(Re)shaping educational research through ‘programmification’: Institutional expansion,change, and translation in Norway

Educational research in Norway has experienced unprecedented structural expansion and cognitive shifts over the last two decades because of greater state investments and the strategic use of extensive and multi-year thematic programmes to fund research projects. Using a neo-institutionalist framework, we examine institutionalisation dynamics in cultural-cognitive, normative and regulative dimensions by means of interviews, research programme calls, policy documents and funding data. In the cultural-cognitive dimension, we find references to the knowledge society, the perceived importance of evidence in policymaking and ideas of quality, excellence and relevance. In the normative dimension, we find the introduction of new professional and methodological standards, reflecting broader global patterns of academic and epistemic drift. In the regulative dimension, the strengthened role of both government and the Research Council of Norway is manifest in substantial growth in both funding and large-scale, long-term planning, including thematic choices—evidence of ‘programmification’. The importance of external models has grown in an era of internationalisation, yet translation occurs at every level of the governance of educational research. This results in a specific Norwegian research model, guided by a mode of governance of programmes that maintains social values that are traditionally strong in Nordic societies.     

Adrian Peterson and the “Wussification of America”: Football and Myths of Masculinity

Twitter has become a unique site for making sense of public discussions about authority and morality in the United States. This article addresses these discussions by analyzing the elements of conservative discourse that claim the health of the nation is in decline because of a diminished emphasis on masculine leadership. There is a long tradition of conservative politicians in the United States warning against “soft” or “weak” figures of authority. Such conversations take place within a range of contexts, including the sport of football. As a means to engage hegemonic masculine authority from a critical perspective, this article investigates Twitter users’ various reactions to Adrian Peterson’s suspension due to his disciplining his child with a “switch.”     

Insights from industry: a quantitative analysis of engineers' perceptions of empathy and care within their practice

This study focuses on two seldom-investigated skills or dispositions aligned with engineering habits of mind – empathy and care. In order to conduct quantitative research, we designed, explored the underlying structure of, validated, and tested the reliability of the Empathy and Care Questionnaire (ECQ), a new psychometric instrument. In the second part, we used the ECQ to explore the perceptions of empathy and care of alumni/ae of an internationally ranked US institution, along with how perceptions differed by work experience and gender. Results show that participants perceived empathy and care to be important in multiple respects, most notably in relational aspects of engineering practice. Engineers with more engineering experience were more likely to perceive empathy and care as existing in engineering practice and as important to their work. While these phenomena are sometimes depicted as feminine qualities, we found no gender differences among our respondents.     

‘Voodoo maths’, asymmetric dependency and maths blame: why collaboration between school science and mathematics teachers is so rare

Mathematical reasoning and tools are intrinsic to science, yet the close and dependent relationship science has to mathematics is not reflected in either school education or science education research. This paper asks what the barriers are to a mutually beneficial relationship between the two disciplines. A two-phase qualitative interview study was used to explore the relationship between school science and mathematics education through the perspectives of science and mathematics education policy-makers and of teachers in departments which are unusual in collaborating. In total there were 36 participants. Interview data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings show that there is an asymmetry in the dependency between school science and mathematics: science is dependent on mathematics but the reverse is not true. We discuss three consequences of this asymmetric dependency: there is greater benefit for science from any collaboration; ‘maths blame’ can arise from science teacher frustration; and science educators may believe they should have some ownership of the mathematics curriculum. Asymmetry of dependency, and therefore of benefit, will make it very difficult for mathematics and science to work together in a way which is genuinely mutually beneficial.     

A sustainable model for OpenCourseWare development

The purposes of this study were to (a) determine the cost of converting BYU Independent Study’s e-learning courses into OpenCourseWare, (b) assess the impact of opening those courses on paid enrollment in the credit-bearing versions of the courses, and (c) use these data to judge whether or not an OpenCourseWare program could be financially self-sustaining over the long-term without grant monies or other subsidies. The findings strongly suggest that the BYU Independent Study model of publishing OpenCourseWare is financially self-sustaining, allowing the institution to provide a significant public good while generating new revenue and meeting its ongoing financial obligations.     

The effects of an unanticipated side-cut on lower extremity kinematics and ground reaction forces during a drop landing

Unanticipated direction to cut after landing may alter the lower extremity landing biomechanics when performing landing motions. These alterations may potentially increase the risk of ACL injury. The purpose of this study was to determine if an unanticipated side-cut affects lower extremity landing biomechanics in females. Eighteen recreational female athletes participated in two blocks of testing: the first block of testing consisted of three acceptable trials of anticipated dominant limb and non-dominant limb 45-degree diagonal cutting after landing, which were performed in a counterbalanced order. The second block of testing consisted of three acceptable trials of unanticipated dominant limb and non-dominant limb diagonal cutting after landing. Data analysis mainly focused on the dominant limb landing biomechanics. Unanticipated side-cut landing, compared (paired t-test, p < 0.05) to the anticipated landings, resulted in less hip abduction and tibial internal rotation angle at initial contact (IC) and a lower maximum ankle inversion angle and a greater maximum knee abduction angle, and knee and hip displacement. Also, greater posterior GRF and a longer time to peak medial GRF were exhibited. These outcomes indicate that athletes may adapt their landing mechanics to land unsafely when encountering an unanticipated event.     

To what extent does sexual dimorphism exist in competitive powerlifters?

We examined sexual dimorphism in the anthropometry of 68 Australasian and Pacific powerlifters (14 females, 54 males) who were competing in one of two national or international powerlifting competitions held in New Zealand. All powerlifters were assessed for 37 anthropometric dimensions by ISAK (International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry) Level II and III accredited anthropometrists. While the powerlifters were highly mesomorphic and possessed large girths and bone breadths, both in absolute terms and when expressed as Z(p)-scores compared through the Phantom (Ross & Wilson, 1974), these characteristics were often more pronounced in male than female lifters. No significant inter-gender differences in any of the measures of adiposity were observed. When normalized through the Phantom, the female and male powerlifters had relatively similar segment lengths and bone breadths, indicating that regardless of gender, competitive powerlifters possess comparable skeletal proportions. These results indicate that although competitive powerlifters exhibit sexual dimorphism for many absolute anthropometric measures, little dimorphism is found for measures of adiposity and for proportional segment lengths and bone breadths. These results further support the importance of anthropometric profiling for powerlifting, and suggest that successful male and female powerlifters will possess similar proportional characteristics.