Alcohol sponsorship and its impact on sports participants’ consumption

The aim of this study was to examine the association between alcohol consumption, alcohol sponsorship in sports and preferences of sponsored sportspeople regarding sponsorships/consumption. We investigate the impact of alcohol sponsorship on sportspeople in the Australian population using a national survey of sportspeople (N?=?2367), representing a range of club and professional sports. The results show an association between alcohol sponsorship of sport and increased alcohol consumption among sports participants (i.e. ‘sportspeople’). Additionally, a preference for sponsored alcohol brands was found by sponsored sportspeople. Our research adds to the growing evidence for policy review of alcohol sponsorship of sports and extends prior studies investigating impacts of alcohol sponsorship upon sports participants by generalizing to a large, national sample of sportspeople.     

The early evolution of modern sport in Latin America: a mainly English middle-class inspiration

In any consideration of cultural diffusion, what matters is not only what happens to a cultural form when it arrives, but that it arrives. In the twentieth century, Latin America, like too many other areas of the world, has been a place of diplomatic turmoil, social inequality, political paranoia, capitalist exploitation and class conflict. However, despite all this, and through all this, it may be stated factually and without sentimentality, that it has also been a place where people have survived and thrived, worked, loved and played. Modern sport has brought to their play both unhappy moments of disillusion and disappointment and marvellous opportunities for illusion and pleasure. Modern sport, with its beauty spots and warts, is the reality and while there are things to criticize, there are also many things to applaud. Along with others, the English middle class played a not insignificant part in the arrival of modern sport in Latin America.     

千禧年的前景:女性、解放和身体--呼吁敏锐而不过于简单的分析

在对《时间的女儿:西方传统中的女性》和《解放女性的身体:鼓舞人心的偶像》两本书比较和分析的基础上,作者提醒人们注意在对现代娱乐、女性解放和权利之间的复杂关系进行讨论时,很容易成为一种严格二分法(妇女为受害者,男子为迫害者)的牺牲品;还要注意一种危险倾向,即男人退居幕后,成为女性的坚强后盾。二十一世纪的女性身体娱乐研究要抛弃过去消极、简单的二分法,代之以多元、复杂和细致的研究。     

Do increased resources increase educational attainment during a period of rising expenditure? Evidence from English secondary schools using a dynamic panel analysis

This article estimates the effects of school expenditure on school performance at Key Stage 4 in England, over the period 2003–07 during which real per pupil expenditure increased rapidly. It adds to previous investigations by using dynamic panel analysis to: exploit time series data on individual schools that only recently has become available; adjust for the potential endogeneity not only of expenditure but also of other determinants of performance; and differentiate the short‐run and the (higher) long‐run attainment effects of spending changes. Consistent with other recent work, the article reports a generally significant but small effect of expenditure on school performance, but it also finds that the effect varies between specialist and non‐specialist schools, with the effect on the latter being larger. Further, the article identifies significant dynamics in the school improvement process, quantifies the long‐run effect of expenditure changes, suggests that spending effects increase with socio‐economic disadvantage, and quantifies absence effects.     

When ‘becoming a 50% school’ is success enough: a principal–agent analysis of subject leaders’ target setting

Using the perspective of principal–agent theory, we suggest that the target setting process imposed by the government has shifted teachers’ focus away from their personal educational priorities. Our evidence suggests that schools with a higher proportion of students with high academic achievement differ in their practice of target setting from schools with a below average proportion of students achieving high examination grades. We examine possible explanations for variations in teachers’ practice and suggest some implications for policy and school leadership and management.     

Cultural conventions of pictorial representation: Iconic literacy and education

The interpretation of visual images is learned. Styles of depiction are rooted in cultural milieus within which they have agreed-upon meanings. An image cannot be expected to convey the same information outside its milieu. Several illustrations in this article give the reader a chance to test his or her own culture perceptions. To Westerners living in a “ carpentered ” environment, an optical illusion will make one line seem longer than another of egual length, A forest dweller first observing large objects at a distance may believe them to be much smaller, because the limited range of vision in a forest does not require adjustment for distance when judging size. While perception is conditioned by environment, the two-dimensional visual image is characterized by iconic conventions that are culturally mediated. Awareness of the strengths as well as the limitations of particular conventions can help educators use visual images more effectively in cross-cultural contexts. A formative research model is proposed for this purpose     

Computer Literacy as Ideology

Some of the most prominent policies in schools throughout the industrialized world today relate to the rapid introduction of computers. The most common rationale for introducing educational microcomputing is the concept of ‘computer literacy’. It is a concept, however, which is so poorly defined and delineated, and so unclear as to purpose and procedure, that it may best be investigated as a form of ideology. The justificatory arguments for computers in classrooms are primarily vocational or practical. They are based on assumptions that computers will be pervasive in the workplace of the future, or that they are soon going to be ‘everywhere’. The more purely pedagogical arguments are secondary: that learning about computers is a worthwhile experience in and of itself, and that computers can be useful productivity tools for other academic work. Drawing upon empirical evidence from an evaluation of computer use in two Canadian high schools, this paper shows how a critical treatment of computer literacy as ideology raises important issues about the computerization of education. It suggests that educators should question whether they have simply taken the ideology of computer literacy at face value, and whether this almost universal policy has received the critical attention it deserves.