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Gender discrimination exists in various settings globally and harms women’s mental health. This study aims to understand the impact of gender discrimination on hopelessness and emotional vulnerability. Further, we attempted to determine whether benevolent childhood experiences (BCEs) moderate the relationships of gender discrimination with hopelessness and emotional vulnerability.

Data from 445 young women from India was gathered from a cross-sectional survey. Measures included gender discrimination inventory, Beck’s hopelessness inventory, emotional vulnerability scale and BCE scale.

Results yielded a significant positive association of gender discrimination with hopelessness and emotional vulnerability. BCEs were negatively related to hopelessness, emotional vulnerability and gender discrimination. Further, gender discrimination predicted increased feelings of hopelessness and emotional vulnerability. However, BCEs do not neutralize the effect of gender discrimination.

It is evident from this study that gender discrimination exists independent of socioeconomic class, domicile and educational qualification, taking a toll on women’s well-being and mental health. Incorporating attitudinal changes at the community and societal level in reducing gender norms responsible for negative outcomes will allow women to function to their full capacity and experience improved mental health.

The research on gender discrimination and its impact on women’s mental health is limited, especially exploring the role of BCEs. Previous studies have indicated that BCEs have protective roles in neutralizing adversities. However, the present study uniquely contributes to establishing the limited role of BCEs in the context of gender discrimination, though it contributes to mental health. The policy and psychosocial implications of the study are discussed.

This study investigates the following research question: What pedagogical strategies are necessary for the success of HyFlex course design? The findings to this question are based in new media literacies and help to further pedagogy in an emerging HyFlex model while also grounding in needed theorization.

This study uses design-based research (DBR) across two iterations and four doctoral, higher education courses, using mixed methods of data collection and analysis.

Six pedagogical strategies influential for HyFlex research are presented, each grounded in a new media literacy skill.

These six pedagogical strategies help practitioners grappling with the HyFlex or blended learning model merge traditional pedagogy with how this might be tailored for students entrenched in a participatory culture.

This paper – the final paper of a series of three – aims to discuss the implications of the findings from a service user needs assessment of people experiencing homelessness in the Northwest of England. It will expand on the previous paper by offering a more detailed analysis and discussion of the identified key themes and issues. The service user needs assessment was completed as part of a review of local service provision in the Northwest of England against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Semi-structured questionnaires were administered and used by health-care professionals to collect data from individuals accessing the Homeless and Vulnerable Adults Service (HVAS) in Bolton. The questionnaires included a section exploring Adverse Childhood Experiences. Data from 100 completed questionnaires were analysed to better understand the needs of those accessing the HVAS.

Multiple deprivations including extensive health and social care needs were identified within the cohort. Meeting these complex needs was challenging for both service users and service providers. This paper will explore key themes identified by the needs assessment and draw upon further comments from those who participated in the data-gathering process. The paper discusses the practicalities of responding to the complex needs of those with lived experience of homelessness. It highlights how a coordinated partnership approach, using an integrated service delivery model can be both cost-effective and responsive to the needs of those often on the margins of our society.

Data collection during the COVID-19 pandemic presented a number of challenges. The collection period had to be extended whilst patient care was prioritised. Quantitative methods were used, however, this limited the opportunity for service user involvement and feedback. Future research could use qualitative methods to address this balance and use a more inclusive approach.

This study illustrates that the needs of the homeless population are broad and varied. Although the population themselves have developed different responses to their situations, their needs can only be fully met by a co-ordinated, multi-agency, partnership response. An integrated service model can help identify, understand, and meet the needs of the whole population and individuals within it to improve healthcare for a vulnerable population.

This study highlighted new and important findings around the resilience of the homeless population and the significance of building protective factors to help combat the multiplicity of social isolation with both physical and mental health problems.

The discussion provides an opportunity to reflect on established views in relation to the nature and scope of homelessness. The paper describes a contemporary approach to tackling current issues faced by those experiencing homelessness in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recommendations for service improvements will include highlighting established good practices including embedding a more inclusive/participatory approach.

The purpose of this study is threefold: to pilot research on the role that trauma-healing and resilience play in developing futures consciousness/literacy; to explore how this informs the coloniality of sexuality; and to engage economically marginalised young gay and bisexual men in exploring future scenarios for the wider LGBTQI+ community in Kenya.

This study used participatory action research to pilot the study. Workshop sessions focused on exploratory futures using an integral futures framework. Futures tools used consisted of the futures triangle, polak game and a two-by-two matrix scenario building exercise.

Participants found that previous psychosocial support and mental health counselling enabled them to address past traumas, find healing and begin a productive journey of unpacking their understanding of agency and engage with developing personal and communal futures thinking – all prerequisites for effectively addressing decoloniality.

This research represents the only study of the four-way intersection of trauma-healing, futures consciousness/literacy, the queer community in Africa and decoloniality and coloniality of sexuality.

Lead is a well-established environmental contaminant that over the last 50 years has become recognized as a neurotoxin with its greatest concern for the developing child (i.e. both in-utero and postnatally). What is problematic is that children exposed to lead often come from lower socioeconomic status (SES), are largely Black communities and are further at increased risk for developing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). The literature on ACEs had focused much on trauma, single parenting, child abuse, lack of finances and stress, etc., but has not considered the intersectionality of these ACEs as risk factors within environmental neurotoxic exposures such as lead poisoning. This is important as most low SES communities are Black. In particular, within the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), Black families have been neglected of proper lead-abatement to their apartments for nearly 70 years.

This is a viewpoint/perspective paper that examines the lived experiences of Black folxs in NYCHA through a Black critical theory (BlackCrit) and antiblackness framework pertaining to ACEs, and lead poisoning within the NYCHA system of New York City. This perspective paper draws upon the last three years of news reports, five decades of publicly available data sets from NYCHA and the comptroller to raise an awareness of how Black children are treated by NYCHA generation after generation which can be argued as a mass atrocity against NYCHA residents. Furthermore, the systematic and institutionalized racism and environmental injustices by NYCHA and the state can also be considered as a crime against humanity. As such, BlackCrit could help to position awareness, advocacy and knowledge about Black folxs residing in NYCHA to achieve fair, safe and affordable public housing to experience Black joy across future generations.

Thus, rather than civic and state government response efforts focusing their full attention and resources to serving and supporting individuals affected by ACEs they should equally consider the environments in which Black people live and also allocate funds proportionally to address these areas often overlooked. Moreover, proportions of these funds should be redirected especially to lead-abatement and removal of known sources of lead exposures, evaluation of suspected sources of lead exposures (i.e. drinking water, baby food and formula, children’s juice and cereal products, superfund and other waste sites, electronic recycling plants, etc.) and accompanied by all affected children undergoing full and comprehensive neuropsychological testing and follow up studies paid for by the state. The goal should have two fundamental objectives: (1) accepting accountability for failing to address these preventable neuropsychological issues directly affecting Black children generation after generation and (2) offering the proper waived or reimbursable supports and resources to help Black children sustain the best quality of life (QOL) trajectory possible when diagnosed with lead poisoning.

The manuscript is a viewpoint/perspective paper grounded in BlackCrit and an antiblackness framework. There are ample public news reports and public data available from NYCHA on these matters over the last three years. However, the scope of this paper was not to delve too deep into these numbers per se, but rather to address the concerns leading up to and arguably contributing to, at least in part, to these numbers of lead-exposed Black children in NYCHA. Lead poisoning has never been considered as an ACE and its relationship to mass atrocity research is novel which may pave a new avenue for research of this kind through the utility of BlackCrit and antiblackness framework to support and advocate for change so that Black children can be provided with a basic human right of safe housing and experience Black joy.

BlackCrit has not been used in the context of lead poisoning research. Mostly individuals and families of middle- and low-income have been studied in the context of poverty and lead poisoning. However, many people who live in poverty, in public housing, within New York are Black. Thus, Black children are generation after generation exposed to unaddressed lead-abatement and it appears that now more than ever BlackCrit should become the framework for how this work should be discussed in the literature to raise awareness to state governments regarding Black folx's persistent lead poisoning, NYCHA's neglect and mass atrocity research as a long overdue advocacy effort to bring the necessary voice, authentic narrative, and actual knowledge of the lived experiences of Black families in NYCHA with lead poisoning.

The goal of this viewpoint/perspective paper should have two fundamental objectives (1) NYCHA and New York State accepting accountability for failing to address these preventable lead poisoning issues directly affecting Black children; and (2) offering the proper support and resources to help Black children sustain the best QOL trajectory possible when diagnosed with lead poisoning.

Lead poisoning research has never been approached through a mass atrocity and BlackCrit framework and perspective. This is the first report on bridging these fields within the context of NYCHA public housing neglect of lead-abatement and continued poisoning of current and future generations of Black children. This failure of NYCHA lead-abatement contributes annually to economic loss in New York State for many years to come which could be entirely avoided.

In an effort to position higher education institutions to survive in this fiercely competitive environment, the paper aims to identify the direct and indirect relationships between higher education institutional positioning and exogenous factors (student engagement, employability, technology adaptation, teaching quality, and moral values).

A cross-sectional data was collected from 1,015 students studying in the pre-final year of graduation or post-graduate course/program from various educational institutions that were shortlisted based on the Indian NAAC and NIRF rankings. Thereafter, robust assessment criteria of PLS-SEM were used for model assessment and computation of results.

The findings revealed that to develop the greatest platform for upcoming young talent, higher educational institutional positioning ought to be addressed as a priority, which in turn will result in better living standards for upcoming generations.

Framing strategies for urban students can never match those living in rural areas, as they are deprived of money due to their level of upbringing from childhood, which creates a high difference in the psychological mindset of students while choosing a career path.

The higher positioning of educational institutions clearly reflects the authentic learning environment, with professionalism leading to better student engagement with best industry practice.

Research novelty is highlighted as a more focused and streamlined approach to students’ career development and institution branding by reanalyzing and grouping various concepts of institutional positioning into a single model.

This study aims to explore the self-efficacy of social studies teacher education working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) preservice teachers, teaching LGBTQ content in their methods courses, and helping the preservice teachers they teach in those classes reduce their bias and prejudice against LGBTQ individuals.

This study, framed by self-efficacy theory, employs a mixed methods approach, qualitative semistructured interviews (n = 6) and quantitative (Likert-scale) survey questions (n = 174).

Participants reported high self-efficacy in working with LGBTQ students but showed decreased efficacy in teaching about LGBTQ content and helping reduce preservice teacher LGBTQ bias. Participants suggested that time in the curriculum, lack of knowledge about LGBTQ topics/issues, and the lack of institutional support are some of the leading barriers to LGBTQ inclusion in the social studies teacher preparation curriculum.

This is the only work conducted at this scale to examine social studies teacher educators' self-efficacy in LGBTQ-inclusion in methods courses. It has implications for increasing this self-efficacy to help make P-16 social studies education LGBTQ-inclusive.

As part of a larger grant-funded project, a professional development (PD) series was conducted within the framework of a school–university partnership to improve teachers’ capacity to meaningfully include fathers and father figures in the school environment, with a particular focus on fathers of children with disabilities. The authors sought to understand the extent to which a school-wide PD framed through the lens of a father of a child with a disability might inform practice with sustainable implementation. Due to the pandemic, the original format of the PD was redesigned for virtual delivery.

A three-phase data collection and analysis approach included a pre-PD survey, a post-PD survey and a one-year follow-up survey. All surveys included both quantitative and qualitative self-report data components.

Results suggest school personnel found the virtual PD valuable, gleaning several useful strategies for reflecting on their own practices, working to improve communication with families of children with disabilities and more meaningfully including fathers and father figures in future school-related activities and programing.

First, the sample size of the present study was small, and participation was variable across PD sessions. In addition, participants self-selected into the series, and therefore, they may be more likely to value father-figure involvement with or without participation in the PD series. The small sample size may minimize the generalizability of these results across other replicable settings and participants. Second, the results of the pre-PD survey could be positively skewed since the university partner’s initial delivery of PD related to this topic began in 2018. In the pre-PD survey, the majority of respondents indicated, as an example, that they believed father involvement was correlated with higher academic achievement. It is not clear if respondents held these beliefs independently at the inception of the partnership or if they perhaps learned of these connections during an earlier PD offered by the authors.

The current study offers a small glimpse into the world of a school–university partnership and its ability to actualize meaningful reflection on family engagement practices. Results also indicate a greater awareness of significant male figures/fathers and their needs. Content delivered during each PD supports capacity building in terms of teachers’ ability to see fathers and father figures as meaningful contributors within the context of the school environment. Participants mentioned that the PD taught them ways to recognize and remediate some of the insidious communication barriers that exist.

Participants stated that they grew in their understanding of intentional connections with significant male figures, noting a concerted effort to ensure communication of information pertaining to school events, conferences and, in some cases, individualized educational programs (IEPs). Staff members also felt as though the pandemic fostered greater connections with fathers who were working at home and who were simultaneously helping their children access online learning platforms. However, it is noteworthy that the latter benefit was likely a positive side effect of mandatory home-based learning as opposed to a direct result of the present study. Socially, the authors all find ourselves embarking on a bit of social uncertainty, where perhaps it is no longer appropriate or significant to mention one's gender. Nonetheless, the research highlights the unique contributions that fathers and father figures can make to children's positive trajectory, and the authors espouse that the current study suggests that virtual PD sessions can help train school personnel to recognize and foster such relationships.

The past few decades have ushered in an awareness of significant male involvement and its importance in the development of young children. Despite this surge of interest, the research on father/significant male involvement in the school context remains limited. Additionally, the implementation of virtual PD and its potential positive impacts remain largely unexplored, especially when the intersection with father engagement practices is considered. As such, the authors espouse that the present study reflects a unique combination of content and pedagogy.

The purpose of this paper – the second of three – is to report the findings from a service user needs assessment in those who have contact with a local homelessness service in the North-West of England.

Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire that included a section exploring Adverse Childhood Experiences. Aggregated data from a total of 100 completed questionnaires were analysed to understand the nature and scope of those accessing the Homelessness and Vulnerable Adults Service (HVAS).

Homeless people accessing HVAS face a number of challenges, which reflect their upbringing and chaotic and complex lifestyles. Reports of multiple disadvantage, social isolation, physical and mental health problems were common among the cohort.

This was a small cohort study, and the authors accept that this may potentially limit the scope of the findings. Themes identified are, however, reflected in wider research and official data collection sources. Future research may seek to widen the data collection methods to offer a more representative cohort.

The provision of co-ordinated multi-agency support is essential to tackle health inequalities experienced by those who are homeless.

The complex issues often experienced by those who are homeless can further compound the impact of social exclusion on health and well-being. The reduction of statutory support and increased emphasis on self-reliance can further impact those people on the margins of society.

This study identifies how multiple deprivations and social isolation impacts upon health and well-being, further compounding a person’s ability and willingness to engage with services. It raises the question of the systems failure to respond effectively.

This paper offers a reflection of a research process aimed at listening to young children's voices in their everyday school life through a play-based context in a Scottish school. Throughout the research process, the complexity of conducting this research was kept in mind as listening to children's voices presents methodological and conceptual difficulties and tensions. Reflecting on the research process after the data was collected, the process was critiqued using Deleuze-Guattarian ideas. The critique aims at opening and challenging each researcher, allowing them to think-again about the next research project aimed at listening to children's voices.

The research involved an observation study that took place over one week in a primary school in Central Scotland. As part of the educators' approach to play-based pedagogy, children had the opportunity to engage in free play throughout the day. Observations were chosen as the main approach to “capture” children's voices in their natural settings.

The empirical research brought forth two main ideas, that of children as agents, and how children amplify their voices through play. The reflective part offers the possibility of understanding the intensities and forces when conducting such research and the possibilities of engaging with these.

This paper offers a critique of research aimed at listening to children's voices. The aim is not to limit engagement in researching children's voices but to open, or make complex, such processes.