Internationally, there are growing concerns about the work-related well-being of early childhood teachers. There is currently limited guidance around specific practices teachers can use to support their well-being when challenges arise while teaching. Mindful self-compassion practice, which has elements of mindfulness, common humanity, and…

Background: Despite being a mandated, foundational value in healthcare, research on compassion remains limited. Studying the individual, patient, clinical, and contextual factors that interfere with compassion--the "barriers"--may clarify our understanding of the origins of compassion and identify potential targets for improving…

Anglophone societies in which the sovereign individual is primary vis and vis social relations, and policy focuses on economic competition and consumption in education, find it hard to grasp non-pecuniary outcomes in higher education. These include the self-formation of students as persons and collective goods like knowledge, technological…

Traditional views of leadership often associate strong leadership with directness, decisiveness, and dominance, which are stereotypically coded as masculine while perceiving empathy and collaborative orientation-- qualities commonly associated with femininity--as less compatible with effective leadership. However, contemporary research…

Schools are important in nurturing social skills and behaviours. Research consistently demonstrates that movement into/out of school (transience/mobility) disrupts positive social skill development, especially for students who frequently move. The impact of attending a highly transient school on "non-mobile" students is not as…

Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau once asked: "what wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?" This article explores whether career practitioners might need to ask themselves the same rhetorical question in relation to career practice. Career development consultations that explicitly aim to focus on offering kindness might be a…

Singing is an activity fundamental to human existence, yet for many, the act of singing where others may hear them is confronting and can generate anxiety. The Music Outreach Principle (MOP) offers an approach that has singing at its heart, and is socio-altruistic music making. One aspect of the MOP involves taking groups into aged care facilities…

In September 2015, and in response to the Syrian refugee crisis, there were widespread calls in New Zealand urging the Government to raise its annual Refugee Quota. Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox argued that New Zealand could afford to take on more refugees as part of its global citizenship and suggested that New Zealand's policy might be shaped…

Service is a fundamental value for the teaching of Pacific-heritage learners. This article describes educators' perspectives of the value of service, one of the values foundational to Tapasa. Findings from interviews, talanoa, and teaching observations show that service is demonstrated and nurtured differently by Pacific and non-Pacific educators,…

Developing effective teaching skills with culturally and linguistically diverse learners remains challenging for regular class teachers, hence specialist English language (EL) teachers are needed in schools. However, little is known about how these specialist teachers perceive their professional status. This paper draws on research that provides…

Children are particularly vulnerable to structured inequalities in society. Building on the work of Erich Fromm (1900-1980), this article contends that modern (post)industrial capitalism corrupts the human capacity to operate in the "being mode"--that is, in altruistic and compassionate ways. Rather, within the individualistic logic of…

In New Zealand the Ministry of Education is committed to attracting and retaining "high quality individuals" to the teaching profession who represent the diverse cultural and socio-economic communities in the country. One way to achieve this has been through the provision of multiple pathways into initial teacher education (ITE). Such…

"A little sultan" is a colloquial term used to describe a child who is a "spoilt brat" living in a Middle Eastern country such as Turkey. Little sultans are often boys in one-child families and with a greater sense of self-entitlement, as they would consider the world as owing them everything. This paper discusses how an…

Unstructured data in social media is as part of the "big data" spectrum. Unstructured data in Social media can provide useful insights into social phenomena and citizen opinions, both of which are critical to government policy and businesses decisions. Teachers of business intelligence and analytics commonly use quantitative data from…

This book explores what constitutes successful schooling for Maori students in the 21st century. Editor Paul Whitinui has drawn together academic contributions from diverse fields of matauranga (education), matauranga hinengaro (psychology), whakaako hauora (health), akoranga takakau-a-ora (sport and leisure) and others. The book aims to provide a…