Creating dual career opportunities for adolescent female football players from disadvantaged communities in South Africa

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of adolescent female football players transitioning from disadvantaged communities to the South African Football Association’s Female Football Academy at the TuksSport High School. This was done through collage-based (i.e., visual story) storytelling (i.e., verbal story). The participants were asked to create three collages; one depicting life before, one depicting life at and one depicting life after the TuksSport High School. Thereafter, individual interviews were conducted with the participants based on their collages. The interviews were transcribed by the researchers and analysed using thematic analysis. It was found that the participants experienced challenges and opportunities in the transitioning process from disadvantaged communities to the TuksSport High School. The participants experienced the food, missing their families and friends, as well as the school and accommodation, as challenges. Opportunities presented in the notion of having dual careers, being able to access professional services at the High Performance Centre while envisaging a different future with reference to sport, work and family. The TuksSport High School and the High Performance Centre have a moral obligation to respond to the challenges of the participants through professional services, as well as an academic support and mentoring programme. It is also imperative that the opportunities that came to the fore are kept alive. This will prevent participant drop out from the TuksSport High School and ensure that the opportunity of having a dual career is kept alive; the opportunity to a better life.http://www.journals.co.za/content/journal/ajpherd1am2018Psycholog

'Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place': Anti-discrimination Legislation in the Liberal State and the Fate of the Australian Disability Discrimination Act

This article offers a critical analysis of some of the practical implications for disabled people of the Disability Discrimination Act of 1992. Specifically, it raises questions about politics and the role of the law as an instrument of social change?taking greater account of the interests of disabled people?on the one hand, and of the reliance of the social model of disability on a strategy based upon legal rights on the other. The article also suggests that the constraining effects of Australia's constitutional protections of rights and its federal system of government hinder the mildly progressive elements of the Disability Discrimination Act. To illustrate this, the paper employs empirical evidence to suggest that these effects have been exacerbated by the passage of the Human Rights Legislation Amendment Act in 1999

A touring journal with sport psychology

This research report is a narrative on my encounter with sport psychology. I used the metaphors of “touring” and “journal” to guide the construction of this narrative. Before embarking on my tour with sport psychology, I introduced myself as researcher (chapter 2, journal entry I) and stated the research problem, question and goal(s)(chapter 3, journal entry II). I then went on a tour with sport psychology. I visited a sport psychology museum to learn more about the history of sport psychology (chapter 4, journal entry III) and a sport psychology library to learn more about the field of sport psychology (chapter 5, journal entry IV). I also attended a sport psychology conference to become better acquainted with postgraduate sport psychology training in Psychology Departments (chapter 6, journal entry V). I also visited a sport psychology department at a university in Australia, to witness the delivery of a postgraduate training programme in sport psychology (chapter 7, journal entry VI), as well as a sport centre in South Africa and a sport institute in Australia, to see how and the extent to which sport psychology was practised (chapter 8, journal entry VII). After my tour with sport psychology I took what I had learnt and adapted the MA (Counselling Psychology) programme at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. This led to the programme having three core modules and two elective modules. The core modules are fundamental psychology, counselling psychology and career psychology. The elective modules are: community psychology and sport psychology. The sport psychology module consists of the following courses: sport psychology, sport management, sport sociology and exercise psychology. The Professional Board of Psychology at the Health Professions Council of South Africa approved this module at the end of 2003 (chapter 9, journal entry VIII). Finally, I also looked at the influence of my experience with sport psychology on my identity as a psychologist (chapter 10, journal entry IX).Thesis (PhD (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2006.Psychologyunrestricte

Adventure-based experiences during professional training in psychology : a follow-up study

Postgraduate counselling psychology training at the University of Pretoria (UP), South Africa (SA), is done according to the researcher-practitioner model. An important aspect that is addressed during the unfolding of the postgraduate counselling psychology programme is professional development, which consists of professional practice and personal growth. Professional practice addresses the legislative context of practising psychology in SA, while personal growth focuses on the “person” of the postgraduate counselling psychology students. During the programme personal growth is addressed through supervision, counselling and an adventure experience. The purpose of this research is to describe the personal growth of 19 students through an adventure experience in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, SA. The students participated in various adventure activities (archery, obstacle course, sea kayaking, sea rafting, abseiling), as well as in eight group debriefing sessions. At the end of the adventure experience the students reflected in writing on their adventure experience. The research was conducted from a descriptive phenomenological position and the written reflections analysed according to the Duquesne Phenomenological Research Method (DPRM). From the analysis it seems that the essence of the students’ personal growth pertained to students growing in awareness; challenging their boundaries; discovering uniqueness, creating trust amongst one another and demonstrating the ability to collectively establish group cohesion.http://www.journals.co.za/ej/ejour_sapsyc.htmlam2013gv201

Performing “responsibility” and “conspiracy” through press statements : the Shane Warne case

In 2003, the Australian cricketer Shane Warne was suspected and convicted of doping. The purpose of this article was to understand how he tried to resolve the problem/dilemma of being suspected and convicted of doping through three press statements, which he delivered to the media during the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa. The research was done within a constructionist-narrative paradigm. The press statements were analyzed using a problem-solution approach to narrative analysis. From the analysis of the press statements it appears that he portrayed himself as being a responsible cricketer in an attempt to counter the possible public perception that he was an irresponsible cricketer. Due to his legal conviction by the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) in conjunction with the Australian Sports Drug Agency (ASDA), the responsibility argument was replaced by portraying himself as the victim of a doping conspiracy.http://www.ajol.info/journal_index.php?jid=153&ab=ajpherd2015-06-30am2013gv201

College of Education and Human Development Annual Report 2019-2020

The College of Education and Human Development (COEHD) accomplishments this year attest to the excellence of our faculty, programs and students. The quality of our teacher preparation programs is evident in the extraordinary efforts of our student teachers who, in spite of coronavirus, developed creative ways to meet the needs of the students and schools with whom they work. (Pendharkar, 2020 - Appendix A) We have also created online Early College courses for high school students who may be interested in education majors. Our online graduate programs were rated this year as one of the best in the country according to U.S. News and World Report (University of Maine, 2020a - Appendix A) In exciting new research, faculty are exploring how spatial display technologies (virtual or augmented reality) are creating opportunities for teaching and learning in STEM areas, by showing how students can investigate math and science concepts through body-based explorations, and how visually impaired students can access visualizations through other modalities. One COEHD professor was invited to share her nationally lauded research on hazing at events sponsored by both the Louisiana and California Boards of Regents for Higher Education. Another COEHD professor was awarded the title UMS Trustee Professor in recognition of his outstanding research and contributions to academic excellence. (University of Maine, 2020b - Appendix A

Perceptions of Electoral Fairness and Voter Turnout

Previous research has established a link between turnout and the extent to which voters are faced with a “meaningful” partisan choice in elections; this study extends the logic of this argument to perceptions of the “meaningfulness” of electoral conduct. It hypothesizes that perceptions of electoral integrity are positively related to turnout. The empirical analysis to test this hypothesis is based on aggregate-level data from 31 countries, combined with survey results from Module 1 of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems survey project, which includes new and established democracies. Multilevel modeling is employed to control for a variety of individual- and election-level variables that have been found in previous research to influence turnout. The results of the analysis show that perceptions of electoral integrity are indeed positively associated with propensity to vote. </jats:p

Financing Complexity and Sophistication in Nascent Ventures

Although scholars have considered the financing challenges facing small businesses for some time, little work has focused on financing issues at the venture's nascent stage. In this study, we investigate the sources of funding sought by nascent entrepreneurs and the relationship between the complexity of these funding sources, business plan formalization, and expectations of future firm growth. Using data from the Entrepreneurship Research Consortium/Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, we find that nascent entrepreneurs, even those associated with high-growth ventures, favor simple rather than complex sources of funding at the nascent stage. Funding complexity and business plan formalization are also found related to expectation of firm growth. An additional contribution is the development of a funding complexity continuum scale, which should be useful in future studies of nascent as well as later stage entrepreneurial finance and firm growth

The politics of in/visibility: carving out queer space in Ul'yanovsk

&lt;p&gt;In spite of a growing interest within sexualities studies in the concept of queer space (Oswin 2008), existing literature focuses almost exclusively on its most visible and territorialised forms, such as the gay scene, thus privileging Western metropolitan areas as hubs of queer consumer culture (Binnie 2004). While the literature has emphasised the political significance of queer space as a site of resistance to hegemonic gender and sexual norms, it has again predominantly focused on overt claims to public space embodied in Pride events, neglecting other less open forms of resistance.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; This article contributes new insights to current debates about the construction and meaning of queer space by considering how city space is appropriated by an informal queer network in Ul’ianovsk. The group routinely occupied very public locations meeting and socialising on the street or in mainstream cafés in central Ul’ianovsk, although claims to these spaces as queer were mostly contingent, precarious or invisible to outsiders. The article considers how provincial location affects tactics used to carve out communal space, foregrounding the importance of local context and collective agency in shaping specific forms of resistance, and questioning ethnocentric assumptions about the empowering potential of visibility.&lt;/p&gt