The Family–School Linkage in Addressing Bullying in Hong Kong: A Sociocultural Perspective

Abstract

The phenomenon that around ten percent of schoolchildren are bullied regularly in Hong Kong has attracted much scholarly attention in anti-bullying research. Current literature suggests taking into consideration the contextual features and socioeconomic factors in anti-bullying research, instead of applying identical intervention/prevention measures across cultures. Therefore, this article examines the role of school-family linkage as a mirror of the wide social-culture context, and analyzes the functions of such linkage in anti-bullying practice in Hong Kong. This study was conducted following a film approach in 2015. That is, a group of middle school teachers in Hong Kong were invited to watch small films showing typical bullying and anti-bullying episodes, followed by semi-structured interviews. The article demonstrates a list of good practices representing the functioning of a positive family-school linkage in bullying addressing. However, parental involvement does not always facilitate and can hinder bullying addressing on campuses. This study implies that efficient bullying addressing aligns with parental involvement in the intervention process, suggesting more parental involvement and more collaboration between family and school in anti-bullying. It also raises an urgent question in regards to balancing the various opinions between parents and teachers in child-raising and bullying addressing. This article suggests further and more investigations examining anti-bullying from a socioeconomic perspective.     

Schoolyard corner society: relating membership to reactive and proactive aggressiveness

This study investigated whether secondary schools in Norway had deviant subcultures, which could be labelled ‘schoolyard corner society’, and how gender and age were related to membership. We also studied levels of reactive and proactive aggressiveness in students, and the relationship between these types of aggressiveness and participation in schoolyard corner societies. Self-reported data were collected from a large, nationally representative sample of Norwegian eighth, ninth and tenth graders (n?=?3342, 1147 boys and 1256 girls). Findings showed that participation in schoolyard corner societies was significantly associated with age, indicating an increasing tendency over time. Reactive aggressiveness as well as power-related and affiliation-related proactive aggressiveness predicted participation to a substantial degree. We also found an interaction between age and affiliation-related proactive aggressiveness in their effects on participation in schoolyard corner societies, which indicates a slight decrease in the effect of proactive aggression over time.     

In vivo application of poly-3-hydroxyoctanoate as peripheral nerve graft

Objective

This study aims to investigate the degree of biocompatibility and neuroregeneration of a polymer tube, poly-3-hydroxyoctanoate (PHO) in nerve gap repair.

Methods

Forty Wistar Albino male rats were randomized into two groups: autologous nerve gap repair group and PHO tube repair group. In each group, a 10-mm right sciatic nerve defect was created and reconstructed accordingly. Neuroregeneration was studied by sciatic function index (SFI), electromyography, and immunohistochemical studies on Days 7, 21, 45 and 60 of implantation. Biocompatibility was analyzed by the capsule formation around the conduit. Biodegradation was analyzed by the molecular weight loss in vivo.

Results

Electrophysiological and histomorphometric assessments demonstrated neuroregeneration in both groups over time. In the experimental group, a straight alignment of the Schwann cells parallel to the axons was detected. However, autologous nerve graft seems to have a superior neuroregeneration compared to PHO grafts. Minor biodegradation was observed in PHO conduit at the end of 60 d.

Conclusions

Although neuroregeneration is detected in PHO grafts with minor degradation in 60 d, autologous nerve graft is found to be superior in axonal regeneration compared to PHO nerve tube grafts. PHO conduits were found to create minor inflammatory reaction in vivo, resulting in good soft tissue response.     

Fatigue effects upon sticking region and electromyography in a six-repetition maximum bench press

Abstract

The aim of the study was to examine the sticking region and concomitant neuromuscular activation of the prime movers during six-repetition maximum (RM) bench pressing. We hypothesised that both peak velocities would decrease and that the electromyography (EMG) of the prime movers (deltoid, major pectoralis and triceps) would increase during the pre-sticking and sticking region during the six repetitions due to fatigue. Thirteen resistance-trained males (age 22.8 ± 2.2 years, stature 1.82 ± 0.06 m, body mass 83.4 ± 7.6 kg) performed 6-RM bench presses. Barbell kinematics and EMG activity of pectoralis major, deltoid anterior, and triceps brachii during the pre-, sticking and post-sticking region of each repetition in a 6-RM bench press were analysed. For both the sticking as the post-sticking region, the time increased significantly from the first to the sixth repetition. Vertical barbell height at the start of sticking region was lower, while the height at the end of the sticking region and post-sticking region did not change during the six repetitions. It was concluded that in 6-RM bench pressing performance, the sticking region is a poor mechanical force region due to the unchanged barbell height at the end of the sticking region. Furthermore, when fatigue occurs, the pectoralis and the deltoid muscles are responsible for surpassing the sticking region as indicated by their increased activity during the pre- and sticking region during the six-repetitions bench press.     

MathePraxis – connecting first-year mathematics with engineering applications

First-year engineering students often complain about their mathematics courses as the significance of the difficult and abstract calculus to their field of study remains unclear. We report on the project MathePraxis, a feasibility study which was designed as a means to give first-year students some impression about the use of mathematics in real practice. We aim to increase the motivation and retention rates among engineering students by connecting the contents of the first-year mathematics lectures with practical applications. We developed three projects, two of which are described in this article: an inverted pendulum considered as a model for the automated control within a Segway and a study on the optimal design of a ribbed cooler. In this article, we briefly present the mathematical content of the projects and report on their implementation.     

Symptomatology in adolescents following initial disclosure of sexual abuse: The roles of crisis support, appraisals and coping

ObjectiveThe present study examined possible explanations for symptom development and variability in sexually abused adolescents. A theoretical model of sexual abuse, in which appraisal, coping and crisis support play prominent roles, was tested in a clinical group of 100 sexually abused adolescents.MethodParticipants, aged 12–18 years, completed questionnaires regarding severity of abuse, negative appraisals, crisis support, coping strategies, and trauma-related stress symptoms.ResultsSince severity of abuse had no influence on the association between appraisals and symptoms it was eliminated from our model. Structural equation modeling analyses showed a significant interrelationship between the examined concepts. Adolescents who appraised the abuse as more threatening showed more internalizing and externalizing trauma symptoms. Moreover, more negative appraisals were associated with more avoidance as well as with more active coping strategies. Direct crisis support was associated with less negative appraisals and with the use of more active coping strategies.ConclusionsThe study showed that especially the buffering role of crisis support and the role of negative appraisals explained symptom development and variety in sexually abused adolescents.Practice implicationsAdaptation to sexual abuse includes the ways in which adolescents perceive the event as threatening and harmful, how they cope with the abusive experience, and how they receive direct support from their family. Clinicians, therefore, need to expand the focus of their assessments beyond age- and trauma-specific symptoms, to age- and trauma-specific appraisals, coping, and social support. The assessment of these factors should take place as soon as possible after the disclosure of the abuse. Individualized treatment plans and clinical interventions need to be based on these personal and environmental variables, rather than reliance on the influence of abuse-related characteristics, such as the severity or type of abuse.     

Learning from multimedia presentations: Facilitation function of animations and spatial abilities

Animations may facilitate learning by providing external support for visual–spatial mental processing. Facilitation is challenged by findings that demonstrate involvement of spatial abilities in learning from animations, because this involvement indicates active internal visual–spatial processing. In the present study, learners attended to a system-paced multimedia presentation in which a verbal–auditory explanation was concurrently synchronized either with animation, with static core pictures, or with enriched static pictures that showed additional intermediate steps and arrows indicating motion. Results demonstrated better learning success with animations and with enriched static pictures than with static pictures. Spatial abilities were not substantively related to learning success with animations or with static pictures, but they played a crucial role for learning success with enriched static pictures. It is concluded that active visual–spatial processing was recruited with enriched static pictures. With animations, learning was truly facilitated by external support for visual–spatial mental processing.     

The gendering of global citizenship: findings from a large-scale quantitative study on global citizenship education experiences

The growing literature on the gendering of citizenship and citizenship education highlights that western notions of ‘citizenship’ have often been framed in a way that implicitly excludes women. At the same time, insofar as feminist writers have addressed citizenship, they have tended to see it in largely local and national terms. While feminist literature has laid the groundwork for understanding how schools have shaped and structured a gendered citizenry, there is a lack of large-scale quantitative data which might allow us to explore the intersection between gender and global citizenship education. Drawing on a large-scale quantitative study on development education/global citizenship education in second-level schools, the data presented here suggest that emergent notions of global citizenship are being gendered in schools. The data suggest that girls’ schools are more likely than other types of schools to emphasise a sense of responsibility for, and an analysis of, global inequalities, while differences also emerge between boys’ schools and co-educational schools.     

Paradigm wars, dialogue or dance: is rapprochement possible and/or desirable?

In focusing on the Kincheloe and Tobin paper, ‘The Much Exaggerated Death of Positivism,’ this forum explores the hegemony of positivism in the professional practices of a group of educators whose research expertise lies in the fields of science education, mathematics education and leadership education. Responding to the first question, ‘What is your personal/professional experience of the hegemony of positivism?’, four key issues arise: is positivism part of the external world or is it within us (and thus what is our agency)?, the role of positivism as a driver of Western cultural imperialism, dualism as the chief logic of positivism, and the difficulty of responding to positivism from a pluralist perspective. The second question, ‘Is rapprochement between positivism and other paradigms possible and/or desirable without being re-colonised?’, raises a number of key issues that, although relatively new to science education, are of increasing interest to cultural studies researchers keen to embrace alternative research paradigms with which to create culturally inclusive science curricula. The discussants reveal their personal experiences of being marginalised by the hegemony of positivism and give voice to a range of opinions about how best to respond. The integral perspective of spiral dynamics is proposed as a model of paradigm evolution, our fundamental assumptions about modern progress are questioned, and the non-dualist logic of dialectics is explored as a more inclusive rationality for researchers. In the spirit of counter-hegemonic cultural studies, the discussants draw on their personal Buddhist and Hindu perspectives to open new doorways into complex ontological systems lying beyond the simplistic materialism of crypto-positivism. We are given a glimpse of powerful means of generating new insights into the emergent universe (within and without) that an evolving science endeavours to explain.