Post-World War II, the vocational parent system was established in Japan in 1951--based on the Child Welfare Law--to provide aftercare for older dependent children. The vocational parents lived with the children and provided the guidance necessary for them to live independently. The evolution of the vocational parent system is divided into three…

Inspired by the Indigenous framework of Thrivance and grounded in a Critical Sisterhood Praxis, this duoethnography maps our journey (re)membering and (re)claiming communal practices of "fictive kinship" and "chosen family." We offer what we've affectionately coined as our "Comadre Story"--the story of how we became…

Child education and accompanying discourse in the seventeenth-century circles of Constantijn Huygens are thoroughly researched. But while children grow up, parents also learn and not only through their siblings. Some remarks about experiences that Huygens had outside the regular discourse on education can be made. Huygens' correspondence and his…

Influenced by revolutionary mothering, activists of color, and radical feminists, this article explores Neurodivergent families through the lens of Disability Critical Race Theory. As a parent of an Autistic child, I embark on redefining my role by integrating art and design into community advocacy for Autistic communities. I challenge unjust…

In a response to critics, R.S. Peters acknowledged that a more general concept of education exists than the 'school-related' one he analysed and defended his decision to ignore it by saying that it 'indiscriminately' marks out the 'mundane, instrumentally oriented operations' involved in rearing children. In this paper I sketch in the portion of…

Navigating the transition to motherhood has unique challenges for any new mom. The difficulties are often intermixed with immense joy and the excitement of new life, which can create quite the roller coaster of emotions. When also working full-time as a school psychologist, this constant pull between children's needs and work demands often results…

Homeschooling was occasionally a subject of popular interest pre-COVID, when media reported horrific cases of child abuse under the guise of homeschooling, or when controversies erupted over efforts in state legislatures or local school boards to introduce very modest oversight measures. COVID made homeschooling something nearly every parent…

This essay explores the cultural expectations and border crossing experiences of two African immigrant families. We trace the cultural assumptions related to child-rearing and schooling that the parents brought with them from their home countries. In uncovering parents' conceptions of the U.S. system of schooling, we hope to highlight implications…

More than one-in-five of undergraduate students are raising dependent children as part of their college experience. Yet, while student-parents are a substantial demographic, with unique needs and challenges, the field of higher education has been slow to acknowledge their presence, and they still remain largely invisible on their own campuses.…

Look at your baby or toddler. They are still learning to eat from a spoon, roll over, stack blocks, walk a few steps, or say their first words. It's hard to imagine that even in these early years, young children are being shaped by the biases that surround them in the world. This is why parenting for social justice begins at birth. Get started…

Our reflections in this manuscript serve to share what we have experienced being teachers, advocates of public education, researchers, and parents of two young children through a global pandemic, public and environmental crises, and racial reckoning in our country. We acknowledge our privileged positions and draw from the adaptations required of…

Participants in longitudinal studies that followed children into adulthood now have children of their own, which has enabled researchers to establish multiple-generation cohorts. In this article, I illustrate the benefits of multiple-generation cohort studies for developmental researchers, including: (a) the impact of child and adolescent…

Conversations with families about understanding and nurturing their young child's development can be both rewarding and challenging. In this article, two seasoned HealthySteps specialists and two HealthySteps physician champions were asked to reflect on this central aspect of their mission in serving infants, toddlers, and families and on what…

The 2020 National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data show that there are a total of 130,930 k-12 public schools in the United States of America (U.S.A), serving approximately 48.1 million students. The demographic breakdown of the student population includes 22 million (45.7%) Whites; 13. Million (32 %) Hispanic; 17.2 million (14%)…

The increase in the prevalence of smartphones and mobile devices has spurred changes in the caregiving environment of infants and young children, as phones and mobile devices are used at times during caregiving and in caregiving spaces. This use could create disruptions and cause distractions during parenting (termed technoference). This article…