“Claim vs. Reality”—A German Case Study on Modes and Functions of Sports-Pedagogical Communication

Academic sports pedagogy continuously assures itself of its disciplinary foundations and determines its position in the structure of modern sciences. While communication is based on differences, the distinction between claim and reality plays a crucial role in sports pedagogy. However, the forms and functions in which the distinction appears have not been more closely investigated in sports pedagogic. This article starts with this in mind, exemplarily focusing on academic sports pedagogy in Germany. While analyzing 212 scientific texts of sports-pedagogical provenance, three central variations of the distinction could be identified, which persist until today and are present in the discipline's central discussion lines: (1) hierarchical demarcation, (2) unsystematic approach, (3) direct synthesis. From a functional point of view, the distinction between claim and reality continuously (re)organizes the relationship of sports pedagogy to other scientific disciplines, educational policy guidelines, and school practice expectations, thus proving to be a supporting pillar of disciplinary identity work.

We are all institutionalized: Three works to challenge the conceit of a generically ‘academic’ study of religion

This essay encounters and considers together three very different recent works by scholars of religion, each one with strong Canadian connections: Maureen Matthews, Aaron Hughes and Donald Wiebe. The primary purpose, however, is to illuminate more broadly the importance of institutional dynamics in the formation and operation of the academic study of religion (i.e., not just in Canada). This stands in contrast to a well-established pattern of debating supposedly loftier questions of naming, disciplinary identity, idealized mandates and limits, etc. Furthermore, this essay suggests that scale of investigation matters – with a local, single-institution study revealing more, perhaps, about how we really do our work than either national or transnational efforts. In the end, reading these three books together suggests a tremendous diversity, including dynamic institutional diversity, in academic approaches to religion: scientific and non-scientific (predictably) but also, disciplined or expert and non-expert or academic administrative. Thus, the essay enjoins readers to take seriously a distinction between domains of ‘distributive’ and ‘concentrated’ expertise within the academy (e.g., Religious Studies versus, say, Civil Engineering), as well as the development of patterns of ‘altero-piety’ across the expert/nonexpert divide. In the end, such murky institutional dynamics appear to be shaping and impelling our field from the local institutional level (e.g., at the University of Winnipeg as documented by Matthews) to the transnational institutional level (e.g., in the International Association for the History of Religions as documented by Wiebe). Ultimately, one must conclude that stipulating that Religious Studies entail the academic study of religion is meaningless. ‘The academy’ is no more universal and unique ( sui generis?) than ‘religion’ itself. Rather, academic institutions are diverse and particular; and yet a variety of factors, ranging from deep colonial histories to the current global political economy of postsecondary higher education, all work to conceal the importance of the institutional basis of Religious Studies. Put another way (and pace Jonathan Z Smith): religion certainly is a creation of the scholar’s study – yet, far from imagining this scholar’s study as a place set apart (as it were), we must start imagining it as a historical, social and institutional location. That would take us one small but further step towards the all-important goal of disciplinary ‘reflexivity”.

Influence of the Implementation of Strengths-based Nursing and Healthcare on Early Childhood Nurses’ Competencies: A Mixed-Method Study.

Background: The scope of practice for nurses caring for families has evolved to meet the challenges presented by societal changes and increasing needs. In 2015, early childhood nurses from a Swiss region decided to implement a new model of care to guide their practice. The aim of this study was to explore the changes to early childhood nurses’ practices following the implementation of the strengths-based nursing and healthcare (SBNH) approach to care. Methods: This study of early childhood nurses’ (N = 61) practices used a pre-post intervention design and a mixed-method approach. Nurses’ competencies and changes in practice were measured using the Nurse Competence Scale (NCS). The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Kruskal Wallis tests and logistic regression. Thematic analysis was used to derive themes from the qualitative data. Results: After the intervention, frequency of competency use increased in all domains of the NCS except the “teaching-coaching” domain; perceived levels of competencies also increased in all areas except “helping role” and “diagnostic functions”. Age and length of employment at the current post hindered improvement in the “teaching-coaching” competency. Interviews revealed themes related to the implementation process: “adaptability”, “implementation process”, “ambivalence” and “engagement to change”. Other themes were related to practice changes: “developing a disciplinary identity”, “path with families” and “strengths”. Conclusion: This study showed that the use of perceived competencies changed over time after the introduction of SBNH into practice. Nurses questioned and adapted their routines based on SBNH. Nurse’s vision of care also changed; they felt that their care was congruent with their values. For families, this approach allowed a change of vision with a resource-centred approach. Implementation of models of care such as the SBNH in the early childhood context is innovative, as little research in the literature addresses the early childhood community home-visiting context is still modest. This research underlines the added value of this approach on early childhood nurses’ competencies.

Graduate Students’ Identification With Science: Differences by Demographics, Experiences, and Discipline

Research examining high school and undergraduate students has demonstrated the importance of identity formation for students’ confidence, retention, and aspirations in science. While we know some of the key predictors of science identity formation among these populations, relatively little work has looked at these issues among graduate students. The study presented here utilizes data from a survey of over 1,300 graduate students in the United States in five disciplines: biology, chemistry, physics, psychology, and sociology. A structural equation model is estimated to assess the demographic, experiential, and disciplinary correlates of graduate student identification with science and, separately, identification with their discipline. The analysis finds that, relative to men, women have weaker identification with science but do not differ in the strength of their identification with their discipline. Experiences, such as the quality of students’ relationship with their advisor and publishing research, are positively associated with the strength of their science and disciplinary identity. Students in psychology and sociology have weaker identification with science relative to biology students, while sociology students also have weaker identification with their discipline.

Science or Ignorance of Animal Welfare? A Case Study: Scientific Reports Published in Preparation for the First European Directive on Animal Welfare (1979-1980)

In 1979, the Council of the European Communities declared its intention to ban battery cages for laying hens; one year later, everything about the ban is forgotten. During this preparatory year (1979-1980), all that happened is the publication of scientific reports, that is, attempts at producing knowledge as a basis for and justification of the ban decision. This paper aims at understanding to what extent ignorance and doubt were produced instead. By examining the reports, I demonstrate that there are three interrelated levels of ignorance production: (1) the missions given by the Commission to scientists were ambiguous, (2) questions inherent to animal welfare sciences, such as the significant variability of their measures and results, lead to a systematic standardization, and (3) the battery cage works as a techno-scientific promise and an “obligatory passage point” where scientists and industry meet. Disciplinary identity issues therefore lead scientists to adopt a double standard about the welfare of laying hens.

The Training and Disciplinary Identity of Linguists in Europe’s Long Nineteenth Century

In the mid-19th century, the great centers of philological and linguistic study in Europe were a handful of German universities that led the way in organizing doctoral training. In seminars guided by a senior professor, students presented papers on specialized topics and had them critiqued and queried. This chapter takes a close look at the nature of such training in Germany and France through the experience of one Leipzig doctoral student who went on to lecture in Paris and Geneva, Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913). The political and cultural relations between Germany and France in the two decades following the Franco-Prussian War and the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine colored and complicated the importation of the Germany doctoral training model in the various branches of the University of Paris, and not least in the section of the École Pratique des Hautes Études in which Saussure was hired to lecture on Gothic and Old High German, to a student body made up disproportionately of displaced Alsatians. So significant was Saussure’s impact on the institution that his teaching set the agenda for French doctoral training in linguistics and adjacent areas at least through the 1960s, and indeed across Europe and beyond – this despite the fact that he was never in a position to direct a single doctoral thesis himself. The chapter considers as well how the disciplinary identity of linguistics came to be formed in this period, and how it went on to develop over the ensuing decades.

Transition points: well-being and disciplinary identity in the first years of doctoral studies

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine doctoral students’ developmental trajectories in well-being and disciplinary identity during the first three years of doctoral study. Design/methodology/approach This study relies on data from a longitudinal study of PhD students enrolled at a large, research-intensive university in the USA. A group-based trajectory modeling approach is used to examine varying trajectories of well-being and disciplinary identity. Findings The authors find that students’ physical health, mental health and disciplinary identity generally decline during the first few years of doctoral study. Despite this common downward trend, the results suggest that six different developmental trajectories exist. Students’ backgrounds and levels of stress, psychological needs satisfaction, anticipatory socialization experiences and prior academic success predict group membership. Originality/value Although there is emergent evidence of a mental health crisis in graduate education scant evidence exists about the way in which well-being changes over time as students progress through their doctoral studies. There is also little evidence of how these changes might be related to academic processes such as the development of disciplinary identity. This study reported varying baseline degrees of well-being and disciplinary identity and offers that stress and unmet psychological needs might be partially responsible for varying trajectories.