This brief summarizes the working paper, "The Science of Early Childhood Development: Closing the Gap between What We Know and What We Do" (ED503049). In early childhood, research on the biology of stress shows how major adversity, such as extreme poverty, abuse, or neglect can weaken developing brain architecture and permanently set the…

Through long interviews with five outstanding male educational leaders, the authors share their stories and primary lessons on leadership development. The stories portray leadership as being perceived primarily as an evolutionary process characterized by family and teacher nurturance, community and spiritual centeredness, and responsive caring.…

Our goal in this paper is to examine the potential origins of children's understanding of morally relevant transgressions, with a particular focus on how children's perceptions of both proximal and distal unfairness might influence their social reasoning and behavior. A preliminary theoretical model is presented that addresses connections among…

Unaccompanied youth are young people who lack safe, stable housing and who are not in the care of a parent or guardian. They may have run away from home or been forced to leave by their parents. Unaccompanied youth live in a variety of temporary situations, including shelters, the homes of friends or relatives, cars, campgrounds, public parks,…

This paper examines this issue of character formation from the perspective of Maria Montessori. Her method has much to offer in developing more peaceful classrooms and helping to develop compassionate and caring citizens. Maria Montessori developed a complete philosophy of education based on her discovery that the child has a mind able to absorb…

The literature indicates that caring is beneficial to children both academically and socially. As teacher educators, then, one of their goals should be to create curricula and preparation programs that engender in preservice teachers an understanding of the pedagogical power of caring and a commitment to implementing care-centered teaching…

This paper examines the reasons that physical education teachers exhibited caring behaviors during teaching. Four physical education teachers, identified as caring physical education teachers, were formally and informally interviewed and observed teaching. Data were analyzed using content analysis and inductive coding, and three themes emerged.…

This article reports on Australian research that developed the concept of "productive pedagogies", a model that is deemed to be socially just and appropriate for the contemporary post-modern globalised world. The model extends the modernist one of "authentic pedagogy" developed in the USA and sits as a counter to the…

Using data from Grades 5, 6, and 7 of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), the role of intentional self-regulation in the positive development of young adolescents was examined through use of the Selection, Optimization, and Compensation (SOC) measure. Consistent with Gestsdóttir and Lerner (2007), results of confirmatory factor…

A case study using appreciate inquiry identified and described the experiences of five educational administration doctoral students representing three universities regarding their doctoral program studies and dissertation process. Data were collected using reflective narratives and the Left Hand Right Hand Column Case Method. Data revealed (a) the…

This paper draws upon data gathered from a research project entitled "Children's Relationship Cultures in Years 5 and 6". The project aimed to explore the ways in which primary school age children understand emotional, caring and family relationships. This paper will focus upon the ways in which gender and sexuality is performed by boys…

This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study evaluating the social quality of school physical education in Flanders. Drawing on a nine-question survey, it explores the expectations and experiences of 124 respondents from different social, educational and workforce agencies and organisations with regard to important objectives of high…

Objectification refers to the way in which everything (including human beings) is treated as an object, raw material, or resource to be manipulated and used. In this article, objectification refers to the way that education is often reduced to the packaging and delivery of information. A critique of objectification in instructional technology is…

The transition from primary to secondary school can be a different experience for each child. Parents can sometimes feel isolated and the primary school equally powerless to assist. The type, quality and quantity of information sent can be used in different ways. Some teachers and parents question whether the secondary school uses the information…

To prepare teachers who will be able to draw on caring to build a strong foundation for their professional practices, teacher education programs must be created specifically focused toward this goal. This article discusses the use of dialogue journals in a course designed to enrich preservice elementary teachers' understandings of caring. Quite…