Heirs and Spares: Elite Fathers and Their Sons in the Literary Sources of Umayyad Iberia

ABSTRACT

In the medieval Islamic world, elite men were the benchmark of hegemonic masculinity and social power. A presumption of masculine authority within the household shaped the way early medieval rulers were described by chroniclers, and how medieval fathers related to their sons. The formal and informal ways in which they interacted with lower status men – whether their clients, their courtiers, or their sons – were hedged about with the symbolic language of gender. The article focuses on the ways in which certain Andalusī literary sources talk about relations of fathers and their sons with the ruling Umayyad family, to offer an additional dimension to our picture of how the dynasty conceptualised and legitimised its power.     

Effects of strength,explosive and plyometric training on energy cost of running in ultra-endurance athletes

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of a 12-week home-based strength, explosive and plyometric (SEP) training on the cost of running (Cr) in well-trained ultra-marathoners and to assess the main mechanical parameters affecting changes in Cr. Twenty-five male runners (38.2?±?7.1 years; body mass index: 23.0?±?1.1?kg·m^?2; V˙O₂max: 55.4?±?4.0 mlO₂·kg^?1·min^?1) were divided into an exercise (EG?=?13) and control group (CG?=?12). Before and after a 12-week SEP training, Cr, spring-mass model parameters at four speeds (8, 10, 12, 14?km·h^?1) were calculated and maximal muscle power (MMP) of the lower limbs was measured. In EG, Cr decreased significantly (p?<?.05) at all tested running speeds (?6.4?±?6.5% at 8?km·h^?1; ?3.5?±?5.3% at 10?km·h^?1; ?4.0?±?5.5% at 12?km·h^?1; ?3.2?±?4.5% at 14?km·h^?1), contact time (t_c) increased at 8, 10 and 12?km·h^?1 by mean +4.4?±?0.1% and t_a decreased by ?25.6?±?0.1% at 8?km·h^?1 (p?<?.05). Further, inverse relationships between changes in Cr and MMP at 10 (p?=?.013; r?=??0.67) and 12?km·h^?1 (p?<?.001; r?=??0.86) were shown. Conversely, no differences were detected in the CG in any of the studied parameters. Thus, 12-week SEP training programme lower the Cr in well-trained ultra-marathoners at submaximal speeds. Increased t_c and an inverse relationship between changes in Cr and changes in MMP could be in part explain the decreased Cr. Thus, adding at least three sessions per week of SEP exercises in the normal endurance-training programme may decrease the Cr.     

Predictors of multiple injuries in individual distance runners: A retrospective study of 75,401 entrants in 4 annual races–SAFER XX

BackgroundThere are limited data on factors that predict an increased risk of multiple injuries among distance runners. The objective of this study was to determine risk factors that are predictive of individual runners with a high annual multiple injury risk (MIR).MethodsA retrospective, cross-sectional study at 4 annual (2012–2015) Two Oceans 21.1 km and 56.0 km races in South Africa with 75,401 consenting race entrants. Running-related injury data were collected retrospectively through an online pre-race medical screening questionnaire. The average number of injuries for each runner every year was calculated by taking a runner''s race entry history and injury history into account and categorizing entrants into 4 MIR categories (high, intermediate, low, and very low (reference)). Multiple logistic regression modeling (odds ratios) was used to determine whether the following factors were predictive of a high MIR (average > 1 injury/year): demographics, training and racing, chronic-disease history (composite chronic disease score (CCDS)), and history of allergies.ResultsOf all entrants, 9.2% reported at least 1 injury, and 0.4% of entrants were in the high MIR category; the incidence rate was 2.5 injuries per 10 runner-years (95% confidence interval (95%CI): 2.4–2.7). Significant factors predictive of runners in the high MIR category were: running for > 20 years: OR = 2.0 (95%CI: 1.3–3.1; p = 0.0010); a higher CCDS: OR = 2.2 (95%CI: 2.0–2.4; p < 0.0001); and a history of allergies: OR = 2.8 (95%CI: 2.0–3.8; p < 0.0001).ConclusionRunners who have been running recreationally for > 20 years and those with multiple chronic diseases or a history of allergies were at higher risk of multiple running-related injuries. This high-risk group can be targeted for further study and possible injury-prevention interventions.     

Reading and Writing: Digital Directions

The authors show that IT hardware and software are having an effect on literacy. As well as being aware of those changes, English teachers, they argue, should be exploiting IT for the development of those reading and writing skills necessary for the future. The article goes on to exemplify, through an exploration of how it came to be written, some of the processes and opportunities identified earlier.     

Making connections: a conference approach to developing transformative environmental and sustainability education within initial teacher education

Abstract

Children today face significant challenges in response to living in a globalised world and the predicted environmental threats to the planet. However, implementing environmental and sustainability education (ESE) within schools can be complex and is often ignored within initial teacher education (ITE). In response, this project aimed to evaluate pedagogies for developing transformative learning for ESE within the context of university-based ITE. We ran a conference for trainee teachers informed by critical, participatory and arts-based pedagogic approaches. Alongside this, we undertook an interpretive case study, collecting data through questionnaires, focus groups and in-conference spoken reflection. Findings suggest trainee teachers gained a more nuanced understanding of the value and nature of ESE, as well as more affective and informed engagement with it, across the conference. Implications for ESE within ITE focus around the potential of pedagogies which provide affective experiences, in particular participatory and arts-based pedagogical approaches, for inspiring and empowering trainee teachers to enter into schools and develop their own ESE practice as classroom teachers.     

Experiential Learning in Social Science Theory: An investigation of the relationship between student enjoyment and learning

This paper provides an analysis of student experiences of an approach to teaching theory that integrates the teaching of theory and data analysis. The argument that supports this approach is that theory is most effectively taught by using empirical data in order to generate and test propositions and hypotheses, thereby emphasising the dialectic relationship between theory and data through experiential learning. Bachelor of Commerce students in two second-year substantive organisational theory subjects were introduced to this method of learning at a large, multi-campus Australian university. In this paper, we present a model that posits a relationship between students' perceptions of their learning, the enjoyment of the experience and expected future outcomes. The results of our evaluation reveal that a majority of students: ’ enjoyed this way of learning; ’ believed that the exercise assisted their learning of substantive theory, computing applications and the nature of survey data; and ’ felt that what they have learned could be applied elsewhere. We argue that this approach presents the potential to improve the way theory is taught by integrating theory, theory testing and theory development; moving away from teaching theory and analysis in discrete subjects; and, introducing iterative experiences in substantive subjects.     

Even while they teach, newly-qualified teachers learn

The Training and Development Agency sets national standards in the UK for qualified teacher status. These standards set out the areas of knowledge and skills that aspiring teachers should acquire during their training. One of these areas of knowledge and skills concerns the identification and teaching of pupils with special educational needs yet the effectiveness of current training routes for teachers in this area remains a matter of ongoing debate. In this article, Nicola Barber, a senior educational psychologist working in Medway, and Mark Turner, who runs an online training company and is a part-time tutor at the University of East London and senior educational psychologist in Medway, focus on the experiences of newly-qualified teachers during their induction and first year of teaching. These authors sent out questionnaires to newly-qualified teachers working in primary schools in two local authorities and received 60 responses. Their results suggest that these teachers, during this opening phase of their careers, experienced an increase in confidence in relation to special educational needs and report that they feel more skilled in this area at the end of their first year of teaching. Nicola Barber and Mark Turner analyse the factors that contribute to this scenario and begin to draw out implications for future approaches to the training and induction of teachers with regard to special educational needs and inclusion.     

Swimming against the tide: philosophy for children as counter-cultural practice

Philosophy for children (P4C), rooted in the Socratic Method and constructivist and pragmatic assumptions, is a dialogic and democratic pedagogy which teaches pupils to philosophise; to develop multi-dimensional modes of thinking through discussion of questions which connect with all human experience. Despite a wide range of research, both national and international, citing P4C's efficacy in promoting children's cognitive and affective skills the researcher observed that within her own Local Authority P4C failed in most cases to become established in the schools that had trained in this approach. As a consequence the researcher set out to explore teacher's perceptions of the factors determining the implementation of P4C in the classroom using a qualitative research methodology. Teachers do not teach in a vacuum; they are situated in a social, political and economic context which is broader than the classroom or the school. In order to better understand ‘the considerations which bear upon curricular action’, this paper will begin with a discussion of the wider policy context in which P4C is operating before moving on to explore the educational assumptions and practice of P4C and the extent to which these values and practices cohere with those espoused through the wider policy context. The researcher will then discuss the findings from qualitative interviews conducted with a small group of geographically dispersed primary school teachers in England. This paper argues that the ideology of economic rationalism, promulgated through educational policy and manifest in a culture of performativity and short-termism in the classroom, exposes conflicts of values for primary teachers with regard to the implementation of P4C which appear to suggest that P4C in the current educational climate represents counter-cultural practice.     

Children's Television Experience in Two Cultures

Research concerning children and television has concentrated more on their behaviour following viewing than on their personal experiences of this medium and the subjects are commonly American children from a distinctive television milieu. This study investigated first‐person reports of children from two rather different television cultures—US and West German (FRG). It was hypothesised that Americans would be more pro‐television, and thereby more dependent on television, more accepting of programmed violence and more fantasy‐involved in programme content; while experiencing less parental control/influence than West Germans. A sample of 93 FRG and 87 US children aged 10‐12 responded to a television‐viewing questionnaire of 34 items. The American children were significantly more pro‐television than the West Germans, and this was reflected in higher dependency and lower parental control scores. Responses to television fantasy and violence proved ambiguous, and no significant programme character preference differences were found. A principal components analysis of the American scores supported the intuitive item groupings.