The current study sought to examine factors influencing LGBTQ allies' roles within middle and high schools. This was an expansion upon Swanson and Gettinger's (2016) study by using their "Providing Services & Supports for LGBT Youth: Teacher Assessment Survey" to further examine LGBTQ-supportive school staff, or allies. First, the…

This article describes findings from a case study that aimed to understand adolescents' perceptions of how teachers encourage creativity across the curriculum. Four broad categories of creativity-fostering teaching practices emerged. These were disciplinary understanding (D), empowerment (E), relevance (R), and creative metacognition (M). This…

Young adolescents who are LGBTQIA+ often encounter hostile experiences while in middle level schools. Researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 young adolescents who are LGBTQIA+ at two middle schools to determine their experiences. Students report the ages at which they realized their gender and sexual identities: Five reveal…

Children are worried about climate change. Educational settings provide an opportunity to help children cope with their worries, but teachers do not always feel comfortable doing so. One reason for hesitancy may be their own negative emotions. This paper describes findings from a survey of climate-aware teachers, looking at their perceptions and…

Most teachers are not trained on how to support students who struggle with trauma. Childhood trauma not only impacts a teacher's ability to teach, but also threatens their students' futures. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate teachers' perceptions and actions when they participated in trauma professional development.…

Background: In both general education and physical education literature, considerable attention is paid to identifying the effectiveness of communities of practice (CoPs). This literature tends to be more qualitative in nature with less research examining the quantitative nature of interactions in CoPs through direct observation. Purpose: This…

This study evaluated an adolescent depression in-service training for school staff in the United States. A total of 252 school staff (e.g., teachers, principals, counselors) completed assessments prior to and following the in-service and a subsample of these staff participated in focus groups following the in-service and three months later.…