title: Shifting deficit perspectives of teacher-parent partnerships: Post-covid teacher stories

authors: Vale, Pamela

abstract: In this oral communication we focus on primary school mathematics teacher practices, in the post-Covid context, that enabled (or not) mathematical learning partnerships with parents, and the parent responses to these practices, as storied by the teachers. We address the questions: (1) How are primary school mathematics teachers engaging with and supporting parents in the post-Covid context, particularly regarding supporting learners’ mathematical learning? and (2) How are parents (according to teachers) responding to the efforts of teachers to encourage their engagement with the mathematical learning of their child?

text: Shifting deficit perspectives of teacher-parent partnerships: Post-covid teacher stories In this oral communication we focus on primary school mathematics teacher practices, in the post-Covid context, that enabled (or not) mathematical learning partnerships with parents, and the parent responses to these practices, as storied by the teachers. We address the questions: (1) How are primary school mathematics teachers engaging with and supporting parents in the post-Covid context, particularly regarding supporting learners’ mathematical learning? and (2) How are parents (according to teachers) responding to the efforts of teachers to encourage their engagement with the mathematical learning of their child?

year: 2024

title: Running shoe recommendations based on gait analysis improve perceptions of comfort, performance and injury risk: A single-blind randomised crossover trial

authors: Fife, Andrew

subjects: deception

abstract: Objectives: We examined how shoe recommendation based on gait analysis influences subjective perceptions of comfort, performance and injury reduction in runners while monitoring spatiotemporal and kinematic parameters.

Design: Single-blind crossover randomised controlled trial with repeated measures. 

Method: Twenty-one women runners completed a clinical gait analysis and four 5-min treadmill trials at a self-selected comfortable speed sequentially in their own shoes (OS), the first experimental shoes (randomised), their OS, and the second experimental shoes (randomised). The two experimental shoes were identical except for their colour (randomised) and were presented to runners as either a ‘basic’ shoe or, deceptively, a ‘gait-matched’ shoe selected for them based on the clinical gait analysis conducted. 

Results: Running Comfort Assessment Tool (RUN-CAT) scores and 100 mm visual analogue scale ratings of subjective comfort, performance and injury reduction differed significantly between own and experimental shoes (p < 0.001). Post-hoc comparisons revealed that runners’ OS were the most comfortable (83.3 ± 3.8 mm) followed by gait-matched (66.1 ± 21.5 mm) and then basic (49.0 ± 24.1 mm) shoes. RUN-CAT, performance and injury reduction ratings were similar between own and gait-matched shoes, but gait-matched shoes had better mean difference (95% confidence intervals), RUN-CAT (15.6 mm [5.7, 25.5]), performance (17.1 mm [5.6, 28.6]) and injury reduction (30.1 mm [8.9, 51.2]) scores than the basic shoes. Discrete spatiotemporal, foot strike angle and resultant tibial acceleration parameters were not significantly different between shoes (p ≥ 0.157). Most runners overall preferred their OS (71.4%), followed by gait-matched (23.8%) and basic (4.8%) shoes. 

Conclusions: Shoe recommendation and description can significantly affect subjective shoe comfort and overall preferences without significantly altering spatiotemporal and kinematic parameters. Runners should be cautious while choosing shoes based on recommendations and descriptors derived from gait analysis or based solely on perceived comfort as runners’ subjective perceptions can be artificially manipulated.

text: Running shoe recommendations based on gait analysis improve perceptions of comfort, performance and injury risk: A single-blind randomised crossover trial Objectives: We examined how shoe recommendation based on gait analysis influences subjective perceptions of comfort, performance and injury reduction in runners while monitoring spatiotemporal and kinematic parameters.

Design: Single-blind crossover randomised controlled trial with repeated measures. 

Method: Twenty-one women runners completed a clinical gait analysis and four 5-min treadmill trials at a self-selected comfortable speed sequentially in their own shoes (OS), the first experimental shoes (randomised), their OS, and the second experimental shoes (randomised). The two experimental shoes were identical except for their colour (randomised) and were presented to runners as either a ‘basic’ shoe or, deceptively, a ‘gait-matched’ shoe selected for them based on the clinical gait analysis conducted. 

Results: Running Comfort Assessment Tool (RUN-CAT) scores and 100 mm visual analogue scale ratings of subjective comfort, performance and injury reduction differed significantly between own and experimental shoes (p < 0.001). Post-hoc comparisons revealed that runners’ OS were the most comfortable (83.3 ± 3.8 mm) followed by gait-matched (66.1 ± 21.5 mm) and then basic (49.0 ± 24.1 mm) shoes. RUN-CAT, performance and injury reduction ratings were similar between own and gait-matched shoes, but gait-matched shoes had better mean difference (95% confidence intervals), RUN-CAT (15.6 mm [5.7, 25.5]), performance (17.1 mm [5.6, 28.6]) and injury reduction (30.1 mm [8.9, 51.2]) scores than the basic shoes. Discrete spatiotemporal, foot strike angle and resultant tibial acceleration parameters were not significantly different between shoes (p ≥ 0.157). Most runners overall preferred their OS (71.4%), followed by gait-matched (23.8%) and basic (4.8%) shoes. 

Conclusions: Shoe recommendation and description can significantly affect subjective shoe comfort and overall preferences without significantly altering spatiotemporal and kinematic parameters. Runners should be cautious while choosing shoes based on recommendations and descriptors derived from gait analysis or based solely on perceived comfort as runners’ subjective perceptions can be artificially manipulated.

year: 2025

title: Donna Awatere on Whiteness in New Zealand: Theoretical Contributions and Contemporary Relevance

authors: Norris, Adele N.

abstract: In June 2022, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern designated the US-based neofascist groups The Base and the Proud Boys as terrorist organisations. This designation marks one of the few times white supremacy entered the national political discourse in New Zealand. Discourses of whiteness are mostly theorised in the North American context. However, Donna Awatere’s 1984 examination of White Cultural Imperialism (WCI) in her book Māori Sovereignty advanced an analysis of whiteness in New Zealand that has received limited scholarly attention and is essentially unexplored. This paper reintroduces Awatere’s conceptualisation of WCI. It offers core tenets of WCI and theoretical insights into contemporary discussions of white supremacy that move beyond the focus of individuals and groups to a broader national framework of New Zealand. Two interrelated features of WCI, as defined by Awatere, are the minimisation and normalisation of whiteness and white racial hostility –  inherent features that maintain, protect, and reproduce the white institutionalised body as the primary beneficiary of Western European domination that will always thwart Indigenous sovereignty and equality. This paper concludes that Awatere’s articulation of WCI links whiteness in the New Zealand context to the broader network of global white supremacy that offers insight into contemporary criminal justice scholarship.

text: Donna Awatere on Whiteness in New Zealand: Theoretical Contributions and Contemporary Relevance In June 2022, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern designated the US-based neofascist groups The Base and the Proud Boys as terrorist organisations. This designation marks one of the few times white supremacy entered the national political discourse in New Zealand. Discourses of whiteness are mostly theorised in the North American context. However, Donna Awatere’s 1984 examination of White Cultural Imperialism (WCI) in her book Māori Sovereignty advanced an analysis of whiteness in New Zealand that has received limited scholarly attention and is essentially unexplored. This paper reintroduces Awatere’s conceptualisation of WCI. It offers core tenets of WCI and theoretical insights into contemporary discussions of white supremacy that move beyond the focus of individuals and groups to a broader national framework of New Zealand. Two interrelated features of WCI, as defined by Awatere, are the minimisation and normalisation of whiteness and white racial hostility –  inherent features that maintain, protect, and reproduce the white institutionalised body as the primary beneficiary of Western European domination that will always thwart Indigenous sovereignty and equality. This paper concludes that Awatere’s articulation of WCI links whiteness in the New Zealand context to the broader network of global white supremacy that offers insight into contemporary criminal justice scholarship.

year: 2023-07-27