Using Shakespeare to Address Societal Problems

Stephens uses Shakespeare to address societal problems. Teaching William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet's relevance to struggling readers is challenging. Like Kelly Gallagher's argument that struggling writers do not do enough writing, she thinks struggling readers suffer from similar failures: teachers do not do enough reading with students. Like Gallagher, she believes it is best to focus on what teachers can control. So, when she was required to teach Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to her ninth graders last year, she paused to reflect on undertaking this task with struggling readers while making the text accessible and meaningful. Here she describes her attempt to meet this task.

School-related violence during the COVID-19 pandemic

During a global pandemic, there are unique and unprecedented challenges to all segments of society. For more than 3 years, schools and families alike have been faced with compromising life situations that have resulted in forms of anxiety and violence. Early studies are provided as are directions for further research in this area. Addressed are issues related to violence in the home, issues related to quarantined situations, some of the stresses of the global COVID-19 pandemic on children, parents, teachers, and community members, and the lessons learned during this very difficult time frame. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The silenced voices of principals: A narrative case study of principal perspectives throughout complex crises and their resilience

K-12 school principals experience multiple crises throughout their careers, ranging from natural disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic, threats of violence, and school shootings. As the face of the school, principals must navigate these crises while maintaining the everyday responsibilities of being a principal. These crisis events disrupt the learning environment and place principals in situations that they may not understand how to overcome. Unfortunately, principal preparation programs and district principal professional development provide little support for principals' well-being, including their mental health and level of resilience. This narrative, multiple-case study personified the principal's journey through complex crises, illuminating the support necessary for principals to develop resilience to overcome adversity. Five K-12 principals in Texas shared their unique experiences and personal journeys through crises and reflected on their resilience throughout the process. Each of the five principal case descriptions aligned with the resilience cycle framework of deteriorating, adapting, recovering, and growing (Patterson & Kelleher, 2005). Weaving the story of each principal's experience with a complex crisis using a thematic narrative analysis allowed alignment with the framework's cycle and helped identify additional issues with the support needed for crisis leadership. Moreover, principals identified their own levels of support that strengthened their well-being as they experienced their school-related crisis events. The thematic narrative analysis and cross-case analysis highlighted three key themes that supported principals as they lived through their crisis, made decisions throughout the crisis, and eventually overcame their crisis experience: (a) deteriorating and adapting: teamwork is a necessity, (b) recovering: self-awareness is crucial, and (c) growing: the show must go on. These three themes supported the framework's cycle as each participant described their crisis experiences as they related to the resilience cycle. Finally, five assertions about the ways in which principals navigate complex crises offered an understanding of the support needed before, during, and after the crisis event. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Best way to prevent firearm violence: Limit access to firearms

The increased publicity of mass shootings and the COVID-19 pandemic have fueled American demand for firearm purchases. Firearm violence has largely been blamed on people with mental illnesses instead of firearm accessibility, despite the lack of population-level evidence associating mental illness with firearm violence perpetration. We support interventions and policies to limit firearm access in homes, schools, and by all intimate partners who have been convicted of domestic abuse. We advocate for restrictions on the civilian purchases of semi-automatic rifles and large capacity magazines. Finally, we call for research addressing firearm violence as an environmental and structural issue, not an intrapersonal one.Key Take Away Points [list] [list] [list_item] Despite worsening mental health outcomes among American youth, there is little population-based evidence supporting an association between firearm violence perpetration and mental illness. [/list_item] [list_item] Firearm accessibility increases the risk for firearm violence and injuries. [/list_item] [list_item] Preventing school shootings requires both promotion of socio-emotional learning and restrictions of firearm sales from young civilians. [/list_item] [list_item] Provisions in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to regulate access to firearms is an initial step to reducing firearm violence. [/list_item] [list_item] Long-term reductions in firearm violence require structural approaches to improve social determinants of health. [/list_item] [/list]

The story of a model restorative school: Creative response to conflict at MS 217 in Queens, NY

Purpose: Restorative practice programs in the USA and Western elementary and secondary schools have been the focus of intensive, large scale field research that reports positive impacts on school climate, pro-social student behavior and aggressive behavior. This paper aims to contribute to a gap in the research by reporting a case study of transformation of an urban middle school in a multi-year implementation of restorative practices. Design/methodology/approach: This paper reports how Creative Response to Conflict (CRC) supported the transformation of Middle School 217, in Queens, NY, from a school with one of the highest suspension rates in New York City to a model restorative school. CRC's model, which incorporates the themes of cooperation, communication, affirmation, conflict resolution, mediation, problem-solving, bias awareness, bullying prevention and intervention, social-emotional learning and restorative practices, helped shift the perspective and practice of the entire school community from punitive to restorative. Findings: Implementation of a full school advisory program using restorative circles for all meetings and classes and development of a 100% respect program committing all school community members to dignified and respectful treatment aided the transformation. Key to MS 217's success was the collaboration of multiple non-profit organizations for provision of peer mediation training, after-school follow-up work, staff coaching and preventative cyberbullying training through the Social Media-tors! Program. Research limitations/implications: Challenges to the restorative practices implementation are reviewed with attention to the implementation online during COVID-19. Originality/value: Next steps in the program post-COVID are articulated as a best practice model for other schools interested in adopting MS 217's commitment, creativity and community-building to become a model restorative school. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Bibliotherapy

Bibliotherapy is an expressive modality that provides knowledge, insight, confidence, support, and a unique avenue for healing while learning. Bibliotherapy utilizes books to help children and adults learn, cope, and explore. The therapeutic use of books appears to have begun in institutional, medical, and correctional facilities in the Middle Ages in Europe to help people cope with mental and physical ailments. Bibliotherapy is an ideal tool for managing difficult issues, such as a child's or parent's illness, end-of-life and bereavement, bullying and school violence, racial justice, and the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter presents a narrative that explores a path to providing tools to a parent, expanding their options while accepting their initial hopes of being able to protect their child. During difficult phases of illness, around issues of dying, and through bereavement, it is not just children who need support, information, and help with coping skills. Adults are equally in need of support. Bibliotherapy has the potential to afford adults in difficult situations the words and experiences to help children, while at the same time providing themselves comfort and support and perhaps enhancing insight. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Gun violence in K-12 schools in the United States: Moving towards a preventive (versus reactive) framework.

Intentional shootings in K-12 schools in the U.S. persist as a public health problem. The number of shootings in K-12 schools has increased precipitously since 2017. And with approximately 100,000 K-12 public schools nationally serving 51 million children, investing in a comprehensive gun violence prevention strategy is critical. Unfortunately, our current school gun violence prevention approach almost exclusively centers reactive strategies that are in place to respond to acts of gun violence in the moment, rather than preventive strategies that would prevent them from occurring at all. Reliance on these strategies alone, however, is not sufficient. In line with the core tenets of public health prevention and the Whole School, Whole Child, Whole Community model, we present a more expansive school gun violence prevention framework that broadens the spectrum of what constitutes "school gun violence prevention." Our work highlights how enhancing basic neighborhood and school structures-including investments in public libraries, affordable housing, and universal school-based violence prevention programs-are key to both preventing gun violence and promoting well-being. We also highlight the role of stricter gun laws, reasonable school security efforts, bystander interventions, building awareness within school communities, and meaningful investments in early interventions and mental health services. Children, who have been tragically exposed to any number of adverse experiences in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, deserve more reasoned choices and large-scale investments in understanding and cutting off the root causes of school gun violence; not just a reliance on strategies that focus on what to do in the moment of a violent act. As gun violence in K-12 schools persists, we must reframe the discourse about school gun violence around prevention, not reaction.

Change in Factors Affecting Cyberbullying of Korean Elementary School Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The importance of social networking and the online environment as core factors in building relationships has grown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which limited in-person activities. As classes transitioned to online platforms, there was an influx of elementary school students into the cyberspace, increasing the risk of exposure to cyberbullying. This study analyzed the factors influencing the experience of cyberbullying among Korean elementary school students around 2020, when the spread of COVID-19 began in earnest, and thus suggests directions for cyberbullying prevention measures for the post-COVID-19 era. This comparative study used binary logistic regression to analyze data from the "Cyber Violence Survey" conducted by the Korea Communications Commission in 2019 and 2020. The analysis confirmed that interactions between parents and children, cyberbullying control by schools, and recognition of cyberbullying as a problem had statistically significant influences on cyberbullying experience only in 2020 (i.e., when the pandemic began). Overall, this study emphasizes the importance of raising awareness about cyberbullying among elementary school students and taking preventive action through a home-school system to address cyberbullying in the post-COVID-19 era.

Partnerships to Deepen Social and Emotional Learning in Jamaica to Support Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 16

Aggression and violence amongst children have increased globally in the past decades. Within the Caribbean, this too has become a recognised trend. In Jamaica, various organisations, programmes, and projects are in place to address issues of violence amongst children and youth, particularly, within schools. Two of these programmes, INSIGHTS (focused on children’s temperaments) and Change from Within (focused on school culture change to address violence and indiscipline), are school-based initiatives implemented by a School of Education within one of the nation’s universities. Another, Operation Save Jamaica, is a non-profit charity organisation focused on sustainable development and transformation amongst individuals and communities. This chapter focuses on a partnership forged between INSIGHTS, Change from Within, Operation Save Jamaica, and an academic specialising in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), based at the Manchester Institute of Education, England. The collaborators have partnered to organise and deliver a series of webinars focused on SEL, to support Education for Sustainable Development and Peace Education within the country and, by extension, Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 16. The paper will share feedback from webinar participants and will offer insight into how partnerships such as these can broaden the reach and scope of various interventions in this area, as well as build capacity within the higher education and education sectors. It is hoped that the experiences shared will prove useful for other entities involved in similar areas and for the forging of partnerships amongst different sectors for the furtherance of sustainability. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Educator experiences as victims of school violence: Emerging perspectives and research

Educator experiences with violence and aggression have traditionally been overlooked. However, growing research has found these professionals are at risk of frequent victimization in the workplace. This chapter synthesizes literature from the past two decades to provide readers an overview of violence against educators, including prevalence and types of aggression, school climate, demographic, and other precipitating factors, as well as common outcomes. Since these aggressive incidents often do not involve the criminal justice system, the potential applicability of restorative justice practices is discussed. An overview of a new APA task force to study into this phenomenon will be provided, along with a discussion of the perceived impacts of COVID-19 on teacher safety. Theory, research, practice, and policy implications for further understanding teacher experiences, reducing risk of aggression, and ensuring safe school environments are outlined. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Editors' Introduction

[...]we ask ourselves once again as teacher educators, how can we continue to best prepare future teachers for the complexity that faces them as they work with students-locally, nationally, and in global contexts-utilizing a culturally and language diverse approach to general education classrooms as well as special needs students in inclusive settings? The authors are both from our Department of Learning and Teaching within the School of Leadership and Education Sciences at the University of San Diego. In "Critical, Project-Based Clinical Experiences as Sustainable 'Third Space' Reforms" Kristien Zenkov and Kristine E. Pytash-university faculty members working across college and school contexts in the U.S.-detail how teacher educators might address two challenges facing the teacher education field: (a) the long-standing critique of traditional teacher preparation in the United States as an isolated, questionably relevant ivory tower endeavor;and (b) the community and political concerns and tensions that teachers and students are facing outside of, and increasingly within, school. [...]aspects of professional practice that improve teaching and learning, for example, critical self-reflection, professional growth opportunities, collaborative relationships, and self-care, can quickly fall to the wayside as teachers are asked to take on new responsibilities related to managing COVID-19, increasing social emotional learning in light of the many challenges student are currently facing, and reacting to the current political climate pitting social and racial justice against traditional curriculum choices.