‘Samurai’ politics: Japanese cultural identity in global sport – The Olympic Games as a representational strategy

Modern Japan has considered global sport an appropriate forum for not only defining the national cultural identity of Japan but also for conducting its international diplomacy. The recent phenomenon of Japanese baseball athletes ‘defecting’ from Japanese leagues to play for the American baseball leagues has often been described in political terms. This paper argues that the current trend of analysing Japanese nationals playing baseball in America in political terms can be historically contextualized by reviewing the bids by Japanese cities for the 1940, 1964, 1998 and 2016 Olympic Games.     

Early Football and the Emergence of Modern Soccer,c. 1840–1880

The origins of the modern football codes have attracted considerable attention from historians of sport over the past two decades, resulting in a vigorous debate between the self-described ‘revisionists’, led by Adrian Harvey, and the followers of Eric Dunning, dubbed by their opponents as the ‘orthodox’ view. However, this article argues that both sides commit the same methodological errors: an overestimation of the importance of written rules, an ahistoric view of culture and continuity, and a tendency to view the past through the lens of the present. By re-examining the historical record of early forms of football and presenting a broader contextual perspective for the emergence of the football codes in the 1840 to 1880 period, the article aims to address some of the key historiographical issues that confront historians of sport today.     

‘Is it like one of those infectious kind of things?’ The importance of educating young people about HPV and HPV vaccination at school

Abstract

The National Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination Program in Australia commenced in 2007 for girls and in 2013 for boys, using the quadrivalent HPV [4vHPV] vaccine. In Australia, students are primarily vaccinated en masse, on school grounds, after parental/guardian consent is obtained. Students most often receive little, or no, education at school about HPV or HPV vaccination prior to immunisation. There is also some uncertainty about where young people can and should obtain reliable information about the vaccine, outside of school. We conducted a cluster randomised controlled trial of a complex intervention in schools. This study aimed to improve: (1) student knowledge about HPV vaccination; (2) psycho-social outcomes and (3) vaccination uptake. In this paper, we briefly outline our educational intervention and discuss its implementation by educators including facilitators and barriers. We also discuss the study findings pertaining to student knowledge about HPV and HPV vaccination and their attitudes to vaccination across control and intervention schools. Study results showed students in intervention schools demonstrate greater knowledge and understanding of HPV and HPV vaccination. Greater knowledge and understanding of HPV and HPV vaccination appeared to promote positive attitudes towards vaccination and supported confidence with vaccination.     

Learning set-ups

A child reaching toddler stage is ready to learn about the basic shapes that comprise much of his/her world. With an accent on fun, here are some simple activities designed to teach children how to identify and distinguish between the shapes ... of things to come! Doris Allen is a career teacher in early childhood education. She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Oswego Community Day Care center, and has co-authored an article on handwriting in the current edition of theBook of Knowledge. Angela Collins is currently a kindergarten teacher in an Open Education program based on the British Primary System model, and during the summers directs remedial reading programs.     

Learning to Play Soccer: Lessons on Meta-cognition from Video Game Design

Over the past decade, there has been ongoing debate relating to the use of suitable pedagogical approaches for designing learning environments to develop skillful games players. There has, however, been little consideration of the “digital age of learning” and the global success of the digital video game industry. Using the educational work of James Gee, this article attempts to rationalize how a “digital video games approach” differs from other learner-centered pedagogies currently employed for teaching and coaching games. Examination of the literature suggests that the learning gains from Teaching Games for Understanding and the Constraints Led Approach ignore the meta-cognitive dimension of learning how to play games—surely an important consideration for long-term development. Accordingly, by drawing on experiences from digital video game design, we examine how games practitioners might utilize such an approach for meta-cognition in coaching or teaching practice to stimulate player learning.     

Strategic Alliance Poker: Demonstrating the Importance of Complementary Resources and Trust in Strategic Alliance Management

Strategic Alliance Poker (SAP) provides instructors with an opportunity to integrate the resource based view with their discussion of strategic alliances in undergraduate Strategic Management courses. Specifically, SAP provides Strategic Management instructors with an experiential exercise that can be used to illustrate the value creation potential of complementary resources and the role of trust in fostering resource sharing in strategic alliances. A discussion of the theoretical background, implementation, implications, and results of SAP is provided in this paper.     

Book review

Stay tuned. A history of American broadcasting, Third Edition written by Christopher H. Sterling and John Michael Kittross. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, New Jersey, London, 2002, 975 pages, ISBN 0–8058–2624–6, www.erlbaum.com

Media Ownership, written by Gillian Doyle. Sage, London, 2002, ISBN 007619–6680–3/007619–6681–1 (pbk)

Internet management issues: A global perspective, edited by John D. Haynes. Idea Publishing Group, 2002, 340 pages, ISBN 1–930708–21–1, www.idea-group.com     

eResources in Academic Libraries: A Look Ahead

Tim Collins, President and Founder, EBSCO Publishing, presented “eResources in Academic Libraries: A Look Ahead” at the eResource & Emerging Technologies Summit held at Mississippi State University Libraries on August 3, 2012. Collins presented EBSCO's strategy for creating the single search box and the philosophy behind their Discovery Service. He provided information on the different types of content providers and the search capabilities of their Discovery Service. Collins also presented information regarding eBooks on EBSCOhost and what they have done since acquiring NetLibrary.