Sport physiology research and governing gender in sport—a power–knowledge relation?

This article sets out to show how physiological knowledge about sex/gender relates to power issues within sport. The sport physiology research at the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences (Swedish acronym: GIH) during the twentieth century is analysed in relation to the political rationality concerning gender at GIH and within the Swedish Sports Confederation during the same period. The analysis is constituted by Michel Foucault's notion of power–knowledge relations and regimes oftruth. The construction of sex/gender in the physiological research changes over time. Comparative studies on the function of ‘sexual difference’ during strenuous work, which, in hindsight, might be seen to restrict women's sport participation, was gradually displaced by a lack of interest in sexual difference, and later by a growing fascination with sexual difference from a ‘gender perspective’ in terms of women being ‘different but equal’ to men. This displacement goes hand in hand with a displacement of the political rationality concerning gender at GIH and within the Swedish Sports Confederation, where a pre-World War II strategy of excluding women's competitive sport participation, restricting women's physical exercise to gymnastics, was after 1945 followed by a strategy of including women. This was at first in the name of ‘women's right to do sport’—where the physiological research advocated this endeavour—and later in the name of ‘women's right to do sport on their own terms’. However, the research was still being conducted based on the male physiology as the norm.     

Materialising bodies: there is nothing more material than a socially constructed body

Over the last one of two decades, researchers within the physical education (PE) and sport pedagogy research frequently use the concept ‘the material body’. An initial purpose of this article is to explore what a concept of a ‘material body’ might mean. What other bodies are there? Who would dispute the materiality of bodies? I suggest that the use of a concept as ‘the material body’ suggests a hesitation before the radicalism of the linguistic turn in the sense that the concept ‘discourse’ does not include a material dimension. In this way ‘the material body’ relates to an interpretation of ‘the socially (or discursively) constructed body’ as void of matter. A further purpose with the article is to re-inscribe matter in the concept of ‘discourse’. This is done by way of discussing what theorists like Michel Foucault and, in particular, Judith Butler, has to say about the materiality of the body. In their writings, discourse should not be limited to spoken and/or written language. Rather, discourse is understood in terms of actions and events that create meanings—that matters. One conclusion of the article is that it is important to problematise the mundane view of discourse as ‘verbal interchange’ because it reinforces the promise of an objective knowledge that will eventually shed light on the ‘real’ body and the mysteries of sexual difference, what its origins are, what causes it. Another conclusion is that the PE and sport pedagogy research should pay less attention to the body as an object (what it ‘is’), and pay more attention to how the body matters, and e.g. how movements make bodies matter.     

Increasing Educational Attainment and Aspiration in an Underserved Community: The Perspective of Urban-Community Leaders

Latino students are significantly underrepresented in higher education. As the largest and fastest growing racial/ethnic population in the US, this is cause for national concern. Additionally, this rapid population growth is a call for community and school leaders from underserved communities to assess their service areas and focus on interventions to increase the college-going rates of youth. Maywood is a city located in Southeast Los Angeles. Like many other urban areas, Maywood’s largely Latino population is underrepresented in higher education. This research focused on interviewing Maywood’s community and school leaders (n = 24) to gain insight into their perceptions of their role and responsibility to address issues surrounding their community’s low levels of educational attainment. A key theme emerged revealing that leaders understand their community’s educational issues but do not see their role as leaders to directly address this issue to build a college-going culture. Implications for practice in strengthening community partnerships and developing a college-going culture are provided and a series of recommendations for the creation of a college-going culture are discussed.     

Assessment and teaching of science skills: whole of programme perceptions of graduating students

This study reports on science student perceptions of their skills (scientific knowledge, oral communication, scientific writing, quantitative skills, teamwork and ethical thinking) as they approach graduation. The focus is on which teaching activities and assessment tasks over the whole programme of study students thought utilised each of the six nominated skills. In this quantitative study involving two Australian research-intensive universities, the teaching activities identified by students as developing the broadest number of skills were laboratory classes and tutorials. Lectures were only effective for developing scientific knowledge and, to a limited extent, ethical thinking. Assessment tasks that students perceived to utilise the broadest range of skills were assignments and oral presentations. The findings of this study document the students’ perspective about their gains in skill sets, and the teaching activities and assessment tasks that require them to use and thus develop these skills. The findings provide an opportunity to evaluate the constructive alignment of skills development, teaching activities and assessment tasks from a student’s perspective. Further research is required to actually measure the skills that students gain over their whole programme of study.     

Comparing Lectures: Effects of the Technological Context of the Studio

This presentation compares how lectures are being performed in different technological contexts: that of the studio, for taping of videotapes, or in front of a camera for the purpose of videoconferencing, or, for a live presentation. The different contexts will be described according to the communication theory of the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann, and contrasted with findings from contemporary research on lecturing and teacher–student interaction. The comparison between the videotaped lecture and the live lecture reveals important differences as to style of communication. The taped lectures are more stringent and content-oriented, while the live-lectures are time-consuming and more focused on establishing dialogues with students. Videoconference-lecturing contains features that place it between the live- and videotaped lecture. This paper concludes that videoconferencing is problematic with serious problems to handle for students and teachers alike.     

Institutional care of infants in Sweden: criteria for admission in 1970, 1975 and 1980

The purpose of the present study was to analyze the criteria used for admission of infants to institutional care in the metropolitan area of Stockholm in 1970, 1975 and 1980. The study included 337 infants. Their records from the institutional care have been studied. A significant decrease was observed from 1970 to 1980 on the following grounds for admission: teen-age mother, adoption, unsatisfactory housing situation, hospitalization of the mother. The following criteria for admission showed a significant increase: maternal alcohol and/or drug abuse as well as psychiatric disorders. It is concluded that there has been a dramatic change in the criteria used for admission of infants to institutional care from 1970 to 1980. Voluntary admissions of infants for maternal health reasons or social problems of a temporary nature have apparently been supplanted by non-voluntary admissions owing to maternal addiction and psychiatric insufficiency.     

Building Expertise: a process perspective on the development or change of teachers’ beliefs

Based on a process perspective of expertise development, eight experienced teachers were interviewed about their beliefs about student learning, i.e. the way they developed their beliefs, and to what extent they have changed and intend to further change these beliefs. Learning or expertise development by teachers appears to be highly personalised or subjective, and rarely based on enhanced reflection. Primarily, dissatisfaction about the actual situation and, subsequently, attempts to improve that situation encourage teachers to develop or change their beliefs. As is the case with most teachers the change which occurs is gradually based on cumulative experiences, although also a radical change of beliefs on the basis of key‐experiences may not be excluded. It is predominantly personal motives which seem to determine teacher learning. It is argued that collaborative learning by teachers should be promoted in schools, though individually initiated learning by teachers may also had to improvements that can be implemented by colleagues.     

Prognosis of children admitted to institutional care during infancy

The present study has investigated the prognosis of infants admitted to institutional care. The follow-up was made after five and ten years. Three groups of children were studied: those who were in adoptive homes, foster homes and biological homes, respectively, at the time of the investigation. Approximately 50% of the total population was treated in hospital after the neonatal period. More children in foster and biological homes were hospitalized because of trauma. At 4 years of age the psychomotor development was considered normal in 77% of the adopted children compared to approximately 55% in the other two groups. Furthermore, the children in foster and biological homes demonstrated a higher rate of psychological or behavioral disturbances. The children who were in foster homes had experienced more separations and 39% of them had been subjected to 6 or more placements. The experiences of institutional care per se in infancy do not predispose the child to health and behavioral problems. The determining factor for optimal development seems to be permanency of care and parenting capability.