Food (in)security communication: a Journal of Applied Communication Research forum addressing current challenges and future possibilities

ABSTRACT

This forum brings together food, (in)security, and communication. The authors participating in this forum center communication as both process and tool for understanding, mitigating, and making meaning of food (in)security. The nine authors together discuss the role of communication in food (in)security, the central challenges for scholars and practitioners working on food (in)security, and the creative possibilities and impacts influencing the future of food (in)security. The forum produces a call for applied scholars to re-imagine communication frameworks in order to make meaningful differences in their communities.     

The link between student-perceived teacher talk and student enjoyment,anxiety and discursive engagement in the classroom

This study seeks to understand the emotional connection of teachers' academically productive talk (APT) with student learning from the students' perspective. Using a sample of 2,225 students (N_{7th grade} = 1,146 and N_{8th grade} = 1,079) from 16 middle schools in a city of China, we investigate the relationship between students' perceptions of their teachers’ APT, student emotions (enjoyment and anxiety) and their discursive engagement with others in the mathematics classroom. Results from structural equation modelling and mediation analysis show that after controlling for gender, family resources and mathematics achievement, student-perceived teacher APT was positively associated with their discursive engagement with classmates. Furthermore, student enjoyment and anxiety in class mediated the relationship between student-perceived teacher APT and student discursive engagement with classmates. Multi-group analysis revealed that the model was invariant across genders and grades, indicating that the associations were applicable to male and female students as well as to seventh and eighth graders. These findings shed light on the emotional relationship of teacher APT with the discursive engagement of their students. Although prior research observes a positive relationship between teacher productive classroom talk and student discursive engagement primarily through classroom observations and teacher reflections, this study provides evidence from the students’ perspective and highlights the mediating role of student emotions in the relationship.     

Variation in Valuation: How Research Groups Accumulate Credibility in Four Epistemic Cultures

Minerva - This paper aims to explore disciplinary variation in valuation practices by comparing the way research groups accumulate credibility across four epistemic cultures. Our analysis is based...     

School exclusion,substance misuse and use of weapons: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of interviews with children

The study presents data drawn from semi-structured interviews with five young people permanently excluded from schools in North East England. The research aimed to investigate the risk factors that lead to the children using illegal drugs, to determine the drivers and implications for drug misuse and the carrying of knives into school. The research also hoped to elicit from the young people, the solutions that could have prevented their exclusion from school. The interviews were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis to understand how a homogenous sample made sense of their lived experiences. The findings highlight the importance of prompt identification and support for children with learning and subsequent mental health needs as the evidence suggests they lead to perceived negative behaviours by teachers. The research provides further evidence that behaviour sanctions in mainstream schools such as detention and isolation booths do not improve behaviour but make it worse. Original to this research is the finding that children are consuming drugs before school to cope with their inability to access the learning, to aid their concentration and to medicate themselves to reduce the likelihood of being sanctioned by teachers.     

Body composition differences by age and playing standard in male rugby union and rugby league: A systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine differences in body compositionn between playing standard and age in male rugby union and rugby league athletes. The MOOSE (Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) guidelines for design, implementation, and reporting were followed. Studies were required to be in male rugby union or league and have body composition as the primary or secondary outcome. Data was required to be presented separately for positional groups and body composition presented as whole-body. A systematic search was performed in PubMed, Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus, and CINHAHL via EBSCOhost. 57 studies were included for meta-analysis. Results highlighted significantly higher fat-free mass in senior elite than senior sub-elite or junior elite athletes for all RU and RL forwards. Small and non-significant differences were found in fat mass between rugby union playing standards and age categories. Rugby league senior elite forwards had less fat mass than junior elite forwards. Practitioners should prioritise training and nutritional strategies that maximise fat-free mass development, especially in junior elite cohorts.     

Nostalgia,homesickness and emotional formation on the eighteenth-century Grand Tour

Nostalgia and homesickness were well-known eighteenth-century ailments. Undertaking protracted travels, Grand Tourists were potential sufferers, yet these emotional afflictions are absent from the Tour's lengthy lists of hazards. Querying this and applying history of emotions approaches to the histories of the Tour, masculinity and the family, this article examines how Tourists and tutors navigated nostalgia and homesickness as emotions that sat uneasily with the Tour's wider aims of masculine formation. Such investigations offer a means of unpicking the complex, contradictory demands placed on young gentlemen during their emotional formation. Through this, it contributes to wider reconsiderations of eighteenth-century masculinity.     

Developing the next generation of diverse computer scientists: the need for enhanced,intersectional computing identity theory

This theoretical paper explores the need for enhanced, intersectional computing identity theory for the purpose of developing a diverse group of computer scientists for the future. Greater theoretical understanding of the identity formation process specifically for computing is needed in order to understand how students come to understand themselves as computer scientists. To ensure that the next generation of computer scientists is diverse, this paper presents a case for examining identity development intersectionally, understanding the ways in which women and underrepresented students may have difficulty identifying as computer scientists and be systematically oppressed in their pursuit of computer science careers. Through a review of the available scholarship, this paper suggests that creating greater theoretical understanding of the computing identity development process will inform the way in which educational stakeholders consider computer science practices and policies.     

Participatory action research and impact: an ecological ripples perspective

Assessment of the impact of varied forms of participatory research is enhanced by specific attention to the ripples, such work initiates in the social context. Ripples are defined as consequences either unintended or unanticipated by those carrying out the participatory research. Following a brief documentation of the range of reported ripples in reports describing participatory research, an ecological perspective drawing on the interdependence principle of ecological systems theory is presented as a framework for assessing impact by attending to ripples in the local context. Community asset mapping and social network analysis are described as examples of ways of describing and documenting environmental ripples, and strategies for both anticipating and reviewing ripples post hoc are discussed. The importance of developing cognitive maps of local ecology is stressed as critical to the assessment of the multiple potential impacts of participatory research.     

RESOLV: Development of a telephone-based program designed to increase socialization in older veterans

We describe the development of a telephone-based program, Recreation, Education, and Socialization for Older Learning Veterans (RESOLV) that aims to connect Veterans with one another by phone and thereby reduce loneliness. The program was developed through a collaboration between VA and a community-based organization, Episcopal Senior Communities Senior Center Without Walls (SCWW). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 rural and non-rural dwelling older Veterans to identify leisure interests and potential barriers to participating in leisure activities. Program feasibility was examined with questions about telephone use and interest in and perceived benefits of a telephone community. We conducted content analysis to quantify Veterans’ leisure interests and thematic analysis to characterize barriers to participation. Veterans expressed interest most frequently in groups focused on conversation, support, gratitude, and technology. Rural and non-rural participants did not differ significantly in interests. Barriers to current activity participation included limited access to activities, limitations due to physical conditions, and transportation difficulties, which were consistent themes for both rural and non-rural participants. Themes related to perceived benefits of socialization that emerged include connectedness, learning from others, being active despite limitations, and distraction from limitations. Our findings demonstrate how a telephone-based socialization program could be developed and tailored for older Veterans. It seems that such a program is feasible and may be of benefit for older Veterans in rural and non-rural areas. Further evaluation is needed to ascertain the direct benefit of such a program to older Veterans.     

Effects of student-facilitated learning on instructional facilitators

We investigated perceptions about learning strategy use and instructional roles among a sample of high needs adolescents (n = 230) who acted as near-peer instructional facilitators. The sample was drawn from science and mathematics classes in nonselective public secondary schools in New York City. Students participated in an inschool intervention that draws on social constructivism, theory and research on metacognition and learning strategies, role theory, and empirical findings from the peer-to-peer learning literature to promote advanced achievement among students who act as facilitators. Using a pre- and post-test single group design, we surveyed student instructional facilitators before and after program participation and related their perceptions about learning strategy use and perceptions about teaching roles to data about academic achievement. We found no survey gains in student perceptions about learning strategies or instructional roles between pre-survey (fall) and post-survey (spring). We found small but significant effects of individual perceptions about learning strategies and teaching roles on academic gains among instructional facilitators. The study also suggests that an in-school near-peer facilitated learning program can be an effective means to raise achievement in urban high schools. The study provides partial support for theories that hold that metacognition and role perceptions are involved in the academic gains of instructional facilitators, as gains in these dimensions were small compared to achievement gains.