Welcome to the first issue of 2022, Volume 18 of the Journal of Character Education. This issue starts off the new year and new volume with a strong lineup of compelling articles—including six empirical articles, a Voices article, and a new Opinion article, following the successful introduction of the Opinion section in Volume 17, Issue 1 last year.
This issue begins with four empirical studies that touch on important and familiar topics related to character education—purpose; optimism; empathy; and bullying. Rachel Baumsteiger, Brian Riches, Susan Mangan, James McConchie, and Kendall Bronk present findings exploring the content of adolescents’ and young adults’ purpose in life, with implications for fostering and promoting purpose development. In a study of Latinx fourth- and fifth-grade students, Anna Park, Karen Thierry, Karen Norris, Erika Venzor, and Sandra Nobles describe how optimism may predict academic reading achievement (but what about math?). Rebecca Frausel, Gabriel Velez, Tasneem Mandviwala, and Jennifer Kubota share a study of an interesting first-person story-exchange activity as a means to boost empathy among 13- to 16-year-olds. To combat school bullying and cyberbullying, Jolanta Burke and Conor Mc Guckin present a study exploring the relations among different bully/victim groups and character strengths, with implications for creating a prosocial, strengths-based program to address bully/victim problems.
The empirical studies are followed by two methodology-focused articles, a Voices article, and an Opinion article. Andrew Pool, Danielle Doolittle, Nora Laberee, Shannon Traurig, and Kenneth Ginsburg present an innovative literature-review methodology that uses article-level metrics to conduct a “rapid review,” using parenting research and its dissemination among scientific and popular outlets as an illustrative case. The What Works in Character Education project is revisited by Keith Johnson, Bob McGrath, Mindy Bier, Mitch Brown, and Marvin Berkowitz, using a meta-analysis approach to provide new insights on the effectiveness of character education in promoting character outcomes. In this issue’s Voices article, Madora Soutter, Shelby Clark, and Alison Lee highlight important measurement issues in character education, and use the organization EL Education as a sample case to empower practitioners toward character education equity goals. Last, in our latest Opinion article, Enrique Chaux calls attention to our relation to the animal world, providing a compelling argument for why we should not overlook the importance of fostering empathy toward animals, in part because it serves our goals of educating better human beings—indeed, the main goal of character education.
The JCE Opinion articles are open access and are made available on the JCE website, below. As we noted in the inaugural Opinion section (JCE 17-1, 2021), we would love to hear responses and feedback—to foster a dialogue—on the issues raised in these invited Opinion pieces. As such, we have dedicated a page on the Center for Character and Citizenship’s website where all JCE Opinion articles will be posted and comments welcomed (and moderated). Please visit https://characterandcitizenship.org/about-the-journal to learn more about the Journal, peruse our Opinion articles, and contribute to the conversation.
