Competencies Demonstrated by Municipal Employees During Adaptation to Climate Change: A Pilot Study

Since coastal communities are already subjected to the impacts of climate change, adaptation has become a necessity. This article presents competencies demonstrated by Canadian municipal employees during an adaptation process to sea level rise. To adapt, the participants demonstrated the following competencies: problem solving (highlighting components of the problem and identifying constraints), futures thinking, risk prediction, vulnerability analysis, local knowledge, planning, and communication. However, some competencies that could be potentially useful in adaptation were used less frequently by participants: developing solutions, knowledge of adaptation, math skills, hope, and self-efficacy.     

‘You look like a machito!’: a decolonial analysis of the social in/exclusion of female participants in a Colombian sport for development and peace organization

Abstract

This article critically explores the relationship between the gendered nature of sport in Colombia and girls and young women’s social in/exclusion in football (soccer) through the lived experiences of female participants involved in a local Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) organization. Building on 6 months of ethnographic fieldwork and Lave and Wenger’s theory of Community of Practice (CoP), I explore the complex and connected gendered social elements that constrain girls and young women’s participation. Analyzing these processes and mechanisms through a decolonial lens, I reveal the existence of colonial residues that perpetuate and reinforce females positioning as peripheral actors in sport. The findings demonstrate how female participants are required to negotiate spaces with contradictory gendered meanings and confirm that social transformation within masculine structures is difficult to achieve. This research encourages SDP researchers to further engage with decolonial theory.     

Developing and managing school human capital for information and communication technology integration: a case study of a school-based e-learning project in Hong Kong

The application of information and communication technology (ICT) in education has been gaining attention worldwide. Educators and school administrators are interested in the myriad possibilities offered by new technologies to enrich teaching materials and to provide ubiquitous learning environments to enhance students’ learning. This case study examined the implementation of a school-based e-learning initiative in a primary school in Hong Kong by focusing on the development and management of forms of school human capital. The findings drew from interviews with 25 staff members in the case school and elucidated how school reform and transformation were effected through the development and management of intellectual, social, and organisational capitals. The interplay between these three forms of school human capitals highlighted the significance of shared vision, differentiated leadership as well as a culture of learning community in advancing towards ICT integration. Suggestions are made for establishing practices of distributed leadership and professional learning communities in the case school and other settings undertaking ICT integration.     

Quantitative versus qualitative evaluation: A tool to decide which to use

Evaluation is often avoided in human performance technology (HPT), but it is an essential and frequently catalytic activity that adds significant value to projects. Knowing how to approach an evaluation and whether to use qualitative, quantitative, or both methods makes evaluation much easier. In this article, we provide tools to help determine appropriate evaluation methods. Successful evaluation provides insightful data with which to make informed decisions.     

Intervening to improve the transfer to secondary school

Evaluation data are reported on a Transfer Support Team (TST) intervention which supports pupils identified as vulnerable during secondary school transfer. Information about school concerns and broader adjustment measures were collected from TST supported pupils on three occasions and from a “typical benchmark group” on two occasions. Factors known to confer additional vulnerability around school transfer were also analysed: English as an additional language, free school meals eligibility and special educational needs. Findings indicate that this relatively brief transfer support programme impacts positively on targeted pupils’ levels of school concerns and illustrates the importance of differentiated monitoring of intervention outcomes.     

Transforming communities through sport? critical pedagogy and sport for development

The value of sport as a vehicle for social development and progressive social change has been much debated, yet what tends to get missed in this debate is the way education may foster, enable or impede the transformative action that underpins the social outcomes to which the ‘sport for development and peace’ (SDP) sector aspires. This article draws on the critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire and his contemporaries to examine the nature of transformative action and how it may be fostered within SDP programs. Insights from critical pedagogy are applied to, and illustrated through, qualitative research undertaken with SDP programs located in Cameroon and Kenya. The findings show the complexities of designing and implementing critical pedagogy in a SDP context and, in particular, the challenges of creating and mobilizing for transformative action. Opportunities and lessons for embedding critical pedagogy within SDP programs are also presented.     

‘Unboxing’ videos: co-construction of the child as cyberflâneur

This paper draws on data from a study of a four-year-old child, Gareth, in his first year of formal schooling in England. The aim of the study was to identify the nature of Gareth's literacy practices across home and school spaces. The focus for this paper is an analysis of one aspect of Gareth's home digital literacy practices: his repeated viewings at home of ‘unboxing’ videos on YouTube. These include videos that feature the unpacking of commercial products. It is argued that the child viewer/reader is co-constructed in these practices as cyberflâneur and that this mode of cultural transmission is a growing feature of online practices for this age group in the twenty-first century. The paper addresses issues concerning young children's online practices and their relationship to material culture before analysing the growth of interest in peer-to-peer textual production and consumption in the digital age.