Religion and primary school choice in Ireland: school institutional identities and student profile

Ireland’s demographic profile has changed significantly in the past 20 years, being now characterised by increasing cultural, ethnic and religious diversity. However, primary schooling in Ireland has remained highly denominational, mostly Roman Catholic, in nature, with a small number of minority faith schools and multi-denominational schools. This paper describes the nature of the Irish primary educational system and addresses the implications of its institutional structure and school institutional identity for school choice. In so doing, it draws on the national Growing Up in Ireland study, and documents the role of socio-cultural and religious factors in the choice of primary school.     

Physical Characteristics and Oxygen Utilization of Male and Female Marathon Runners

Verbal and nonverbal communication is a critical mediator of performance in team sports and yet there is little extant research in sports that involves direct measures of communication. Our study explored communication within NCAA Division I female tennis doubles teams. Video and audio recordings of players during doubles tennis matches captured the communications that took place between and during points. These recordings were coded and sequential analysis computed using the Discussion Analysis Tool software (Jeong, 2003). Results indicated that most communications were emotional (i.e., > 50%) or action statements (i.e., > 25%). Winning teams exhibited significantly different communication sequences than losing teams. In particular, winning teams had a more homogeneous model of communication, which perhaps makes message interpretation more reliable. Finally, winning teams exchanged twice as many messages as losing teams.     

Tenure troubles and equity matters in Canadian academe

The focus of this article is the tenure review process in Canadian universities, a rigorous and high-stakes evaluation of junior academics that serves as a prime exemplar of ‘disciplining academics', our project's title. In-depth interviews in seven Ontario universities with 30 knowledgeable informants such as senior managers and faculty association personnel provide the data. Literature on tenure and the persistence of equity issues suggests that we might expect some concern on those grounds to be raised by participants, especially as the faculty complement slowly grows more ethnically diverse and more gender balanced. Although not usually raised without direct questions, some discourses around equity did appear in the interviews. We argue that apparently equal outcomes in the tenure review process may be obscuring differential experiences of evaluation that need further examination.     

‘There was never really any question of anything else': young people's agency,institutional habitus and the transition to higher education

International research into educational decision-making has been extensive, focusing on the way in which young people and their families assess the different options open to them. However, to what extent can we assume that different groups of young people have equal access to the information needed to make such an assessment? And what role, if any, do schools play in this process? Using in-depth qualitative interviews from two schools with very different student intakes, this paper examines the key influences that shape young people's choices. Decisions about whether to go on to higher education are found to reflect three sets of processes: individual habitus; the institutional habitus of the school, as reflected in the amount and type of guidance provided; and young people's own agency – namely, the conscious process whereby students seek out information on different options and evaluate these alternatives.     

Costabile,Angela & Spears,Barbara A ed (2012) The impact of technology on relationships in educational settings David Fulton (Routledge,Abingdon UK & New York) isbn 978‐0‐415‐61008‐7 217 pp £29.99 http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415610087/

Teachers interested in harnessing the internet for positive purposes will enjoy this book—it lays bare some myths, challenges perceptions, and provides evidence of interventions which hold great promise for ameliorating negative misuse, such as cyber‐bullying. Case studies from European, American and Australian practitioners highlight the work being done to harness the positive power of social networking and connectedness. If the content of this book is likely to be relevant to you, I recommend that you arrange to borrow a copy for a while. Robyn Smyth