New Labour,new leaders? Gendering transformational leadership

Transformational leadership is widely recognised as being central to the implementation of educational reform. In this paper I draw on selected educational speeches made by New Labour politicians in order to locate shifting discourses of leadership within the broader accountability framework through which the terms of the relationship between central government and head teachers have been re/configured in the United Kingdom. The gendered politics of transformation are examined, highlighting new and renewed forms of masculinity embedded within new leadership ideals. It is suggested that a gendered critique of transformational leadership offers an important contribution to critical analyses of the neo‐liberal and managerialist educational project.     

The social value of anonymity on campus: a study of the decline of Yik Yak

ABSTRACT

This paper considers the social value of anonymity in online university student communities, through the presentation of research which tracked the final year of life of the social media application Yik Yak. Yik Yak was an anonymous, geosocial mobile application launched in 2013 which, at its peak in 2014, was used by around two million students in the US and UK. The research we report here is significant as a mixed method study tracing the final year of the life of this app in a large UK university between 2016 and 2017. The paper uses computational and ethnographic methods to understand what might be at stake in the loss of anonymity within university student communities in a datafied society. Countering the most common argument made against online anonymity – its association with hate speech and victimisation – the paper draws on recent conceptual work on the social value of anonymity to argue that anonymity online in this context had significant value for the communities that use it. This study of a now-lost social network constitutes a valuable portrait by which we might better understand our current predicament in relation to anonymity, its perceived value and its growing impossibility.     

Learning to recalibrate the role of dead reckoning and visual cues in spatial navigation

In Experiment 1, hamsters started from their permanent home at the periphery of a circular arena and headed to a food source at the center. They then returned, fully laden with food, along a direct path to their home. On control trials, in which no manipulation takes place, visual cues outside the arena and dead reckoning (i.e., updated internal references generated during the outward journey to the food source) controlled the return journey. On experimental trials, the arena, with the hamster in its nest, was rotated by 90°, putting dead reckoning at variance with the distal visual environment. The animals were rewarded for going with dead reckoning. At first, they favored the distal cues, but later most of the subjects switched to using dead reckoning. Thus, hamsters are flexible enough to recalibrate the relative weight that they normally attribute to different sets of spatial cues. In Experiment 2, the reliance on dead-reckoning was greatly enhanced when a cue card at the nest entrance was rotated along with the arena, pitting one proximal cue plus dead reckoning against distal cues. Hence, dead reckoning and external cues seem to reinforce each other through their mutual correlation.     

The influence of the morphological structure of words on the dynamics of handwriting in adults and fourth and sixth grade children

Reading and Writing - Grapheme and syllable units have been shown to influence the dynamics of handwriting in adults and children, but the influence of morphemes remains to be clarified. We tested...     

Renaissance revelations: hub museums and online documentation

This review reflects on the response made within the English regions to the national strategy adopted for museums development in the Renaissance in the Regions programme. It considers the national data collection expectations and the actuality of the reporting/evaluation of the programme's management in different regions. A survey of the available regional documentation suggests a lack of consistency in available information and approach, and that review of the programme is welcome in order to establish baseline information for performance measurement.     

The effect of a prophylactic dose of flurbiprofen on muscle soreness and sprinting performance in trained subjects.

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of a prophylactic dose of a local, transcutaneously administered, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug on muscle soreness, muscle damage and sprinting performance in young trained males. Twenty-five subjects aged 19+/-3 years, actively participating in rugby union and field hockey, were familiarized with the test procedure and then divided at random into an experimental group (n = 13) and a control group (n = 12). The experimental group received two patches, each containing 40 mg flurbiprofen (TransAct LAT), 12 h before an exercise bout designed to produce delayed-onset soreness (DOMS). The control group received identical non-medicated placebo patches at the same time. Delayed-onset muscle soreness was induced by an exercise protocol consisting of drop jumps (seven sets of 10 repetitions). Serum creatine kinase activity, muscle soreness, muscle girth and acceleration in a maximal sprint over 30 m were measured before the induction of DOMS and at 12, 24, 48 and 72 h thereafter. Plasma lactate concentration was measured 3 min after the 30-m sprint tests. Subjects in both groups had significantly more pain at 24 and 48 h compared with at 12 and 72 h (P < 0.05; Friedman two-way analysis of variance). Thigh girth and serum creatine kinase did not change throughout the experiment. Although plasma lactate concentrations were elevated after the 30-m sprint, there were no differences between groups or as a result of DOMS. The greatest acceleration occurred between 5 and 10 m. This was not affected by the anti-inflammatory drug or DOMS. In conclusion, the aetiology of the DOMS induced in the trained subjects in this study seems to be independent of inflammatory processes or, more specifically, of increases in prostaglandin synthesis in the muscles.