Speech in the undergraduate public relations curriculum

This essay analyzes the divergent public response in democratic cultures to power symbols who manipulate either a self‐disparaging (ironie) public persona or a self‐aggrandizing (hypocritical) one. This divergence is explored in light of well‐known democratic assumptions about power‐holders, and it is illustrated in the contrasting presidential images of Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy. It is concluded that the critic may require an extended vocabulary to evaluate the actions of power‐holders over and above those used to evaluate the actions of private individuals.     

No time to think: policy,pedagogy and professional learning

In this study, we seek to illuminate the effects of the global policy convergence in education through a close study of its enactment within an Australian Teacher Education course. Building on an examination of the changing priorities of a cohort of pre-service teachers over a short space of time, we argue that the enactment of New Public Management approaches to the governance of teaching in Australia is having adverse effects on the professional learning of new teachers, defeating the policy goals. Previous studies have investigated the affective impact of current global policy formations on teachers. Building on that work, this study considers the impacts that the teacher policy emphasis on ‘performance’ has had on professional learning processes, which are understood with reference to Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory. The study is undertaken using an interpretative phenomenographic approach and informed by the related methods of discursive psychology, which positions discourse as a discursive practice to achieve specific goals in specific contexts.     

The power of positional competition and market mechanism: a case study of recent parental choice development in China

This article draws on data collected during a pilot study conducted in two west London schools exploring young people’s understandings of success. It considers ways in which ‘discourses of success’, as part of New Labour’s project of re‐inventing schooling, may shape young people’s subjectivity. The article examines articulations between New Labour policy and aspects of social difference and how these structure new identifications with success. In particular, the article explores how class, gender and ethnicity shape discourses of success and how they are implicated in their distribution. In conclusion, the article indicates how current education policy (particularly in relation to educational success) articulates the ‘public’ domain with dimensions of the ‘private’ self and suggests that understanding this is vital in the pursuit of social justice.     

Student Teachers' Views of Pupil Misbehaviour in Classrooms: A Norwegian and an English setting compared

This paper examines how student teachers in Norway and England perceive pupil misbehaviour. The data are based on an opportunistic questionnaire survey of 86 student teachers in Kristiansand and 100 student teachers in York. Student teachers' perceptions of the seriousness of infractions were significantly different with regard to 7 of the items, with the students in Norway being relatively more tolerant. There were a few differences linked to sex and age. A principal components analysis identified 6 factors that were labelled: aggression towards other pupils, delinquent behaviour, oppositional behaviour, passive deviance, anti‐social behaviour, and off‐task behaviour. With few exceptions, student teachers in Norway and England regarded serious aggressive, delinquent and anti‐social behaviour as totally unacceptable. This suggests that it is appropriate to encourage student teachers (and their school mentors) to consistently censure these kinds of pupil misbehaviour.     

Crossing the Line: Sport and the Limits of Civil Rights Protest

Scholars have ably considered the extent to which sport has been, and continues to be, a force for racial progress. What has been less comprehensively explored, however, are the unique difficulties encountered by athletes who have attempted to use sport to promote civil rights activism. Black athletes, and sympathetic white teammates, have faced considerable obstacles as sportsmen who supported the civil rights struggle. Sport has restricted the ability of sportsmen to successfully engage in civil rights activism. In the belief that it has provided an example of racial progress for the rest of society, in fact, sport has resisted the civil rights movement. This article explores the difficulties faced by athletes who attempted to be part of that movement.     

Effect of combined carbohydrate-protein ingestion on markers of recovery after simulated rugby union match-play

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the effect of ingesting carbohydrate alone or carbohydrate with protein on functional and metabolic markers of recovery from a rugby union-specific shuttle running protocol. On three occasions, at least one week apart in a counterbalanced order, nine experienced male rugby union forwards ingested placebo, carbohydrate (1.2 g · kg body mass^?1 · h^?1) or carbohydrate with protein (0.4 g · kg body mass^?1 · h^?1) before, during, and after a rugby union-specific protocol. Markers of muscle damage (creatine kinase: before, 258 ± 171 U · L^?1 vs. 24 h after, 574 ± 285 U · L^?1; myoglobin: pre, 50 ± 18 vs. immediately after, 210 ± 84 nmol · L^?1; P < 0.05) and muscle soreness (1, 2, and 3 [maximum soreness = 8] for before, immediately after, and 24 h after exercise, respectively) increased. Leg strength and repeated 6-s cycle sprint mean power were slightly reduced after exercise (93% and 95% of pre-exercise values, respectively; P < 0.05), but were almost fully recovered after 24 h (97% and 99% of pre-exercise values, respectively). There were no differences between trials for any measure. These results indicate that in experienced rugby players, the small degree of muscle damage and reduction in function induced by the exercise protocol were not attenuated by the ingestion of carbohydrate and protein.     

A Survey of Safety Conditions of Buildings and Grounds in Secondary Schools

Abstract

Black and white children (N = 553) in kindergarten, grade one, and grade two, as part of a total test battery were tested on items of agility, speed, power, flexibility, and endurance. An ANOVA design was employed for both equal and unequal cell frequencies to determine the effects of grade, sex, and race on gross motor performance. Significant (p < .01) improvements were found at each grade for speed, power, and endurance items; males had significantly better performances (p < .01) than females on all items with the exception of flexibility; black children had significantly (p < .01) lower values than white children in the speed item at each grade level.     

Touching practice and physical education: deconstruction of a contemporary moral panic

This paper explores the insecurities and discursive moral panics elicited by the discussion of intergenerational touch in education, and their subsequent manifestation in ‘classroom panopticism’. In a number of contexts, public hysteria has grown around the interaction between adult and child, and whether this interaction stays within the narrow parameters of a generally consensual ‘acceptability’. Crossing these boundaries carries grave consequences for those deemed to be exploiting their position and this has had significant implications for the self-identity of practitioners. This climate of preventative fear has also served to manipulate regulatory method, realigning conceptions of practitioner independence. Drawing on interviews with Physical Education teachers in English secondary schools, and applying a Foucauldian theoretical framework, with particular reference to his interpretation of panopticism, this paper investigates the conceptual transformation of contemporary education. Whilst school spaces were once representative of stability, in which roles were clearly defined, the hierarchical dynamic has changed. The teacher, who previously presided with relative professional freedom and autonomy, is now subject to myriad pressures associated with ‘appropriate’ behaviour and the avoidance of any ‘problematic’ interactional incident. Foucault's treatment of panopticism is apt here, as teachers must conduct themselves with an acceptance that they are now governed by an unpredictable yet persistent practical scrutiny.     

Hydrodynamics of undulatory underwater swimming: A review

Undulatory underwater swimming (UUS) occurs in the starts and turns of three of the four competitive swimming strokes and plays a significant role in overall swimming performance. The majority of research examining UUS is comparative in nature, dominated by studies comparing aquatic animals' undulatory locomotion with the UUS performance of humans. More recently, research directly examining human forms of UUS have been undertaken, providing further insight into the factors which influence swimming velocity and efficiency. This paper reviews studies which have examined the hydromechanical, biomechanical, and coordination aspects of UUS performance in both animals and humans. The present work provides a comprehensive evaluation of the key factors which combine to influence UUS performance examining (1) the role of end-effector frequency and body amplitudes in the production of a propulsive waveform, (2) the effects of morphology on the wavelength of the propulsive waveform and its subsequent impact on the mode of UUS adopted, and (3) the interactions of the undulatory movements to simultaneously optimise propulsive impulse whilst minimising the active drag experienced. In conclusion, the review recommends that further research is required to fully appreciate the complexity of UUS and examine how humans can further optimise performance.     

Kinematics and kinetics of the bench-press and bench-pull exercises in a strength-trained sporting population

Understanding how loading affects power production in resistance training is a key step in identifying the most optimal way of training muscular power – an essential trait in most sporting movements. Twelve elite male sailors with extensive strength-training experience participated in a comparison of kinematics and kinetics from the upper body musculature, with upper body push (bench press) and pull (bench pull) movements performed across loads of 10–100% of one repetition maximum (1RM). 1RM strength and force were shown to be greater in the bench press, while velocity and power outputs were greater for the bench pull across the range of loads. While power output was at a similar level for the two movements at a low load (10% 1RM), significantly greater power outputs were observed for the bench pull in comparison to the bench press with increased load. Power output (P _max) was maximized at higher relative loads for both mean and peak power in the bench pull (78.6 ± 5.7% and 70.4 ± 5.4% of 1RM) compared to the bench press (53.3 ± 1.7% and 49.7 ± 4.4% of 1RM). Findings can most likely be attributed to differences in muscle architecture, which may have training implications for these muscles.