From one girl to ‘three girls’: the importance of separating agency from blame (and harm from wrongfulness) in narratives of childhood sexual abuse and exploitation

In May 2012, nine men from Rochdale were convicted and jailed for grooming girls with alcohol, drugs and gifts before forcing them to have sex with multiple men. Following the case in Rochdale similar cases of grooming and sexual abuse/exploitation of young girls came to light in various towns and cities across the UK. In 2017, the BBC aired the drama Three Girls which featured the story of three of the victims whose abusers were ultimately jailed in May 2012, including one whose story of abuse was not listened to and whose abusers were ultimately not charged with abusing her (although they were charged with abusing other young girls). In this paper, I draw parallels between the experiences of these three girls and another victim of childhood sexual abuse (interviewed as part of an ESRC funded research project) to show how the central features of this story (childhood sexual innocence and victims’ lack of agency) are deeply problematic not only for victims and child protection services, but also for how teachers and other education professionals understand children and young people’s sexuality and CSA (a term I use to include child sexual exploitation or CSE) and ultimately how they respond to victims.     

A model for the effective engagement of all stakeholders in engineering education and its pilot implementation

Methodologies for engineering learning and teaching (MELT) approach aims to enhance the attractiveness of education through science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) among young people, while promoting awareness of future careers in these areas. To this end, students’ expectations are considered within university programmes, aiming to an increased engagement in STEM careers. To accomplish these goals, a new and integrated approach (MELT) is presented, involving the main stakeholders in both scientific education and society. An education framework is presented, providing guidelines for an improved collaborative approach to STEM education in the future. Results from the pilot implementation of MELT are presented, from a small-scale education parliament prototype. From these initial stage and results, it is seen that there is a need for a proper alignment of expectations from all involved stakeholders, concerning the engineering education towards society’s demands.     

We know off-rolling happens. Why are we still doing nothing?

Described by General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) Geoff Barton as ‘beyond repugnant’ (TES, 2017), ‘off-rolling’ is the removal of pupils from the school roll via various unofficial means. This study positions a plethora of triggers for this form of exclusion, its prevalence and wider social implications. These perspectives will be evaluated alongside current national data and media perspectives, integrated with the outcomes of narrative accounts from practitioners in schools across England in 2018. The study concludes by commenting on the impact of performance-driven school cultures on limiting the choices parents and pupils are able to make when confronted by the prospect of exclusion from education. The longer-term social dangers presented by labelling a cohort of young people as marginal to education and society are considered, as is the fitness for purpose of the current education system in the meeting of pupil needs.     

Dog ownership, dog walking, and children's and parents' physical activity

This study aimed to determine cross-sectional associations of dog ownership, dog walking, and physical activity (PA) among children and their parents. Objective measures of PA were obtained for children ages 5-6 and 10-12 years from 19 primary schools across Melbourne, Australia. Parents self-reported their PA, dog ownership, and frequency of dog walking: 53% of families owned a dog, 41% of children who owned a dog did not walk their dog at all, and 32% reported never or rarely walking their dog as a family. Dog ownership was associated with an additional 29 min/day in PA among younger girls, and 70 and 59 min/week more in PA among mothers of younger boys and older girls, respectively. Among mothers of older girls, dog owners were 1.6 times as likely to meet PA guidelines. Mothers with older boys and girls, and fathers with younger boys, who reported walking the dog regularly as a family, spent more time in PA (105, 90, and 158 more min/week, respectively). Promoting dog ownership and dog walking among children and as a family are potential strategies for increasing PA participation in some families.     

Learning dynamics in research alliances: A panel data analysis

The aim of this paper is to empirically test the determinants of Research Joint Ventures’ (RJVs) group dynamics. We develop a model based on learning and transaction cost theories, which represent the benefits and costs of RJV participation, respectively. According to our framework, firms at each period in time weigh the benefits against the costs of being an RJV member. RJV dynamics can then be interpreted as a consequence of this evolving trade-off over time. We look at entry, turbulence and exit in RJVs that have been set up under the US National Cooperative Research Act, which allows for certain antitrust exemptions in order to stimulate firms to co-operate in R&D. Accounting for unobserved project characteristics and controlling for inter-RJV interactions and industry effects, the Tobit panel regressions show the importance of group and time features for an RJVs evolution. We further identify an average RJVs long-term equilibrium size and assess its determining factors. Ours is a first attempt to produce robust stylized facts about co-operational short- and long-term dynamics, a neglected dimension in research co-operations, but an important element in understanding how collaborative learning works.     

Does intensity really matter regarding aerobic exercise reductions in wave reflection and central hemodynamics? Commentary on "The effect of acute aerobic exercise on central arterial stiffness,wave reflections,and hemodynamics in adults with diabetes: A randomized cross-over design"by Way et al.

We read with great interest the study by Way et al.1 pub-lished in this journal, which described and compared the acute changes in central arterial stiffness (A...     

Maori word-processing for indigenous New Zealand young children

We argue that there is an important and as yet unmet need for software that allows each cultural group to express the written word in an indigenous character set. As an example, we present a word-processing system, Ta Kupu, designed for use in teaching the Maori language to children. The program simplifies the input task by taking advantage of the structural features of the Maori language. The system also includes a data logging, evaluation, and analysis tool, Tirohia, that permits teachers to evaluate a child's familiarity with the word-processor. The main features of the evaluation software include: the ability to replay a record of a child's interaction in real time; facilities for summarising a child's consistency of use and level of performance; and the capability of examining interaction log files at a fine-grained level. We also address the application of these data logging and evaluation techniques to the areas of human factors research, interface design and interface evaluation.