From Parachutes to Partnerships: An “Integrated” Natural History Museum Expedition in the Philippines

The 2011 Hearst Philippine Biodiversity Expedition was the largest ever launched by the California Academy of Sciences, and was also the largest and most diverse expedition to ever take place in the Philippines. Filipino collaboration and participation were vitally important from the outset. Scientists of both nations documented biodiversity in a variety of habitats and across multiple biological disciplines, identifying more than 500 species new to science. The expedition also modeled a new way of embedding substantial educational outreach and media coverage, and promoting conservation actions. More than 900 people attended educational events in the Philippines. Extensive television, radio, online, and print media coverage occurred both in the Philippines and in the U.S. during the expedition and after. A conference at the end shared preliminary results among scientists, educators, policy makers, and media, before the Academy team even left the country.     

Cricket fast bowling performance and technique and the influence of selected physical factors during an 8-over spell

The aims of this study were to determine the influence of an 8-over spell on cricket fast bowling technique and performance (speed and accuracy), and to establish the relationship of selected physical capacities with technique and performance during an 8-over spell. Fourteen first-grade fast bowlers with a mean age of 23 years participated in the study. Physical capacities assessed were abdominal strength, trunk stability, selected girth and skinfold measures. During the delivery stride, bowlers were filmed from an overhead and lateral perspective (50 Hz) to obtain two-dimensional data for transverse plane shoulder alignment and sagittal plane knee joint angle respectively. Ball speed was measured by a radar gun and accuracy by the impact point of each delivery on a zoned scoring target at the batter's stumps. Shoulder counter-rotation did not change significantly between overs 2 and 8 for all bowlers, but was significantly related to a more front-on shoulder orientation at back foot impact. When the front-on fast bowlers ( n = 5) were isolated for analysis, shoulder counter-rotation increased significantly between overs 2 and 8. Ball speed remained constant while accuracy showed some non-significant variation during the spell. Shoulder counter-rotation was significantly related to accuracy scores during the second half of the 8-over spell. Chest girth and composition and body composition were significantly related to ball release speed at various times during the spell.     

MAINTAINING,REFRAMING, AND DISRUPTING TRADITIONAL EXPECTATIONS AND OUTCOMES FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WITH CRITICAL FRIENDS GROUPS

Districts across the country are currently adopting models of professional learning communities (PLCs) as a means for improving teachers' instructional practice and student achievement. This evaluation research case study shares the 3-year history, development, and challenges of a district-wide implementation of Critical Friends Groups (CFGs), a particular format for PLCs. Using Argyris and Schön's (1974) theories of action framework, the authors identify teachers' espoused theories about a contextually situated CFG initiative and examine teachers' conceptualizations about the ways in which their work influences the progression and effectiveness of this professional development model. Findings from this study suggest that the degree to which the CFG implementation model is integrated with other school improvement initiatives, specifically those that address teachers' professional development, dramatically influences how key stakeholders conceptualize and draw the necessary connections to their roles in improving instructional practice and addressing student achievement and learning.     

Student Reactions to Course Grades

Four factor analyses of subtests of three critical thinking tests, a logical reasoning test, and an English test were conducted. Nine group and specific factors were identified. It was concluded that critical thinking is a composite of group and specific factors including: recognition of assumptions; judgments if conclusions follow from evidence given; relevance of evidence; fine discriminations about truth or falsity with which inferences follow. The logical reasoning subtest appeared to represent specific separate variance. The English subtests’ variance overlapped substantially with the critical thinking subtests’ variance.     

The Decorated School: cross-disciplinary research in the history of art as integral to the design of educational environments

This article reports on the opening up of a new, rich seam of interdisciplinary research that brings together historians of education with historians of art and architecture to examine the meaning and incidence of “The Decorated School”. It examines the origins of the idea of art as educator in the nineteenth century and discusses how ideas about the education of taste accompanied the establishment of mass education in industrialised nations during the early part of the twentieth century. Some examples of Decorated Schools in Britain and Europe are discussed with reference to the nature of the international and interdisciplinary interpretation made possible by the research network. Finally, some of the challenges of interdisciplinary research in this area are presented, as well as rich opportunities for further exploration. The article concludes that in order to come closer to a realisation of how pupils might have experienced The Decorated School in the past, we need to incorporate histories of children’s play-worlds in our project.     

Well-founded social fictions: a defence of the concepts of institutional and familial habitus

This article engages with Atkinson’s recent criticisms of concepts of collective habitus, such as ‘institutional’ and ‘familial’ habitus, in order to defend their conceptual utility and theoretical coherence. In so doing we promote a flexible understanding of habitus as both an individual and a collective concept. By retaining this flexibility (which we argue is in keeping with the spirit of Bourdieuian philosophy) we allow for a consideration of the ways in which the individual habitus relates to the collective. We argue that, through recognition of the complexity of the interrelated habitus of individuals, collective notions go beyond individualist accounts that perceive only the relational aspects of the individual with the social field. Our approach allows us to consider social actors in relation to each other and as constitutive of fields rather than as mere individuals plotted in social space. These arguments will be woven through our responses to what Atkinson calls the three fatal flaws of institutional and familial habitus: namely, homogenisation, anthropomorphism, and substantialism.     

Interorganizational collaboration and community building for the preservation of state government digital information: Lessons from NDIIPP state partnership initiative

As a part of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP), the Library of Congress (LC), partnering with the Center for Technology in Government (CTG), launched an effort in 2005 to integrate state governmental entities into the national network to preserve born-digital information that is both significant and at risk of loss. The main theme that emerged from the efforts of LC, CTG, and the state and federal digital preservation community was the importance of partnership efforts and collaborative strategies for the preservation of state government digital information. Based on the findings of the initiative, this paper discusses challenges and opportunities regarding interorganizational collaboration and community building for digital preservation of state government information. Following the community of practice framework, it is recommended that a “state government digital information preservation community” be developed to facilitate collaboration across agencies and knowledge professionals in state governments.     

Neoliberal contradictions in two private niches of educational ‘choice’

This article brings together ethnographies of two privileged educational settings in the United States – a private school in California’s Central Valley following the progressivist Sudbury model, and an affluent New England boarding school’s summer enrichment program. Each of these institutions serves as an alternative to and/or extension of publicly accessible education institutions during a neoliberal era of marketization and growing educational inequality. By comparing findings from ethnographic studies of each institution, we find that both celebrate open access and socially responsible pedagogical values in ways that obscure mechanisms of exclusion and an entrenched individualist ideology. We discuss two particular contradictions that manifest in both settings: first, a discourse of openness and inclusivity that belies the ways in which access is mediated by constructions of who best ‘fits’ the special learning community; and second, an outspoken allegiance to socially engaged values of diversity and democracy that belies the ways in which these values are commodified and appropriated for students’ individual advantage(s). In comparing such sites, we argue for the importance of tracing the mechanisms of advantage in under-researched ‘niches’ of the dynamically shifting and unequally accessed neoliberal marketplace for educational opportunity.     

Part-Time Faculty Involvement in Decision-Making

Drawing from a survey of 1,239 part-time community college faculty, this analysis investigates their views about being involved in departmental and campus-wide decision-making. The adjuncts had somewhat of a voice in instructional decisions pertaining to their area of expertise, but virtually no involvement in personnel or broader organizational matters. In all domains, they expressed desire to have a stronger voice. However, they also noted barriers to inclusion of part-time faculty in decision-making, including schedule constraints, compensation, and respect from their full-time counterparts.