A Short Run: Australian Sports History on the 40th Anniversary of the Biennial Sporting Traditions Conference

Abstract

The 40th anniversary of the biennial Sporting Traditions Conference provides a timely opportunity to examine the health of sports history in Australia. This paper identifies three methods through which we can take the temperature of the field and judge its wellbeing. Usually neglected, the first approach is to explore the teaching of sports history in Australia. The second is an analysis of the individuals who have presented to the 21 Sporting Traditions conferences held since 1977 and the content of their papers. The third method is to consider the impact of research in Australian sports history through citations and the other methods used by the Commonwealth of Australia to judge research quality. All three methods support the conclusion that after 40 years sports history’s future in Australia remains far from secure.     

Between-Day Reliability and Usefulness of a Fitness Testing Battery in Youth Sport Athletes: Reference Data for Practitioners

This study aimed to evaluate the between-day reliability and usefulness of a fitness testing battery in a group of youth sport athletes. Fifty-nine youth sport athletes (age = 17.3 ± 0.7 years) undertook a fitness testing battery including the isometric mid-thigh pull, counter-movement jump, 5–40 m sprint splits, and the 5–0-5 change of direction test on two occasions separated by 7 days. Usefulness was assessed by comparing the reliability (typical error) to the smallest worthwhile change. The typical error was 5.5% for isometric mid-thigh pull and 3.8% for counter-movement jump. The typical error values were 2.7, 2.5, 2.2, 2.2, and 1.8% for the 5, 10, 20, 30, and 40 m sprint splits, and 4.1% (left) and 5.4% (right) for the 5–0-5 tests. The smallest worthwhile change ranged from 1.1 to 6.1%. All tests were identified as having “good” or “acceptable” reliability. The isometric mid-thigh pull and counter-movement jump had “good” usefulness, all other tests had “marginal” usefulness.     

What resources do parents exchange in the VCLL?

Abstract

When parent relationships form within the context of a youth baseball league, they can and often do facilitate the exchange of benefits to one or more parties, a phenomenon known as social capital. Based on 18 months of fieldwork, approximately 30 interviews, and innumerable casual conversations with parents and league officials, I explore the specific types of resources that were typically shared between parents of a youth baseball league in the American Southwest. I uncovered four specific types of benefits that parents offered and accepted as a result of the relationships they cultivated during baseball seasons: emotional support, information sharing regarding goods and services about town, job information sharing, and childcare.     

Professionalism in medical education

Medical professionalism in today's society requires the exhibition of a range of qualities deployed in the service of patients, rather than more traditionally defined aspects such as mastery, autonomy and self-regulation. These qualities incorporate demonstrated clinical competence; aspiring to excellence in practice while demonstrating humility and recognition of personal limitations; exercising professional judgement; and maintaining a fiduciary relationship with patients by the earning and maintenance of trust.     

Evaluation and decentralised governance: Examples of inspections in polycentric education systems

Across Europe schools and other service providers increasingly operate in networks to provide inclusive education or develop and implement more localized school-to-school improvement models. As some education systems move towards more decentralized decision-making where multiple actors have an active role in steering and governing schools, the tasks and responsibilities of Inspectorates of Education must also change. This paper reflects on these changes and suggests ‘polycentric’ inspection models that fit such a decentralized context. Examples of inspection frameworks and methods from Northern Ireland, England and the Netherlands are provided, as well as a brief discussion of the potential impact of such ‘polycentric’ models.     

Estimating Causal Effects of Education Interventions Using a Two-Rating Regression Discontinuity Design: Lessons From a Simulation Study and an Application

A valuable extension of the single-rating regression discontinuity design (RDD) is a multiple-rating RDD (MRRDD). To date, four main methods have been used to estimate average treatment effects at the multiple treatment frontiers of an MRRDD: the “surface” method, the “frontier” method, the “binding-score” method, and the “fuzzy instrumental variables” method. This article uses a series of simulations to evaluate the relative performance of each of these four methods under a variety of different data-generating models. Focusing on a two-rating RDD (2RRDD), we compare the methods in terms of their bias, precision, and mean squared error when implemented as they most likely would be in practice—using optimal bandwidth selection. We also apply the lessons learned from the simulations to a real-world example that uses data from a study of an English learner reclassification policy. Overall, this article makes valuable contributions to the literature on MRRDDs in that it makes concrete recommendations for choosing among MRRDD estimation methods, for implementing any chosen method using local linear regression, and for providing accurate statistical inferences.     

Sex and Risk: Parental Messages and Associated Safety/Risk Behavior of Adult Children

The importance of both parent–child conversations about sex and general family communication climates has been emphasized in numerous studies. This study compared general family communication via family communication patterns (FCP) to specific parental communication about sex in understanding young adults’ sexual communication/risk (avoidance, threat, and risk behavior). Results suggest that FCP were stronger predictors of adult children’s perceptions of sexual communication as threatening and overall avoidance of sexual communication with their partners compared to the frequency of and overall quality of parent–child conversations about sex. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are also discussed.     

The career paths of primary school principals in Ireland

The key purpose of this paper is to offer an exploration of the career paths of a number of Irish school principals. The information presented is part of a comparative study in the area, involving three island states: Cyprus, Malta and Ireland. The study provides an insight into how individuals become principals and how they perceive themselves in the role. The information is sourced through personal narrative. Qualitative in-depth interviewing is employed as the primary method of data gathering. Participants are posed a range of open-ended questions about their personal lives and about their initiation into their professional responsibilities. The results show that participants offer a variety of reasons for becoming teachers initially and a variety of reasons for seeking and achieving promotion to the post of school principal after a time. Family members and family experiences have an important function in influencing the lives of prospective leaders. With no formal training to prepare newly appointed principals for their roles, most report significant difficulties initially, particularly with managerial tasks and bureaucracy. In spite of these difficulties nonetheless, all participating principals report that they enjoy their roles. The results of the study demonstrate that the Irish principals interviewed in this research, experience similar challenges and rewards to those interviewed in earlier and concurrent studies internationally.