From positivism to critical theory: school-community relations toward community equity literacy

In recent years, research on urban school–community relations has emerged with renewed vigor and a myriad of suggestions for how to best approach the topic. While most of these suggestions are anchored in positivist and interpretive epistemologies, a growing number of scholars are applying more critical approaches to school–community relations that center issues of equity and unequal power relations. However, these approaches are often perceived as being too impractical for educational leaders to implement. This article thus situates approaches to school–community relations across three epistemologies: positivism, interpretivism, and critical theory to make these ideas more accessible for educational leaders. With a focus on developing educational leaders to work equitably across school and community contexts, this article provides an operating framework for each approach that delineates assumptions, goals, views of families, strategies, and types of leadership. Finally, this article provides an epistemological grounding to propose that educational leaders develop what I call community equity literacy, and concludes with implications for future research.     

A novel method for the performance of isometric exercise in the home

There is a paucity of research on devices suitable for home-based isometric exercise. Our aim was to compare cardiovascular responses to isometric exercise using novel and established methods. Ten individuals (age 34.0 +/- 8.5 years, mass 68.2 +/- 10.4 kg, height 1.72 +/- 0.09 m; mean +/- s) performed three different isometric exercise protocols with 48 h between each. Each protocol involved four repeated exercise bouts of 2 min at 30% maximum voluntary contraction force using alternate legs (transducer), alternate arms (transducer), or alternate arms (novel device). Systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial blood pressure and heart rate were measured every 30 s. The highest (peak) values during each 2 min bout of exercise were recorded (peak systolic blood pressure, peak diastolic blood pressure, peak mean arterial blood pressure and peak heart rate). At the end of each 2 min exercise bout, the participants rated their perceived discomfort using Borg's CR-10 scale. There was a statistically significant difference in peak systolic blood pressure between isometric arm flexion using the force transducer and the novel device [158.1 +/- 10.8 vs. 149.1 +/- 13.9 mmHg (mean +/- s); P = 0.02]. Further analysis showed that peak systolic blood pressure was on average 9 mmHg higher using the force transducer with limits of agreement of - 15.97 to 33.97 mmHg. Analysis of the peak diastolic blood pressure, peak mean arterial blood pressure, peak heart rate and CR-10 data revealed no statistically significant differences between the three protocols. These results suggest that this novel, home-based method elicited similar cardiovascular responses during isometric exercise to those of established laboratory-based methods. However, the lower peak systolic blood pressure using the modified scales warrants further investigation before this method is used widely in the home.