Mid-career academic women and the prestige economy

Drawing on 30 semi-structured interviews with women academics based in London higher education institutions in the UK, this paper investigates the gendered nature of the prestige economy in academia. We explore how mid-career academic women strategise their career development and the opportunities and barriers they perceive, particularly in relation to the accrual of academic esteem. Concept maps were used to facilitate dialogue about career plans and provided an artefact from the interviewee’s own perspective. The analysis draws on the concept of prestige, or the indicators of esteem that help advance academic careers, against the backdrop of a higher education context which increasingly relies on quantitative data to make judgements about academic excellence. The interviews indicated that women generally feel that men access status and indicators of esteem more easily than they do. Many women also had ambivalent feelings about gaining recognition through prestige: they understood the importance of status and knew the ‘rules of the game’, but were critical of these rules and sometimes reluctant to overtly pursue prestige. The findings are valuable for understanding how women’s slow access to the highest levels of higher education institutions is shaped by the value that organisations place on individual status.     

What is in the eye of preservice teachers while instructing? An eye-tracking study about attention processes in different teaching situations

Professional vision research lacks behind regarding the investigation of attention processes in teaching action. In this study, eye movements of preservice teachers were assessed by mobile eye-tracking technology (MET). Eye movements of N = 7 preservice teachers while teaching in standardized instructional situations (M-Teach) and while teaching in classroom were recorded and analyzed with regard to fixation frequency and fixation duration. According to assumptions of expertise research, the results show that preservice teachers strongly differ in their focus of attention. Furthermore, they show that preservice teachers distribute their attention only over a few pupils while teaching. The findings provide important implications with regard to the question how to support attentional processes even at an early stage of professional development, for example by observing own MET videos.     

Reliability of EMG normalisation methods for upper-limb muscles

Abstract

The study investigated different electromyographic (EMG) normalisation methods for upper-limb muscles. This assessment aimed at comparing the EMG amplitude and the reliability of EMG values obtained with each method. Eighteen male tennis players completed isometric maximal voluntary contractions and dynamic strength exercises (push-ups and chin-ups) on three separate test sessions over at least 7 days. Surface EMG activity of nine upper body muscles was recorded. For each muscle, an analysis of variance for repeated measures was used to compare maximal EMG amplitudes between test conditions. The intra-class correlation coefficient, the coefficient of variation and the standard error of measurement were calculated to determine the EMG reliability of each condition. On the basis of a compromise between maximal EMG amplitude and high reliability, the chin-ups appeared to be the optimal normalisation method for M. latissimus dorsi, M. posterior deltoid, M. biceps brachii, M. flexor carpi radialis and M. extensor carpi radialis. The push-ups seemed relevant to normalise M. anterior deltoid and M. triceps brachii activity, while isometric maximal voluntary contraction remained the most appropriate method for M. pectoralis major and M. middle deltoid. Thus, original methods are proposed to normalise EMG signal of upper-limb muscles.     

Computational approaches for mining user’s opinions on the Web 2.0

The emerging research area of opinion mining deals with computational methods in order to find, extract and systematically analyze people’s opinions, attitudes and emotions towards certain topics. While providing interesting market research information, the user generated content existing on the Web 2.0 presents numerous challenges regarding systematic analysis, the differences and unique characteristics of the various social media channels being one of them. This article reports on the determination of such particularities, and deduces their impact on text preprocessing and opinion mining algorithms. The effectiveness of different algorithms is evaluated in order to determine their applicability to the various social media channels. Our research shows that text preprocessing algorithms are mandatory for mining opinions on the Web 2.0 and that part of these algorithms are sensitive to errors and mistakes contained in the user generated content.     

Devising and implementing a card-sorting technique for a longitudinal investigation of the information behavior of people with type 2 diabetes

Information behavior research has been conducted predominantly using single-method (often interviews or surveys/questionnaires), cross-sectional research designs. However, there are important benefits to triangulation and the use of longitudinal methods. In preparing to conduct an investigation into the information needs and information seeking and use practices of people with type 2 diabetes, a longitudinal research design was developed that included traditional data collection methods, such as questionnaires and interviews. However, an additional method was developed specifically for this study — a new type of card-sorting technique that would permit the elicitation of participants' judgments regarding the relative usefulness of different sources and types of diabetes related information at different points in time along their journeys with the disease. This technique was well-received by the study participants and it yielded quantitative data that could be analyzed to identify whether any statistically significant changes took place in participants' judgments across time. Furthermore, the incorporation of a think-aloud protocol within this technique yielded invaluable qualitative data that helped to shed light on the reasoning behind participants' usefulness judgments. This new data collection tool has many potential applications within LIS research and practice.     

The limits of levels: Understanding the International Adult Literacy Surveys (IALS)

The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), an initiative of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), was carried out in the early to mid-1990s across more than 20 countries. It was followed in the early years of the 21st century by the Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALL) survey and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC, currently in data analysis). This article reviews the philosophical basis, theoretical underpinnings and data analysis of the original and subsequent IALS-based surveys. The purpose is to inform users of the survey data of what the surveys can, and cannot, provide. The author argues that the key use of these surveys is providing insights into population-level distribution of one form of literacy, namely a particular kind of text consumption in a developed society. He also points out the challenges regarding the use of the survey series for making international comparisons, for documenting change over time and for representing broad models of literacy. The tendency to use the survey findings for these uses is considered by the author as a misuse of the data, which leaves the potential of the IALS surveys to provide insights into the effectiveness and equity of different educational systems largely untapped.     

The posts continue: becoming

This paper describes assumptions of representational logic and phenomenology that organize much of Enlightenment humanism and one of its knowledge projects, conventional humanist qualitative methodology. The author argues that the ontological critiques of “post” theorists, including Foucault, Derrida, Baudrillard, Lyotard, and Deleuze and Guattari, were set aside in favor of epistemological projects following World War II and that, in general, the “posts” had little effect on that methodology. Those critiques are now being put to work and extended in the new empiricism and new materialism to re-imagine being, always an ethical task. Whether humanist qualitative inquiry can survive the ontological turn is a question to consider.     

Diversity,adult education and the future: a tentative exploration

Diversity in its many guises is strongly championed in the adult education literature. To conceive a future for adult education that is not diverse and does not try to address the needs of diverse learners seems absurd. Yet, diversity is not a unitary concept, having many definitions and paradoxical effects. Questions arise about its future in a globalizing world. It is not obvious that all facets of diversity in adult education can thrive into the future. This paper attempts to explore the future of diversity in adult education. It applies two methodologies used in futures research to do so. One, causal layered analysis (CLA), enables the present to be analysed critically in order to explore possible futures. In this paper CLA is used to identify possible effects of globalization on diversity in adult education. The other methodology used is visioning. The adult education literature is examined for its visions of diversity. Four different visions are identified. Each theorizes diversity differently. One aims for individual personal development within an accommodating, non‐critical context. A second emphasizes personal development but within a context that is critical, striving for a more just society. A third envisions social learning facilitating change towards a critical, more just society. A fourth focuses on social learning but within an accommodating, non‐critical context. CLA and visioning enable some tentative statements to be made about the future of diversity in adult education. Chief among them is that diversity, when valued in the market place, will prosper, while diversity that is intended to act as an agent for social change will not.     

Multi-Level Modeling of Dyadic Data in Sport Sciences: Conceptual,Statistical, and Practical Issues

The goal of this article is to present a series of conceptual, statistical, and practical issues in the modeling of multi-level dyadic data. Distinctions are made between distinguishable and undistinguishable dyads and several types of independent variables modeled at the dyadic level of analysis. Multi-level modeling equations are explained in a non-technical manner. A database of 66 athletes regrouped in 33 undistinguishable dyads is used to illustrate the steps from initial preparation of multi-level databases to the interpretations of output files. The data are used to examine null, intercept-as-outcome, and slope-as-outcome models, as well as to present a formula to calculate percentage of variance explained at different levels of analysis. A simple slopes procedure is showed to probe significant cross-level interactions (slope-as-outcome model) in a manner consistent with the approach generally used in ordinary least square regression. Potential extensions and limitations of this multi-level approach are presented in the discussion.