The question at the heart of this dissertation is: “How can Christian religious education help people know the value and importance of a healthy public/common life and further their interest and ability to participate in the public sphere toward the common good?” Care for our public lives must to be a part of our spirituality. It is not enough to know about the importance of the public realm to our well-being, rather, this concern must be part of what matters to us, a dimension of our affect and desire, something we want and care about. Hence the coupling of ‘public’ with ‘spirituality.’ A public spirituality is something that helps us see beyond the interpersonal dimension of life and recognize the wider public context for these relationships. It appreciates the importance of public life, civil society, and the public sphere. It is grounded in the public dimension of Catholic faith and connected to rich sources of wisdom from Christian tradition. This spirituality draws the person or community into the public sphere to participate in sustained, persuasive, respectful, and critical conversations about issues that matter to them. This dissertation argues that the task of religious education is to educate for such a spirituality and using the work of Thomas H. Groome, it outlines a particular way that in which this can happen. Chapter 1 demonstrates the importance of ‘the public’ to our well-being, looking closely at the role of civil society, the public sphere, and secularization. Chapter 2 articulates the public dimension of Catholic faith, with attention to the themes of participation, the common good, and how theology is done in public. Chapter 3 lays the foundation for a public spirituality, focusing on the Trinity, the challenge of the stranger, the mystical-transformational dimension of Christian spirituality, and Christianity as a way of seeing. Chapter 4 offers illustrations of public spirituality at work in three organizations: the Conference of Religious of Ireland Justice, Theos, U.K., and the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization. Finally, Chapter 5, proposes a shared Christian praxis approach to Christian religious education as a model to nurture and nourish a public spirituality. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.

Drawing on practitioner-research and case study methods, including interview protocols, this study aimed to explore the insights and experiences, as described by four teachers, of developing and teaching racial-justice curriculum for predominantly White 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in their course: Sparking Courageous Conversations: Discussing Race and Racism. This study was framed in critical literacy theories that are grounded in the work of Freire (2000) but draw on the work of contemporary critical scholars and practitioners with the knowledge that critical literacy pedagogy can provide a powerful means for interrogating how larger structures, texts, individuals, and groups are constructed. Data collection took place in four phases across three months. Primary data sources included analysis of: curriculum and emerging curricular artifacts, in-depth interviews, surveys, teacher journals, researcher journal, and memos. The findings of this study emerged from the curriculum development that occurred the summer prior to the 2017-2018 academic school year as well as the teaching that occurred that year. The reflections of each of the teachers about their development and teaching of the racial-justice curriculum demonstrated the breakthroughs and boundaries of teaching about race and racism with predominantly White middle-school students. Further, their reflections illustrated the ongoing, internal work required to facilitate conversations about race with students more effectively. Such work included monitoring for how race affected their lives as well as the lives of others, and how race as one of their identities affected the ways in which they developed and taught curriculum. Finally, the teachers discovered that facilitating courses on race required moving from a content-based approach to a consciousness-based approach where they each, alongside of their students, assumed a researching-the-world stance to learn about race and confront and challenge racism.

The 24 items of the original English version of the Social Justice Scale (Torres-Harding et al., 2012) were translated into Korean by four translators, who discussed and agreed upon consensus versions. Four different translators then back translated this version into English. The resulting Korean version of SJS (K-SJS) was completed by 537 adult native Korean speakers. Confirmatory factor analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and multi-group confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the K-SJS has high internal consistency, factors appropriately, fits the original model well, and demonstrates invariance across Korean men and women. Structural equation modeling indicated that the effects of attitude, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms on behavioral intentions were positive and significant. In short, the K-SJS showed acceptable reliability and validity based on a large sample of South Korean adults and shows promise as a new tool to study social justice attitudes among Korean speakers.

presented by Lo Kai Ming, Charles. / Thesis (M.Div.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-110). / An Abstract --- p.i / Foreword --- p.iii / Chapter / Chapter I. --- Reinhold Niebuhr's theological development --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- Human nature --- p.17 / Chapter III. --- Man as sinner --- p.26 / Chapter IV. --- Social justice --- p.42 / Chapter 1. --- Love and mutual love --- p.42 / Chapter 2. --- Justice --- p.48 / Chapter 3. --- Middle axioms --- p.61 / Chapter V. --- The applicability of Niebuhr's theological framework for social justice in the context of contemporary Hong Kong society --- p.71 / Chapter VI. --- Conclusion --- p.85 / Notes --- p.89 / Bibliography --- p.106

Mao, Yina. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-73). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / List of Tables --- p.2 / List of Figures --- p.3 / Abstract --- p.4 / 摘要 --- p.5 / Acknowledgement --- p.6 / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.7 / Chapter 2. --- Theories and hypotheses --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1 --- actors and third parties --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Belief in a just world --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Threat to the belief in a just world --- p.13 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Maintenance of the belief in a just world --- p.14 / Chapter 2.1.4 --- Current research focus and the research gap --- p.15 / Chapter 2.1.5 --- Actors and third parties --- p.17 / Chapter 2.1.6 --- Hypothesis development --- p.22 / Chapter 2.2. --- Heuristic cues --- p.27 / Chapter 2.3 --- Multiple strategies --- p.29 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Co-occurrence of strategies --- p.29 / Chapter 3. --- Method --- p.37 / Chapter 3.1 --- Research design --- p.37 / Chapter 3.2 --- Scenarios --- p.38 / Chapter 3.3 --- Pilot study --- p.40 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Measurements --- p.40 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Description of the sample --- p.43 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Analysis --- p.43 / Chapter 3.3.4 --- Adjustments --- p.45 / Chapter 3.4 --- Power analysis --- p.45 / Chapter 3.5 --- Main study --- p.47 / Chapter 3.6 --- results --- p.48 / Chapter 4. --- Conclusions and implications --- p.58 / References --- p.67 / Appendix: Questionnaire used in this study (Chinese version) based on scenario 1 --- p.74

The field of counseling psychology has demonstrated a longstanding history to multiculturalism and social justice, which is reflected in the field’s professional standards of competence. Goodman et al. (2004) derived a set of social justice principles from feminist and multicultural counseling theories, which have served to guide counseling psychologists in social justice work. These six tenets include: ongoing self-examination, sharing power, giving voice, facilitating consciousness raising, building on strengths, and leaving clients with the tools to work toward social change. Graduate training has been identified as one essential component in the development of training social-justice oriented and competent counseling psychologists. Training programs have made attempts to address the training needs of the field of counseling psychology and its commitment to the development of social justice competencies in a variety of ways; however, there is lack of understanding regarding the efficacy of these approaches as well as an identified need for increased experiential training. Participatory Action Research (PAR) is an approach to research that has demonstrated potential as a tool for social justice training with its emphasis on collective participation, collaboration, empowerment, and positive social change. As such, the purpose of this study was to explore counseling psychology trainees’ experiences with PAR and the impact of these experiences on the development of social justice competencies. Data was collected through 12 semi-structured interviews with current and recently graduated doctoral- and masters-level trainees in the field of counseling psychology. Participant narratives were transcribed and then analyzed using Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR). Results illustrated participants’ understanding of social justice and PAR, descriptions of PAR projects, personal reasons for engaging in PAR as well as expectations and challenging experiences related to PAR. Participants also discussed the impact of PAR on clinical training and professional practice, specifically related to the development of social justice competencies and the development of their own self-awareness and multicultural identity development. Personal meaning and value of PAR experiences for participants as well community members engaged in PAR are also presented. Implications of the findings, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Engaging with marginalized communities to address issues of importance to their emotional well-being is central to counseling psychology’s core missions in social justice advocacy. Among those who have been historically viewed as deficient and marginalized are people who have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness (Schneider, 2012). Community-based psychosocial interventions have been identified as an effective form of treatment, particularly when they emphasize collaboration with community members, the empowerment of people with serious mental illnesses, the ability of such individuals to take action on behalf of themselves and others, and ownership of findings and knowledge by all partners (Corrigan & Garman, 1997; Davidson et al., 1999; Salzer, 2002). This dissertation study represents an attempt to position participatory action research (PAR) as such an intervention in the context of two marginalized identities—ethnic Chinese minority identity and the bearing of a serious mental illness diagnosis. The launching, design, and analysis of the PAR process with this population was tracked to examine the potential strengths and challenges of its utility in relation to Chinese survivors of serious mental illness. Through collaboration and dialogue, the project identified and addressed topics that the PAR co-researchers (the Chinese community members diagnosed with a serious mental illness) experienced as significant problems in their specific settings and took actions that resolved those problems, thus bridging theory and discussion topics with real-world situations, issues, and experiences, and leaving the community co-researchers and their respective agency better prepared to create such action in the future.

Set within a discursive field of humanist and neoliberal thought, this post-qualitative study attended to student teachers’ “stuck moments” in a university-based, social justice-oriented teacher education program (SJTE). It sought to problematize the familiar tendency of ascribing student teachers’ stuck moments as symptomatic of the theory-practice gap, an argument frequently lobbied by policy makers to dismantle university-based teacher education in favor of alternative (read: more lucrative) programs. Challenging the representational logic that undergirds prevailing conceptualizations of stuckness and the theory-practice gap obsession in teacher education, this study conceptualized stuck moments as a fluid, moving assemblage of bodies (human and nonhuman), and discursive, affective, and material forces. Informed by posthumanist theories of affect, this case study of six preservice teachers enrolled in an SJTE program used a rhizomatic mapping process that entailed assembling a series of wonder cabinets to map the discursive, affective, and material forces that shape student teachers’ stuck moment(s) and explore what these stuck moments do to student teachers. Data sources included field notes and jottings, individual and group conversations, and the creation of wonder cabinets of stuckness. The findings of this study suggest that the materiality of field placement sites (i.e., the physical and discursive), the pressure on student teachers to achieve teaching mastery, participants’ desire to have an impact on their students, and the challenges of enacting critical/justice practices, constitute the stuck moment assemblage. These constituting elements also illuminate the infiltration of learning discourses in student teachers’ stuckness. With their focus on mastery, normative teacher identity categories, measurable goals, and telos-driven progress narratives, learning discourses—while seductive for student teachers—collide with the tenuousness and uncertainty of social justice work. These discourses also generate and intensify the negative affects that animate student teachers’ stuck moments. These affects include, among others, worry, shame, and loneliness. This research foregrounds how stuckness holds the potential to simultaneously expose and oppose the conflicting discourses, affective attachments, and intensities, that student teachers encounter as they navigate through the various spaces of their SJTE program.

The social justice agenda is currently at the foreground of political consciousness and the idea of 'social justice' has penetrated the discipline of psychology, specifically counselling and community psychology. However, there is a wealth of literature which has debated the role of social justice in psychology, and what it can and should look like. A systematic literature review was undertaken to find and synthesise empirical research relevant to the question: 'what is the significance of social justice in educational psychology practice?' It was structured using the PRISMA framework and studies were examined and screened to ensure that they met the inclusion criteria. A Weight of Evidence framework was used to enhance the judgement of the quality and relevance of the identified studies, with regards to the review's research question. Qualitative research studies were assessed for quality using a pre-existing investigative framework, whilst quantitative investigation studies were evaluated using a tailor-made framework, which referenced quantitative research guidelines. The research base was found to give positive support to the significance of the concept of social justice in US school psychology practice. An exploratory piece of qualitative research using semi-structured interviews with qualified UK educational psychologists was conducted to explore their views of social justice. The interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis applied. Results of the research gave definition to the concept of social justice under an educational psychology lens, reasons for its importance to educational psychology practice, examples of what it looked like within educational psychology practice, and thoughts around the role of educational psychology in promoting social justice. The concepts of evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence, and the effective dissemination of research in relation to outcomes and impact were discussed. Policy, practice and research development implications were considered, before a strategy for promoting and evaluating the dissemination and impact of the research findings, was considered. A multi-strand strategy of journal publication, presentations, and workshops will be utilised to encourage further discussion around the topic. The creation of a UK educational psychology special interest group around social justice may be of value, in order to advance interest in social justice, into action.

How individuals form justice perceptions has been a fundamental question in justice research. While most justice researchers treat justice perceptions as results of deliberate cognitive process, very few studies examined the role of affect in justice perception formation. Among these studies, most of them perceive affect as outcomes of justice; others investigating the predicting role of affect in justice perceptions were far from enough, either due to lack of solid theoretical foundation or due to the limitation of methodology. Based on the Affect Infusion Model, this dissertation focused on exploring the predicting role of affect in justice perception formation and three moderating contextual factors, including personal relevance, emotional control, and group context. A pilot study and two experimental studies, with both student sample and employee sample, were conducted. Structural equation modeling, ANOVA and regression were employed to test the hypotheses. / Results showed that people in positive affective states perceived higher distributive justice, procedural justice, interpersonal justice, and informational justice than their counterparts in negative affective states. Moreover, personal relevance moderated the relationships between affect and distributive justice and procedural justice so that the relationships above were enhanced as personal relevance increased. It is also suggested that individuals constrained the influence of their affect on procedural justice in group context, compared to the case when they make individual judgment. Surprisingly, the moderating effect of emotional control was not found as predicted. Results, implications, limitations as well as future directions were discussed. / Mao, Yina. / Adviser: C.S. Wong. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 72-04, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-133). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.