When ‘Muslim‐ness’ is pedagogised. ‘Religion’ and ‘culture’ as knowledge and social classification in the classroom

The article presents a curriculum‐sociological study of ‘religion’ in the classroom. More specifically, it is a study, inspired by Bernstein, Foucault and Bourdieu, that examines various forms of identity politics tied to ‘religion’ and ‘culture’ as these concepts unfold in the classroom in relation to knowledge production and social classification. Categories such as ‘Muslim’ and ‘Danish’ are tentatively broken down in a study of the classroom as a locus for knowledge production and the production of social difference. What knowledge of religion is produced? What spaces for subjects? What ways to be a pupil? And in what ways do ‘Muslim‐ness’ and ‘Danishness’/‘Christian‐ness’ figure in the social economy of the class? The classroom is studied as a micro‐political arena for relations and politics concerning minorities and majority. In this sense, ‘religion’/‘culture’ may be seen partly as knowledge clusters and partly as subject‐producing technologies colouring and shaping bodies. These knowledge clusters, in turn, are coloured by the social economy associated with the agents’ bodies, making it a productive and potent part of social classification. Categories such as ‘Muslim’ and ‘Danish’/‘Christian’ are in themselves to be understood as processes of social classification and distribution. Hence, ‘religion’ may be understood as a class‐producing practice as the latter is transformed and produced in the pedagogical field of practice.     

Turnaround as Reform: Opportunity for Meaningful Change or Neoliberal Posturing?

This study explores the neoliberal agenda of turnaround school reform efforts in America by examining the application and transformation of a Midwest State Turnaround Schools Project for the public school system. Perceptions of administrators and state-level policy actors are considered. Data were collected from 13 participants during the implementation of the statewide turnaround program and the analysis focused on the neoliberal ideology during the implementation of the State Turnaround Schools Project. Corporate infiltration and funding leverage reflect the sticky web of policymakers and private corporations and their influence. District communication, support, and shared accountability underscore important lessons in leadership for turnaround school programs. Successful schools transformed the turnaround policy implementation by involving communities and restructuring their school district. However, the neoliberal agenda revealed the impact of government labeling, restructuring, and reallocating resources for under-performing schools and unveiling the infiltration of private corporations behind turnaround policy and student achievement. This alarming finding points to how turnaround school policy implementation weakens control of democratically elected authorities and stagnates critical thinking that challenges the interests behind turnaround school policy.     

Use, updating and integration of ICT in higher education: Linking purpose, people and pedagogy

In this article the use, updating and integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for teaching and learning purposes is discussed. Based on an empirical study using interviews and document analysis of the implementation of ICT in five Norwegian universities and colleges, the article analyse a number of factors that are of importance for the implementation of ICT in higher education. The analysis discloses that Norwegian higher education institutions often have adequate economic resources and a rather well developed technical infrastructure and support structure related to the use of ICT. However, attempts to link ICT initiatives to organisational development issues and to human resource management have not been very successful. In the conclusion it is argued that pedagogical issues and organisational and human development aspects must be better linked if ICT is to play a more effective role in teaching and learning in Norwegian higher education.     

Conflictual Media Events,Eyewitness Images,and the Boston Marathon Bombing (2013)

The proliferation of camera phones over the past decade has created an unprecedented landslide of visual information in the online public sphere, transforming the form and amount of communication in relation to crisis events. International research on this subject has primarily centered on the way in which the production and dissemination of eyewitness images convert mainstream media's coverage of crisis. This article broadens the perspective by focusing on eyewitness images in relation to “conflictual media events.” The article contributes to discussions on the definition of conflictual media events in today's mediatized and connective media environment, which has undergone radical changes from the era of mass media hegemony when Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz first outlined media events. The article further examines the ways in which the circulation of eyewitness images erodes established boundaries between experts and laymen and between professionals and non-professionals in relation to conflictual media events. The bombing of the Boston Marathon in April 2013 constitutes the empirical point of departure.     

Heart rate and movement pattern in street soccer for homeless women

Street soccer has been shown to be effective in improving cardiovascular and musculoskeletal fitness in homeless men, due to high heart rate (HR) and multiple intense actions. The purpose of this study was to investigate HR, movement pattern, rating of perceived exertion (RPE), flow and worry during street soccer for homeless women. Fifteen homeless women (30.3?±?5.0?years [± standard deviation, SD], 1.65?±?0.08?m, 65.1?±?11.0?kg, 5?±?4?years football experience) from three countries participated in 4?a-side street soccer games in Women’s Homeless World Cup 2015. Mean and peak HR were 174?±?7 and 188?±?10?beats per minute (bpm), respectively, and >160 bpm 76?±?23% of the playing time (11.1?±?2.6?min). Distance covered per minute was 68.6?±?8.9?m of which 82?±?14, 15?±?6 and 3?±?3% were covered with low- (0–9?km/h), moderate- (9–13?km/h) and high-speed (>13?km/h) running, respectively. The 43?±?5, 45?±?3 and 12?±?3% of the distance were covered running forward, sideways, and backward, respectively. Player Load was 9.2?±?1.7?arbitrary units (AU) per minute and the number of accelerations >1.5?ms^–2 was 15.3?±?2.7 per minute. The score for flow was high (5.5?±?0.8), whereas rating of perceived exertion (RPE) values (4.8?±?2.5) and the score for worry (4.6?±?1.3) were moderate. Street soccer for homeless women elicits high HR and a movement pattern comparable and for some parameters even higher than street soccer and recreational football for homeless and untrained men. Street soccer may be a suitable training intervention for homeless women, and especially moderate RPE and high flow score speaks in favour of an expectation of high participation and adherence.     

Understanding implementation and change in complex interventions. From single- to multi-methodological research on the promotion of youths’ participation in physical education

Abstract

Existing studies on complex interventions aiming to promote youths’ participation in physical education (PE) appear to be predominantly single-methodological. The aim of this article is to examine the benefits and challenges of evaluating an intervention to increase youths’ participation and experiences of social inclusion in the PE context using a multi-method approach integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches. The multi-method approach allowed an integration of the findings with regard to the implementation as well as the effect of the intervention. First of all, standardized questionnaires provided a manipulation check of the delivery of the intervention, while qualitative observations and interviews identified the diversity in pupils’ reactions thereto. Secondly, quantitative findings on the effect of the intervention were related to qualitative findings pointing to ambiguities in the pupils’ observed behaviour and interview responses. Thus, a more complete understanding of the implementation processes and effect of the intervention developed.     

The effectiveness of a universal school-based programme on coping and mental health: a randomised,controlled study of Zippy’s Friends

The purpose of this study was to evaluate Zippy’s Friends, a universal school programme that aims at strengthening children’s coping skills. The sample consisted of 1483 children (aged 7–8?years) from 91 second-grade classes in 35 schools. The schools were matched and randomly assigned to intervention or control conditions. Coping was assessed by the Kidcope checklist for children and an adapted version for parents. Parents and teachers reported mental health outcomes using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Controlling for the hierarchical structure of the data, latent variable regression analysis indicated that the programme had a significant positive effect on coping and on the impact of mental health difficulties in daily life. Subgroup analyses suggested that coping was improved in girls and children from the low socio-economic subgroup, whereas the impact of mental health difficulties was reduced in boys.     

“… We have learnt not just to sit back,twiddle our thumbs and let them take over.” Single‐sex settings and the development of a pedagogy for girls and a pedagogy for boys in Danish schools

Teachers in the Danish co‐educational elementary school system (the ‘folkeskole’ with pupils from 7 to 16 years) who are involved in innovative pedagogical projects have used segregation as an organisational method in introducing and developing equal opportunities and anti‐sexist pedagogical initiatives. The idea of arranging single‐sex settings started out as a means to provide space for girls and to enhance their competence professionally as well as to empower them personally. In setting up ‘Project Girls’ Class—Boys’ Class’, an ongoing developmental project about gender equity, the teachers, a woman and a man, have mixed their two classes and segregated the girls and the boys for longer or shorter periods or for a whole term in certain subjects, thus giving them space and tutoring on their own terms. It started in 1987/88, when the pupils were 10‐11 years old. Here for the first time they were segregated for 2 months. The involved girls developed self‐confidence and prefer to be in their girls‐only setting whereas it is the teachers (more than the involved boys themselves) that find that the boys’ class can provide important learning experiences for boys in raising their awareness of values and attitudes—both among the boys themselves and in relation to the girls. From the point of view of educational theory and how learning can become true learning, affecting the cognitive, emotional as well as moral and behaviourial attitudes, the paper reflects on why the segregation projects have given such clear results, whereas much other excellent tutoring by committed teachers seems not to have had the same impact. It comes to the preliminary conclusion that, in the hands of devoted teachers (people committed to the issues of gender equity and anti‐sexism and who are close to their pupils) the technique of polarising can be very effective.