As social work instructors, we have observed students increasingly wanting to engage in critical conversations about mandated reporting. Few resources are available to support instructors in facilitating these conversations. This teaching note offers content and lesson plans for exploring mandated reporting as a moral duty, a harm, an ethical…

In this article, I discuss how the context of children's classroom activities and the quality of their participation and agency are key to learning around values. These pedagogical approaches lie in a socio-cultural theoretical framework which I use to show how "empowered" participation in classrooms and in enquiry activities in…

Africa is the cradle of civilization, yet its rich history and culture is undertaught--especially in elementary P-5 classrooms. In this article, we share Adinkra symbols from West Africa which can be used for interdisciplinary instruction and classroom management. We offer Adinkra symbols as an organizing theme for teaching in the spirit of not…

Over the past 50 years, the United States has experienced the disappearance of moderate politics replaced by a more divisive political ideology. As the country has become more polarized, universities, schools of social work, and professors have increasingly leaned left. In this era of extreme political polarization, social work educators have a…

Course: This assignment is a unit activity designed for use in a skills-focused undergraduate public relations, organizational communication, or crisis communication course. Objective: The goal of this activity is to increase students' understanding of and ability to apply discourse of renewal in a crisis scenario. Students will work…

This article introduces a leadership philosophy exercise where students reflect on their values and prepare a statement of what they intend to do as a leader in their careers. This exercise has the potential to add value to leadership classes or seminars where personal leadership is the focus. By using the leadership philosophy exercise, I argue…

A desired outcome of teaching intercultural communication is cultivating an understanding and awareness of different cultural values while attempting to increase intercultural communication competence within our students. Goals of teaching intercultural communication include assisting students in recognizing, accepting, and appreciating cultural…

"The New York Times" is known for its slogan ''All the News That's Fit to Print.'' But how do gatekeepers decide which events meet this criterion? Although some individuals might believe that the news constitutes an undistorted reflection of the social reality, students in communication courses have the…

This article describes an activity for a course in "Intercultural Communication, Communication and Diversity" that is designed to help students better understand the concept of world views in everyday life. It also provides an understanding of how world views may be connected to values, norms, and ethnocentrism in very personal and…

While there may be no definitive answers for navigating questions of school authority and teacher independence, the author outlines in this article some useful guideposts. These guideposts are not prescriptive; rather, they are important food for thought. They do not guarantee easy solutions. However, social studies teachers are preparing young…

Co-written by a professor of philosophy and a practising primary school teacher, "Philosophy for Young Children" is a concise, practical guide for teachers. It contains detailed session plans for 36 philosophical enquiries--enough for a year's work--that have all been successfully tried, tested and enjoyed with young children from the age of three…

Fourth grade students at a public elementary school in Houston, Texas, participated in a one-week exercise intended to mimic the process of creating a public good through a democratic process. The exercise involved students in four separate classes designing a class party with different characteristics (theme, music, and food) through a voluntary…

This paper developed a Democratic Classroom Survey to measure students' perceived democratic environment of the classroom. Perceived democratic environment is one of the most important variables for understanding classroom activity and indeed any type of group activity, but actually measuring perceptions in an objective manner has been…

Compassion is a deep feeling of sharing the suffering of another. It is a mixture of words, thoughts, and actions that allow a child to be sympathetic to the needs of others. Young children today witness many conflicting values. Values promoted in the media and popular culture often glorify disrespect and unkindness, with beauty and possessions…

As a charter school faces continued poor performance and the need to show drastic improvement in its data, school leaders are faced with a moral dilemma. To help the schools testing data, leaders consider being selective with whom they test. They consider whether they can help the short-term outcomes of the school while risking later consequences…