PE: it’s just me: physically active and healthy teacher bodies

This paper focuses on the significance of embodied understandings to the emerging subjectivities and pedagogical practices of pre-service teachers undertaking a Physical Education (PE) specialisation through a B.Ed. (primary/middle). Data from a research project conducted at an Australian university with seven pre-service teachers will be presented through three themes: ‘Naturally’ sporty bodies; Healthy bodies; and Embodied pedagogical practices. Our findings suggest that through the configurative function of narrative identity, participants merge lasting dispositions around embodied physicality with acquired dispositions around embodied health, fitness and pedagogical practices. In doing so, they locate themselves in a contemporary narrative of PE which reinforces assumptions that bodies, subjectivities and lives can be shaped so as to protect against risks associated with obesity.     

The student voice in well-being: a case study of participatory action research in positive education

Positive education blends academic learning and student well-being. Although research and application in positive education is growing, most has involved psychologists and educators applying strategies in schools, with little research that involves student voices in the development and implementation of a school’s positive education strategy. Assumptions are frequently made about what is best for student well-being, with little input from the students themselves. This paper describes a case study of participatory action research (PAR) carried out by students (N = 10) at a publically funded Australian school aiming to implement positive education. PAR is a form of collective inquiry undertaken by the people that the issue directly affects. The PAR group researched the school community regarding well-being during the school year. Mixed methods examined PAR student’s well-being, self-efficacy, autonomy, social and emotional assets, and other competencies before and after the process. Student involvement allowed the school to better understand their students’ well-being, and student-led communication about positive education laid the groundwork for its implementation. Results suggested benefits for the PAR students, particularly in engagement and self-efficacy. This realistically scaled study suggests that involving students using a framework of PAR is a promising, accessible, evidence-based, and developmentally beneficial approach to the implementation of positive education.     

Examining the Success Factors of High-Achieving Puerto Rican Male High-School Students

This article works to dispel the myth that Latino urban high-school students are not capable of performing at high academic levels. Whereas much educational research emphasizes the academic underachievement of urban Latino students, this article counteracts this research by describing the four success factors that three working-class Puerto Rican male high-school students attribute to their high academic achievement. These success factors are: (a) the acquisition of social capital through religiosity and participation in school and community-based extracurricular activities, (b) having a strong Puerto Rican identity, (c) the influence of these students' mothers/sisters on their academic achievement, and (d) the potential for caring and sincere teachers and other school staff to influence high academic achievement. These findings have implications for Latina/o education and recommendations are provided.     

Keeping Both Hands on the Wheel: Integrated Basic Education Skills Training (IBEST) for Commercial Truck Driving

IBEST is an innovative program that integrates English language skills with an intensive vocational training program and culminates in eligibility for a high wage commercial truck-driving career. Participants gain language skills, college credit, and vocational skills. Effective partnerships, scheduling, and instructional approaches are discussed.     

Classroom community and possible selves: implications for midcareer teacher seminars

Much research examines professional learning for pre-service and beginning teachers. However, in midcareer, teaching satisfaction and effectiveness are challenged by decreased recognition and support and increasing stressors including isolation, accountability demands, mentorship roles, and personal/family responsibilities. Often, midcareer teachers (MTs) pursue graduate degrees to advance skills, licenses held, and achieve recognition. This qualitative exploratory study examined classroom community (CC) development across three graduate seminars for MTs. Increased CC was connected to course structures and instructor actions which supported teachers’ reflection upon practice and envisioning of possible selves. Personal/family selves, teaching selves, and academic selves emerged. The model developed connects CC, motivators, and enacted classroom practices to each set of possible selves. Findings suggest increased attention to campus-based graduate seminars as avenues for the development of trust, open dialog, reflection, strategy building, and improved classroom practice among MTs.     

Altruism in death: Attitudes to body and organ donation in Australian students

Health education, research, and training rely on the altruistic act of body donation for the supply of cadavers. Organ transplantation and research rely on donated organs. Supply of both is limited, with further restrictions in Australia due to requirements for a next-of-kin agreement to donation, irrespective of the deceased's pre-death consent. Research suggests health workers are less likely to support the donation of their own bodies and/or organs, despite recognizing the public good of donation, and that exposure to gross anatomy teaching may negatively affect support for donation. Attitudes to body and organ donation were examined in Australian students studying anatomy. Support for self-body donation (26.5%) was much lower than support for self-organ donation (82.5%). Ten percent of participants would not support the election of a family member or member of the public to donate their body, and just over 4% would not support the election of a family member to donate their organs, with one-to-two percent not supporting this election by a member of the public. Exposure to gross anatomy teaching was associated with an increased likelihood of consideration of issues about body and organ donation, whether for self, family, or the public, and registration as an organ donor. Exposure decreased participants' willingness to donate their own body, with those who practiced a religion least likely to support body donation. Gross anatomy courses provide an opportunity to inform future healthcare workers about altruistic donation, albeit with a recognition that religious or cultural beliefs may affect willingness to donate.     

The Effects of One versus Two Years of Intensive Reading Intervention Implemented with Late Elementary Struggling Readers

We examined the effectiveness of a researcher‐provided reading intervention with 484 fourth graders with significant reading difficulties. Students were randomly assigned to one year of intervention, two years of intervention, or a business‐as‐usual comparison condition (BAU). Students assigned to two years of intervention demonstrated significantly greater gains in reading fluency compared to students who received one year of intervention and the BAU group. Students in both the one‐ and two‐year groups demonstrated similar and significantly larger gains in word reading in comparison to the BAU group. There were no statistically significant differences between the three groups on standardized measures of reading comprehension. We discuss these results in the context of research with late elementary and secondary students targeting reading comprehension.