The Quad-Lemma: how the Rugby Players Association Benevolent Fund was establish to address the welfare needs in the professional format of rugby union

This article looks at the evolution of retirement preparation for male professional rugby union athletes in the English Premiership. Rugby union became a professional sport in 1995 allowing rugby to become a stand-alone career. This alteration in employment structure resulted in stronger athletes, thus resulting in an increase of injury making a career in sports more uncertain. In an effort to address the growing concern of injury-induced retirement, the Rugby Players’ Association’s created the Benevolent Fund¹ in 2001. The Foundation was to provide assistance to players during times of injury and provide educational opportunities to assist in career transition. This article highlights how the transition to a professional game created the ‘Quad-Lemma’ of rugby injury and how the Rugby Players Association was created to address the welfare concerns of the new professional format of rugby union.     

Transitioning Online Reference Staffing Models: Assessing and Balancing Needs of Patrons and Practitioners

ABSTRACT

As staffing models evolve for academic library service points, online chat reference services require strategic analysis to improve efficiency and effectiveness. This paper will examine the perception of chat reference before and after staffing changes from faculty librarians, staff, and graduate assistants to non-MLIS library professionals and graduate assistants at Florida State University’s a large, public research university library. Our survey explores satisfaction levels and perception of both patrons and library personnel before and after the staffing change.

Our analysis of 197 patron survey results determined that patrons are equally satisfied with non-librarian provision of chat reference services and found chat interactions to be comparable in quality and timeliness to chats staffed by librarians. Our research into staffer survey results revealed a slight decrease in satisfaction with operation of the service, notably in terms of confidence after the staffing transition even though this was not reflected in the patron satisfaction levels. This assessment indicates that library workers are equally as competent in staffing chat reference services as librarians from patron perspectives. As academic libraries continue to measure the value of staffing service desks with librarians, this study will provide relevant insight into how patrons and staffers are affected by changes in staffing models.     

Affect‐congruency in message content: A preliminary evaluation of two accounts

This study was an investigation of two possible theoretical accounts for affect‐congruency in the verbal content of message output during emotional states. One account (e.g., Isen, 1984) suggests that messages would maintain affect‐congruency with positive but not negative states. A second account (e.g., Clark, Milberg & Ross, 1983) proposes that messages would tend to maintain a semantic congruency with the hedonic tone and intensity of both positive and negative emotional states. Participant essays written after exposure to an emotional stimulus were analyzed to determine which account might best capture the hedonic tone and semantic intensity of adjectives used in essays. Results revealed that neither the number of positive and negative adjectives nor the semantic intensity of adjectives varied with positive states experienced by the participants. Both the number of negative adjectives and the semantic intensity of negative adjectives, however, increased significantly with increases in intensity of negative emotional states.     

Examining the persuasive effect of statistical messages: A test of mediating relationships

The current study tested the degree to which the sample size heuristic (Baesler & Bur goon, 1994), perceived verifiability of evidence (Ah Yun & Massi, 2000), and perceived message credibility (Kopfman, Smith, Ah Yun, & Hodges, 1998) mediate the relationship between the use of statistical evidence in a persuasive appeal and a person's attitude toward a given topic. Four hundred eighty‐six participants were exposed to one of three messages (statistical, narrative, or no‐evidence control) or a no‐message control condition and completed either a 12‐ (control) or 33‐item (experimental) survey that was designed to measure respondents’ perceptions of the sample size heuristic, verifiability of evidence, message credibility, and attitude toward a year‐round academic schedule. Path analysis and hierarchical regression modeling were employed to test the proposed model. Results revealed that the perceived sample size heuristic, verifiability of evidence, and message credibility mediate the relationship between statistical evidence and individuals’ attitudes. Additionally, the perceived sample size heuristic was found to be the strongest unique predictor of attitudes and confirmatory factory analysis results indicated that perceived verifiability and message credibility may be two indicators of a higher‐order factor. These findings and their implications for future research are discussed.     

Building a space to dream: Supporting indigenous children's survivance through community-engaged social and emotional learning

Indigenous communities practice survivance and challenge social and political systems to support their children's identity and well-being. Grounded in transformative social-emotional learning (SEL) and tribal critical race theory, this 3-year community-based participatory research study (2019–2021) examined how a SEL program co-created with an Indigenous community in Flathead Nation in Montana supports anti-racism and anti-colonialism among Indigenous children. Critical reflexivity and thematic analyses of Community Advisory Board meetings and journals written by 60 students (M_age = 10.3, SD = 1.45; 47% girls; 60% Native American) during the SEL program revealed themes on Indigenous identity, belonging, wellness, and colonialism. These results shed light on challenging the racist and colonial roots of education to support Indigenous children's survivance and social-emotional well-being.     

An Examination of Nurses’ Intergenerational Communicative Experiences in the Workplace: Do Nurses Eat Their Young?

The modern workforce is becoming increasingly older, and because of this demographic shift, intergenerational interactions are more common. However, these interactions are often described negatively and could be exaggerated when housed in a workplace setting. This study explores intergenerational communication in the increasingly diverse nursing profession through the lens of communication accommodation theory. Specifically, 32 nurses were interviewed in order to understand how they experience and describe intergenerational communication in the healthcare context. Through an abductive approach to data analysis, we found three interrelated findings: (a) intergenerational hostility is commonplace, (b) intergenerational hostility is socialized, and (c) nurses are viewed as a dispensable resource. These findings were communicated and justified through the colloquialism “nurses eat their young.” Theoretical implications related to communication accommodation theory and the Communication Predicament Model of Aging were developed along with practical suggestions that focus on ways to disrupt the acceptance of intergenerational hostility, enhance intergenerational communication in the workplace, and create a space for structural change.     

Discursive Constructions of the Meaning of “Family” in Online Narratives of Foster Adoptive Parents

Framed by relational dialectics theory, discursive constructions of the meaning of “family” were examined in 100 online foster adoption narratives. Parental narratives manifested struggles between biogenetic and discursive constructions of “family,” identified here as the discourse of biological normativity (DBN) and discourse of constitutive kinning (DCK). The DBN reinscribes the dominant cultural and foster care system preference for biogenetically connected families. The DCK resists the DBN, maintaining that enacted behaviors and shared affections, rather than shared genetics, constitute legitimate families. Contrapuntal analysis revealed a high degree of polemic interplay; both discourses competed to be centered rather than marginalized through the discursive practices of negating, countering, and entertaining. Implications for theorizing definitions of family and studying families in context are discussed     

Learning at a distance: the case of the community pharmacist

The article, written jointly by a provider and an evaluator of distance learning, begins by highlighting recent increased interest in continuing professional development. In particular community pharmacists' needs for continuing education are examined against a background of their changing role. The authors then report the findings from a one-year evaluation of distance learning materials produced and distributed by the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education at the University of Manchester. The evaluation, undertaken by a team from the Scottish Council for Research in Education, was conducted in two phases: first, a national survey of registered pharmacists, and second, a series of focus group meetings with practising pharmacists. By separating high, low and non-users, a picture of professional use of distance learning, the influence of mediating factors and the inter-relationship between personal motivation and design emerge. Some of the findings challenge the current orthodoxy (see for example, Lewis 1995, Burt 1997, Burt and Simpson 1998, Bennett 1998) which underpins distance learning. Finally, changes made as a consequence of the evaluation are indicated, showing how research can influence practice.     

The Open Courseware Movement in Higher Education: Unmasking Power and Raising Questions about the Movement's Democratic Potential

In this essay Robert Rhoads, Jennifer Berdan, and Brit Toven‐Lindsey examine some of the key literature related to the open courseware (OCW) movement (including the emergence and expansion of massive open online courses, or MOOCs), focusing particular attention on the movement's democratic potential. The discussion is organized around three central problems, all relating in some manner or form to issues of power: the problem of epistemology, the problem of pedagogy, and the problem of hegemony. More specifically, the authors raise issues related to the narrow notion of knowledge typically conveyed in the OCW movement, a limited understanding of what constitutes empowering pedagogy, and the lack of treatment of inequities associated with the production of courseware materials. The authors go on to argue that the lack of critical analysis of the OCW movement is tied to its relative alignment with educational reforms driven by neoliberal ideology and that such alignment serves to limit the movement's democratic possibilities.