Whose ‘voice’ is it anyway? The paradoxes of the participatory narrative

This study discusses some of the paradoxes found in the rhetoric of participatory research. Research-with-children views them as competent and agentic and as social actors, as citizens with opinions that must be listened to and given due weight. This image of the child as a social actor fails to acknowledge the structural, contextual and relational conditions that can afford or restrict opportunities for children’s agentic action. It conceals the multi-faceted, multi-dimensional properties of power that shape children’s (and adults’) contributions and ‘voices’. Our research took place in a primary school and aimed at training Year 6 children to carry out their own research on their chosen topic of interest. The participatory research ‘space’ was informed by the participants’ different intentionalities and agendas. The children were invited to take initiatives and make decisions, to be agentic. However, their agency, or what counts as ‘proper’ agency, was framed and defined in our adult terms. Tensions arose when the children’s agendas conflicted with and threatened ours. As we argue here, this participatory space should rather be seen as a political arena, where different and often competing agendas are at play, where the roles and relationships between children and adults are far from fixed, and where the capacity for agentic action is always socially mediated and shaped by social structure.     

Myosin heavy chain isoform composition in the deltoid and vastus lateralis muscles of elite handball players

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the present study was to compare the myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoform composition of the deltoid and vastus lateralis muscles of the dominant and non-dominant limbs in handball players. Eleven male Greek elite handball players (age 22.6 ± 1.9 yrs, training experience 10.6 ± 2.1 yrs, height 184.1 ± 4.1 cm, and weight 81.0 ± 12.5 kg) participated in the study. Four muscle biopsies were obtained from the dominant and non-dominant deltoid and vastus lateralis muscles during the in-season period. The MHC composition was determined using SDS-PAGE. No significant difference was found between the dominant and non-dominant muscles; Deltoid muscle: MHC I [(95%CI = ?1.22, 0.33), P = 0.228], MHC ΙΙa [(95%CI = ?0.32, 1.59), P = 0.168] and MHC IIx [(95%CI = ?1.49, 1.10), P = 0.749]; Vastus lateralis muscle: MHC I [(95%CI = ?0.38, 0.63), P = 0.586], MHC ΙΙa [(95%CI = ?0.50, 0.65), P = 0.783] and MHC IIx [(95%CI = ?1.08, 0.42), P = 0.355]. The findings of the present study indicate that the greater use of the dominant limbs for throwing actions and body movements in handball do not lead to altered MHC isoform composition compared to the non-dominant limbs.     

Greek primary school children’s representations of the urban environment as seen through their drawings

In the present study, we explore aspects of Greek primary school children’s representations about the urban environment through the use of drawings and their relation to sustainability. For that purpose, 104 children, aged 9–12 (4th and 6th grades), were asked to make two drawings of their town: one as it is now and another as they would like it to be. Drawings were analysed using pre-defined categories of urban sustainability and were statistically analysed using SPSS. Results revealed a serious gap in knowledge regarding energy and aspects of local development tied to sustainability in the current and future state of the children’s towns. Although the most popular characteristics in the children’s drawings were associated with the environment, the majority of children illustrated issues related to society. Evidence indicated an age-related progression of representations related to sustainability in the urban environment, at least concerning the topics of natural environment, infrastructure and the realization of problems caused by air pollution and municipal waste generation.     

Supporting the development of early years students’ professional identities through an action research programme

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the aims, rationale and aspects of a new Action Research (AR) module developed for level 6, Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) students. The aims of the module are three-fold: First, to support learners in developing the research and academic skills needed to investigate their own practices, generate knowledge and engage in critical reflection. Second, to assist students to be active agents in questioning and designing changes to improve their practice. Third, to support them in disseminating their work in the public sphere and thus take an active part in discussions about their field of practice. Drawing on the processes of ongoing reflection and collaborative enquiry, our vision is to emancipate our students; support them in repositioning themselves as powerful agents with significant insights and the power to make a difference to their practice. However, facilitating emancipatory AR can pose several challenges, on individual, institutional and political levels. The aim of this paper is to reaffirm the rationale for AR as an epistemological, methodological and political tool that can support the professional identities of our learners; also, to address some of the anticipated complexities and tensions of employing emancipatory AR in an academic environment.     

Health-Related Quality of Life in Children Attending Special and Typical Education Greek Schools

The purpose of this study was to examine parental perceptions about Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of typical education and special education students in Greece. The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) was administered to the parents of 251 children from typical schools, 46 students attending integration classes (IC) within a typical school and 97 students attending special education (segregated) schools. A two-way analysis of covariance indicated that, compared to their typically developing peers, children attending special education schools and IC were reported by their parents to have lower PedsQL scores. Compared to children attending special education schools, children attending IC showed no differences in all PedsQL domains but the emotional domain score (p < .05). Based on parents’ responses, further improvements in special education settings and environments in the Greek educational system might be necessary to improve the HRQOL of students with disabilities.     

Metacognitive knowledge of effort, personality factors, and mood state: their relationships with effort-related metacognitive experiences

The present study aimed at identifying the effects of mood treatment, personality factors, and metacognitive knowledge of effort–i.e., conceptualization of effort and perceptions of effort regulation–on metacognitive experiences of students, particularly on their reported feeling of difficulty and estimate of effort. The sample comprised 474 students of 5th and 7th grade of both genders. The participants were tested in two phases. In the first phase, they were asked to respond to questionnaires measuring (a) metacognitive knowledge of effort, (b) maths self-concept, (c) goal orientations, and (d) a test of maths ability. In the second phase, participants were subjected to mood treatment–neutral, positive, and negative– and were asked to solve a mathematical problem. They also rated their prospective metacognitive experiences before solving the problem and the retrospective ones after solving it. Mood treatment interacted with gender in the case of performance but it had no effect on metacognitive experiences. A series of regression analyses showed that positive mood, personality factors, and feeling of difficulty predicted the prospective estimate of effort. Only feeling of difficulty and performance predicted the retrospective estimate of effort. No effect of metacognitive knowledge of effort on estimate of effort was found.     

On the front-line: Teachers as active observers of pupils’ mental health

There is a growing expectation that schoolteachers should not only act as educators by delivering the national curriculum, but also be more involved as tier one mental health professionals. In this role they are expected to assume some responsibility in the early identification of children's mental health problems and to refer these children for appropriate support as required [NHS Health Advisory Service. (1995). Together we stand: The commissioning, role and management of child and adolescent mental health services. London, UK: HMSO]. In this paper, we examine teachers’ experiences in light of these expectations and in the context of greater inclusion. We undertook in-depth interviews, to explore teachers’ views on competency and training in mental health management. Our findings indicate a widespread perception that teachers feel inadequately prepared to manage pupils with mental health needs. The findings are discussed with reference to the changing role of the teacher, current education policy and teacher training.     

Young Children’s Reasoning About Physical & Behavioural Family Resemblance: Is There a Place for a Precursor Model of Inheritance?

This paper aims at exploring (a) whether preschoolers recognize that offspring share physical traits with their parents due to birth and behavioural ones due to nurture, and (b) whether they seem ready to explain shared physical traits with a ‘pre-biological’ causal model that includes the contribution of both parents and a rudimentary notion of genes. This exploration is supposed to provide evidence for our next step, which is the development of an early years’ learning environment about inheritance. Conducting individual, semi-structured interviews with 90 preschoolers (age 4.5–5.5) of four public kindergartens in Patras, we attempted to trace their reasoning about (a) whether and why offspring share physical and behavioural traits with parents and (b) which mechanism could better explain the shared physical traits. The probes were a modified six-case version of Solomon et al. (Child Dev 67:151–171, 1996) ‘adoption task, as well as a three-case task based on Springer’s (Child Dev 66:547–558, 1995) ‘mechanism task’ and on Solomon and Johnson’s (Br J Dev Psychol 18(1):81–96, 2000) idea of genes as a ‘conceptual placeholder’. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of the interviews showed overlapping reasoning about the origin of physical and behavioural family resemblance. Nevertheless, we did trace the ‘birth-driven’ argument for the attribution of the offspring’s physical traits to the biological parents, as well as a preference for the ‘pre-biological’ model that introduces a rudimentary idea of genes in order to explain shared physical traits between parents and offspring. The findings of the study and the educational implications are thoroughly discussed.