Cascadia rising: soccer,region, and identity

In this article we examine the relationship between soccer culture and the vernacular region of Cascadia. Specifically, we consider how supporters of the Portland Timbers, Seattle Sounders and Vancouver Whitecaps mobilize the bioregional narrative of Cascadia. This Cascadian narrative helps to solidify supporter culture and identity by fostering a connection between supporters and place. As a result, soccer has also become one conduit through which ideas about Cascadia are constructed, experienced and communicated. In this way, ideas about Cascadia help to construct regional and local soccer cultures in Portland, Seattle and Vancouver and in turn, those soccer cultures help to construct and promote Cascadia. We examine three aspects of this situation: the formation of the Cascadia Football Federation, the Cascadia Cup Controversy and the use of Cascadian iconography by supporters of the aforementioned clubs.     

Children with Specific Speech and Language Difficulties—the teachers' perspective

Children with specific speech and language difficulties are frequently placed in mainstream classrooms with varying degrees of support. Yet little attention has been paid to class teachers' views about the children's problems and educational needs. This paper reports the findings of a two-stage project in two local education authorities investigating the characteristics and needs of children with specific speech and language difficulties (SSLD). Teachers, educational psychologists, and speech and language therapists in two local education authorities identified 133 eight year-old children who experienced primary difficulties with speech and language. Fifty-nine children and a subsample of 10 children of the same age who attended specialist regional schools participated in further investigations. Each of the children was assessed using a battery of instruments covering language, basic attainments and self- esteem. In addition, their teachers completed behaviour rating scales and an individual interview. The teachers comprised those working in specialist provisions, but also those in mainstream schools. In this paper data derived from the interviews with the teachers, supplemented by information from the assessments of the children's skills, will be reported. The teachers faced three challenges: the additional difficulties experienced by the children, their own knowledge gaps, and the barriers to meeting the children's needs. The implications of the results for inclusive education are addressed.     

Is job sharing worthwhile? A cost-benefit analysis in UK universities

Around 60 per cent of UK universities practice job sharing. This article is based on a survey of Personnel Directors in UK universities concerning their perceptions of job sharing. These responses were then used to carry out a cost benefit evaluation of job sharing from the universities' perspective. If productivity of workers in the shared job rose by as little as 0.35 per cent – one third of one per cent – the estimated increase in Personnel Section costs would be covered. If there was a 5 per cent increase in productivity, the ratio of benefits to costs would be 14.3 to 1. Universities also save as a result of greater retention of staff, and there are also important benefits to society, particularly less overall stress and reduced unemployment levels.     

Work-based antipoverty programs for parents can enhance the school performance and social behavior of children

We assess the impact of the New Hope Project, an antipoverty program tested in a random assignment experimental design, on family functioning and developmental outcomes for preschool- and school-aged children (N = 913). New Hope offered wage supplements sufficient to raise family income above the poverty threshold and subsidies for child care and health insurance to adults who worked full-time. New Hope had strong positive effects on boys' academic achievement, classroom behavior skills, positive social behavior, and problem behaviors, as reported by teachers, and on boys' own expectations for advanced education and occupational aspirations. There were not corresponding program effects for girls. The child outcomes may have resulted from a combination of the following: Children in New Hope families spent more time in formal child care programs and other structured activities away from home than did children in control families. New Hope parents were employed more, had more material resources, reported more social support, and expressed less stress and more optimism about achieving their goals than did parents in the control sample. The results suggest that an anti-poverty program that provides support for combining work and family responsibilities can have beneficial effects on the development of school-age children.