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Recent concern surrounding sports coaches' interaction with young people has reflected a fundamental change in the way coaches and others regard the role of sports. In this paper, we consider the identification and definition of the contemporary sports coach (whether acting in a professional or volunteer capacity) as, in Foucault's term, a "dangerous individual". We suggest that the mainstream discourse of child protection and safeguarding, variously interpreted and applied, has contributed to a culture of fear in sports coaching practice. Drawing on data from a recently completed Economic and Social Research Council-funded research project, we argue that contradictions in policy and practice, which serve to privilege a particular discourse, have cast the coach as both predator and protector of young sports performers. This has undermined the role of the coach, led to intergenerational fear, created doubt about coaches' intentions and promoted their adoption of defensive and protective practices. Utilising the concept of governmentality, we argue that, as a consequence, fundamental trust-based relationships, necessary in healthy athlete?-?coach engagement, have been displaced by a discourse embodied in sterile delivery and procedure governed by regulation and suspicion.

This text introduces recently completed research on "no touch" sports coaching, by placing it in a broader social context which problematises the way child abuse and child protection (or safeguarding) are conceived and discussed in terms of policy and practice. It also provides a brief indicative summary of the research findings and offers a discussion of moral panic, risk society and worst case thinking, before drawing on Foucault's work on governmentality to offer an explanation of how the current situation arose. The authors suggest that the approach to discussing child abuse, and the guidelines and training stemming from the dominant discourse, for the most part initiated by the NSPCC's Child Protection in Sport Unit, together create an environment in which many coaches and PE teachers are confused and fearful, and consequently unsure of how to "be" around the children and young people they teach and coach.

This paper offers a genealogical account of safeguarding in sport. Drawing specifically on Foucault's work, it examines the "politics of touch" in relation to the social and historical formation of child protection policy in sports coaching. While the analysis has some resonance with the context of coaching as a whole, for illustrative purposes it focuses principally upon the sport of swimming. Our analysis demonstrates how the linked signifiers of "abuse", "protection" and "safeguarding" produce both continuity and change in the philosophy and meaning around coaching practice, giving rise to particular notions of "government" and regulation, risk aversion and prohibitions, and values. Within a culture of fear in sports coaching and society, the analysis traces the development of swimming policy following the exposure of select high-profile cases or critical incidents, where such historical events prompted a series of authoritative statements about the nature of child protection discourse in sport and education, and practice.

In this article, we argue for a purposeful re-introduction of philosophical enquiry to the process and pedagogy of citizenship education. We suggest the development of philosophy and critical thinking skills may usefully improve social and political awareness in young people. Moving beyond the boundary of the formal curriculum, we encourage the development of synergy between the international movement of philosophy for children and the expanding tradition of community philosophy as a means to promote more open and democratic enquiry. We suggest this will produce important benefits for young people, helping to promote responsible judgements on social affairs, develop intergenerational relationships and enhance freedom for the young to think rationally and autonomously as critically informed citizens. However, this is likely to occur only if teachers and schools are more willing and prepared to challenge dominant, reductive notions of education in favour of more active and democratic conceptions of the secondary curriculum.

This paper is informed by a UK based Economic and Social Research Council funded research project which developed and deployed a case-study approach to issues of touch between children and professionals in schools and childcare. Outcomes from these settings are referred to, but the focus here is shifted to touch in sports coaching and its distinctive contextual and institutional characteristics. We consider the broader context of no touch coaching practice, including relevant theoretical accounts, review policy which impacts on coaching activity and report on preliminary enquiries. We argue that the disembodiment of practice has undermined the conception and experience of sports coaching and its contribution to educating and socialising young people. (Contains 2 notes.)

The ways in which the media searches out, depicts, and writes about teacher-pupil sex-related topics have implications both for researchers working in the area and, sometimes more seriously, for the people who participate in and contribute to that research as respondents. In this article, the authors discuss, and provide an example of, the composite fiction strategy they developed and decided to adopt primarily for purposes of protection when writing up a project that investigated the perceptions and experiences of teachers (and those of members of their families, their friends, and colleagues) who had been accused of sexual abuse of pupils, which they said they had not committed and of which they were eventually cleared. (Contains 5 notes.)

This article examines the on-going saga of citizenship education in the UK against a backdrop of conceptual confusions and contradictions around the question of what it means to share a civic identity. Noting calls to grasp the social and political realities of an emerging cosmopolitanism, and move towards a more identity-based conception of citizenship, the article questions whether in fact nationhood is a socially just concept worthy of pursuit? It suggests that the teaching of citizenship in schools is perhaps the wrong place to start, and that this is likely at best to lead to confusion, and at worst perpetuate binary and/or discriminatory thinking. In the absence of a realignment and reprioritization of teacher education, it seems unlikely that most teachers will be au fait with the complexity surrounding concepts such as identity, nationhood, and citizenship, and consequently pupils are likely to experience relatively crude and simplistic coverage of the topic. (Contains 2 notes.)

This paper presents a theoretical critique of citizenship education in England and Wales, as a means of raising pedagogical considerations for teachers, and policy issues for curriculum makers and planners. Drawing on a range of recent empirical studies, we construct an analysis of practice and suggest that differences between dominant models of citizenship in England and Wales owe much to their histories. We suggest that such differences create opportunities for new curriculum-making practices as well as democratic possibilities in the context of citizenship education, at a time when curricula in both England and Wales are under revision. Considering school councils/forums as an exemplar of practice common to both contexts, we question the wisdom of schools employing a narrow conception of active citizenship, via forums, in order to demonstrate they are satisfying the relevant requirements of the "Order for Citizenship" in England, and aspects of the "Personal and Social Education" curriculum in Wales. While the exemplars are both from the UK context the arguments apply beyond these borders and to more general concerns regarding the development of global citizenship. (Contains 5 notes.)

This article draws on data from a single element of a larger project which focused on the issue of "touching" between education and child care professionals and children in a number of settings. This case study looks at a school once internationally renowned as the exemplar of "free" schooling. The authors consider how the school works as a community, how it impacts on its students, and how it copes with the strictures of the audit culture in relation to "risk" and "safety." The authors' experiences led them to the realization that physical "touch" was an irrelevant focus in this school, and they developed the notion of "relational touch." Summerhill works in ways that approximate an inversion of the audit culture. The authors argue that progressive and critical conceptions of education continue to have much to learn from concrete examples like Summerhill and conclude that a revival of such values in education is long overdue. (Contains 25 notes.)

This paper addresses an increasingly popular technique for eliciting student "voice" through the analysis of young people's images as a medium of expression, focusing in particular on photography. Of course, there has been considerable critical interrogation of student voice activities in the recent past and the complexities and challenges associated with the analysis of images is longstanding. Where critical scrutiny is less apparent, however, is in the interpretation of children and young people's visual "statements". We argue that young people's images should be subject to the same processes of deconstruction as other texts produced under the aegis of voice activities and conclude by suggesting that the crisis of representation familiar in most interpretive genres is sometimes absent from what tends to be an uncritical celebration of representation in this particular context. (Contains 5 notes and 2 figures.)

We argue that many current forms of anti-racist and multicultural teaching, whilst well-intentioned, nevertheless serve to fix identities on children in ways which inhibit their agency and reinforce stereotypes. In our exploration of the issues we employ a wide range of theoretical ideas.

This article considers the touching, or rather, not touching, of children and young people in professional settings. Some have argued that many schools and other childcare environments are becoming "no touch" zones. Formal guidelines in the UK are centrally concerned with "child protection" issues, and "force and control", and as such appear more reactive than proactive. From the authors' exploratory studies it has emerged that this is an area where fear and confusion (resulting from a moral panic) have tended to replace a response that is primarily concerned with the caring needs of children. The authors regard this as an area that can no longer be left to chance and suggest that future policy should be informed by research that takes account of the complexities as discussed throughout. (Contains 1 note.)

In the discourse of educational policy and practice, applying the term "disaffected" to young people stigmatizes them, and mentoring with the goal of change reinforces the view that there is something wrong with them. Uncritical use of "disaffected" masks real problems in the transition from school to work. (SK)

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2009.01615.x Byline: Emily G. Patterson-Kane (1), Heather Piper (2) Abstract: It has been suggested that acts of violence against human and nonhuman animals share commonalities, and that animal abuse is a sentinel for current or future violence toward people. The popular and professional acceptance of strong connections between types of violence is beginning to be used to justify social work interventions and to influence legal decision making, and so requires greater scrutiny. Examination of the limited pool of empirical data suggests that animal abuse is relatively common among men, with violent offenders having an increased probability of reporting prior animal abuse-with the majority of violent offenders not reporting any animal abuse. Causal explanations for 'the link,' such as empathy impairment or conduct disorder, suffer from a lack of validating research and, based on research into interhuman violence, the assumption that violence has a predominant, single underlying cause must be questioned. An (over)emphasis on the danger that animal abusers pose to humans serves to assist in achieving a consensus that animal abuse is a serious issue, but potentially at the cost of failing to focus on the most common types of abuse, and the most effective strategies for reducing its occurrence. Nothing in this review and discussion should be taken as minimizing the importance of animals as frequent victims of violence, or the co-occurrence of abuse types in 'at-risk' households. However, given the weakness of the underlying data, emphasizing the indiscriminate dangerousness of all animal abusers may have unforeseen and unwanted consequences. Author Affiliation: (1)American Veterinary Medical Association (2)Manchester Metropolitan University Article note: (*) Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Emily G. Patterson-Kane, American Veterinary Medical Association, 1931 N. Meacham Rd., Ste. 100, Schaumburg, IL 60173 [e-mail: EKane@avma.org].

The alternative models for analyzing reflexive methodology are developed by combining the aspects of textualist and performative approaches. The reflexive practices of doctoral students are examined, which has reflected the way in which they choose to appropriate reflexive methodological texts.

Summary At a time when the cost of market research is of increasing concern, market researchers need radical, imaginative and innovative solutions to meet client needs. This paper is about [...]

This research note develops a number of themes arising from a modest research project on police and minority ethnic population relations in two towns in North West England. Against a [...]