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In recent years, investment in youth services has been contingent on the measurement of predefined outcomes as 'proof' of effectiveness. However, this approach to impact measurement has been criticised for distorting practice and reinforcing inequalities. As youth work emerges from a decade of spending cuts, there is an urgent need for new approaches to evaluation. This article argues that such alternatives must be rooted in a participatory and democratic vision of accountability. It grounds this argument in critical reflection on one alternative approach: storytelling workshops, as developed by the activist practitioner group 'In Defence of Youth Work'. It discusses their potential as an inclusive, dialogical method of evaluation that contributes to practice development and moves away from top-down managerial logic. The article concludes by arguing for the re-imagining of accountability in education more broadly, through the use of alternatives such as storytelling alongside a wider democratisation of policy and practice.

Contemporary meritocratic education discourse in England positions schools as 'engines of social mobility', responsible for enabling students' educational 'success' regardless of their circumstances. Building on critiques that characterise meritocracy as a neoliberal cultural motif that legitimates inequalities, and the capabilities approach, this paper investigates the challenges of navigating meritocratic expectations in practice by drawing on qualitative and photovoice interviews conducted with teachers and students at a highly rated London school serving a disadvantaged community. While many participants endorsed meritocratic narratives, all expressed doubts that the school could 'make up for' the significant structural disadvantages faced by many students. This led our participants to describe challenges associated with meritocratic discourse, including: the stresses of meeting these expectations; uncertainty about attributing responsibility for 'failure'; and questions about what could and should be done in practice to enable disadvantaged students to 'succeed'. We argue that meritocratic rhetoric imposes significant burdens on students, teachers and schools by holding them responsible while obscuring the role that social inequalities play in shaping students' educational opportunities. Greater critical discussion in schools could help students and staff to challenge meritocratic education discourse and to negotiate its expectations.

The Scintillating Bubble Chamber (SBC) collaboration is developing liquid-noble bubble chambers for the detection of sub-keV nuclear recoils. These detectors benefit from the electron recoil rejection inherent in moderately-superheated bubble chambers with the addition of energy reconstruction provided from the scintillation signal. The ability to measure low-energy nuclear recoils allows the search for GeV-scale dark matter and the measurement of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering on argon from MeV-scale reactor antineutrinos. The first physics-scale detector, SBC-LAr10, is in the commissioning phase at Fermilab, where extensive engineering and calibration studies will be performed. In parallel, a functionally identical low-background version, SBC-SNOLAB, is being built for a dark matter search underground at SNOLAB. SBC-SNOLAB, with a 10 kg-yr exposure, will have sensitivity to a dark matter–nucleon cross section of 2×10−42 cm2 at 1 GeV/c2 dark matter mass, and future detectors could reach the boundary of the argon neutrino fog with a tonne-yr exposure. In addition, the deployment of an SBC detector at a nuclear reactor could enable neutrino physics investigations including measurements of the weak mixing angle and searches for sterile neutrinos, the neutrino magnetic moment, and the light Z’ gauge boson.

Youth work's informal and youth-centred nature raises challenges for evaluation, challenges that are intensified by the growing dominance of measurement, market values and surveillance in the context of the neoliberal restructuring of youth services. This article builds on Griffiths' (2012, Why Joy in Education Is an Issue for Socially Just Policies. Journal of Education Policy 27 (5): 655–670) philosophical argument for valuing the intrinsic contribution of education, thus conceptualising evaluation as encompassing more than measuring outcomes. It reports the findings of a three-year qualitative study in eight open youth work settings in England that investigated the perspectives of 143 young people, youth workers and policy makers on evaluation in youth work. While young people and youth workers had often participated in evaluations they found meaningful, some approaches to impact measurement were experienced as too formal, intrusive, insensitive and burdensome. The article argues that evaluation and accountability processes must be practice-informed, youth-centred, and anti-oppressive. It recommends the participatory and collaborative development of diverse methods and approaches to evaluation that 'capture the magic' of youth work while enabling further reflection and development of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on 30 semi-structured interviews with women academics based in London higher education institutions in the UK, this paper investigates the gendered nature of the prestige economy in academia. We explore how mid-career academic women strategise their career development and the opportunities and barriers they perceive, particularly in relation to the accrual of academic esteem. Concept maps were used to facilitate dialogue about career plans and provided an artefact from the interviewee's own perspective. The analysis draws on the concept of prestige, or the indicators of esteem that help advance academic careers, against the backdrop of a higher education context which increasingly relies on quantitative data to make judgements about academic excellence. The interviews indicated that women generally feel that men access status and indicators of esteem more easily than they do. Many women also had ambivalent feelings about gaining recognition through prestige: they understood the importance of status and knew the 'rules of the game', but were critical of these rules and sometimes reluctant to overtly pursue prestige. The findings are valuable for understanding how women's slow access to the highest levels of higher education institutions is shaped by the value that organisations place on individual status.

A growing policy emphasis on measurement and outcomes has led to cultures of performativity, which are transforming what educators do and how they feel about themselves in relation to their work. While most analysis of performativity in education has focused on schools, this article investigates parallel developments in youth work. Youth work is a practice of informal education, in which young people learn and develop through activities, conversation and association. Its evaluation and monitoring have changed over the past two decades, as funding has become tied to targets and measureable outcomes. This article focuses on the English context, where government and third sector organisations are promoting a "youth impact agenda", encouraging organisations to predefine and measure their outcomes. Drawing on data from interviews and focus groups with youth workers, the article argues that the current emphasis on impact risks further marginalising youth work at a time when this practice is already suffering from extensive spending cuts. The article concludes that we need to re-think the purposes and processes of evaluation and accountability - in youth work and beyond--in ways that genuinely value the perspectives of young people and grassroots practitioners.

Commonly we see large within-age-group variations in physique, including body mass, stature, and percentages of predicted adult height, which suggests that age-specified training loads are flawed. Aims were to investigate how maturation impacts training load and neuromuscular response within academy soccer and to provide recommendations for practitioners. Fifty-five male soccer players (age 14.5 ± 1.2 years; stature 172 ± 10 cm; body mass 59.8 ± 10 kg; 94.1 ± 1.8% predicted adult height) reported differential ratings of perceived exertion (AU) across a season. Neuromuscular performance (countermovement jump, reactive strength index, absolute and relative leg stiffness) was measured at three time points across the season. Perceived exertion and neuromuscular performance were examined using linear mixed modelling, supplemented with non-clinical magnitude-based decisions. Analysis indicates every 5% increase in maturity status results in players perceiving overall session intensity 6.9 AU lower and 13.9 AU lower for a 10% maturity shift. Both 5% and 10% changes in maturity most likely resulted in higher countermovement jump, with likely to very likely differences observed for RSI and ABS. Maturity substantially influences neuromuscular performance over the season. Therefore, maturity-specific load prescription may prevent significant within age-group differences in accumulated load, possibly reducing injury risk and/or burnout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report on the photon emission of Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) from avalanche pulses generated in dark conditions, with the main objective of better understanding the associated systematics for next-generation, large area, SiPM-based physics experiments. A new apparatus for spectral and imaging analysis was developed at TRIUMF and used to measure the light emitted by the two SiPMs considered as photo-sensor candidates for the nEXO neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment: one Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) VUV-HD Low Field (LF) Low After Pulse (Low AP) (VUV-HD3) SiPM and one Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. (HPK) VUV4 Multi-Pixel Photon Counter (MPPC). Spectral measurements of their light emissions were taken with varying over-voltage in the wavelength range of 450–1020 nm. For the FBK VUV-HD3, at an over-voltage of 12.1±1.0 V, we measured a secondary photon yield (number of photons (γ) emitted per charge carrier (e−)) of (4.04±0.02)×10−6γ/e−. The emission spectrum of the FBK VUV-HD3 contains an interference pattern consistent with thin-film interference. Additionally, emission microscopy images (EMMIs) of the FBK VUV-HD3 show a small number of highly localized regions with increased light intensity (hotspots) randomly distributed over the SiPM surface area. For the HPK VUV4 MPPC, at an over-voltage of 10.7±1.0 V, we measured a secondary photon yield of (8.71±0.04)×10−6γ/e−. In contrast to the FBK VUV-HD3, the emission spectra of the HPK VUV4 did not show an interference pattern—likely due to a thinner surface coating. The EMMIs of the HPK VUV4 also revealed a larger number of hotspots compared to the FBK VUV-HD3, especially in one of the corners of the device. The photon yield reported in this paper may be limited if compared with the one reported in previous studies due to the measurement wavelength range, which is only up to 1020 nm.

Open youth work is a practice of informal education that operates in a variety of spaces, from youth clubs and community centres to street corners. This article highlights the distinctive spatiality of these settings, their valuable contribution to young people's lives, and how they are actively created and curated by those involved. Rooted in the perspectives of young people and youth workers who took part in a three-year qualitative study in eight youth work settings in England, it proposes that open youth work can provide a relational, educational, and potentially liberatory 'third place' beyond home, school and work. The research found that youth work provides young people with spatially and temporally fluid places for belonging, association, and understanding and acting on the unequal contexts in which they live. We argue for more critical reflection on the distinctively spatial aspects of youth work, including more engagement between youth work and the geographies of childhood and youth. As well as having implications for youth work practice and training, this engagement could support the (re-)imagining of a wide range of 'third places' of refuge and critical democracy for children and young people, in a context of oppression and inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The individual response to load is multifactorial and complicated by transient temporal changes in biological maturation. The period surrounding peak height velocity exposes potentially "fragile" individuals to systematic, age-related increases in training loads. Bio-banding allows practitioners to manage the biological diversity and align training to the individual development needs. This study explores the acute impact of maturation on neuromuscular performance and perceived intensity through comparing both chronological and bio-banded training sessions. 55 male soccer players (mean ± SD; age 13.8 ± 1.4 years) were recruited from an EPPP academy. Following a warm-up and standardised sub-maximal run (30–15IFT), players competed in five bouts of 5-min 6v6 small-sided games (SSGs) before repeating the standardised sub-maximal run. The sessions were repeated on three occasions with chronological SSGs and the same with bio-banded SSGs wearing foot-mounted inertial measurement units (PlayerMakerTM) with differential ratings of perceived exertion used to quantify internal loads. Mixed linear modelling indicated maturity-specific pre–post differences in neuromuscular response, stride length and cadence having contrasting responses pre- (reduced) and post-PHV (increased), and larger changes in post sessions stiffness for pre- (∼18.6 kN·m−1) and circa-PHV (∼12.1 kN·m−1) players. Secondly, there were small to large differences in neuromuscular response (RSI, stride length, stiffness, and contact time) and perceptions of intensity between conditions, with bio-banding generally reducing pre–post changes. Bio-banding may therefore offer a mechanism to prescribe maturity-specific training loads which may help to alleviate the impact of repeated exposure to high-intensity activity, thus reducing injury risk whilst promoting long-term player development. Highlights Utilising a sub-maximal running protocol (30–15IFT) with foot mounted accelerometers can detect maturity specific responses to football specific training activity, which aligns with subjective perceptions of intensity. Chronologically derived small-sided games elicit different acute responses between players of varying maturity status, which is somewhat negated when bio-banded small-sided games are used instead. Bio-banding training sessions may offer practitioners a practical way of managing maturity-specific trainings load to reduce injury risk and promote long-term players development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, investment in youth services has been contingent on the measurement of predefined outcomes as 'proof' of effectiveness. However, this approach to impact measurement has been criticised for distorting practice and reinforcing inequalities. As youth work emerges from a decade of spending cuts, there is an urgent need for new approaches to evaluation. This article argues that such alternatives must be rooted in a participatory and democratic vision of accountability. It grounds this argument in critical reflection on one alternative approach: storytelling workshops, as developed by the activist practitioner group 'In Defence of Youth Work'. It discusses their potential as an inclusive, dialogical method of evaluation that contributes to practice development and moves away from top-down managerial logic. The article concludes by arguing for the re-imagining of accountability in education more broadly, through the use of alternatives such as storytelling alongside a wider democratisation of policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]