Discouraged youth need caring adults who employ both traditional and creative strategies to help them develop character and positive life goals. Caring adults can help youth realize that they are worthy of love and possess great potential. There is great promise and hope for troubled youth if they connect with adults who are convinced that every…

The authors offer a new, integrative conceptualization of the relational self based on a synthesis of recent approaches to the self and significant others. This conceptualization provides a sharper and fuller definition of the relational self than does any existing approach alone and a common framework to interpret findings from separate…

In this article I argue that both sociocultural theories and those that address academic literacies must be invoked to adequately understand language and literacy development in schools. Through exploring the histories, school lives, and viewpoints of two kindergarten students, I show how identity work negotiated in classroom interactions can…

Offers a trenchant critique of Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg, both of whom claimed to identify stages in moral development that are "universal, culturally invariant, and nonregressive." Explains some inadequacies in these theories, which have become so influential in education, and offers suggestions for further investigation. (MJP)

This paper discusses an expanded definition of the concept of emotional giftedness in children as defined by Annemarie Roeper. In contrast to examples of academic and artistic prodigies, cases are reviewed that illustrate less tangibly measured examples of children's giftedness, such as expressions of compassion, moral sensitivity, positive…

Reports on the results of 2 studies that use a non-Kohlbergian approach to categorizing justifications for moral judgments by Australian subjects from 7 to 15 and from 7 to 21 years. These studies support the view that moral reasoning up to late adolescence is largely a product of socialization. (KO)

A three-day model inservice program for special education teachers in Coventry (England) focused on facilitating personal and social development in disabled students through group experiences based on materials and principles of the Active Tutorial Work project, a structured, developmentally based approach emphasizing active learning. (JW)

The Self-Identity Development Model of Oppressed People (SIDMOP) is a synthesis of several areas of psychology, including developmental, cross cultural, and spiritual literatures. SIDMOP provides an all-inclusive model of identity development for oppressed minorities in the United States, regardless of ethnicity. The model was formulated from the…