Transitioning to an athletic subjectivity: first-semester experiences at a corporate (sporting) university

This paper explores how eight women experience, and are incorporated into, the regulatory regimes and pedagogical practices of a corporate (sporting) university in their first semester of college. Using Foucault's conceptions of power, discipline and subjectivity, we situate women's participation on the soccer team within the context of a corporatized Division-I University. As sport has become increasingly corporatized, low-profile sports have begun to emulate high-profile sports. The corporate university and corporate sport model indicative of high-profile college programs, such as the one involved in this study, use (sporting) bodies as resources, rendering them detached and alienated from many college experiences. As evidenced in the data from this study, the pedagogies of highly structured schedules and authoritative-, peer- and self-disciplining mechanisms functioned to normalize the experiences of stress, tension, isolation, loneliness and little autonomy. Nevertheless, we also discuss a point of rupture, wherein two women, for different reasons, refused their athletic subjectivities at The University after their first semester by discontinuing their athletic participation. The contextualization of such experiences reveals the complex relations of power emerging from young adults’ immersion into an athletic system imbued with corporatist ideologies housed within a simulated aura of education and development. This paper aims not to provide definitive answers but rather, by exploring power relations, to open for discussion critical questions about college athletics and to advocate for a more humanist research agenda that considers athletic subjectivities.     

Framing young people’s educational transitions: the role of local and contemporary economic contexts

Despite rates of participation in post-compulsory full-time education reaching approximately 84% in Wales, social class inequalities continue to shape young people’s transitions from compulsory to post-compulsory education. This article draws upon data from a project which explored how young people’s educational decisions and transitions in Wales, UK are influenced by national economic landscapes, the popular narratives framing them and the structure of local employment opportunities. The analyses revealed that young people from similar social class backgrounds, but living in different localities, make very different sorts of transition from compulsory to post-compulsory education; in essence, they are either ‘pushed’ or they ‘jump’ into post-16 education. The article aims overall to contribute both empirically and theoretically to understandings of the complexity of educational decision-making, revealing how class and location intersect to frame decision-making processes, in so doing producing and reproducing educational inequalities.     

Conceptualising transitions from vocational to higher education: bringing together Bourdieu and Bernstein

Abstract

In this paper we provide a framework for conceptualising transitions from Vocational Education and Training (VET) programmes to Higher Education (HE), by bringing together Bourdieu’s and Bernstein’s theoretical approaches with the view to attend to the often side-lined epistemic and pedagogical parameters. We utilise the Bourdieusian tools of field, habitus and capital to capture the relational, material and cultural aspects of HE transitions. In using a Bernsteinian lens we shed further light into how social agents acquire differentially structured and valorised knowledges and develop a sense of themselves as hierarchically positioned knowers. The metaphor of transitional frictions is utilised to capture the ongoing struggles that students with a VET background experience as they make the transition to HE. We argue for the need of widening epistemic access and putting in place enabling pedagogies that can ease these transitional frictions, thereby potentially increasing the chances of successful HE participation and completion.     

解析人类历史三次跃迁模式的构建

人类历史跃迁的实质是人类生存方式的转型。跃迁只有在前提、条件和动力三维因素齐备的时空中才会发生 ,并在动力的持续推动下才能实现。这一模式的提出意在探寻人类历史跃迁运动发生与实现的规律     

Negotiating Breakups and Renewals in On-Again/Off-Again Dating Relationships: Traversing the Transitions

Using phase-oriented interviews (N = 65), this study explored how partners in on-again/off-again relationships negotiated the turning points of breakups and renewals in their relationships. The qualitative analysis revealed themes reflecting transition initiation (i.e., the communication or behavior instigating the transitions) as well as themes reflecting how partners enacted and managed the transitions (e.g., viewing transitions as provisional, resolving past problems and planning for new issues, and using external factors to maintain the transition). Navigating the relational transitions created a struggle for some partners, but the negotiation process elicited feelings of a fresh start for others. Collectively, the themes highlight factors related to communication as well as partners' subjective interpretations, which may be useful in further understanding how partners negotiate relational transitions.     

Urban regeneration in the context of post-Soviet transformation: Lithuanian experience

Our research concentrates on the countries, which had emerged after the collapse of the Soviet bloc, and the possible distinctive influence of the social and institutional environment of these countries on the process and outcomes of city center regeneration. The theoretical section includes the definition of the main concepts used in our research. First of all the countries undergoing the post-Soviet transformation were defined and then the concept of “urban regeneration” was explained. Here we also distinguished the main features of societies and institutional environment of the post-Soviet countries including the collision of different sets of values and lack of conscious value orientations and value systems, lack of individual initiative and personal responsibility, low level of participation in public domain, tendency towards non-transparent decision making, culture of complaint, climate of mistrust, increasing uncertainty and pessimism. In the section of results we had elaborated and discussed the hypothesis that these features affect the image and treatment of the historic built environment and especially of historic urban centers. Further we distinguish three dimensions – features of urban space, governance structures, and social milieu – and, based on literature and Lithuanian experience, distinguish what features of these dimensions and how make it easier or inhibit the urban regeneration. In the concluding sections we outline the basic findings and further research proposals and present the summary matrix of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of urban regeneration in the context of post-Soviet transformation. The matrix could be useful both for the future research and for the decision making in practice of city center regeneration. From the preset outcomes of our research, we conclude that social and institutional context is crucial in the city center regeneration and in heritage preservation in general and the ideas and principles widespread in Western Europe and the United States cannot be directly and straightforwardly imported into the context of post-Soviet transformation.     

Goals for cross‐sex first dates: identification,measurement, and the influence of contextual factors

Three studies identify goals that college students have for cross‐sex first dates, develop a scale to measure them, and determine how contextual factors influence reports of these goals. In study 1, college students identified goals for their most recent first dates. Study 2 developed a scale measuring have fun, reduce uncertainty, identify romantic potential, friendship, and sexual activity goals. In study 3 contextual factors (sex of initiator, alcohol availability, and partner knowledge) systematically influenced first date goals. Men and women differed in first date goals in all three studies. These goals highlight the importance of first dates as important relational events, and include multiple types of uncertainty reduction, in early relational stages.     

Supporting business students’ transition into higher education: the case of marketing downloads

This paper discusses a student-centred learning and teaching approach, ‘Marketing Downloads’, designed to support students in transition into Higher Education. The move from secondary to tertiary education can be stressful for students and it impacts on their academic performance, their social life and general sense of well-being. Marketing Downloads was designed with transition in mind and involves students initiating their own research to demonstrate the link between theory and real-world business practice, presenting their work and instigating a debate. Evaluation of data from five focus groups suggests that the social nature, the secure environment, the student-centred aspect and the links with the outside world help students understand the difference between secondary and tertiary education and ultimately contribute to a smooth transition. Recommendations for learning and teaching initiatives focus on these four aspects: a safe classroom environment, social networks, student-centred exercises and creating links to the outside world.     

美国教师教育问责制的两次转型

20世纪90年代以后,问责制逐步在美国的教师教育中开展起来,这为教师培养的质量提供了保障。到目前为止,美国教师教育问责制先后经历了三种表现形态:基于审核或认证标准的教师教育、未来教师在教师执照考试中的表现、未来教师对儿童学术成就的影响。从这三种形态中可以清晰地看出其两次转型:从输入到输出、从教师到儿童。