Theorising community gardens as pedagogical sites in the food movement

Community gardens are rich non-school sites of informal adult learning and education in the North American food movement. To date, however, they have seldom been the subject of research in environmental education. This paper argues that theorising on public pedagogy and social movement learning from the field of Adult Education might effectively be applied to frame the study of learning in community gardens. A brief history of community gardens in the USA is first given, followed by an overview of theory on social movement learning. A review of empirical research on the individual and collective benefits of participation in community garden initiatives is then used to illustrate the potential for research on the connection between learning and these benefits. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for further research.     

A cross-case analysis of three Native Science Field Centers

Native Science Field Centers (NSFCs) were created to engage youth and adults in environmental science activities through the integration of traditional Native ways of knowing (understanding about the natural world based on centuries of observation including philosophy, worldview, cosmology, and belief systems of Indigenous peoples), Native languages, and Western science concepts. This paper focuses on the Blackfeet Native Science Field Center, the Lakota Native Science Field Center, and the Wind River Native Science Field Center. One of the long-term, overarching goals of these NSFCs was to stimulate the interest of Native American students in ways that encouraged them to pursue academic and career paths in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. A great deal can be learned from the experiences of the NSFCs in terms of effective educational strategies, as well as advantages and challenges in blending Native ways of knowing and Western scientific knowledge in an informal science education setting. Hopa Mountain—a Bozeman, Montana-based nonprofit—partnered with the Blackfeet Community College on the Blackfeet Reservation, Fremont County School District #21 on the Wind River Reservation, and Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Reservation to cooperatively establish the Native Science Field Centers. This paper presents a profile of each NSFC and highlights their program components and accomplishments.     

Inequality in language achievement growth? An investigation into the impact of pupil socio‐ethnic background and school socio‐ethnic composition

This paper investigates how pupils' growth trajectories in three language domains (reading fluency, spelling, and reading comprehension) are related to their own socioeconomic and ethnic background and to the socioeconomic and ethnic composition of their primary school. Using multilevel piecewise growth curve analysis, the growth trajectories of approximately 5000 pupils from 170 primary schools were estimated. The results indicate that a pupil's socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds have the largest impact on achievement and growth in reading comprehension and the smallest impact on reading fluency. Furthermore, school ethnic composition—but not socioeconomic composition—was related to pupils' achievement in all three language domains at the first measurement occasion, though none of the types of school composition was related to growth. The research findings therefore imply that to combat the deficits in language proficiency often found in ethnic minority pupils, priority should be given to investments in individual intervention programmes over policy plans to desegregate schools. Moreover, our study identifies the specific points in time during primary school at which intervention programmes are needed the most.     

Poststructural feminism in education: An overview

Feminists in education increasingly use poststructuralism to trouble both discursive and material structures that limit the ways we think about our work. This overview of poststructural feminism presents several key philosophical concepts ? language; discourse; rationality; power, resistance, and freedom; knowledge and truth; and the subject ? as they are typically understood in humanism and then as they have been reinscribed in poststructuralism, paying special attention to how they have been used in education.     

Characteristic(s) of Hypermedia and How They Relate to Knowledge

This article offers a redefining of three problem areas associated with the cognitive effects of the semiotic characteristics of hypermedia, highlighted by the first years of research on this objective: the hypertext associativity, the non-linearity and the rapprochement of real and hypertext navigation. We focus on the question of navigation, and try to show how this question arises in hypermedia, and why it arises in a way, which is more important than in other supports, such as books. In addition, we show how the semiotic characteristics of hypermedia which are identified in the first part of the article (non-linearity, absence of reading a default unique path, etc.) makes illusory the aim of completely understanding the ideas of the author, as can happen with a book. The relationship to knowledge offered by hypertext is no longer based on the understanding of a body of knowledge prepared in advance by the author, but on a users personal reconstruction. This reversal calls into question the way of defining the navigation mentioned above, which implicitly assumes the need for the users to mentally picture for themselves the formal organization of the whole of the document being studied. Spécificité(s) des hypermédias et rapport au savoir. Cet article propose un recadrage de trois problématiques propres aux effets cognitifs des spécificités sémiotiques des hypermédias, stigmatisées par les premières années de recherche sur cet objet : l'associativité hypertextuelle, la non-linéarité et le rapprochement entre navigations réelle et hypertextuelle. Nous nous arrêtons sur la question de la navigation, et tenterons de montrer comment cette question se pose dans les hypermédias, et pourquoi elle s'y pose de faÇon plus importante que dans d'autres supports, comme le livre. Par ailleurs, nous mettons en évidence comment les spécificités sémiotiques des hypermédias identifiées dans la première partie de l'article(non-linéarité, absence de parcours de lecture par défaut unique, etc.)rendent illusoire le but d'appréhender le propos de l'auteur dans sa totalité, comme on peut le faire dans le livre. Le rapport au savoir proposé par l'hypertexte se fonde non plus sur l'appréhension d'un ensemble de connaissances préconstruit par un auteur, mais sur une reconstruction propre À l'utilisateur. Ce renversement remet en question la faÇon de cadrer la navigation évoquée plus haut, qui suppose implicitement la nécessité pour l'utilisateur de se représenter mentalement l'organisation formelle de l'ensemble du document consulté. Die Charakteristikas der Hypermedien und ihre Beziehung zu Wissen. Dieser Artikel versucht drei Problemstellungen - aus den ersten Forschungsjahren auf diesem Gebiet resultierend - neu zu definieren, die mit den kognitiven Auswirkungen der semiotischen Charakteristikas von Hypermedia assoziiert werden : die Assoziativität von Hypertext, die Nicht-Linearität, und die Gegenüberstellung von wirklicher zu hypertextueller Navigation. Wir versuchen der Frage nach der Navigation in den Hypermedien nachzugehen, und warum diese Frage hier von grössere Bedeutung ist, als bei anderen Medien, wie bespielsweise Büchern. Wir zeigen überdies, wie die semiotischen Charakteristikas von Hypermedia (identifiziert im ersten Abschnitt) illusorisch das Ziel erreichen, die Ideen eines Autors vollständig zu verstehen, wie es bei einem Buch der Fall ist. Die durch Hypertext ermöglichte Beziehung zu Wissen basiert nicht mehr auf einem vom Autor vorkonstruierten Ensemble von Kenntnissen, sondern auf die Rekonstruktion durch den Leser. Diese Umkehrung wirft die Frage nach der Definition der oben beschriebenen Navigation auf, die implizit die Notwendigkeit voraussetzt, dass sich der Leser die formelle Organisation des Dokumentes verbildlicht.     

CONSUMERISM AND THE AGING

The need for consumer health education for the aged has been expressed by a variety of authors. This paper focuses on the rationale, development, implementation, and evaluation of a consumer health education program for the aged.     

Circles on pommel horse with a suspended aid: influence of expertise

In the third study of this series, we examined how circles with a suspended aid would vary depending of the gymnast's level of expertise. We analysed circles with the aid performed by three groups of eight gymnasts: expert, intermediate, and developing groups. The gymnasts for the expert and intermediate groups were selected from the previous studies based on judges' evaluation of their non-aid circles. The developing group of eight gymnasts, who were unable to perform circles on pommel horse without an aid, were added to this study and performed three sets of 10 circles on the pommel horse with the aid. Discriminative biomechanical variables identified in the previous two studies were used to compare circles with the aid among the three groups. As a result, the expert group demonstrated a larger pommel reaction force and a smaller aid reaction force than the other two groups, implying that they were less dependent on the aid. The smaller aid reaction force resulted in a smaller net hip joint moment. Furthermore, the expert group showed a shorter total duration and a greater shoulder excursion. In summary, the suspended aid can be used in a progressive manner depending on the gymnast's level of expertise.     

Beyond the “Charmed Circle” of OECD: New Directions for Studies of National Innovation Systems

In this paper, we engage with the widespread and influential approach of National Innovation Systems (NIS). We discuss its adequacy to non-OECD countries, especially in Latin America where it tends to be reified. Although the NIS approach is meant to address the most pressing needs of the economies it applies to, we argue that it would benefit from developing a more encompassing scope, allowing integration of greater diversity and complexity. By retracing the history of regimes of science, technology and innovation in Latin America, we explore the following paradox: whereas numerous Southern scholars urge the pressing need to develop an innovation agenda for Southern countries with a “Southern framework of thought”, they continue to heavily rely on a reductionist version of the NIS-approach that prevents such a “Southern perspective” to fully emerge. This creates problems for actors willing to use NIS more reflexively, and it also affects the effectivity of science, technology and innovation (STI) policies in non-OECD countries. We formulate a research agenda with three suggestions for further engaging NIS both conceptually and practically. Using such analytical perspectives, we argue, might benefit both to scholarly work about NIS, but could also allow for a better articulation with STI regimes in Southern countries.