Bhupinder and Tarrant: players of the game

Abstract

Financier Maharaja Bhupinder Singh and tour manager Frank Tarrant are the two key protagonists of the inaugural Australian cricket tour to India in 1935/36 and the historical figures in this article. Their culturally atypical relationship was anomalous to the conventional imperialist paradigm and openly defied racist notions of Western supremacy and cultural incompatibility that informed and underpinned the initial expectations of the touring party. Despite their relationship being primarily driven by mutually beneficial professional and financial objectives, a genuine rapport that challenged the archetypal servant/master paradigm is evident. Press reportage from Australia, India and Britain supports the argument. The minute books of the Middlesex Cricket Club (1908–16) and the Melbourne Cricket Club (1907 and 1908) have been integral in locating information on Tarrant’s movements. Discovering the Tarrant scrapbooks (c.1918–51) at the Melbourne Cricket Club has answered many questions that have plagued previous research into the man who has remained an enigmatic mystery in cricket history. The post-colonial theories of Homi Bhabha (2012), specifically his analysis of mimicry, are employed to argue that the political agendas of the Indian royalty were evolving. Cricket, an English institution, was embraced and reconstructed by the Indian community. Indian society was rejecting the British template and opted to operate according to an increasingly nationalistic and indigenous ideology and through this process appropriated cricket, the bastion of Englishness, as its own. The Australians’ contribution to this process is interrogated, and the liberal influence of Tarrant and the Maharaja in minimizing the racial and social divide throughout the tour is evident.     

(Re)Viewing Reviews: Effects of Emotionality and Valence on Credibility Perceptions in Online Consumer Reviews

This study examines credibility perceptions in online consumer reviews. Specifically, this work investigates the effects of review emotionality (high vs. low), review valence (positive vs. negative), and individuals’ need for affect on source credibility and information credibility. In an online experiment, U.S. adults (N = 327) viewed a product review from Amazon.com varied across four experimental conditions. Results indicate that high-emotionality reviews are perceived as lower in source and information credibility compared to low-emotionality reviews. A moderated mediation model was tested with the source credibility dimensions as possible mediators of information credibility and need for affect as a moderator for the effects of review emotionality. The effects of emotionality on information credibility were significantly mediated by source trustworthiness, and this mediation was moderated by participants’ need for affect, with the credibility-hampering effects of emotionality found only among participants with low and moderate levels of need for affect.     

Reading Instruction for English Learners in the Middle Grades: a Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis synthesizes the last two decades of experimental and quasi-experimental research on reading instruction across academic contexts (e.g., social studies, science, mathematics, English language arts) for English learners (ELs) in grades 4 through 8, to determine (a) the overall effectiveness of reading instruction for upper elementary and middle school students who are ELs and (b) how the magnitude of the effect varies based on student, instructional, and study characteristics. The analysis included a total of 11 studies with 46 individual effect sizes and yielded a mean effect size of g?=?0.35 across all (i.e., standardized and unstandardized) reading measures, g?=?0.01 across standardized reading measures, and g?=?0.43 across unstandardized reading measures. For all reading, unstandardized reading, all vocabulary, and unstandardized vocabulary measures, results suggest that higher quality studies tended to have smaller effects, and these effects were even more evident for unstandardized measures (i.e., one unit increase in study quality was associated with decreased effects: g?=?0.21, g?=?0.30, g?=?0.24, g?=?0.30, respectively). For all comprehension measures, effects were larger for instruction that included both vocabulary and comprehension (g?=?0.39) than for instruction that focused on vocabulary alone (g?=?0.08). Results suggest the benefit of developing and refining high-impact approaches to reading instruction for ELs that can be delivered across content areas and grades.     

Using ‘HOCS-Centered Learning’ as a Pathway to Promote Science Teachers' Metacognitive Development

An element of current reform in science education worldwide is the shift from the dominant traditional algorithmic lower-order cognitive skills (LOCS) teaching, to the higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS)-promoting learning; that is, the development of students' capabilities including those of question asking (QA), critical/system thinking (CST), decision making (DM), problem solving (PS), conceptualisation of fundamental concepts (CFC) and the transfer of these within both the science disciplines and real life interdisciplinary situations. Accordingly, an innovative metacognition-promoting science teacher professional development course, integrating formal and informal science education, was developed and implemented within a traditional model, focusing on the HOCS skills of QA, PS, and CFC. The HOCS promoting teaching and assessment strategies of this course not only enabled participants to reflect on their own learning, but also facilitated their self-reflective assessment, utilising a pre–post designed research-based methodology. The results suggest that such, or similarly appropriate, metacognition-oriented courses can contribute positively to the development of science teachers' HOCS capability.     

Enhancing comprehension in small reading groups using a manipulation strategy

Having young readers manipulate objects to correspond to the characters and actions in a text greatly enhances comprehension as measured by both recall and inference tests. As a step toward classroom implementation, we applied this manipulation strategy in small (three-child) reading groups. For successive critical sentences, one child would read the sentence aloud and then manipulate the objects, then the next child would read and manipulate, and so on. Children in a reread control condition also alternated reading the text. For the reread condition, one child would read the critical sentence and then reread it, followed by the next child, and so on. Children who manipulated were substantially more accurate in answering questions about the texts. Thus, the manipulation strategy meets at least some of the criteria for being applicable in a classroom setting, namely it is effective when applied in small groups.     

Transformative pedagogy: Dinka playgroups as spaces for cultural knowledge productions of Western science

Cultural Studies of Science Education - As increasing numbers of families migrate from a range of countries into communities where Western science is viewed as valued curriculum content, a need for...     

Voices from the Field: Perspectives of U.S. Kinesiology Chairs on Opportunities,Challenges, and the Role of Mentoring in the Chair Position

This study examined perspectives of U.S. collegiate kinesiology department chairs (n = 54/144; 37.5% response rate) relative to: (a) opportunities and most enjoyable aspects of being a department chair, (b) challenges and least enjoyable aspects of being a department chair, and (c) perspectives on mentoring. The majority of participants enjoyed their chair role (90%) and did not aspire to advance in administration (61%). Job-related opportunities included mentoring others, facilitating department success, and leading initiatives (e.g., curricula, policies, and finances). Job-related challenges included a lack of university support, personnel issues, and urgent requests for information. Many had a mentor for a long time (mean = 7.9 ± 7.6 years; range 1 to 28 years), and the majority (71%) did not consider their dean a mentor. Protégés appreciated their mentors’ experience, listening skills, and willingness to share information, advice, and empathy. Results from this study provide helpful information for serving as a kinesiology chair.     

A Qualitative Exploration of Romantic Partners’ Motives for and Content of Communication with Friends Following Negative Relational Events

The purpose of this study was to explore young adults’ motives for and content of extradyadic interactions with friends following a negative relational event in a romantic relationship. Focus group discussions with young adults revealed the following partner motives: improving affect, managing uncertainty, obtaining clarity, and entertainment. In turn, friends were motivated by issues of honesty, friendship quality, and a desire to protect or comfort their friend. Both partners and friends discussed the use of a variety of negative, neutral, and positive message content. Results provide an exploratory look at extradyadic interactions that may have important implications for relationship functioning.     

Instructional Investment or Administrative Bloat: The Effects of Charter System Conversion on Resource Allocations and Staffing Patterns

Despite the growing call for local autonomy and flexibility, few scholars have examined the role of school district–level flexibility on resource allocation and staffing patterns. Leveraging the charter system law within the State of Georgia, we utilize a generalized difference-in-differences approach to estimate the impact of flexibility of system-level expenditures and staffing changes. We find evidence of increases in central office spending and staffing post-conversion to a charter system. In addition, we find evidence that local support is replaced by the state-funded supplemental funding.     

Examining reading comprehension text and question answering time differences in university students with and without a history of reading difficulties

The current study aimed to examine performance times during text reading and question answering of students with and without a history of reading difficulties. Forty-three university students with a history of reading difficulties (HRD) were compared to 124 university students without a history of reading difficulties on measures of word and nonword reading rate, text reading rate and comprehension, and question answering times. Results showed that students with HRD demonstrated slower word, nonword, and text reading rates than their peers, but had comparable reading comprehension scores. Results also showed that students with HRD took longer to answer specific types of questions even when reading rate was controlled. Specifically, when word reading rate was controlled, students with HRD took longer to answer vocabulary, literal, inferential, and background knowledge questions. When text reading rate was controlled, they still took longer to answer literal, inferential, and background knowledge questions. These results suggest that students with a history of reading difficulties require extra time to complete reading comprehension measures for reasons other than just slower word and text reading rate. Findings of this study have implications for supporting university students with a history of reading difficulties.