A crisis we face is that moral character seems to be declining in significance in everyday life and is not particularly relevant in evaluations of current political leaders. A case for character, however, can be mounted through the study of moral exemplars; in demonstrating that character is a viable construct and not an artifact of situational…

Teachers serve as gatekeepers to the implementation of curriculum in their classroom (Thornton, 2005). Their beliefs about a topic and the wider political environment can influence what they teach. To this end, our goal was to investigate whom preservice teachers identify as heroes and why, which heroes should be included in the curriculum, and…

This journal recently published a special issue on Kant, evil, moral perfection and education. The essays included in the special issue discussed the vulnerably and imperfection of human beings and the role of education as facilitating such beings in their pursuit of moral perfection. The contribution of this article is to put forward a Kantian…

Peer learning programs have been developed to support many introductory science courses by providing additional instruction and engagement. These programs are beneficial to both learners and instructors, providing content learning and confidence and attitudinal gains. There is evidence that the benefits of peer learning are higher when students…

This study introduces an activity to increase the employment opportunities of students with special needs in line with the sustainable development goals provided by the United Nations and the priorities of the World Economic Forum on social mobility and inclusive education. The participants (n=62) consisted of parents of students with special…

The present study takes a strength-based approach to understand how young people's individual needs shape their relationships with significant non-parental adults across adolescence. The analyses drew from qualitative interviews with 27 youth across five time-points (3 years). Three types of youth needs were identified and labeled using metaphors…

This report presents the findings of a small exploratory study carried out in 2021 by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) for the National Library of New Zealand | Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa. The project is part of a wider suite of six studies commissioned by the National Library as part of their Communities of Readers…

In 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 8% of youth in grades 9-12 reported being in a physical fight one or more times in the 12 months preceding the survey, with more than 7% reporting being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property. Homicide is the 3rd leading cause of…

This paper draws lessons from the Read like a Champion (RLAC) program implemented in Suva, Fiji, which engaged elite sporting individuals in literacy activities at schools. A qualitative case-oriented study was utilized, drawing on Esser and Vliegenthart's (2017) practical steps in analyzing comparative data to consider lessons from RLAC in…

Background: Adolescent girls are at an increased risk of low physical activity and the associated health consequences. Girls Can Move!, an after-school intervention guided by social cognitive theory, was designed to increase physical activity. Purpose: To examine the feasibility and initial effectiveness of Girls Can Move! Methods The 8-week…

To address the issue of gender disparity in participation in the physics state matriculation exam, a novel school visit program was designed. The program was facilitated by undergraduate university students of physics and related courses who visited schools providing lower secondary education and delivered a single-session workshop including…

Facilitating the subject 'Entrepreneurship Education' at higher education can be challenging as it requires a multi-disciplinary approach and a keen focus on the changing business environment. It also makes capturing entrepreneurship as a 'phenomenon' a daunting task. Various nuances around 'entrepreneurship as a phenomenon' such as defining…

This study explored multisystem protective/risk factors for explaining resilience/adjustment in emerging adults with/without neurodevelopmental disorders facing the transition to a stressful non-academic context, mandatory military service. Participants were 904 conscripts (498 males, 55%) ages 18-25 years (M = 18.70, SD = 0.77) in four groups,…

For adolescent girls living in highly marginalized contexts, agency is lived as part of an everyday struggle and is often misunderstood, unrecognized, underdeveloped, and/or actively stifled. Adolescent girls may have their own definitions of agency, and their own understandings of marginalization, making it vital that efforts to promote agency in…

Although fostering values is promoted within environmental and sustainability education (ESE) and a shift in values is seen as essential for a sustainable future, recent international findings indicate that this aspect of ESE is being neglected. Previous research has shown there to be common ground between ESE and the field of character education…