Fulfilling the Promise of Making a Difference: Creating Guards of Life with TPSR

Consistently, the literature on minorities in aquatics identifies the challenges surrounding aquatic involvemen among minority populations. This same literature discusses the challenges of minority communities to provide affordable programs to combat these challenges. This reflective narrative describes a unique collaboration designed to provide high quality health and physical activity programs for youth in underserved communities. Health and physical activity professionals (HPE) strive to build collaborative relationships with community-based organizations (CBOs) and underserved school districts through educational experiences necessary for effective teaching and professional commitment. Project Guard: Make A Splash E.N.D. (End Needless Drowning) was one such program. Anchored in a humanistic curriculum model, Teaching for Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR), Project Guard: Make A Splash E.N.D. combines conventional goals related to teaching swimming and lifesaving skills with TPSR goals in an effort to prevent drowning. Lessons learned from this 3-year initiative are described so that others may understand how this initiative works and how these insights might inform similar efforts elsewhere

Triennial Scientific Review: Assisting Drowning Victims: Effective Water Rescue Equipment for Lay-responders

The original question addressed in the scientific review was What is the most effective piece of rescue equipment for a lay responder to throw to a person in trouble in water? and the modified question was rephrased as What are the most effective types of aquatic rescue equipment for a layperson/bystander to use to rescue a drowning person? To thoroughly analyze the main question, the following sub-questions were examined: What are the most accurate and buoyant types of devices? What specific equipment is best for quick rescues? What specific equipment can be grasped most easily by drowning victims? This research topic is a valid area of inquiry because drowning is a serious public health issue which disproportionately impacts diverse populations (e.g., young children (1-4 years of age; adolescents and young adults (ages 15-24 years); minorities (African-Americans, Hispanics/Latinos) (CDC, 2017). Participation in unsupervised recreational aquatic environments remains popular and fairly constant; the need exists to identify the types of aquatic rescue equipment for layperson/bystanders to perform effective rescues. Answering the main question of this review has implications for identifying appropriate pedagogies and educational practices for water safety and learn to swim programs which will be addressed in separate reviews

Swimming in New Waters: Profiling K-12 Aquatic Physical Activity in Florida as a Viable Lifesaving Force in Physical Education

The purpose of this study was to conduct an online survey to answer the key question, “What is the current status of aquatic physical activity (APA) in physical education programs in Florida’s public schools?” The results showed that though APA use within physical education was minimal, physical education professionals who responded in this study used and valued the use of APA in their physical education programs. Moreover, physical education professionals find the use of APA beneficial for all students in K-12 physical education. Though the current study did not address the reasons that teachers did not have APA as a part of their physical education curriculum, a core finding of lack of school aquatic facilities could serve as a major catalyst for lack of use. Comments from the physical education professionals and the review of literature provided some possible explanations about why APA was or were not used in K-12 physical education programs. The findings from this study could serve as a potential tool for promoting APA in K-12 nationally

A Cause to Action: Learning to Develop a Culturally Responsive/Relevant Approach to 21st Century Water Safety Messaging through Collaborative Partnerships

Globally, and in the United States, drowning is considered a “neglected public health threat” (WHO, 2014b). Reports have shown that there are groups of people in certain communities who are at greater risk. African Americans, as a group, have a drowning death rate 9% higher than that of the overall population, with the greatest disparity being among African American youth (Gilchrist & Parker, 2014). While many national programs and organizations present water safety awareness and drowning prevention efforts within communities, very few offer multi-sectorial collaborative efforts (WHO, 2017a) among culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) aquatic stakeholders designed to empower, promote, and support water safety awareness in communities. Inspired by evidence-based research, derived from a national water safety and drowning prevention campaign, the purpose of this article is to answer a call to action by the World Health Organization (2017a) to approach water safety education through a social justice lens to inform programming and collaborative partnerships

Editorial Introducing the Special Issue for Diversity in Aquatics

Introduction to Special Issue - no abstract availabl

Guest Editors\u27 Introduction to the Special Issue, Diversity in Aquatics

This is the introductory editorial leading off the special issue, Diversity in Aquatics

Labour standards application in Ghana : influences, patterns and solutions

The debased condition under which people work is pervasive in contemporary societies and is especially ubiquitous in the so-called developing world. Yet, internationally recognized standards for the regulation of working conditions abound and are often applauded, without the passion for their application. Otherwise, why should a country like Ghana, which has one of the highest numbers of ratified labour standards conventions, continue to be fraught with poor working conditions? This undoubtedly simple but fundamental question is what this study sought to answer. Earlier attempts to answer this question have suffered from the lack of rich empirical data and compelling theoretical convictions. In view of this, 'Labour Standards Application in Ghana: Influences, Patterns and Solutions' may be considered a valuable contribution to the treatise of the labour standards phenomenon. Theoretically, the study collates salient aspects of both the market-oriented neo-classical and the non-market institutional and political-economy perspectives into an integrated model for the conceptualization of the labour standards phenomenon in Ghana. A combination of the quantitative and qualitative research strategies is then adopted for primary data collection in view of their respective epistemological and ontological implications. Specifically, a survey, which requires a large sample size to aid the generalisation of the existing patterns in the application of labour standards is used and complimented with interviews and observations to facilitate in-depth and contextual analyses of the issues under study.This thesis is therefore a presentation of a thoroughly researched and argued study of the influences on, patterns of, and solutions to, the labour standards problem. With regard to the macro level influences, the study has shown that continuous external influences in the form of the World Bank and the IMF policies, with their emphasis on economic growth, erodes the very fabric of the society and Ghana's capacity to turn workers away from victims of economic growth to dignified citizens. Meanwhile, what is needed to create wealth - which may be fairly distributed, is a dignified working class. Particularly as it relates to the patterns of labour standards application, the study provides a compelling reason for the conclusion that working conditions in Ghana are poor and that it is misleading to put all multinational corporations and local firms together and make blanket statements as to whether or not they apply labour standards. This is because a number of factors, such as the country of origin, determine whether they apply labour standards or not. Regarding solutions, the revelation is that, the solutions to the labour standards problem proposed in the literature and in use in many developed countries are simply not workable in Ghana. Deliberative recommendations are therefore presented, in a context specific fashion, to ensure that labour standards application in Ghana is not just rhetoric but a reality. This way, the labour standards problem will be minimised and the working people of Ghana will be treated as worthy of the decency and dignity due all humans.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Third Diversity in Aquatics Special Issue

Front matter - none availabl

Examining Youth Conceptualizations of Water Safety Behaviors among Participants in a Learn-to-Swim Program

Drowning represents a leading cause of unintentional deaths among children. Concomitantly, while formal swim instruction often incorporates water safety practices, the efficacy of these messages remains largely unexplored. This qualitative-based study sought to evaluate how youth apply learned water safety concepts when posed with a hypothetical aquatic scenario. Semi-structured interviews, augmented by use of a visual illustration prompt, were conducted with 29 participants of a youth Learn-to-Swim (LTS) program. Interviews assessed participants’ expressed water safety behaviors and were coded based on emergent themes. Findings indicated that most participants were able to identify a “struggling” swimmer in the dramatized illustration. When questioned regarding their hypothetical behavioral response to that swimmer in trouble, participants ultimately yielded appropriate behaviors (e.g., extending one’s reach) with prompting, revealing they would eventually enter the water. Additionally, participants also frequently mis-conceptualized or reported hesitancy in other behaviors; for instance, “calling” for help was sometimes misinterpreted to exclude contacting 911. Results also indicated that other sources, such as television, were important sources of water safety knowledge among participants and that relationships with social agents played a role in water safety messaging. Given these results, LTS programs and public health agencies should work to further improve the prioritization, practice, and communication of water safety behaviors

Blue-Mindfulness Training: A Story of Restorative Justice Decolonizing and Re-indigenizing Communal Relationships with Water

This article aims to introduce and describe the development of the concept of Blue-Mindfulness TrainingTM, which was created and designed by Thaddeus Gamory and supported by research and the experience of other experts in the field. Drawing from the author’s and others\u27 practical experience, the authors present a Voice from the Field perspective on creating and developing the Blue-MindfulnessTM . This Instructional Framework, coined by Mr. Thaddeus Gamory Blue-MindfulnessTM, addresses the impacts of historical racial discrimination and trauma in BIPOC communities, specifically on marginalized African American communities while promoting a communal and safe relationship with the water. By promoting a positive and safe relationship with water, the authors hope to encourage these communities to embrace the benefits of water as a source of healing and well-being while promoting, educating, and supporting water safety education and drowning prevention