The Development of the Olympic Narrative in Chinese Elite Sport Discourse from Its First Successful Olympic Bid to the Post-Beijing Games Era

Abstract

As a phenomenon exogenous to China, the Olympics have been proactively interpreted in the local context since China’s entry (and subsequent re-entry in 1984) into the Olympic movement. With China’s increasing involvement in promoting three bids to host the Olympic Games, two of which were successful, respectively, in 2001 and 2015, the nature of the discourse of key stakeholders in relation to Chinese elite sport has both reflected and reshaped the meaning of the Games to Chinese elite sport. This paper examines the discursive construction process of the Olympics in the Chinese elite sport system by key stakeholders through analyzing statements of political figures on sport and Olympic phenomena, Chinese elite sport policy documents, and the commentaries of leading Chinese sport academics. The analysis of discourse highlights two main features in the construction of the Games in official accounts during the period under investigation. The development of these two themes reflects the nature of the Chinese Olympic discourse, manifests the political power over the interpretation of the Olympics in Chinese context, and continues to characterize the on-going major themes in Chinese elite sport policy.     

Socialisation into organised sports of young adolescents with a lower socio-economic status

Studies investigating sport socialisation often focussed on the barriers for youngsters from lower socio-economic status (SES) families to participate in sport. In the present study, the socialisation into sports of young adolescents from lower SES families that do participate in organised sports was investigated. A total of 9 girls and 12 boys from lower SES families (18 Dutch; three foreign ethnic background) from one city in the Netherlands who participated in organised sport were interviewed. Although multiple agents may be of influence on the socialisation process, this study was limited to the family, school and peers as potential socialising contexts. Drawing on the theoretical work of Bourdieu and Bernstein, parents were found to be the main influencers of the sports habitus of these young adolescents. The school context appeared to have no influence on their sport socialisation. Peers were found to have an influence on the choice for a specific type of sport. This interplay between socialising contexts for young adolescents from lower SES families is similar to the sport socialisation of youngsters from higher SES families. Therefore, it is suggested that if sport socialisation takes place, then the role of SES is less pronounced than often assumed. Moreover, there seem to be differences in the relative importance of the socialising contexts with younger children with a lower SES. Therefore, it is hypothesised that the relative importance of socialising agents changes over time. Although the findings may be limited to the specific sample of this study, they provide hypotheses that challenge the often-presumed importance of SES if sport socialisation takes place.     

Coming to know about the body in Human Movement Studies programmes

This paper explores how a group of undergraduate Human Movement Studies (HMS) students learnt to know about the body during their four-year academic programme at an Australian university. When students begin an undergraduate programme in HMS they bring with them particular constructions, ideas and beliefs about their own bodies and about the body in general. Those ideas and beliefs are often challenged, disrupted or reinforced according to discourses and practices to which students are exposed and which they experience throughout their programme of study. The courses that these students take in their in HMS degree programme present to them different perspectives about health and the body. Some perspectives take the status of taken-for-granted truths and others are dismissed or ignored. Taking a Foucauldian perspective, this paper explores the dominant discourses and practices to which this group of students was exposed during their four years of academic formation, and the influences that this exposure might have upon their construction of the body and their formation as pre-service Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers. The participants in this study were 14 students, 11 females and 3 males, aged between 18 and 26 at the time of the first interview. The data used for this paper were taken from a larger study and were analysed using a content analysis approach. Results suggest that some students may be heavily influenced by certain practices and discourses during their programme of studies, and that they embody dominant discourses of health. Furthermore, a possible change of thinking may occur across their academic programme, as a consequence of their engagement with a few alternative discourses presented during their academic programme, disrupting some of their previous beliefs and knowledge.     

Validation of the Microsoft Kinect® camera system for measurement of lower extremity jump landing and squatting kinematics

Cost effective, quantifiable assessment of lower extremity movement represents potential improvement over standard tools for evaluation of injury risk. Ten healthy participants completed three trials of a drop jump, overhead squat, and single leg squat task. Peak hip and knee kinematics were assessed using an 8 camera BTS Smart 7000DX motion analysis system and the Microsoft Kinect® camera system. The agreement and consistency between both uncorrected and correct Kinect kinematic variables and the BTS camera system were assessed using interclass correlations coefficients. Peak sagittal plane kinematics measured using the Microsoft Kinect® camera system explained a significant amount of variance [Range_hip = 43.5–62.8%; Range_knee = 67.5–89.6%] in peak kinematics measured using the BTS camera system. Across tasks, peak knee flexion angle and peak hip flexion were found to be consistent and in agreement when the Microsoft Kinect® camera system was directly compared to the BTS camera system but these values were improved following application of a corrective factor. The Microsoft Kinect® may not be an appropriate surrogate for traditional motion analysis technology, but it may have potential applications as a real-time feedback tool in pathological or high injury risk populations.     

In Search of Staff Development: A study of academic staff appraisal

The academic award restructuring of 1991 established a trial period for academic staff appraisal for the purposes of staff development. The trend in Australia towards more formal performance management for academics has occurred during a period of substantial change to the structure of higher education and institutional management, and brought debate on whether appraisal, for either summative purposes (where performance assessment is for remuneration or promotion purposes) or formative purposes (where the emphasis is on planning personal development), is appropriate for academic staff. Arguments have been put forward for the benefits of appraisal processes with primarily developmental intent. Thus far there have been reports of the characteristics and processes of appraisal schemes, but less data on outcomes; in particular, little evidence to indicate the extent to which schemes lead to worthwhile staff development. This paper reports selected findings of a study of the evolving appraisal scheme of The University of Melbourne. The study was conducted after the scheme's second year of operation by the Centre for the Study of Higher Education which played an advisory role in an internal review of the scheme. The findings reveal some uncertainty among staff about the intentions of the scheme, and tensions between summative and formative purposes, perhaps not surprising given the contentious issue which staff appraisal has been in higher education. Nevertheless, positive outcomes were identified, but possibly too few to claim that the scheme was fully achieving a developmental objective. These findings raise questions about the effectiveness of academic staff appraisal nationally and suggest that it is time to reconsider the policy linkage between appraisal and staff development.     

Provider documentation of patient education: a lean investigation

Purpose

The study evaluates how providers give patient education materials and identifies improvements to comply with Meaningful Use (MU) requirements.

Methods

Thirty-eight patient-provider interactions in two health care outpatient clinics were observed.

Results

Providers do not uniformly know MU patient education requirements. Providers have individual preferences and find gaps in what is available. Accessing and documenting patient education varies among providers. Embedded electronic health record (EHR) materials, while available, have technical access barriers.

Conclusions

Providers'' EHR skills and knowledge levels contribute to non-standardized patient education delivery.     

STUDENTS' PERCEPTION OF THE MEDICAL SCHOOL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT: A PILOT STUDY INTO SOME DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES BETWEEN CLINICAL SCHOOLS IN THE U.K.

The importance of the ethos or learning environment of a training institution is increasingly being appreciated in terms of its effect on learning process and outcome. This paper reports upon the development of an inventory to measure medical students’ perceptions of their learning environment and upon its pilot use to contrast their experiences in five British medical schools. Broad similarities were found between the medical schools upon some dimensions of the questionnaire, but a number of substantial differences are also reported. It is concluded that it is by no means difficult to develop an instrument which can identify important differences between institutions’ learning milieux. However, reservations are expressed about making other than tentative conclusions from the details of the findings of similarities and differences: the desirability of conducting a more comprehensive study is emphasised.     

Gender differences in the academic career

This study examines sources of satisfaction, indicators of stress, academic performance, and reward structure in the academic careers of male and female faculty at a major midwestern state university. Faculty pairs were selected from five academic divisions. A total of 58 matched pairs were identified. Of these, 63 faculty responded, yielding data for 23 matched pairs. Subjects were mailed the Academic Career Development Survey, consisting of 144 items. Results indicated that self-reported physical and mental health, and professional and personal life satisfaction were high for both males and females. Both males and females placed high importance on their career and on marriage/other intimate relationships; however, both reported high levels of dissatisfaction with these factors. Gender differences were found in both satisfaction and type of stress reported; no gender differences were found in composite teaching and research performance indices. Salary data, obtained for 42 matched pairs, indicated similar salary levels for men and women. Results were discussed with respect to prior research on gender differences and the academic career.     

Maltreatment of children in The Netherlands: an update after ten years

Governmental consultation and advice on child abuse and neglect in the Netherlands started in 1972 as a two-year experiment with four offices for "confidential doctors" in four major cities of the country. After these two experimental years, a governmental institute for prevention of child abuse and neglect was organized. Over the ensuing decade the number of offices increased to ten, covering the whole country. The State Department of Welfare, Public Health, and Environment collected data from the confidential doctors and their coworkers every year. This study compares the data of the first year 1974 with those of 1983 in order to detect changing patterns over a 10-year period. The major changes are as follows: a threefold increase in cases, an extraordinary increase in cases of emotional maltreatment, an increase in detection of child fatalities but decrease in severity of physical abuse. Sexual abuse was hardly recognized in 1974 but gradually was recognized more frequently during the study decade and accounted for an alarming 7.2% of detected cases of maltreatment in 1983. No change was found in the social conditions of the family and the identity of the perpetrators--primarily fathers and/or mothers. A decrease was noted in the percentage of married parents. The increased percentage of single parents was primarily represented by mothers alone. An increase in the numbers of victims residing at home and a decrease in the need for children's homes as a temporary or permanent residence is attributed to aftercare. The discrepancy between the results of this voluntary notification system in the Netherlands and the results of a mandatory reporting system as used in the U.S.A. is still very high. The hope is that the government will decide to make reporting of maltreatment mandatory for everyone.