Beyond the role of educating students across all academic domains, school leaders are tasked with the monumental responsibility of creating positive, engaged systems and cultures that embrace the growing cultural, economic, linguistic, and cognitive diversity in the United States landscape. With collective goals to create peaceful learning environments with capacity to serve diverse learners, many school leaders have embraced school-wide prevention and intervention efforts, such as Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) for social-emotional and behavioral development of students. Unfortunately, due to the inherent complexities and fragmentation of such efforts, many school leaders have continued to experience significant barriers to sustainable systems change. Throughout the following discussion, the authors argue that the school-wide programs most commonly utilized in schools lack the explicit organizational structures for integrating culturally responsive practice, leadership development, and collaborative community building processes that are essential to sustainable implementation. Therefore, this conceptual paper aims to explore the possibilities for practical applications of the Integral Perspective of Peace Leadership (IPPL, McIntyre Miller and Green, 2015) within school systems change efforts by shifting focus from direct student skill development toward a more integrated and systems-oriented approach aimed at strengthening culture and capacity within communities of educational leaders. The IPPL can "connect the dots" and provide a strong foundation through which school-wide change is possible and more sustainable. By challenging individuals, schools, communities, and organizations to examine and include Innerwork; theories, behaviors and practices, or Knowledge building; Communities of practice; and Environment work, such as systems and global thinking (McIntyre Miller and Green, 2015), the implementation of the IPPL may "challenge issues of violence and aggression and build positive, inclusive social systems and structures" (McIntyre Miller, 2016, p. 223). The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, there is a discussion of how the elements of the IPPL connect to school culture and system change. Second, specific examples, such as character development, mindfulness, school-wide positive behavior supports, social-emotional learning, professional learning communities, home-school connection, systems thinking, and distributed leadership, will demonstrate how school leaders might engage, using consultants and an implementation team, in the work to create positive, equitable school cultures.
This study examined the criterion-related validity of score inferences from the Behavioral and Emotional Screening System Parent Form (BESS Parent) for the detection of symptoms of prevalent mental health disorders of childhood. The BESS Parent was administered to 99 parents of first- through fifth-grade students, along with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Correlations were computed between the BESS Parent total and researcher-calculated subscale scores, and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)–oriented scales of the CBCL. Moderate correlations were obtained between the BESS Parent total score and CBCL DSM-oriented conduct problems, oppositional defiant, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and affective problems scales, and with the CBCL externalizing, internalizing, and total problems composite scores. Results support interpreting the BESS Parent as a measure of risk and as an indicator of the potential presence of one of the common mental health disorders of childhood.
Peace education is a philosophy and practice that aims to equip learners with the skills and behaviors to enable them to become peaceful citizens capable of resolving the conflicts faced in their communities and beyond and working to establish a culture of peace through dismantling systems that contribute to prejudice, violence, and hatred. This chapter argues that peace education is an alternative to the culture of violence that dominates many societies around the world and provides a discussion of important authors and scholars. These notions of peace education are then explored through the stories of four peace leadership education endeavors. Utilizing integral peace leadership as a guiding frame, these educational endeavors explored the ways to create cultures of peace in communities and schools. The chapter concludes with a commitment to use integral peace leadership as a vehicle for promoting a more peaceful culture committed to social change and overcoming the hindrances to local and international peace.
As communities and school populations continue to become more culturally, economically, and linguistically diverse, the need for comprehensive training and explicit guidelines for culturally responsive school mental health practices also grows. School psychologists are both expected and ethically responsible to competently assess and serve diverse student and family populations, regardless of potential language or cultural barriers. The current article is focused in describing background and rationale for culturally responsive interviewing practices as they pertain to the roles and responsibilities of school psychologists. Building on the guidelines and principles of the Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI), developed by the American Psychiatric Association, authors describe the potential applicability of the interviewing format for use with culturally and linguistically diverse students and families. Practical implications for use of culturally responsive interviewing strategies and culturally competent communication skills are discussed.
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