’école montrent les transformations du modèle dans le contexte brésilien.