This paper, delivered as a provocative keynote address to the Collaborative Action Research Network (CARN) conference in Manchester on 28th October 2023, explores the question if action research might have a sweet spot. A sweet spot is defined as an ideal location, area or combination of factors for a particular activity or purpose. It draws on…

Factors influencing intrapersonal and interpersonal abuse, neglect, and quality of life have not received much attention from scholars. Few studies on intrapersonal and interpersonal abuse and neglect have focused on employees in organisations without addressing the problem from children or students' points of view. In light of this knowledge, the…

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to explore how educators describe the impact of SEL instruction provided by the guidance counselor. Additionally, this study also sought to explore how educators perceive the supporting role they play in the delivery of SEL instruction alongside the guidance counselor. The overarching two…

Drawing from Stith et al.'s (2018) Critical Service-Learning Conversations Tool, this article provides a visual model for developing critical service-learning projects. This model proposes to assist the analysis of critical service-learning projects by grounding them in contemporary scholarship and literature. The model also reveals the interplay…

Belonging is a critical factor for supporting student success and well-being in school. Unfortunately, the work of fostering belonging at school for all students continues to face significant challenges. One reason is that the field of education is working from a limited conception of school belonging, based mainly in the discipline of psychology.…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how school counselors described their experience and practice of involving parents when facilitating cognitive-behavioral therapy school-based interventions for students with anxiety and depression, in California. This was considered important. Not only does the American School…

This interpretive phenomenological study explored the lived experience of rural high school principals in New York State and developed an understanding of why they choose to remain in their role as school leaders. The study answered two research questions: "What role, if any, does self-efficacy play in the sustainability of rural high school…

The literature on science discourse in K-12 classrooms in the United States has proliferated over the past couple of decades, crossing geographical, disciplinary, theoretical, and methodological boundaries. There is general consensus that science talk is at the core of students' learning; however, a synthesis of key findings from the expansive…

This conceptual paper revisits a set of pivotal learning community notions filtered through sociological and community psychology perspectives to unravel representations of the community construct within learning contexts. A conceptual review of sociological and community psychology perspectives on the community construct is initially presented.…

As a social-interactional positive behavior, the flow of compassion (i.e., selfcompassion, compassion for others, and compassion from others), which refers to sensitivity to suffering in self and others with a commitment to try to alleviate and prevent it, has yet to be investigated in a highly social-interactional context such as foreign language…

Purpose: Relying on information processing and attribution theories, which relate to the formation of leadership perceptions and attributes, the current study seeks to examine the relationship between demographic variables and principals' systems thinking (PST) in an integrated model. The present study purpose was threefold: first, the study seeks…

The purpose of this study is to develop Education Value Perception Scale (EVPS) based on Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory and to investigate its psychometric properties according to Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT). The data were collected from 2872 secondary school students by stratified purposeful sampling method.…

Disabilities and neurodiversity are dominantly understood as something that challenges higher education rather than something that enriches it: ableist underpinnings characterize higher education despite policies of widened access. While earlier research has explored ideas such as 'inclusive pedagogies' and 'pedagogies of belonging', these…

"It Takes an Ecosystem" explores the idea and potential of the Allied Youth Fields--an aspirational term that suggests increased connection across the multiple systems in which adults engage with young people. Recent research and initiatives make a strong case for what developmentalists have argued for decades: A young person's learning…

There has been increased attention to the importance of teachers and teacher quality in developing and sustaining successful education systems for some time now (Barber and Mourshed in How the world's best performing school systems come out on top, McKinsey & Company, New York, 2007; Darling-Hammond et al. in Empowered educators: how…