Plymouth Marjon University Repository
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Not an agenda for idiosyncratic creative collaborations: sharing stories about trees, childhoods, council estates, roots, blackbirds, textures, up/unrootedness, families, anxieties, darkness, tears, play, class, punches, burnout, loss, trauma, bereavement, joy, curiosity, care, craft, hope, hugs, laughter, weirdness, wonky art, grandparents, dogs, ghosts, drains, swearing, poplar avenue, plant pots, blackberries, buddleias, the revelatory capacities of minor geographies … and maybe bears?
No full textWe study, theorise, advocate for play … but our working lives are often not playful. Haunted by this realisation, we explore the potential of idiosyncratic creative collaborations for re/kindling faith and enthusiasm, enabling new ways of witnessing minor geographies of childhood and youth. The paper is written from, and about, one such collaboration: a six-year, shared process of writing minor stories about childhood trees, which branched into all kinds of unanticipated moods, memories, textures, and territories. Drawing on [Katz, Citation1996. “Towards Minor Theory.” Environment and Planning D 14 (4): 487–499] minor theory, we situate this collaboration in relation to calls for creative and/or ludic turns in Human Geography and contemporary social sciences, particularly storied and autoethnographic approaches in childhood and youth studies. Our fragments of stories thus join a forest of trees, tree-research and tree narratives in Children's Geographies, contributing to wider interdisciplinary conceptualisations of multispecies childhoods and more-than-human geographies. The ‘major contribution’ of the paper is to provide provocations, theoretical parameters, and practical prompts for idiosyncratic creative collaborations. But really, it is about valuing and trusting ideas that seem minor or non-normative: NOT trying to be impactful as we are meant to in the contemporary neoliberal academy
Associations between religiosity and climate change beliefs and behaviours in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)
No full textIndividual actions are crucial to mitigating the impact of anthropogenic climate change. Understanding the factors shaping individuals’ climate beliefs and behaviours is therefore essential to help encourage sustainable action among the public. One such factor is religion, which – based on theoretical expectations and prior literature – could influence climate beliefs and behaviours, either positively or negatively. To understand the impact of religion in more detail, we used data from two generations of a large-scale longitudinal population-based UK birth cohort study (the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children; ALSPAC). We explored whether a range of religious/spiritual beliefs and behaviours (religious belief, identity and attendance, in addition to latent classes of religiosity) were associated with a number of climate beliefs and behaviours (e.g., belief in, and concern over, climate change, and pro-environmental actions taken for climate change reasons), adjusted for a range of sociodemographic confounders. Analyses were repeated in three cohorts: the study offspring, their mothers, and the mother’s partners. Overall, we observed a broadly ‘U’-shaped or ‘J’-shaped association between religiosity and climate beliefs and behaviours in the parental generation; participants with intermediate levels of religiosity displayed the lowest levels of belief, concern and behaviours, while the most religious participants displayed similar, and sometimes greater, awareness and actions relative to the least religious. These patterns were not replicated in the offspring generation, with little relationship observed between religion and climate questions. These results indicate a complex association between religion and climate beliefs and behaviours, which varies depending on the religion exposure, the climate outcome, and the generation. The reason for these findings is uncertain, although they perhaps suggest that, among the highly religious in the older generation, religious attendance may promote positive climate beliefs and behaviours
Embracing Complexity of Place for Place-Informed Education: International Insights from Periphery, Coastal and Rural Contexts
No full textOpinions and Experiences of Economics Graduates on the Integration of Simulation Tools in Greek Higher Education Towards Sustainable Entrepreneurship
No full textThe current study has confirmed the strategic role and impact simulation tools play within higher education. Specifically, it does so from the students' perspective. The aim of this work was to primarily obtain valuable insight into students' experiences through the active use of simulation tools during their studies, and how this use has enabled university graduates to apply their acquired knowledge at the workplace. Considering the impact of technology and simulation tools on businesses' sustainable development, this empirical study strives to further contribute to the existing knowledge in this area. In total, 12 university graduates from economic schools in Greece participated in in-depth interviews on the basis of a qualitative research method. The research has highlighted, among others, the need for adjusting the university curricula in order to match the current and future trends related to university education in economic schools, and the technological advancements, in which simulation tools play an increasingly important role
The Seven ‘C’s of Why: Youth workers’ questions about digital practice
No full textIn this blog post I reflect on a collaborative research project that explored youth workers’ knowledge, skills and attitudes towards digital practice. Youth work in the UK is a profession guided by a distinct national curriculum regulated by the National Youth Agency (NYA), which can be understood through the concept of informal education in which practitioners meet young people where they choose to gather (Corney et al., 2024). As with many forms of education, Covid-19 required a move to digital youth work practice (Vermiere et al., 2019) and further impacted youth provision at a time when the UK had been feeling the pressure of budget constraints due to austerity measures (Reynolds & Charraighe, 2022). As a result, youth work during lockdowns included online engagement, presenting challenges of understanding and building new digital youth work provisions
Multi-Academy Trust School Governance: A hub advisory board model
Full text linkThis comprehensive 19-month longitudinal study (January 2023 to October 2024) examined the implementation of Hub Advisory Board (HAB) governance within a large Multi-Academy Trust in South West England. The research represents one of the most thorough empirical studies of hub governance models in English education, analysing experiences across executive leadership, trustees, HAB members, school leaders, and parents/carers
Exercise Technique: The Reverse Nordic
No full textThe reverse Nordic is a single joint (knee), controlled open kinetic chain exercise with a predominantly eccentric focus. This review summarizes the reverse Nordic, including exercise benefits, muscles involved, exercise technique, progressions, regressions, and programming strategies. Furthermore, this review outlines how strength and conditioning coaches can use the reverse Nordic within a training program to improve athletic performance and mitigate injury risk
Keep on running: A co-produced, evidence-based intervention for coaches to support beginner runners in maintaining behaviour change
Full text linkThe aim of this PhD was to create a practical, evidence-based intervention that could support beginner runners with maintaining running after they have started. Running provides many health and wellbeing benefits, but often people do not continue long enough to reap these benefits. The PhD consisted of three qualitative studies to support the development, delivery, and evaluation of the intervention. The first study involved an analysis of a pre-existing, longitudinal dataset related to the experiences of 20 beginner runners. Thematic analysis was used to explore runners’ experiences through time, seeking to understand how some people maintained running and why others stopped.
Sixty-five interviews were analysed to help inform the development of an intervention that supports beginner runners with maintaining running. The results demonstrated the dynamic nature of motivations, barriers, and support systems. Identifying a meaningful reason or “why” for running could support the maintenance of running by helping runners to prioritise running, to gain confidence, and to start to enjoy running. Some runners, however, experienced unequal life circumstances (e.g., related to health, wealth, caring responsibilities) that led to life getting in the way of running. Being disadvantaged by societal privileges limited the opportunity to progress and enjoy running, which in turn, led to stopping.
The second study aimed to identify how these results could be transferred to a running club using co-production. Thirteen coaches, 23 runners, and five applied practitioners took part in the study involving focus group workshops, observations, and situated interviews. The outcome of this study was an intervention, which integrated Study 1 findings, participant feedback from Study 2, and behaviour change literature with the aim of increasing coaches’ skills, knowledge, and confidence in supporting beginner runners with maintaining running. The co-produced intervention, “Keep on Running: The 5 Pillars of Support” consisted of five interrelated Pillars; Purpose, Progress, People, Planning and Play, which broadly covered motivation, confidence, social support and inclusivity, self-regulation, and enjoyment, respectively. The aim of the intervention was to educate running club coaches on the psychological principles related to these Pillars.
The third study delivered and evaluated the “Keep on Running – The 5 Pillars of Support” intervention at two running clubs through interactive workshops. A core group of 11 coaches took part in most of the workshops (five and six coaches in each club). The intervention was qualitatively evaluated using interviews, observations, surveys, and focus groups. Eight coaches were interviewed, and 10 coaches took part in the focus groups to understand how the intervention had influenced their coaching practices. The results showed that the intervention was well-received by coaches in both running clubs, demonstrating transferability. The intervention changed coaching practices and resulted in changes for the beginner running programmes. While some modifications are needed for the intervention, the preliminary evidence suggests the “Keep on Running – The 5 Pillars of Support” is a promising intervention that can be applied to other running clubs beyond this research.
Overall, the results supported the complex nature of behaviour change, demonstrating how maintaining running can depend on many factors at an individual, social, and environmental level; all of these factors need to be considered in interventions. The key contribution was the creation of “Keep on Running – The 5 Pillars of Support”: a practical and evidence-based intervention that shows potential to be applied to running clubs nationwide. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first co�produced intervention that educates coaches on how to be more psychologically supportive of beginner runners and support runners with maintaining running
Meta-evaluation of Transformative Evaluation: Lessons for Participatory Learning and Organisational Change
No full textThis study is a meta-evaluation, examining the implementation and adaptation of the Transformative Evaluation methodology developed by Professor Susan Cooper. It advances knowledge in the relatively under-developed fields of meta-evaluation, ‘small n’ methodologies, and the use of Transformative Evaluation, which, to-date, has seen relatively limited application across different contexts. Data were collected through interviews, focus groups, and surveys with programme beneficiaries (storytellers), evaluators (story generators), and strategic stakeholders (policy makers). The study highlights the potential of using Transformative Evaluation as an inclusive, empowering methodology that amplifies marginalised voices and fosters meaningful engagement, collaboration and reflection. However, modifications to the methodology appeared necessary to address ethical and practical challenges related to the study’s context and findings raised questions about the methodology’s reliability and scalability, its compatibility with accountability-driven evaluation needs and the high skill level required for effective implementation. The findings have implications for evaluation practices and organisational learning across sectors
Immigration and Entrepreneurship in the Americas Drivers, Challenges and Local Economic Impact
No full textMigration in the Americas continues unabated. Seeking to improve understanding of the complexity of this phenomenon, this book presents different approaches that are at the root of an immigrant-entrepreneur's decision-making and the implementation of entrepreneurial activity in North and South America.
The cases presented provide a knowledge base upon which policymakers, government agencies, and the like can draw, providing a basis for comparison for other countries regarding how and why immigrants decide to become entrepreneurs, the challenges they face, and the contributions they make. In this sense, the book presents an overview of immigrant entrepreneurship in the Americas. The studies presented include the cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds behind the reasons for starting a business in the host community, as well as the factors that influence the choice of business area. Furthermore, it explores how this type of entrepreneur contributes to local and sustainable and economic development and will deepen the understanding of immigrants' triggers for emigrating and for engaging in entrepreneurship in the host society. Based on the studies presented, it will offer guidelines regarding policies to support immigrant entrepreneurs, as well as to outline future research avenues.
This book will be an invaluable resource to researchers and scholars in the fields of immigration, immigrant entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial culture, and economic development