The role of early childhood settings for 4–5 year old children in early academic skills and later achievement in Australia

Formal early childhood education programs have been shown to promote the early academic skills of young children. However, the academic benefits acquired through program attendance fade quickly in the early elementary school years. Using a nationally representative sample of Australian children, we describe the programmatic and teacher differences between different types of formal early childhood programs for children between 4 and 5 years old—pre-year 1, school-based preschool, standalone preschool, and center-based child care. We examine the child and family background characteristics that are correlated with selection into different settings and how these settings are associated with children's early academic skills and on their subsequent achievement. We focus on understanding if there are differential academic benefits accrued from each program type and whether or not these benefits persist into the early elementary school years. Results indicate that maternal employment and economic disadvantage are correlated with program participation and that pre-year 1 and preschool teachers have higher qualifications. Results also show that children who attended a pre-year 1 program held an initial, significant advantage in early academic skills compared to children enrolled in center child care. Center child care was associated with higher early math skills than preschools. Children who did not attend any early childhood programming lagged behind their peers in school readiness skills. By middle childhood, all the early skill advantages had disappeared, showing rapid fadeout of academic benefits acquired from these specific types of early childhood programs. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

Professionalism among broadcast newsmen in an Urban area

The Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 was the result of negotiations between local governments and the cable television industry. Not all affected parties agreed the Act would benefit them. The purpose of this survey of local regulators and cable companies was to assess perceptions of current relationships and the perceived impact of the Act. The results indicated that those from the cable industry most satisfied with the status quo were deregulated franchises who felt the new law would benefit them. Local regulators with franchises requiring public hearings prior to changes felt the new law would have negative effects.     

‘Society has taught us to judge’: cultures of the body in teacher education

The body is a powerful symbolic form and all bodily activities are expressions of culture. The look, size, shape and physicality of bodies are perceived by all and compared to particular cultural standards. In this way the body is inscribed with culture and can serve as a site for social control. Various discourses of the body, including those around appearance, health and fitness, circulate within societal institutions and through relations of power these impact on the way in which we come to understand bodies. In times marked by individualised responsibility for all aspects of life, the body and technologies of self around bodywork are also significant in relation to self-formation and self-government. This research investigates the impact of various cultures of the body, on pre-service physical education teachers' understandings and meaning making about bodies, fitness, health and personal engagement in bodywork. Implications for future practices in teaching, relationships with school students and messages for teacher educators are also considered.     

Injury rate,mechanism, and risk factors of hamstring strain injuries in sports: A review of the literature

Hamstring strains are one of most common sports injuries. The purpose of this literature review is to summarize studies on hamstring strain injury rate, mechanism, and risk factors in the last several decades with a focus on the prevention and rehabilitation of this injury. Hamstring injury commonly occurs in sporting events in which high speed sprinting and kicking are frequently performed, such as Australian football, English rugby, American football, and soccer. Basic science studies have demonstrated that a muscle strain injury occurs due to excessive strain in eccentric contraction instead of force, and that elongation speed and duration of activation before eccentric contraction affect the severity of the injury. Hamstring strain injury is likely to occur during the late swing phase and late stance phase of sprint running. Shortened optimum muscle length, lack of muscle flexibility, strength imbalance, insufficient warm-up, fatigue, lower back injury, poor lumbar posture, and increased muscle neural tension have been identified as modifiable risk factors while muscle compositions, age, race, and previous injuries are non-modifiable risk factors. The theoretical basis of some of these risk factors, however, is lacking, and the results of clinical studies on these risk factors are inconsistent. Future studies are needed to establish the cause-and-effect relationships between those proposed risk factors and the injury.     

Building spaces of hope with refugee and migrant-background students

Within the Australian context, research into schooling experiences of refugee and migrant-background students has tended to focus on developing English language proficiency with little attention given to initiatives that contribute more broadly to students’ social and educational resources. Whilst not denying the significance of English language acquisition, this paper explores strategies, implemented at one school, designed to enhance social, cultural and educational outcomes for refugee and migrant-background students. We draw on a relational view of space informed by Foucault and Lefebvre, and Fraser’s theorisation of justice, to explore the school context, connections to students’ life-worlds, moving beyond trauma and teachers as knowledge producers. Findings suggest that contextualised forms of knowing and practices can work to build connections and educational resources for refugee and migrant-background students. Where human spatiality, including as this relates to schools, produces advantages and disadvantages, we conclude in arguing for further research that incorporates the perspectives and voices of refugee and migrant-background students and their teachers.