Purpose: This practitioner-focused article highlights a collaborative, school-wide project at a PDS that showcased elementary students' strengths and talents. Based on the children's book, The Smart Cookie (John, 2021), teachers and the university professor-in-residence developed professional learning communities, which inspired the creation of a…

Nearly 80% of the total American population lives within the urban sprawl, where rapid urbanization has contributed to an immense reduction of green space. Loss of woods, fields, and other green areas, in conjunction with adolescent preference for indoor and screen-based activities, has led to decreased time spent outdoors. However, studies show…

Objective: Empowerment Self-Defense (ESD) is a sexual violence prevention approach backed by rigorous empirical research, yet its availability on college campuses is limited. This manuscript evaluates the feasibility and efficacy of an ESD program embedded within a university counseling center. Methods: Participants completed an 8-session ESD…

This article presents information surrounding how the COVID-19 crisis can lead to opportunities for empowering growth in faculty course development and delivery. The authors show how higher education instructors have implemented remote teaching experiences they used during the pandemic to create engaging learning opportunities for students as they…

Uprisings against police violence have placed the institution of policing front and center in conversations about societal change. In our work with activists, we have engaged in collecting and analyzing public records data to inform community organizing for change. In this editorial we discuss how to obtain, interpret, and analyze public records…

Through sustained ethnographic field work that inquired into youth participatory action researchers' political identity development, I identified a politicized discourse engaged by youth during their early stages of action research that I have termed Black resilience neoliberalism (BRN). This study explicates BRN theory, tracing its connection to…

Stockton University, a mid-sized state university in the mid-Atlantic region of the United Stated, initiated the first of two pilots for implementation of its institutional outcomes during the fall semester 2014. At the beginning of that semester, in an effort to gauge students' attitudes university-wide toward the value of the outcomes, the…

Within special education policy and practice, parents are expected to advocate for their children to receive appropriate special education and related services. However, the majority of parents report feeling disempowered to advocate; families from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds may feel especially disempowered. Federally…

This qualitative case study explored how an infant teacher provided meaningful learning experiences for infants through play and the teacher's educational rationale behind these experiences. Findings were based on multiple sources of data, including classroom observations (natural observation and videotaped observation) for approximately 12 weeks…

This article discusses factors to consider as we evaluate the professional learning occurring in our schools. The article describes how a committee of six teachers and one administrator at Hershey Middle School in Pennsylvania's Derry Township School District adapted an activity for use in a two-hour professional learning session called "The…

Motivated by the addition of a curriculum standard for active citizenship into New Jersey's social studies standards a group of educators and researchers set out to integrate an action research curriculum, based on a youth participatory action research (YPAR) model, into social studies classrooms. Adapting YPAR, with its promising blend of…

This case study presents a cocurricular initiative at the Margery Somers Foster Center at Rutgers University Libraries in New Brunswick, NJ. The initiative resulted in an interview workshop for the course Knowledge and Power, a "mission course" of the Douglass Residential College. This discussion-based workshop uses visual and multimedia…

Despite a growing emphasis on international offerings within social work education, researchers have conducted few outcomes studies regarding the implications of these courses for students' professional development. This study addressed this gap by analyzing data from a survey of 122 social work students at Rutgers, the State University of New…

Youth Advisory Councils (YACs) ensure that students are represented in school wellness discussions. YACs empower students to present ideas, insights, and input on nutrition and physical activity; work alongside peers to assess wellness needs; and develop recommendations for enhancing/expanding the school wellness environment. YACs provide a…

Recent high school reform efforts strongly recommend that schools model democratic principles and give students, teachers, parents, and community members a significant role in school governance and the decision-making process. Specific recommendations include the creation of site-based decision-making councils, student leadership forums, and…