Situated decoding of gender in a Swedish preschool practice

This article is based on data generated in an ethnographic study of gender in a Swedish preschool. Drawing on Judith Butler’s understanding of performativity and (un)doing of gender, a new theoretical concept, situated decoding of gender, is further developed by showing how the material and spatial dimension of the educational practice and the teachers’ actions contribute to establishing and maintaining this process in an early childhood educational setting. Instead of normalising the gender binary, a reverse process occurs that turns what is perceived as feminine or masculine into a gender decoded state in which gender is made less relevant, or even irrelevant. It is argued that this continuous reiterative process emerges and is maintained by three main factors: (a) the preschool’s physical environment, (b) the regular and repetitive structure of the educational practice and (c) the consistent actions of the teachers in the everyday practice.     

Leg amputation side determines performance in curve sprinting: a case study on a Paralympic medalist

The lower limb kinetics of curve sprinting in amputees are not well described in the literature, particularly with respect to the effect of the side of amputation. This is an issue due to the importance of the knowledge for prosthetic design and classification of athletes. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the influence of side of amputation on curve sprinting performance in athletes with a unilateral leg amputation. A three-dimensional motion analysis system (Vicon), four force plates (Kistler) and a modified mathematical human model (ALASKA) were used to compare clockwise and counter clockwise curve sprinting lower limb kinematics and kinetics of a Paralympic medalist with a left-sided knee exarticular amputation. Results reveal that vertical ground reaction force application and total vertical impulse were lower when the affected limb was at the inside of the curve. The unaffected limb showed joint mechanics different to those established for non-amputee athletes and might contribute better to propulsion when being the inside limb. Curve sprinting biomechanics and the ability to attain high radial velocities are directly dependent on the side of amputation relative to the curve direction in a unilateral amputee athlete of highest performance level.     

Comfort assessment of running footwear: Does assessment type affect inter-session reliability?

Assessing comfort of running footwear reliably is challenging. The purpose of this study was to compare the intra-rater reliability between different assessment types, to calculate intra-individual reliability scores and to evaluate the effect of rater selection based on individual reliability scores on group level reliability. Three assessment types: ranking, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), and Likert Scale (LS) were provided twice in six separate sessions among 30 participants, who assessed comfort of five shoes after treadmill running. Spearman's rho provided an evaluation of inter-session relative reliability and typical error as a measure of absolute reliability for each assessment type. Ranking (r?=?0.70, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.61–0.78) yielded the highest relative reliability for overall comfort, followed by VAS (r?=?0.67, 95% CI 0.56–0.75) and LS (r?=?0.63, 95% CI 0.52–0.72), with large-scale overlaps of CIs between assessment types. The same order of assessment types was found for the percentage of reliable raters (r?≥?0.7) with 60% in ranking scale, 47% in VAS and 37% in LS. Forming subgroups corresponding to the intra-individual reliability substantially increased group level reliabilities. Based on measures of relative reliability, an extreme reduction in resolution as provided by the ranking from pairwise comparisons seems to be a valuable tool in footwear comfort assessments if assessment time is of minor importance. No preference can be provided for the two investigated rating scales. Besides the assessment type, a selection of the best raters in additional reliability checks seems to be a prerequisite for further comfort-related studies.     

A “Deleterious” Driver: The “First Teacher” Reform in Sweden

This article investigates the implementation of the “förstelärare” or “First teacher” reform in Sweden. We draw upon the insights of a superintendent, union official, principal, three First teachers, and two of their colleagues in one school, and recent literature on career development reform. We employ Michael Fullan’s overview of the “right” and “wrong” drivers of educational reform to analyse the extent to which the First Teacher initiative cultivated productive “professional capital.” The research reveals: how broader national policy aims were in clear tension with municipal-wide school development, and school-level development efforts; the perverse effects of a strong focus upon salary on professional conduct; and how an emphasis upon teachers’ roles per se undermined the espoused policy focus on enhancing teaching. The research cautions against the problematic effects of the initiative on more profession-oriented prerogatives, and how more external, “deleterious,” drivers of reform militate against more productive professional capital.     

Between Tradition and Change: Hunting as Metaphor and Symbol in State Socialist Hungary

Through the historic metaphor of hunting the essay examines the lifestyle of the dominant elites of Hungary between 1945 and 1990 on the basis of archival documents, private records, and oral history interviews. The analysis emphasizes the fact that there were interactions between the old, prewar aristocracy and the new state socialist elites. The co-incidence of lifestyles can be viewed through the lens of social and cultural change: new elements hit against the old, shaping and dissolving old behavioural patterns. The article analyses hunting in the contexts of social differentiation and social grouping. Using semiotics the author shows how, even during the era of state socialism, power and social distinctions were articulated on the level of lifestyles, and transmitted via the social, semiotic function of behaviours, patterns of taste, and forms of interaction. Thus, hunting evolved into a metaphor over time in Hungary: it was not only an indispensable part of the everyday life of the elite, but also became a symbol for belonging to it.     

Zeitökonomische Aspekte der Nachfrage nach Vereinsleichtathletik im europäischen Vergleich

In a joint project involving European association staff and sports scientists, basic structural data were collected on British, Swedish, Spanish and German athletics clubs to be used for analysis of hypotheses concerning conditions of participation in sports clubs, particularly by children and adolescents. The results showed clear differences in organizational level as well as membership and activity structures in comparisons between European countries and within Germany. The findings revealed the differential functions and significance of sports clubs in the context of the respective institutions and cultures.     

Examining coaches’ perceptions of how their stress influences the coach–athlete relationship

This study extends recent coach stress research by evaluating how coaches perceive their stress experiences to affect athletes, and the broader coach–athlete relationship. A total of 12 coaches working across a range of team sports at the elite level took part in semi-structured interviews to investigate the 3 study aims: how they perceive athletes to detect signals of coach stress; how they perceive their stress experiences to affect athletes; and, how effective they perceive themselves to be when experiencing stress. Following content analysis, data suggested that coaches perceived athletes able to detect when they were experiencing stress typically via communication, behavioural, and stylistic cues. Although coaches perceived their stress to have some positive effects on athletes, the overwhelming effects were negative and affected “performance and development”, “psychological and emotional”, and “behavioural and interaction” factors. Coaches also perceived themselves to be less effective when stressed, and this was reflected in their perceptions of competence, self-awareness, and coaching quality. An impactful finding is that coaches are aware of how a range of stress responses are expressed by themselves, and to how they affect athletes, and their coaching quality. Altogether, findings support the emerging view that coach stress affects their own, and athlete performance.