"How can our students' authentic, every day social interactions provide us with opportunities to critically self-reflect and examine our practices as educators?" In the summer of 2011, a book character, 'Shawn Trenell', was born, based upon characteristics of former students from my early teaching experiences, and I began recounting…

The pursuit of anti-oppressive, cross-racial research has become ubiquitous in educational settings. Although some attention has been given to the complexities such an endeavor involves, more intricate and profound aspects that undergird such projects are revealed when examined through the lens of an ethic of hospitality. Based on a case-study…

Sparse information exists on how elementary teachers might use reflective journaling as a tool for professional development (PD) to enhance their teaching methods. The problem is that even though elementary teachers have access to a variety of PD opportunities, these opportunities are often insufficient for meeting individual teachers' needs to…

Increased specialisation of disciplinary cultures creates barriers for students who may not understand the genre, style and conventions of disciplinary writing. Academic literacies research recognises that literacy is a social practice where writing is inextricably linked to knowledge construction. Learning to write, therefore, requires…

The purpose of the following case study was to examine the daybooks of 3 fourth-grade writers who autonomously determined the content they included across the pages of their composition books. Three themes emerged from an analysis of their daybooks: (1) Students used their daybooks to engage their "writing process"; (2) students used…

Purpose: Creativity is not always encouraged in graduate education. It is established that PhD students need to think critically, but the emotional hurdles doctoral students face can sometimes outweigh the cognitive ones. In the authors' work with doctoral students, the authors aimed to connect the emotional with the intellectual -- the affective…

Providing training for women intending to re-enter or increase their employment options in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields must address women's mathematics anxiety. Addressing women's anxiety is essential given that mathematics is often viewed as the foundation upon which the other STEM careers are built. This…

Reflective Learning Journals are used to engage students in the learning process. To motivate students to complete the Reflective Learning Journal it is common practice to allocate marks and it is in this area that problems arise. To address the problems rubrics have been used however, most rubrics are based on assigning marks to very…

In this article we will share the impact of mindfulness pedagogy on students in a short-term study abroad course in South Africa. During a one-month program for undergraduate and graduate students, we implemented an explicit critical contemplative pedagogy (Kaufman, 2017) that included daily mindfulness exercises and reflective journaling as a…

Dance integrates both body and mind, yet dance students continue to struggle with loneliness and mental health. Although many dance departments teach the physical components of wellness, such as anatomy or nutrition, most departments do not incorporate the skills or training for mental health and well-being. In this article, I offer several…

Nature journaling is a practice embedded within the principles of environmental education and experienced a resurgence as a therapeutic activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using sociocultural theories of learning to understand when and how people learn in out-of-school, outdoor settings, this study explored the perceived benefits and learning…

Outcomes of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) have failed to meet the standards of educators and educational researchers. For several decades, such students have had worse academic and postsecondary outcomes than any other student population. This has led to emphasis on implementation of evidence-based practices to combat the…

Cancer is an overwhelming and life-altering diagnosis. Receiving this type of diagnosis typically requires traditional medical therapeutics, but relaxation and healing techniques that reduce stress and calm fears are also beneficial. Artmaking and visual journaling are healing techniques used to improve emotional and psychological health among…

Interpersonal skills, which are variously called soft skills, employability skills, people skills, and noncognitive skills, are critically important in personal, academic, and workplace settings. This descriptive case study explored how individuals from underserved communities described the use of reflective learning journals in an interpersonal…

As sports are the most popular extracurricular activity for children and adolescents, student-athletes are an ever-present population on campus and have unique risk and resilience factors as well as needs related to their well-being on and off the field. Mind-body health practices are a broad group of interventions that target physical and…