Children need life-affirming and authentic relationships; genuine deeply felt inclusion comes when we share our humanity openly and honestly. This article draws on the research of author Peter W. Cookson Jr., who recently completed a study of success strategies for educating children living in deep poverty. An inclusive school is one where every…

Relationships between and among school administrative team members are critical components of school culture. They serve as a guidepost for the behaviors and attitudes of staff and students. To invigorate these relationships, three embodied practices have high yield not only for the relationships among administrators, but also for fostering a…

The whole person is a valued part of their dance community, and a healthy community plays an important role in the individual dancer's self-identity and social, psychological, and overall health. As a dance community, we need to do everything we can to help increase body positivity through empathetic and empowering methods that bring everyBODY…

Caring in education is a reassessment of the false rationality in classroom teaching that has taken shape due to the neglect of emotions, and a practical pathway for returning to effective, people-oriented teaching. The caring approach to classroom teaching emphasizes attention to the emotional experiences and impressions of the teachers and…

The purpose of this article is to share Coach Vermeil's foundational commonsense coaching principles for youth sports coaches, and more broadly health and physical educators, to help create a more positive culture for their team.

Background: Because traumatic life experiences are common, teaching and learning can be difficult without recognizing how trauma can make people feel psychologically unsafe. Safety can be restored through healthy relationships. Contributions to Theory: We present a framework for how relational health--the capacity to develop and maintain safe,…

This paper draws on findings from a wider project examining "relational pedagogies" within Australian secondary schools. The paper considers the growing use of the "relationships" concept as a descriptor of specific teaching practices. Normative descriptions of "relationships" (and concordant descriptions of…

Many students in the United States suffer from mental health issues resulting from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Often, students exhibit negative behavior as a result of these issues and many schools continue to implement punitive approaches to discipline, such as suspensions or expulsions, which serve to further isolate and disconnect…

This paper reviews the characteristics of a good school, emphasising the role of human relationships in the learning process and how relationships can be developed. It highlights the importance of taking human needs into account at school and the importance of the teacher's personality in creating a quality classroom atmosphere and education. It…

Dan Olweus pioneered research on school bullying and identified the importance of, and risk factors associated with, bullying and victimization. In this paper, we conduct a narrative review of the critical notion of power within bullying. Specifically, we discuss Olweus's definition of bullying and the role of a power imbalance in distinguishing…

Working effectively in diverse teams is an important competency for students entering the workforce. Yet as instructors we often witness dysfunctional teams in our courses. Therefore, the goal of this experiential exercise is to encourage students to build high-quality relationships with team members by fostering the development of a…

Christopher A. Stewart describes how he used the power of virtual and outside opportunities to empower his students to have hope in the future by making their voices heard and grounding their learning in historical truths about race, ethnicity, and representation.

The immediate shift to virtual instruction during the spring of 2020 forced educators worldwide to quickly adopt distance learning philosophies, technologies, and pedagogies. This lean adoption of virtual learning tools saw an unprecedented number of educators embrace new modalities of providing feedback to students. This paper explores those…

The shift from traditional, teacher-led instruction to student-centered, project-based learning is complex. This paper seeks to support the adoption and scaling of rigorous project-based learning (PBL) across grades and subjects by describing some of the essential elements found in high-quality PBL learning environments. These include purposeful…

Youth returning to traditional school settings from non-traditional settings, such as alternative schools, face significant barriers to successful transition. After conducting several student focus groups with students at West40--a center in Illinois that supports students who are considered "at risk" for dropping out or have been…