The Role of Families in Youth Sport Programming in a Canadian Aboriginal Reserve

Background: There has been a recent push in the sport psychology literature for sport participants to be approached based on their cultural backgrounds. However, there are few examples where a cultural approach is considered, such as a culturally reflexive version of participatory action research (PAR). In the current study, the role of family is considered in relation to the sport engagement of Canadian Aboriginal youth. Methods: Mainstream researchers teamed with co-researchers from the Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve for 5 years. Community meetings and talking circles were employed as culturally sensitive data collection techniques to uncover how to encourage youth participation in Wikwemikong’s sport programs. The overarching methodology for the project is PAR. Results: Themes and subthemes were determined by community consensus with terms indigenous (ie, culturally relevant) among the local Aboriginal culture. Family was considered important for youth involvement in Aboriginal community sport programs. Parents were expected to support their children by managing schedules and priorities, providing transportation, financial support, encouragement, and being committed to the child’s activity. Aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, grandparents, and the family as a whole were seen as sharing the responsibility to retain youth in sport through collateral support (ie, when gaps in parental support arose). Conclusions: Suggestions are proposed regarding how families in Aboriginal communities can collaborate to facilitate sport and physical activity among their youth. Further suggestions are proposed for researchers engaging in culturally reflexive research with participants and coresearchers from oppressed cultures

The Adaptation Challenges and Strategies of Adolescent Aboriginal Athletes Competing Off Reserve

Within the motivation literature, it has been indicated that athletes respond more effectively to sport’s contextual challenges through effective adaptation skills. Fiske identified five core motives as facilitators of the adaptation process across cultures: belonging, understanding, controlling, self-enhancement, and trusting. Through a cultural sport psychology approach, the adaptation challenges and strategies of Canadian Aboriginal adolescent athletes from one community (Wikwemikong) are described as they traveled off reserve to compete in mainstream sporting events. Concurrently, Fiske’s core motives are considered in relation to youth sport participants from the aforementioned Aboriginal community. Culture sensitive research methods among the Wikwemikong, including community meetings, talking circles (TCs), indigenous coding, and coauthoring, were employed in this article. Data are reflected in three themes: (a) challenges pursuing sport outside of the Aboriginal community in advance of bicultural encounters, (b) challenging bicultural encounters in Canadian mainstream sport contexts, and (c) specific responses to racism and discrimination

Upper mantle magma storage and transport under a Canarian shield-volcano, Teno, Tenerife (Spain)

We use clinopyroxene-liquid thermobarometry, aided by petrography and mineral major element chemistry, to reconstruct the magma plumbing system of the late Miocene, largely mafic Teno shield-volcano on the island of Tenerife. Outer rims of clinopyroxene and olivine phenocrysts show patterns best explained by decompression-induced crystallization upon rapid ascent of magmas from depth. The last equilibrium crystallization of clinopyroxene occurred in the uppermost mantle, from ∼20 to 45 km depth. We propose that flexural stresses or, alternatively, thermomechanical contrasts create a magma trap that largely confines magma storage to an interval roughly coinciding with the Moho at ∼15 km and the base of the long-term elastic lithosphere at ∼40 km below sea level. Evidence for shallow magma storage is restricted to the occurrence of a thick vitric tuff of trachytic composition emplaced before the Teno shield-volcano suffered large-scale flank collapses. The scenario developed in this study may help shed light on some unresolved issues of magma supply to intraplate oceanic volcanoes characterized by relatively low magma fluxes, such as those of the Canary, Madeira and Cape Verde archipelagoes, as well as Hawaiian volcanoes in their postshield stage. The data presented also support the importance of progressive magmatic underplating in the Canary Islands

Personal and Pedagogical Interaction Factors as Determinants of Academic Achievement

International Conference on Education and Educational Psychology (ICEEPSY 2011)This study intends to relate self-esteem, teacher-student interaction, student-student interaction and learning performance, and its direct and indirect relationships with academic achievement. Using a sample of about 2000 Portuguese high school students, a structural model reveals that low social self-esteem directly and negatively influences teacher-student interaction and student-student interaction and also learning performance. Teacher-student interaction directly and positively influences student-student interaction. Teacher student-interaction and student-student interaction directly and positively influence learning performance, which in turn influences directly and positively academic achievement. Corroborating previous studies, these findings suggest that an appropriate pedagogical interaction provides an effective learning environment that enhances student́s learning outcomes, namely academic achievement. Recommendations for teachers and school managers are addressed