A young person's sense of belonging at school can affect their level of motivation, academic achievement and wellbeing. During the transition from primary to secondary school, one's sense of belonging may be affected by the changes and challenges encountered. This paper reports some of the findings from a larger qualitative longitudinal study that…

Students' dissatisfaction with peer assessment has been widely documented. While most relevant literature places focus on the cognitive (content and uptake of feedback) or structural (feedback design) dimensions, students' emotions in peer assessment have received scant attention. This study investigates the social-affective impacts of peer…

Video games are a significant cultural and creative force, often involving a number of art forms, including narrative, design and audio composition. They have been the subject of a large-scale exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museums in London and Dundee, while the British Games Institute (BGI) was set up to support video game culture in…

Environmental educators recognize the importance of empowering children and adults, yet environmental education operates within a grand narrative of environmental gloom and doom. Growing evidence exists that children feel hopeless about the future of the planet. Given relationships between hope and agency, the question arises of how to propagate…

This paper begins with two parallel, although not identical, images. The first is of Ota Benga, a Congolese "pygmy" brought to the St. Louis World Fair in 1904 and displayed in a cage for the entertainment of the visiting public. The second is of a Red Maple tree in a large concrete pot on the campus of Simon Fraser University on the…

We tested the across-time relationships between the person-based resources of assimilation (or goal pursuit) and accommodation (or goal adjustment) and two well-being outcomes (satisfaction with career progress and life satisfaction), and assessed if these relationships were mediated by self-perceptions (perceived goal attainability and optimism).…

In this article I draw on Lauren Berlant's notion of "cruel optimism" to identify and untangle how the prevailing sense of "optimism" in education works against our common hope or collective striving for what is educational in education. In particular, I discuss how the "cruel optimism" that invites individuals to…

Providing support to schools following a critical incident has become an established part of service delivery for many Educational Psychology Services (EPSs) in the UK. This article offers reflections on the use of Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) in schools. A review of the literature on critical incidents, trauma, resilience and…

Engagement is a prominent theoretical orientation that has received great attention from educators and researchers. This article provides a literature overview of the engagement construct pertaining to its various definitions, dimensions, and major conceptualisations. In addition, the review sheds light on two major approaches to engagement in the…

Background: People with profound intellectual disability experience a high prevalence of visual disability, making them more dependent on sound. However, research addressing the influence of the auditory environment is scarce. Method: Observations of the auditory environments (soundscapes) and moods of people with profound intellectual and visual…

This paper explores the methodological implications of working with damage: damaged relationality, injured belonging, impaired narratives, and vulnerable identities. The conceptualization of damage as a methodology was the outcome of a narrative investigation into queer relationships' dissolution. The study explored the way in which lesbians…

In their role as organizational leader, school principals may confront issues of professional isolation that can lead to feelings of loneliness. The purpose of this study was to determine if principals' perceptions of social support were predictive of levels of loneliness. Using a survey instrument, data were collected to determine participants'…

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore what can be done to mitigate the onset of a disability for young adults aged 18-24 in order to prevent suicidal thoughts or actions. Research suggests that many factors play into suicidal ideation for this young population, including lost hope, lack of coping mechanisms, lack of financial security and…

In a pilot study, we examined college students' (N = 60) stress levels around their midterm exam via surveys and stress hormone sampling (n = 43). Students' diurnal cortisol and emotions were assessed a week before and the week during their mid-term. We hypothesized that students' learning-related Hopelessness would predict a flatter diurnal…

This paper is prompted by the author's experience as a researcher of English literary education in three different geographies over the past three years: Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Affect theory, as discussed in this paper, concerns atmospheres, surfaces, bodies, emotions, moods, vicinities and capacities. Drawing on affect theory,…