The educational pyramid: A model for community intervention

Urban adolescents represent a group who are at special risk for a variety of psychological and behavioral problems. A life skills program was implemented with middle and high school students, using an educational pyramid approach to maximize the ecological appropriateness of the intervention and to increase the likelihood that the program will be continued with progressively lessened university facilitation. Additionally, the educational pyramid offers the opportunity for all participants—university faculty, graduate students, collaborating professionals in the community, and high school leaders—to be both teachers and learners.     

从“孔子学院”看汉语和中国教育的国际化认同

教育无国界是有识之士的共识,也是不可逆转的潮流。中国采取在世界各地建立孔子学院的形式加大吐人对汉语和中国的教育的认识,文章从孔子学院在世界各地的运作形式,阐述了孔子学院发展近四年多来对世界的影响和世界对汉语和中国教育的国际化认同以及对有关的问题进行了反思。     

Moral imperatives,professional interventions and resilience,and educational action in chaotic situations: the souls of children amidst the horror of war

Drawing from the research on children of war in Bogota, Beirut and Bosnia, this paper serves as a framework for dialogue about the criminalization of children by armed conflict and other forms of violence. Furthermore, it addresses the aching question of how best to care for these children so that they have every chance to become illuminated and not carbonized (Restrepo, 1999 Restrepo, L. 1999. La novia oscura [The dark bride], New York: HarperCollins.  [Google Scholar], p. 209) by the tragic circumstances of their environments. The author posits that educators everywhere bear a moral imperative to provide opportunities for children to reclaim hope, reintegrate socially, learn well, reflect deeply, and act justly. Specifically, this essay reflects on varied approaches aimed at fostering resilience, as well as cognitive and moral growth and development in children who are witness and/or victims of social, political, and violent struggles.     

True to oneself? Broad and narrow ideas on authenticity in the enhancement debate

Our knowledge of the human brain and the influence of pharmacological substances on human mental functioning is expanding. This creates new possibilities to enhance personality and character traits. Psychopharmacological enhancers, as well as other enhancement technologies, raise moral questions concerning the boundary between clinical therapy and enhancement, risks and safety, coercion and justice. Other moral questions include the meaning and value of identity and authenticity, the role of happiness for a good life, or the perceived threats to humanity. Identity and authenticity are central in the debate on psychopharmacological enhancers. In this paper, I first describe the concerns at issue here as extensively propounded by Carl Elliott. Next, I address David DeGrazia’s theory, which holds that there are no fundamental identity-related and authenticity-related arguments against enhancement technologies. I argue, however, that DeGrazia’s line of reasoning does not succeed in settling these concerns. His conception of identity does not seem able to account for the importance we attach to personal identity in␣cases where personal identity is changed through enhancement technology. Moreover, his conception of authenticity does not explain the reason why we find inauthentic values objectionable. A broader approach to authenticity can make sense of concerns about changes in personal identity by means of enhancement technologies.     

Ministry as Womb and Tomb: Baptism as a Paradigm for Ministry

This article rethinks a paradigm for ministry in a world in which a culture of choice is radically challenging sacramental, baptismal theology. Drawing on the two fundamental biblical metaphors for baptism—baptism as a womb (John 3) and a tomb (Rom 6)—the article tries to reimagine ministry emerging from these two metaphors. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of developing ministry by the use of this dialectic—ministry as both womb and tomb.     

Challenging ‘the they’: an Heideggerian reflection on the impact of power figures in children’s spiritual lives

Through the lens of Heideggerian’s Being and Time, this paper examines the world of ‘the they’ for twenty-first century children, highlighting perceived power figures in their lives. Exploring philosophically how the falling of a child’s Dasein from its primordial state into ‘the they’ culminates in an inauthentic presentation of self, it will then describe how spiritual educators might encourage a turning of the tide, allowing children to be critically aware of contingent influencers and to act upon them from a position of authenticity.     

Working through the Problems of Study Abroad Using the Methodologies of Religious Studies

After illustrating the joys of teaching religious studies abroad with an anecdote from my trip to China, I warn of some of its inherent pedagogical and ethical challenges. I argue that teaching some of the “new directions” in religious studies scholarship might address these challenges. These include a turning away from the abstract (texts, beliefs, theologies) and towards the concrete (bodies, places, rituals); moving away from teaching religions as unchanging, ancient verities and instead emphasizing the impact that colonialism, modernization, and secularism have had; moving from searching for authenticity to questioning it; and emphasizing methodological self‐consciousness. Keeping these new directions in mind will help ensure the study abroad experience is educationally successful. This essay serves as an introduction to a series of six additional essays comprising a special section of the journal (see Teaching Theology and Religion 18:1, January 2015).     

The Problem of a Subjective Authenticity and the Articulation of Belonging among the Irish in England—A Psychosocial Approach

This article presents the question of identity and authenticity as a problematic one, capable of investigation through a psychosocial lens. “Authenticity,” as explored by Erickson (1995) and Weigert (2009), may be understood as a commitment to self-values, meaning and motivation. Feeling “true to oneself” thus becomes an intensely personal affective project, which remains theoretically the preserve of the individual subject, and thus incapable of challenge by others. However, as identity is inherently social, there is a need to interrogate the affective nature of belonging to a collective identity. In particular, I consider how this personalised sense of authenticity may come into conflict with the need to have one’s personal identity recognised as authentic within the wider set of meaning-makings around the collectivity. I argue that this problem of authenticity and belonging may arise in the interplay between the personal and the collective in three ways: reflection, recognition and ownership. Any articulation of belonging to a collective identity whilst maintaining a personally “felt” authenticity must negotiate these three aspects. In this article, I develop these ideas through my own recent research on discourses of authenticity among the Irish in England. Drawing on Wetherell’s (2012) recent articulation of the affective-discursive, I explore how one second-generation Irish woman articulates her experiences of “belonging” and personal “authenticity” in interview talk. I argue that the resolution of dilemmas around the affective and collective nature of authenticity can be usefully investigated by attending to the co-construction of the interview between participant and interviewer. The positioning of the interviewer and the power dynamics of the interview thus become key modes of enquiry in the psychosocial analysis of authenticity.     

State Authenticity in Everyday Life

We examined the components and situational correlates of state authenticity to clarify the construct's meaning and improve understanding of authenticity's attainment. In Study 1, we used the day reconstruction method (participants assessed real‐life episodes from ‘yesterday’) and in Study 2 a smartphone app (participants assessed real‐life moments taking place ‘just now’) to obtain situation‐level ratings of participants' sense of living authentically, self‐alienation, acceptance of external influence, mood, anxiety, energy, ideal‐self overlap, self‐consciousness, self‐esteem, flow, needs satisfaction, and motivation to be ‘real’. Both studies demonstrated that state authentic living does not require rejecting external influence and, further, accepting external influence is not necessarily associated with state self‐alienation. In fact, situational acceptance of external influence was more often related to an increased, rather than decreased, sense of authenticity. Both studies also found state authentic living to be associated with greater, and state self‐alienation with lesser: positive mood, energy, relaxation, ideal‐self overlap, self‐esteem, flow, and motivation for realness. Study 2 further revealed that situations prioritizing satisfaction of meaning/purpose in life were associated with increased authentic living and situations prioritizing pleasure/interest satisfaction were associated with decreased self‐alienation. State authenticity is best characterized by two related yet independent components: authentic living and (absence of) self‐alienation. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology