From values to virtues: an investigation into the ethical content of English primary school assemblies

School assemblies are unique and important events in the lives of schools. They are an opportunity for a head teacher to shape and celebrate the ethos and priorities of a school. However, the discussion of assemblies has stagnated because it is mired in the debate about legal compliance to the 1988 Education Reform Act and its interpretation in circular 1/94. This article reports on a research project which investigated the ethical ideas communicated in primary school assemblies. It is found that almost all assemblies sought to communicate a form of virtue ethics. We observed the promotion of courage, kindness, loyalty and responsibility. Further, different virtues were emphasised in different schools depending on their social location. For example, perseverance and resilience were often stressed in a school from a low socio-economic area. The article concludes with an examination of the implications of our findings for the discussion of legal compliance to the 1988 Act.     

‘Pressure to play?’ A sociological analysis of professional football managers’ behaviour towards injured players

Drawing upon figurational sociology, this paper examines professional football managers’ attitudes towards injured players. Following interviews with 10 managers, as with previous research, we found that managers have an expectancy that players are rarely fully fit. Players were stigmatized when they were seemingly unwilling to play when a manager encouraged them to. However, we also found that many managers shaped, in part, by their habitus formed from their own experiences as a player, showed greater empathy towards injured players. Many claimed they would not risk the long-term health of players, although at times, managers at the lower levels felt more constrained to take certain risks. We argue this is an unintended outcome of the increasing pressures on managers to succeed with smaller squads. The increasing emphasis and reliance on ‘sport science’ enabled managers at the higher levels to have a more supportive approach to managing injuries not previously identified in existing literature.     

Online searching for human nutrition: an evaluation of databases.

This study compares six databases which contain information on applied and clinical human nutrition: AGRICOLA, BIOSIS, CAB ABSTRACTS, EMBASE, MEDLINE, and SCI-SEARCH. Five research questions were searched, and the results were compared to identify the database of first choice and to determine the degree of overlap among the databases. Results indicate that for most of the human nutrition questions searched, MEDLINE was the most productive database. However, MEDLINE alone only uncovered 24% to 69% of the citations available. A combination of MEDLINE and at least one other database is recommended. The results of this study suggest that for most human nutrition questions, AGRICOLA is the best file to complement MEDLINE.     

Cultural mapping and sustainable communities: planning for the arts revisited

The field of arts and cultural planning and the aspirations of cultural practitioners, arts development officers and town planners has had a long, if frustrated, history in the United Kingdom. The relationship between the land-use development system and arts and cultural policy has lacked specific provision guidance or standards. This is in contrast to other areas of leisure and recreation, such as parks and open spaces, sports facilities and libraries. In large part this is due to the discretionary nature of much arts provision and also the fact that there is no single type of provider. Arts facilities and activity are delivered directly and indirectly by local and county councils, community and independent not-for-profit arts organizations – large and small – and private enterprises in the commercial entertainment and cultural industries. The absence of planning guidance and comparable data to assess the need for, and location of, a range of cultural amenities has also hampered an equitable, distributory planning approach. However, renewed interest in amenity planning and the role of cultural activity and opportunity in “place making” is evident internationally, and in the UK in particular, as new housing growth areas, demographic change and population increases require the planning of social as well as physical infrastructure on a scale not experienced since the last major new town developments. This article reviews the evolution of arts and cultural planning in the UK, including an assessment of recent concepts, guidance and resources in the UK and elsewhere. Cultural mapping and planning approaches are then demonstrated in housing growth areas, followed by a proposed methodology and framework for populating the cultural map. Finally, conclusions are made on the state of data and policy integration in what continues to be a fragmented cultural system.