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Objectives: Research suggests that ageist beliefs and behaviors have increased since the onset of the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). Considering that COVID-19 has taken a particularly heavy toll on long-term care (LTC) residents, this study examined if LTC employee perceptions of aging were influenced by working in a LTC facility during the pandemic.Methods: Qualitative data collection included 30-minute interviews with 21 LTC employees in the Boston, Massachusetts, area including 10 nurses, three nursing assistants, four clinical coordinators, two social workers, one recreation therapist, and one registered dietitian.Results: An increase in perceptions and behaviors representative of compassionate ageism (CA) was self-reported among participants.Discussion: The current study demonstrates how an increase in CA among employees was perpetuated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Allied health and nursing professionals should be mindful of attitudes toward aging, and how health events can reinforce ageist beliefs and behaviors. Opportunities for recreation therapists to lead antiageist efforts in LTC are identified.

As novel approaches to post-graduate education emerge and professional learning concepts evolve, there is a need for additional research investigating the processes by which physical education teacher education (PETE) faculty and administrators conceptualise and launch non-traditional graduate programming. The purpose of this study was to investigate stakeholders’ perceptions of the factors influencing the diffusion of a one-year, contextually based, full-immersion master’s degree in PE. Six stakeholders, including individuals from a mid-sized university, a global fitness corporation, and a rural K-12 school district all located within the United States, participated in semi-structured interviews. Deductive content analysis methods were used to analyse the data. Utilising Roger’s Attributes of Innovation, eleven sub-themes emerged. Findings represent stakeholders’ perceptions of facilitators and barriers to the implementation and diffusion of an innovative effort to deliver graduate education. Challenges and lessons learned provide insight for PETE faculty and administrators seeking to expand graduate education beyond bricks and mortar.

This article expands previous recommendation to “be proactive” by providing practical examples that have the potential to encourage stakeholders to value HPE programs before these programs are threatened with reduction or elimination. The aim is to capitalize on positive aspects of programs that are already in place to maximize publicity within communities.

Educational technologies have been known to positively impact teaching and learning in physical education. This rapid development of new technologies has encouraged physical education teacher education (PETE) programs to prepare preservice physical education teachers (PPETs) with experiences rooted in technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). This study aimed to understand current PPET experiences with technology in a secondary methods course. A total of 14 participants from two PETE programs participated in this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and later analyzed using a grounded theory methodology. Two themes were discovered: (a) PPETs used technology to plan, instruct, and/or assess their secondary physical education classes, and (b) PPETs encountered barriers when using technology. Future research should examine the levels of technology understanding among PPETs.

Public school secondary physical education needs support. One approach in assisting is to improve the next generation of preservice physical education teachers (PPETs). The purpose of the study was to explore PPET secondary physical education training through the secondary teaching methods course offered in two universities in the US. A total of 14 PPETs participated in the study. Qualitative methods were employed through a phenomenological framework. Semi-structured interviews were analyzed using constant comparative methods [Kolb (2012). Grounded theory and the constant comparative method: Valid research strategies for educators. Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies, 3(1), 83–86]. Two themes emerged: (a) PPETs have a stronghold on management, as they displayed feelings of high importance towards this topic, and (b) preparing for quality instruction when cooperating teachers are not, resulting in PPETs’ questioning the importance of lesson planning. PPETs views on the misalignment of university and district practices are troubling and suggest university and K-12 partnerships to be formed. Future research should examine ways to improve field experiences associated with these courses.

Shocks transmitted from productivity leaders to lagging economies are systematic sources of risk. Global technology and knowledge diffusion leads to predictable patterns in productivity dynamics across countries and industries. Technology gaps determine the level of exposure to the systematic productivity shocks. Firms in a country-industry with larger technology gaps relative to the world leader are more dependent on the leader’s innovations compared to their own productivity improvements. They thus have higher loadings on the leader productivity shocks and higher average stock returns. For OECD panel data, a country-industry’s technology gap significantly predicts the stock returns of the country-industry: holding the quintile of country-industry portfolios with the largest gaps and shorting the quintile with the smallest gaps generates annual returns of 9.8% (6.7% after risk adjustment with standard factors). A factor representing the technological productivity gap explains country-industry portfolio returns substantially better than standard factor models. Loadings on leader-country productivity shocks have substantial correlation with technology gaps, and leader productivity shocks are more important for stock returns than idiosyncratic productivity shocks. These findings support that the technology gaps and associated higher average returns are indeed linked to systematic risk.

The purpose of this chapter is to preliminarily explore the fruitfulness of understanding industrial heritage sites through the lens of environmental catastrophe in the 21st century. While geographers have been increasingly exploring heritage over the past few decades, concerned with its significance in terms of cultural and social representations, as well as an economic commodity, and industrial heritage has become more widely recognized as a key aspect of identity in the cities of the westernized world, research has overlooked the fascinating nexus between the industrial production marked in the sites of industrial heritage and the environmental outcomes of those processes. There is no concern more pressing in the present than the reality of climate change and environmental catastrophe and so this presentation considers exploring the interconnections between remembering the social and historical significance of industrial heritage sites and recognizing the ways these sites threaten our future. Through a preliminary case study of English Station, a disused power station on the Mill River in New Haven, Connecticut, I explore how this site represents the aspirations and progress of New Haven as an industrial, electrified, automobile city, as well as the current environmental catastrophes on our doorstep.

The vulnerability of the global economy has been starkly exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Longer term thinking and new approaches to development and prosperity are urgently required. In this paper, we forward a series of principles on which economic and development policy for the post-COVID era should be developed. These are outlined as five ‘pillars’ from which to rebuild the global economy, based on principles of a shared sustainable prosperity. These pillars are: (I) an ecological prosperity; (II) a decarbonized economy; (III) a shared cost burden; (IV) a governance new deal; (V) a just resilience. In outlining the ‘5 pillars’ we explicitly recognize that sustainability cannot simply be a ‘green’, or environmental concern. Social and economic dimensions of sustainability are key for societal stability and continuity. This is made ever starker in the context of the fundamental economic and societal restructuring forced by the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, the pillars represent a triple bottom line framing of sustainability, of mutually supportive domains of economic, social and environmental well-being. The five pillars are informed by principles of distributive and procedural justice, recognizing the importance and advantages of real community engagement and empowerment and giving due respect and deference to the ecological carrying capacity of our fragile planet. We argue that the post-COVID-19 re-build represents a once-in-a generation opportunity to markedly shift developed trajectories to more sustainable pathways, to rebalance the domains of sustainability, and in the process, to address longer-term crises including those of climate and biodiversity loss.

There is a significant increase in the number of students with disabilities. However, many general education teachers report that they feel ill-equipped to educate a classroom of students with diverse special education and learning needs. In this qualitative study, the structured focus group interviews were conducted to determine the PD opportunities and characteristics that general education teachers perceive to influence their sense of self-efficacy for educating students with special needs. The results of the focus group discussions revealed that there are several targeted professional development strategies to increase teachers’ efficacy for educating students with special needs. This study makes recommendations for the research supported professional development activities, focused on educating students with special needs, provided to general education teachers.

Teacher self-efficacy has been linked to positive student outcomes. This quantitative research study aimed to examine the mindsets and behaviors of regular education teachers concerning their ability to educate students with special needs. The modified Teacher Self Efficacy Survey was administered to general education teachers. Data revealed that general education teachers feel less efficacious for educating students with special needs in the areas of engagement, instructional strategies, and classroom management. This study makes recommendations for professional development, focused on educating students with special needs, provided to general education teachers. Particularly, the findings speak to the need for a more diverse, flexible, and comprehensive approach to implement teacher professional development activities to improve the achievement of students with special needs.

Advocacy has become a crucial professional obligation for school principals. Seen by policymakers as honest brokers who have at heart the best interests of the children and families whom they serve, school principals should offer themselves to policymakers and their staffs as accessible and reliable sources of information about the actual or likely impacts of measures that have already been enacted or that are being introduced. They should be ready to collect, examine, and articulate data of interest to policymakers. Moreover, they should provide compelling stories for those policymakers to remember and retell as they debate, not only education-specific measures, but any policies impacting children’s ability to be healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

COVID-19 pandemic has affected people’s daily life dramatically since December 2019. More than 211 million cases and 4.42 million deaths have been reported and confirmed all over the world. Long-term care facilities are taking the biggest hit during this pandemic, even after the spread-out of the vaccines. Globally, residents in long-term care facilities have experienced disproportionately high morbidity and mortality from COVID-19. Elderlies residing in long-term care facilities have the greatest susceptibility to COVID-19 and the poorest outcomes from infections. This chapter overviewed the insight, impact, and challenges of COVID-19 on the residential care homes in UK, US, and Australia and provided possible implications for the long-term care market post-pandemic.