Objective Although injury burden prompts elite athletics (track and field) athletes to engage in injury management, little is known about their health literacy. We investigated musculoskeletal (MS) health literacy in world-leading athletics athletes and associations with prechampionship injury acknowledgement by reduction of training load in different socioeconomic environments. Methods Adult and youth athletics athletes (n=1785) Methods Adult and youth athletics athletes (n=1785) preparing for World Championships were invited to complete the Literacy in Musculoskeletal Problems instrument and report acknowledgement of injury by reduction in training load during prechampionship tapering. Their socioeconomic standing was estimated through the Human Development Index of their home country. Demographic differences were examined using X-2 tests and determinants of injury acknowledgement assessed using logistic regression. Results Complete data were obtained from 780 athletes (43.7%) with 26% demonstrating sufficient MS health literacy, higher in adult (41%) than youth (13%) athletes (p<0.001). Adult athletes at the uppermost socioeconomic level showed higher MS health literacy than athletes at lower socioeconomic levels (p<0.001). At the uppermost socioeconomic level, adult athletes with sufficient MS health literacy had increased likelihood of acknowledging an injury by reduction in training load compared with peers demonstrating insufficient MS health literacy (OR=2.45; 95% CI 1.33-4.53). Athletes at middle socioeconomic levels with sufficient MS health literacy had decreased likelihood for acknowledging an injury during tapering (OR=0.29; 95% CI 0.11-0.78). Conclusions The prevalence of sufficient MS health literacy in world-leading athletics athletes is low. Associations between MS health literacy and injury acknowledgement in these athletes vary with the resourcefulness of the socioeconomic environment, implying that health literacy and resources for medical and performance support should be ascertained concurrently.

This paper describes and evaluates student teachers’ virtual simulation training on teaching a controversial issue. In the fourth year of their program to become social science teachers at lower and upper secondary schools, 43 student teachers in Sweden conducted simulation teaching on conspiracy theories as an example of a controversial issue. Conspiracy theories appeal to young people and they often encounter these theories online, but they can be met with increased knowledge about how conspiracy theories work, and how they can be identified and countered. Thus, students at primary and secondary school need to develop their critical source skills. The Swedish Schools Inspectorate (2022) found that these issues were not properly taught because they were not connected to schools’ values-based work or to the development of students’ democratic competence. To analyze the simulation teaching, data was collected through observations, video-recorded simulation teaching, interviews with student teachers, and reflective documents. The results show that simulation teaching offers student teachers the opportunity to integrate content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and subject knowledge, by being trained to become flexible and responsive to avatars’ individual differences as well as their different attitudes and understanding of the subject.

Objectives To examine whether universal prevention via a digital health platform can reduce the injury incidence in athletics athletes aged 12-15 years and if club size had an influence on the effect of the intervention. Methods This was a cluster randomised trial where young athletics athletes were randomised through their club following stratification by club size into intervention (11 clubs; 56 athletes) and control (10 clubs; 79 athletes) groups. The primary endpoint was time from baseline to the first self-reported injury. Intervention group parents and coaches were given access to a website with health information adapted to adolescent athletes and were encouraged to log in and explore its content during 16 weeks. The control group continued training as normal. Training exposure and injury data were self-reported by youths/parents every second week, that is, eight times. The primary endpoint data were analysed using the log-rank test. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to analyse the second study aim with intervention status and club size included in the explanatory models. Results The proportion of completed training reports was 85% (n=382) in the intervention group and 86% (n=545) in the control group. The injury incidence was significantly lower (HR=0.62; chi(2)=3.865; p=0.049) in the intervention group. The median time to first injury was 16 weeks in the intervention group and 8 weeks in the control group. An interaction effect between the intervention and stratification factor was observed with a difference in injury risk between athletes in the large clubs in the intervention group versus their peers in the control group (HR 0.491 (95% CI 0.242 to 0.998); p=0.049). Conclusions A protective effect against injury through universal access to health information adapted for adolescent athletes was observed in youth athletics athletes. The efficacy of the intervention was stronger in large clubs.

In this study, we examined knowledge and understandingof sport-related injuries among youth athletics (track andfield) athletes and assessed their needs in managing anyhealth problems. Qualitative data were collected via 12focus groups with youth athletes (16–19 years) studying atSwedish sports high schools with an athletics specialism. Allfocus group discussions were audiorecorded and transcribedbefore being analysed using a thematic analysis approach.Four researchers independently reviewed the transcripts,generated codes and developed themes. Three overarchingthemes related to the athletes’ knowledge and understandingof sport-related injury were developed: (1) awareness ofinjuries, (2) perception of injuries, and (3) factors contributingto injuries. The youth athletes were typically uncertain abouthow to acknowledge a sport-related injury. They expressed thatknowledge about injuries was obtained in part by reflecting onthe lived experiences of their peers. It was also demonstratedthat there appears to be a ‘culture of acceptance’ regardinginjury occurrence. In contrast, causes of injuries were viewedas dependent on multiple factors (eg, lack of context-specificknowledge about training practices). Regarding athletes’needs in managing injuries, an additional three themes weredeveloped: (1) creating functioning elite sports environments,(2) application of knowledge and (3) fostering athletes. Anapparent lack of structure and organisation related to theschool environment was identified as an important issueto review to create opportunities for sustainable athleticdevelopment. The study identified areas that can be improvedin Swedish sports high schools with an athletic specialism andcould be applied in other youth sports contexts. The resultsof this study guide school stakeholders, alongside the sportgoverning bodies who have the mandate to influence activitiesin youth sports contexts, whereby special attention should bedirected towards improving the social environment for youthathletes.

Den praktiska ämnesdidaktik som projektet fokuserat på var en virtuell praktik, en lärarledd simuleringsundervisning med fem virtuella elever. Träningen på att undervisa de virtuella eleverna följdes av återkoppling som gavs av en ämnesdidaktiker i historia och en i samhällskunskap. Den virtuella praktiken bakades in som ett obligatoriskt moment i två campusförlagda kurser för blivande ämneslärare, i historia respektive samhällskunskap.

The coronavirus pandemic affected the whole world in 2020, with high pressure on the health sector, many deaths, reduced business activity, rising unemployment rates, travel restrictions and social distancing. These developments have had severe consequences for all areas of every society around the globe. This also includes education. In many countries, primary and secondary pupils and university students alike were sent home as schools and universities closed abruptly as part of efforts to control the spread of the virus. As teaching moved online, learners and teachers were unprepared for the new situation, which posed a unique set of challenges. In this context, trainee teachers at a Swedish university were encouraged to support online teaching at schools in Japan, India and Kenya. The purpose of the digital internship was threefold: to continue the trainees’ teaching placements in the absence of opportunities for in-class teaching; to provide an opportunity for trainee teachers to develop their own competence in online teaching; and to assist the foreign schools in the challenging task of delivering online classes. This article aims to investigate the challenges faced by pupils in Japanese, Indian and Kenyan schools and by 27 Swedish trainee teachers during this project. Data collection consisted of interviews, an online questionnaire, lesson observations, assessment forms, and reports given by trainees. The main challenges identified through our findings included internet access in host countries, the use of a teacher-centred approach to learning, and difficulty for trainees to relate to the pupils’ life conditions. However, we conclude that the trainee teachers increased their global awareness through a climate-friendly alternative to the traditional teaching placement abroad.

Background Athletes competing in athletics (track and field) at international level may be participating with underlying undiagnosed life-threatening cardiovascular conditions. Our objective was to analyse variations in pre-participation cardiac evaluation prevalence among athletes participating in two International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Athletics Championships, with regard to the human developmental level and global region of their home countries, as well as athletes’ age category, gender, event group and medical insurance type.

Design Cross-sectional web-based survey.MethodsA total of 1785 athletes competing in the IAAF World Under 18 Championships Nairobi 2017 and World Championships London 2017 were invited to complete a pre-participation health questionnaire investigating the experience of a pre-participation cardiac examination.

Results A total of 704 (39%) of the athletes participated. Among these, 59% (60% of women; 58% of men) reported that they had been provided at least one type of pre-participation cardiac evaluation. Athletes from very high income countries, Europe and Asia, showed a higher prevalence of at least one pre-participation cardiac evaluation.

Conclusions The prevalence of pre-participation cardiac evaluation in low to middle income countries, and the African continent in particular, needs urgent attention. Furthermore, increases in evaluation prevalence should be accompanied by the development of cost-effective methods that can be adopted in all global regions.

Background: Long-distance runners’ understandings of overuse injuries are not well known which decreases the possibilities for prevention. The common sense model (CSM) outlines that runners’ perceptions of a health problem can be described using the categories identity, consequence, timeline, personal control, and cause. The aim of this study was to use the CSM to investigate perceptions of overuse injury among long-distance runners with different exercise loads.

Methods: The study used a cross-sectional design. An adapted version of the illness perception questionnaire revised (IPQ-R) derived from the CSM was used to investigate Swedish ultramarathon and marathon runners’ perceptions of overuse injuries. Cluster analysis was employed for categorizing runners into high and low exercise load categories. A Principal Component Analysis was thereafter used to group variables describing injury causes. Multiple logistic regression methods were finally applied using high exercise load as endpoint variable and CSM items representing perceptions of injury identity, consequence, timeline, personal control, and causes as explanatory variables.

Results: Complete data sets were collected from 165/443 (37.2%) runners. The symptoms most commonly associated with overuse injury were pain (80.1% of the runners), stiff muscles (54.1%), and stiff joints (42.0%). Overuse injury was perceived to be characterized by the possibility of personal control (stated by 78.7% of the runners), treatability (70.4%), and that the injury context was comprehensible (69.3%). The main injury causes highlighted were runner biomechanics (stated by 78.3%), the runner’s personality (72.4%), and running surface biomechanics (70.0%). Among men, a belief in that personality contributes to overuse injury increased the likelihood of belonging to the high exercise load category [Odds ratio (OR) 2.10 (95% Confidence interval (95% CI) 1.38–3.19); P = 0.001], while beliefs in that running biomechanics [OR 0.56 (95% CI 0.37–0.85); P = 0.006) and mileage (OR 0.72 (95% CI 0.54–0.96); P = 0.026] causes injury decreased the likelihood. In women, a strong perception that overuse injuries can be controlled by medical interventions decreased the likelihood of high exercise load [OR 0.68 (95% CI 0.52–0.89); P = 0.005].

Conclusion: This study indicates that recognition among long-distance runners of the association between own decisions in overuse injury causation is accentuated by increased exercise loads.

Background: International middle- and long-distance running competitions attract millions of spectators in association with city races, world championships, and Olympic Games. It is therefore a major concern that ill health and pain, as a result of sports overuse, lead to numerous hours of lost training and decreased performance in competitive runners. Despite its potential for sustenance of performance, approval of mHealth self-report monitoring (mHSM) in this group of athletes has not been investigated. Objective: The objective of our study was to explore individual and situational factors associated with the acceptance of long-term mHSM in competitive runners. Methods: The study used qualitative research methods with the Technology Acceptance Model as the theoretical foundation. The study population included 20 middle- and long-distance runners competing at national and international levels. Two mHSM apps asking for health and training data from track and marathon runners were created on a platform for web survey development (Briteback AB). Data collection for the technology acceptance analysis was performed via personal interviews before and after a 6-week monitoring period. Preuse interviews investigated experience and knowledge of mHealth monitoring and thoughts on benefits and possible side effects. The postuse interviews addressed usability and usefulness, attitudes toward nonfunctional issues, and intentions to adhere to long-term monitoring. In addition, the runners trustworthiness when providing mHSM data was discussed. The interview data were investigated using a deductive thematic analysis. Results: The mHSM apps were considered technically easy to use. Although the runners read the instructions and entered data effortlessly, some still perceived mHSM as problematic. Concerns were raised about the selection of items for monitoring (eg, recording training load as running distance or time) and about interpretation of concepts (eg, whether subjective well should encompass only the running context or daily living on the whole). Usefulness of specific mHSM apps was consequently not appraised on the same bases in different subcategories of runners. Regarding nonfunctional issues, the runners competing at the international level requested detailed control over who in their sports club and national federation should be allowed access to their data; the less competitive runners had no such issues. Notwithstanding, the runners were willing to adhere to long-term mHSM, provided the technology was adjusted to their personal routines and the output was perceived as contributing to running performance. Conclusions: Adoption of mHSM by competitive runners requires clear definitions of monitoring purpose and populations, repeated in practice tests of monitoring items and terminology, and meticulousness regarding data-sharing routines. Further naturalistic studies of mHSM use in routine sports practice settings are needed with nonfunctional ethical and legal issues included in the evaluation designs.

This paper analyzes how a group of Kenyan elite runners used smartphones in their daily activities for one year. This study used a participatory action research approach to explore 30 young Kenyan runners’ appropriation and day-to-day use of smartphones. The runners lived in two different low-income areas in Nairobi and were not accustomed to smartphones. The research focused on how the participants utilized the smartphone, its applications, and the Web to improve their learning, training, living conditions, and social interactions. To investigate the participants’ progress, every smartphone was tracked and its usage was analyzed according to Koole’s (2009) FRAME model. Findings highlighted that new activities arose through frequent usage of the Web and smartphone applications. 180,000 different visits to websites were made and the most popular usage was searching with Google and Yahoo, entertainment, social media, news, and sports related websites. In total, 346,832 applications were used and the phone, launcher and contacts were the primary applications. However, the findings showed a significant use of communication, camera, native applications and applications for running. A concluding remark is that the smartphone acted as a powerful tool for real-life improvement such as improved learning, current events awareness and social interactions for poor people in a developing country.

New Public Management (NPM) reforms has affected the Swedish school system and its administration over the last 20 years. User choices and competition create new context to promote quality management which are not completely applicable on public services. This paper focus on the growing use of quality management in primary education and on processes at different levels, how processes can be supported either by professionals or/and ICT to improve educational quality. This paper investigates meanings of quality in education by analysing data from Swedish public schools and the municipal administration. Case studies in five municipalities have been conducted, varying in size and thereby also by numbers of schools and structures of quality management. Based on this multi-case study we discuss four implications. First, there is a need to clarify the roles and obligations of the different levels and actors in the education sectors. Second, there is a need to support and develop roles that can strengthen quality in public schools no matter of the size of the municipality administration. Thirdly, such support can be implemented by certain services as quality coordinators in a community of practice. Implementation of ICT to support quality is an another opportunity; people in virtual community of practice collaborate online, share experiences and support each other in legislative matters, human resources etc. Fourthly, there is need to elaborate on the meanings of quality management in public settings and also open up the meanings of quality in relation to education in particular and public services in general.

When new forms of governance as New Public Management, user choices and competition in public services are becoming the normal praxis in Scandinavian public welfare services provided by municipalities and regions there are increasing demands for quality management. There is a basic need to follow up quality in services in particular when there are several providers of public services. The uses of quality management in private sectors are not completely applicable on these public services and thus the growing use of quality management in public services has to be addressed. In this paper the quality management in primary education is in focus both to focus on how these processes are arranged and what we can learn as more terms for quality management in public services.

In addition it is far from clear what quality is in these new organizational settings of mixed public-private contexts and actors. The mix of actors are not just public and private, there are also several different organizational levels that interplay here. In spite of the local focus and provision of these services there is a lot of interaction, comparison and structures framed on national and even international levels.

In this paper we will elaborate on the meanings of quality in education as a public service by analyzing the strategies, constraints and innovative responses in local schools as well as in municipal administration and policy-making processes. Case studies in five municipalities in Sweden is included, varying in size and thereby also by numbers of schools and structures of quality management. Based on this study we draw three types of more general conclusions and discuss three implications. First, we can notice that there is a need to clarify the roles and obligations of the different levels and actors in the education sectors. Second, there is a need to support and develop roles for mediating actors that can translate meanings of quality into public settings. Thirdly, there is need to elaborate on the meanings of quality management in public settings and also open up the meanings of quality in relation to education in particular and public services in general. 

This paper argues for new ways for Kenyan elite runners to use smartphones. The study focused on everyday use in social and professional practices to understand the interaction between smartphones, learning, and running. Thus, it was a specific example of how mobile technology can become integrated in existing practices, develop them, and become absorbed in daily routines. Thirty elite runners between the ages of 19 and 34 were provided with a simple smartphone in an intervention study that used a participatory action research approach (PAR) for a period of one and half years. The analysis was based on multiple sources of data and the Silverstone et al. (1992) Domestication of Technology Framework. The Kenyan runners in this study had limited educational background and low incomes, but smartphones with internet connectivity became a powerful catalyst for change. This project showed a distinct example of mRunning; considering the runners’ intensive use of the smartphones and their applications for running. The smartphones had an impact on their professions as runners and acted in a practice-building capacity. The runners were armed with better information about their own training, training programs, rehab information, health, race calendars, race venues, courses profiles, etc. Therefore, most of the runners in the study performed better in competitions. Smartphones were a substantial resource that made a significant impact on the Kenyan  runners’ daily practice and became an important and supportive tool for the runner to get out of poverty.

I Kenya är användningen av mobilteknologi och Internet utbredd och ökar stadigt. Mobilteknik visar sig ha potential att öka medborgares intressen för lärande och kunskap, och därigenom förbättra livssituationen särskilt för fattiga människor. Den här studien syftade till att med deltagande aktionsforskning analysera hur sådana processer går till. I studien deltog 30 kenyanska löpare från fattiga förhållanden och med begränsad formell utbildning. Deltagarna utrustades med en enkel smartphone med fri surf under ett år och följdes med intervjuer, observationer, webbenkäter och mobilspårning. Deras lärandeprocesser analyserades ur ett sociokulturellt perspektiv om hur teknik tillägnas – approrieras – och används i vardagliga praktiker och utvecklar lärande.

Resultaten visade att de kenyanska löparna snabbt approprierade telefonerna och fann utifrån nyfikenhet och intresset för idrott olika sätt att använda dem. Kunskaper och färdigheter utvecklades över tid och de digitala resurserna förbättrade löparnas träning, ökade sociala interaktioner, utvecklade entreprenöriella färdigheter och nya synsätt på sina möjligheter i världen.

Den sociokulturella analysen visade även att feedback från andra deltagare och/eller av tekniken i sig hade betydelse för lärandet. Forskningsprocessen påverkades av deltagarna och utifrån deras intresse skapades en on-line kurs (MOOC) om Mänskliga rättigheter. Problem i studien var telefonens energiförbrukning, brist på elektricitet, tillgång till och kostnad för Internet samt deltagarnas kritiska förhållningssätt till Internet. Det övergripande resultatet är att mobilteknologi kan förbättra livsvillkor och skapa nya vägar till lärande.

Problem based teaching has been on the agenda in higher education for at least the last twenty years and is embedded in professional educations often to prepare students for real life problem solving. However, in when higher education rather aim to provide deeper theoretical and reflective competences promoting the students capacities to address unpredictable challenges in different contexts, there might be other ways of applying and using problem based educational tools. In this paper we describe and discuss our experiences of such attempts in three different higher educational programs.

The three educational settings are a Master of European and International relations, teacher-training courses on master level and Master of Political Science. The work on our new curriculums and pedagogical approaches has taken place within a development project and we have shared ideas and experiences throughout the project. The approach has been differently designed into the three programs but the common focus has been that we do not take off in the problem, but the students have to find the problem and explain how it fits to the theories they learn. We conclude, so far, that a key for success is to present and introduce the students to the model of teaching to be successful.

The primary aim of this research was to study how mobile technology shapes, changes, and develops informal learning outside the classroom and school environment. In this study we provided each of the 30 Kenyan elite runners with a simple Android smartphone and free Internet for one year. This research project was a developmental intervention with a participatory action research approach, and aimed to facilitate innovation and examine how the runners developed their training, informal learning, and economic opportunities using a smartphone. Logs and tracking of smartphone usage recorded quantitative data, and interviews and participatory observations gathered qualitative data. Key findings were that the smartphone improved the runners’ training and race performance and created business opportunities. Second, a smartphone with an Internet connection empowered marginalized groups and augmented informal learning opportunities. Third, that a smartphone was not a significant technological hurdle for impoverished or uneducated individuals. Fourth, the participants were able to learn with little or no guidance or scaffolding. Fifth, the tracking log data indicated both a breadth and depth to individual learning. This participatory action research made a significant impact on the participants’ lives and the most common statement from the interviews was the statement “it helps us a lot”.

The research goal of this project was to explore the use and effects of non-formal education and incentives in the context of a developing country. The practical aim of this project was to create, implement, and evaluate a platform about human rights that was available to any Kenyan for free in order to increase knowledge and engagement. Therefore, a non-formal massive open online course (MOOC) about human rights was designed and launched. The course was free and open to anyone in Kenya and offered both a digital badge and certificate from Stockholm University in Sweden upon completion. The course was called Haki Zangu (Kiswahili for “My Rights”), and it explored how using incentives such as a digital badge and certificate of completion affected learning outcomes. This course offered ubiquitous access based on principles of responsive web design and used audio recordings of the entire course content. The course is perpetual and still on-going, but after six months there were 160 participants who had enrolled, and ten participants had completed the course and received certificates and digital badges. The participants showed extensive enthusiasm and engagement for human rights issues, and they expressed desires to learn more and further spread knowledge about human rights. The current findings suggest that the availability of digital badges and certificates increased interest for participation and positively affected learning outcomes. Moreover, the use of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) format with incentives proved successful, combined with the contextualization and accessibility of the course content. Furthermore, the technical platform proved adequate for disseminating education for free in a developing country, and allowed for unencumbered access regardless of device. Lastly, a key challenge for future non-formal learning efforts in developing countries is the cost of Internet access.

The purpose of this paper is to interpret a case study of the unexpected educational impact of an Internet Café – Cyber – in the slum of Kibera, Kenya. Our focus is here to examine the transformation of ICT in development country, and more specific in Nairobi, in Kenya. We consider this an interesting illustration of the spread of globalization to a local community in a development country and how learning takes place in unexpected contexts. Therefore the paper takes off from a comprehensive portrait of one Internet café in the urban slum area and its management, some users and non-regular users. As a part of a long-term field study this analysis is a first analysis of the project and it also aim to illustrate from conception to realization, and implementation of Internet café.

We are studying one actor, a NGO driven commitment that opened an Internet café in Kibera primary to generate income, provide access to Internet for the local people and a more general ambition to develop the local community.  Field work has been on-going and consists of a series of interviews with key informants in the management, and interviews with adolescent customers (users and non-regular users) of the Cyber. Our findings show that there is a clear ambition from the management of the Internet Café to enable computer literacy and bridge digital divides, as well as social and educational progress. Such learning takes place even if it looks like clients mainly use Facebook or browse the Internet. The findings also show that focus on eco-friendly technique to act as a role model was overshadowed by profit-making aims. Even if Internet Café is managed by a NGO they have a clear profit focus. In the beginning the Cyber had a more educating purpose, or a charity purpose, by letting poor people have access to Internet to a cheaply cost, but when established the economic aspects made it behave like a market actor. The main purpose of the management to empower poor people computer literacy is worthy, however doubtful, because it emerges with training and economy. Recent technological development of Internet on the cell phones has challenged the Internet cafés and there are incentives to use the cell phone even for activities that formerly was performed at the Internet Café. If the Internet is in everyone’s pocket the educational arena of the Internet Cafes’ are threaten, but the Cyber´s advantage is tutorial support from peers and management. The Internet Café promotes learning ambitions in the slum and presents opportunities available for them, but it also shows the divides of the knowledge society. Although youth in the slum with computer skills has got increased access to Internet, and their voices has reached out and in some way the digital divide between North and South has decreased.