Self-Regulation, Empathy, and Compassion: A Critical Triad to Develop Anti-Racist Digital Citizenship in the Time of Pandemic

The coronavirus has unleashed another pandemic - xenophobia. This article aims to counter the xenophobic narrative that affects many Asians and people of Asian descent due to COVID-19 pandemic.  To counter this narrative, we offer an anti-racist digital citizenship framework in social studies. This illustrates a critical triad of self-regulation, empathy, and compassion. Self-regulation is the ability to develop cognitive control of emotional reactivity to facilitate self-directed change. Empathy is the understanding of another person’s emotional state and the projection of oneself into the other’s situation. Compassion is taking a mindful action to alleviate the struggles and sufferings of others

Inclusive Online Teaching and Digital Learning: Lessons Learned in the Time of Pandemic and Beyond

When the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world in 2020 and into 2021, the entire system of education faced the most challenging task to provide education to students using virtual instruction. Within the United States specifically, the pandemic transformed teaching. Teachers were and have continued to be compelled to learn digital technology and integrate varied digital tools into their instruction. As guest editors, Eric and I had the opportunity to reflect on the many instructional challenges and valuable lessons learned about virtual teaching and learning in k-12 and higher education. One of the biggest lessons observed was exposure of huge equity gaps between the tech haves and have nots, regarding access to digital devices and reliable Wi-Fi. It was from this observation that the call for proposals of this special issue was developed. What does inclusion look like in the era of digital and virtual teaching?  With this in mind, we were tasked to coedit this special issue of JCSR focusing on the theme “Inclusive Curriculum in the Era of Digital & Virtual Learning.” We had the opportunity to review five exemplary articles responding to the theme

Spirituality and Mindfulness Practices of Early Childhood and Elementary Preservice Teachers: A Snapshot

This paper describes the results of a research survey that interpreted the patterns of mindfulness and spirituality within a convenience sample of preservice teachers at a Midwest teacher education institution.  Mindfulness and spiritualty represent topics of developing interest in teacher education that serve to increase candidate focus and revision of practice.  Respondents completed a survey as part of a semester’s project that interpreted the results of a semester-long mindfulness intervention on student mindfulness and spiritual attitudes and practices. The findings determined that participants had senses of mindfulness and self the emphasized themselves, and their external worlds, let weak connection with a higher spiritual entity.  Significant differences were observed between early childhood and elementary majors

Meditation Time in the Classroom: Mindfulness Dosage and Undergraduate Psychological Distress

Objectives: The present study examined the differences in participants’ individual psychological distress over four points in time while they received instructions on a guided mindfulness meditation practice differing in practice time between the two groups (20 minutes or 5 minutes). The study took place in an undergraduate yoga course at a large metropolitan university in the Southeastern United States. Data were collected over the four points in time during one continuous semester using the Outcome Questionnaire-45.2 (OQ-45.2) (Lambert et al., 2004; Tabet et al., 2019). Methods: The purpose of this 15-week quantitative study was to compare the differences in individual psychological distress among 74 students split into two treatment groups. The first treatment group received a 20-minute body scan based on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) treatment per session. The second treatment group received a 5-minute body scan treatment per session. Results and Conclusion: Using a repeated measures ANOVA, the researchers examined how mindfulness meditation practice affected psychological distress between the 5-minute and 20-minute sessions. The results showed that as the meditation sessions progressed, the interaction of subscales of distress by mindfulness meditation sessions was not statistically significant. However, the results showed there were significant main effects for symptom distress level, F(1) = 10.34, p = 0.02; interpersonal relations, F(1) = 14.61, p \u3c 0.01; and social role performance, F(1) = 4.33, p = 0.04, which decreased significantly. In conclusion, the main effect was statistically significant; the difference in distress is related to whether a person meditated at all. That is, meditate once and you will likely feel reduced distress of some level

Caste and the Classroom: A Review of Wilkerson\u27s Work

Isabel Wilkerson’s (2020) Caste is a useful book to integrate into introductory courses in education training programs to discuss the sociological context of where the education system in the United States of America is situated. This book review suggests how preservice teacher programs may use Wilkerson’s work to bolster theoretical understanding in the inequitable structures education is built on, and what actionable steps can be taken both in and outside of the classroom

Managing stress and building resilience amidst anti-Blackness: Investigating the impact of a culturally responsive contemplative practices intervention on Black teacher’s stress and resilience

We propose to collaboratively design, implement, and study a Culturally Responsive Contemplative Practices (CRCP) intervention with Black practicing teachers. Participants include a multiracial expert advisory group and teacher participants work in surrounding schools and in an after-school program serving Black and low-income families residing in Auburn Gresham, a neighborhood located in Cook County, IL. As the current state of stress in teachers continues to rise, we will examine teacher perceived stress (Seidel, 2014) and resilience. Contemplative practices have been shown to alleviate symptoms associated with psychological distress and create prosocial behavior (Eberth & Sedlmeier, 2012). Within education, research on contemplative practices shows benefits for teachers’ physiological/physical states, teaching and student success, and for their interactions with colleagues, administration, and parents (Gouda, Luong, Schmidt, & Bauer, 2016). However, most participants in these studies are white. Thus, an alarming gap in the literature on the benefits of contemplative practices for Black educators illustrates a need for research within Black communities (Proulx, Herbert, Croff, & Oken, 2017). We draw across Black Feminist thought (hooks, 2014), Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (Gay, 2010), and Partnerships in Humanizing Education (PiH) (Kinloch & San Pedro, 2015) to inform our conceptual and methodological frameworks. We work alongside communities of interest (Twali-Smith, 2013). We use a mixed methods approach (Creswell & Poth, 2018a) to critically (Luke, 1995) investigate the a.) processes involved in collaboratively developing CRCP; b.) how CRCP supports Black educators’ Black Feminist self-actualization; and c.) whether a CRCP intervention decreases Black teachers’ perceived stress and increases resilience while teaching in the context of Covid-19