Toward a decolonial-liberation orientation for psychological practice: Humanization, praxis, and the African wisdom of Sankofa.

This article introduces the special issue ‘Transformational change through Public Policy’. After introducing the idea of transformational societal change, it asks how public policy scholarship can contribute to fostering it; the research questions we need to do so; what actors we need to study; who our audiences are; and how we need to expand our theories and methods. In our conclusion, we draw five lessons from the special issue articles. Transformational change (1) often results from many instances of policy changes over extended periods of time; (2) involves social movements that reconceptualise problems and possibilities; and (3) requires policy changes across sectors and levels of society, from local communities to national or global communities. As a field, Public Policy will (4) never offer detailed instructions to create transformational change in all circumstances, but (5) must involve scholars taking on different roles, from engaged scholarship to theory development that each provide unique contributions.

The American Psychological Association (APA) last week announced that Wendi S. Williams, Ph.D., provost and senior vice president at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California, has been elected 2026 president of the APA, a news release stated. A psychologist, advocate and educator, Williams focuses her work on the inner lives of Black women and girls. Blending ideas from liberation psychology and various feminist perspectives to guide her work, Williams designs and runs programs for individuals, groups and organizations aimed at personal and organizational growth. Her goal as a psychologist is to help diverse women and girls thrive while pushing for meaningful change in organizations and society as a whole. Williams has been an active member of APA for more than 16 years, most recently serving as president of APA's Division 35, the Society for the Psychology of Women, and as the division's representative to APA's governing Council of Representatives. She was previously president of the Section on Black Women of Division 35 and a member of the APA Division 17 Presidential Taskforce Against Racism in K‐12 Schools. Williams will serve as 2025 APA president‐elect before becoming president on Jan. 1, 2026.

Special issues of scholarly journals have become more common during the last decade of management research. We review this trend and assess the effectiveness of special issues for knowledge dissemination. Methods include interviews with journal editors, compiling data on time to publication and on impact and quality of special issues for five mainstream management journals, and a case study chronicling the creation of the Organization Science special issue on “Knowledge, Knowing, and Organizations.” The findings show that journal special issue articles appear to be published more quickly than regular issue articles (time to publication), and for three of the five journals there is a significant difference in impact (measured as citation counts per article) when special and regular issue articles are compared. Further, we find evidence of greater variation in the quality of special issue articles compared to regular issue articles, although this reflects special issues publishing exceptional articles rather than the inclusion of substandard ones. The case analysis suggests that a series of preconferences on a common topic prior to a special issue did not appear to impact the type of papers submitted to or published in the special issue. We discuss the role of special issues and preconferences in knowledge development in organization science.

Transition requires a multidimensional, interdisciplinary approach for its re‐conceptualisation to bring to the fore systemic and power related concerns affecting marginalised and vulnerable groups. This concluding article examines the special issue articles through a range of perspectives. These include examining transitions through a hermeneutics of suspicion, as a mask to displace focus away from other issues of system blockages and failures, building on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and Bourdieu’s symbolic violence and cultural capital. A distinctive focus on spatial systems as concentric relational spaces contrasted with fragmented, hierarchical diametric spatial systems is applied to transitions. This goes beyond conventional spatial assumptions of transition as a “bridge”. Temporal assumptions underpinning transitions are explored to challenge one directional approaches, while key issues of marginalised students’ and parents’ voices are highlighted. Intersectionality theory is invoked to examine the interplay between issues of social class, ethnicity, gender in the special issue articles. Building on the special issue articles’ qualitative and quantitative research findings, key policy conclusions for transitions are identified. These include the need to promote relational spaces, increase system capacity, develop flexible nonlinear pathways, address structural segregation issues, and recognise that formal equality principles are insufficient for a culturally responsive approach to transitions. These policy conclusions regarding transitions are relevant for the multiple educational domains explored, ranging from early childhood, primary, postprimary, through to access to university and the labour market. They go beyond typical transition policy responses of induction days, information transfer, staff and interinstitutional communication, and curricular bridging approaches.

Reviewed by: Bergson: Thinking Beyond the Human Condition by Keither Ansell-Pearson Tano S. Posteraro ANSELL-PEARSON, Keith. Bergson: Thinking Beyond the Human Condition. New York: Bloomsbury, 2018. ix + 194 pp. Paper, $29.95 Why Bergson now, again? Keith Ansell-Pearson offers a renewed account of Bergson's relevance almost two decades after the publication of his last book on Bergson, Philosophy and the Adventure of the Virtual, in 2002. His earlier work was significant for the primacy it accorded to the philosophy of evolution in Bergson's thought. Thinking Beyond the Human Condition, a collection of essays written over the last two decades, introduces another dimension: the aim of overcoming the human condition through thought. This aim is what provides Ansell-Pearson with his most recent answer to the question, why Bergson now? Thinking Beyond the Human Condition is distinctive in part for its objects: for while it does include chapters on familiar Bergsonian themes—such as time (chapter 3), memory (chapter 4), and freedom (chapter 3)—it also uncovers and attends to a number of still underappreciated areas of Bergson's thought. These include the commentary on Lucretius (chapter 2), the affinities that Bergson shares with Nietzsche regarding the critique of established religion (chapter 7), and perhaps most uniquely the possibility of a nascent philosophy of education as well (chapter 8). The theme that unifies these topics is the practical orientation that Ansell-Pearson discovers in each of them. He argues that Bergson ought to be understood in line with the ancient Greek conception of philosophy as a way of life that is grounded in a way of seeing the world anew. For Ansell-Pearson's Bergson, any new way of seeing the world is the concomitant of a critique of habitual ways of perceiving and acting within it. Thus, the critique of closed society, static religion, the spatial conception of time, and the deterministic understanding of the self, are all means to the end of freeing ourselves from a set of inherited constraints (social, biological, and epistemological) and opening ourselves to the possibility of seeing, thinking, and acting in novel forms. The human condition is defined by spatialized thinking. This is a form of thinking through spatial concepts, which owes its genesis to adaptive interaction with inanimate material objects and the fabrication of tools from out of them. Spatial thinking decomposes wholes into isolable parts and regards organization on the model of built artifacts. It separates form from function, isolates bodies and systems from their relations, and reduces time to movement across fixed positions. Its basic deficiency is an inability to think the reality of duration, which consists for Bergson in the ongoing retention of a past opened onto an unforeseeable future. Spatial thinking is a form of intelligence. But intelligence is not exhaustive of thought. It is an evolved faculty, and so can be refined, enlarged, and even functionally displaced, like a spandrel. Beyond it lays what Bergson calls intuition. Intuition is a mode through which to think time. It purports to grant access to the inner reality of its objects without filtering them through the forms and frames of preexisting concepts. It is grounded in the immediate apprehension of the self by the self as an enduring or durational reality. The knowledge one has of oneself in time [End Page 129] is apparently nonconceptual. This is the core of intuition. There are several facets to Bergson's theory of this faculty: the critique of the false problems of spatial thinking, the articulation of differences in kind where intelligence sees only degree, and the comprehension of real time. Intuition culminates in the last. Its ultimate aim is to be able to transpose the immediate apprehension of the self onto other objects as well, and so grasp them in their absolute temporal reality as well, in duration. If the human condition is defined by spatialization, then it is intuition through which the means for moving beyond it can be made available to thought. Each chapter of Thinking Beyond the Human Condition treats one domain—the self, evolution, society, and so on—in which intuition can be deployed in order to escape the constraints of spatialized thought. The...

Promoting decolonial and liberation psychologies (DLPs) requires psychologists to critically interrogate taken-for-granted assumptions pertaining to psychotherapy relationships. One fruitful area of interrogation surrounds conceptualizations and practices concerning multiple relationships (MRs), wherein a psychologist and client share another form of relationship outside of the psychotherapy context. The prevention or minimization of MRs is widely viewed as an ethical imperative, codified within professional ethics codes and further encouraged through insurance and liability practices. From the standpoint of DLPs, the profession has not adequately grasped the extent to which psychotherapy relationships reflect individualistic selves that facilitate psychologists' serving, however unwittingly, as "handmaidens of the status quo." We present three practitioner testimonios from among our authors-Indigenous, Muslim, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and other sexual/gender minorities-to concretely demonstrate how the professional and ethical framing around this ubiquitous practice within psychology has served to flatten human relationships within a colonizing frame. We then discuss three problematic assumptions concerning MRs that are reflected in the American Psychological Association's Ethics Code. We offer communal selfhood, a theoretical framework that aligns with DLPs, as a potential space for understanding and reframing MRs. We conclude with general recommendations for conceptualizing therapeutic relationships without recourse to a problematic conceptualization of MRs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

The high prevalence of mental health disorders among adolescents point to the need for interventions that prevent or minimise harms from these. Schools are the ideal setting for such interventions, given almost all children can be reached. We adapted a whole-school health intervention to target mental health. As part of this research, we aimed to provide schools with a report on mental health needs among their students and a menu of evidence-based actions that schools could take to address these needs. Given the multiple existing systematic reviews in this area, the actions to be included in the menu were informed by a rapid systematic review of reviews. To identify effective school-level or simple interventions to address student needs across various domains of mental health in secondary schools or an equivalent phase, which have been identified in existing systematic reviews. We undertook a rapid systematic review of reviews. In January 2022, we searched three databases [PubMed, PsycInfo® (American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, USA) and Cochrane Library] for systematic reviews of mental health interventions in the domains of: antisocial behaviour, anxiety, body image, depressive symptoms, digital health, eating problems, emotional issues, general well-being, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, questioning and other (LGBTQ+) inclusion, mental health first aid, physical activity for mental health, positive mental health, self-harm, student voice and substance use. Eligible for inclusion were systematic reviews of randomised trials or quasi-experimental studies evaluating school-based interventions among secondary school- or equivalent-aged children. We retrieved 95 reviews, of which 41 were eligible for the present review. We defined effective intervention strategies as those identified as being effective in an eligible study in any review. We identified a number of effective school-level or simple school interventions for addressing mental health in the above domains. Nine intervention focus areas were identified: (1) positive mental health and promotion of healthy development (five intervention strategies identified); (2) mental health literacy and awareness (six strategies); (3) LGBTQ+ mental health (two strategies); (4) mental health first aid (one strategy); (5) peer mentoring (two strategies); (6) support for transition from primary to secondary school (one strategy); (7) body image and body confidence (one strategy); (8) creative arts activities (one strategy); (9) physical activity (seven strategies) and (10) increasing access to nature (one strategy). Altogether, 27 strategies were identified. This rapid review identified 27 evidence-based school-level strategies that were used to inform the development of a menu of evidence-based whole-school actions, which were simple and inexpensive to implement in schools. This menu was piloted in a feasibility study, the results of which are reported elsewhere. Our findings were limited by a lack of quality assessment and single screening of abstracts. If Learning Together for Mental Health is demonstrated as feasible to implement and acceptable to teachers and students, a phase III cluster randomised trial will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. This article presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Public Health Research programme as award number NIHR131594.

This special issue, an outgrowth of Dr. Thema Bryant's 2023 American Psychological Association presidential initiatives, highlights the practical application of decolonial and liberation psychologies. Contributors to this issue address the diverse lived experiences of people of the Global Majority and prioritize the reclamation of epistemologies and perspectives that have been marginalized, excluded, or erased from most applications and practices of psychology. Following a brief introduction to decolonial and liberation psychologies, we express our gratitude to those who have inspired our dreams of new ways of doing psychology and also reflect on the challenging global crises and life challenges that have informed our editing and writing. We describe our decolonial editorial process that intentionally incorporated the humanizing, holistic, restorative, and communal values of liberating psychologies. Brief descriptions of the 16 articles in this special issue are organized around three interrelated themes-reclaiming love, reclaiming wisdom, and reclaiming healing-and articulate how these themes are applied across a range of healing, educational, and community settings that serve persons with diverse social identities across multiple regions around the globe. The entire project is rooted in the principles and values of decolonial and liberation psychologies, which we outline in a manifesto that reflects our guiding vision, serves as a call to action, and emphasizes healing practices infused with love, wisdom, joy, and inclusion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

This editorial introduces the Social Media + Society special issue “Comparative Approaches To Studying Privacy.” Recognizing the importance of privacy in today’s digital societies and volatile political and regulatory environments, the editorial highlights the pressing need for comparative research on the topic and describes the articles in this special issue. The special issue addresses the theoretical, methodological, and practical challenges and opportunities of researching privacy across cultural, social, political, economic, and technological units of comparison. The articles in the special issue explore diverse privacy understandings, attitudes, and practices across contexts, challenging decontextualized and mono-cultural understandings in relation to social media and adjacent technologies. The special issue articles also illustrate fruitful ways privacy can be studied across different units of comparison with qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. Several contributions in the special issue, including this editorial, not only broaden the scope of privacy research but also encourage engagement with multi-stakeholder perspectives in the context of social media, considering the role of policy, industry, and civil society. In the editorial, we briefly relate the special issue and its contributions to the comparative privacy research framework (CPRF), which serves as a useful starting point and a solid conceptual foundation for comparative privacy research. Finally, we develop a research agenda for future comparative privacy research, which critically examines position of power and epistemological biases, evaluates the comparability of the subject of study, determining and justifying relevant units of comparison, and helps to analyze how these units interact in shaping the concept of privacy.

Over the past 15 years many questions have been raised about the role and value of special issue papers in our major double-blind reviewed management journals. This may partially be because the publication rate of special issues has been growing. As Olk and Griffith report in the following paper, between 1956 and 1987 one special issue was published every 4.15 publication years, or 6% of the 326 total issues published by the Academy of Management Journal (AMJ), Academy of Management Review (AMR), Administrative Science Quarterly (ASQ), and the Strategic Management Journal (SMJ). In contrast, between 1988 and 1999 a special issue was published every publication year for the journals studied, or 19% of 328 issues. Even when Organization Science (OS) is excluded because it was a new journal in 1990, the publication rate of special issues is still 17% of all issues published in the latter period. Given the increased rate of special issue publication, many questions have been raised about this practice. Those asking the questions include authors, those who evaluate authors' contributions to knowledge, and even editors themselves. One concern is whether a paper submitted for a special issue will take longer to be published than a “normal” submission. If so, then younger colleagues in particular may think twice, reflect on their tenure clocks, and perhaps be less likely to submit their work. A second question concerns whether the odds are higher that a manuscript will be accepted for a special issue rather than for a normal submission. Underlying the second question is the suspicion that somehow it is “easier” to get a paper accepted for a special issue than it is for a regular submission. Among the speculations are that special issue editors are required to fill a whole issue and thus may accept lower-quality papers than normal to “fill” the special issue. Following this logic, should evaluators somehow “discount” papers published in special issues because they may be of lower quality than regularly submitted papers? We now have data with which to address these questions. In the article that follows, Paul Olk and Terri Griffith report on data collected on the five mainstream management journals noted above for the years 1956–1999, and they compare special issue articles to regularly published articles, assessing speed to publication, impact, and paper quality measured by article citation counts. The authors find that for ASQ, OS, and SMJ, special issue articles are cited at a significantly higher rate than are regular issue articles. However there is no significant difference in citation rates for AMJ and AMR. Thus, for three of the five journals studied, special issue articles have a significantly higher impact. With respect to paper quality as measured by variance in citation rates, they find that there is no significant difference in citation rate variance for four of the five journals. With the exception of ASQ, there is no significant difference in quality when the two publication venues are compared. This study should put to rest rumors and generalized rumblings regarding the quality, impact, and publication speed of special issues in mainstream management journals in the United States. I highly recommend this interesting article to the readers of Organizational Science.

In response to enduring historical colonialism and contemporary neocolonial influences, Indigenous Psychology movements in Asia have emerged as a counterforce to Western-centric hegemonic psychology. These movements strive for holistic healing that is deeply rooted in diverse local practices and wisdom. This introductory article positions Indigenous Psychology movements within the broader discourse on decolonial and liberation psychologies, highlighting their significance in the Chinese and Filipino cultural contexts. We briefly describe the history of these movements and explore various Indigenous healing approaches, from "indigenizing from without" to "indigenizing from within," a conceptual framework developed by Filipino psychologist Virgilio Enriquez in 1994. While recognizing the decolonial and liberatory potential of these movements, we also confront their challenges and limitations, such as the limited scope of representation of indigeneity and insufficient focus on historical trauma and colonial mentality. We advocate for a developmental approach to understand the evolution of Indigenous Psychology movements, culminating in a stage of "reclamation." The article concludes by delineating practical implications for incorporating these Indigenous perspectives into broader psychological practices. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

The article discusses the impact and role both special issue and regular issue articles have in management research and publication. There has been a trend in recent years to reserve publication sp...

Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment

The study presents the brief analysis of existing concepts of pedagogical education; experience of foreign educational institutions in educators training presented. A number of important steps taken in 2020 by the Ministry of Education and Science and the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, in the direction of coordinating the activities of the first, preschool level of the education system with the next, primary outlined. Development trends of modern higher education in Ukraine in the context of European integration: competence orientation, integrative approach to teaching professional disciplines, practical orientation, priority of moral and spiritual development of the teacher, use in the educational process of innovative, partner, interactive forms of work with students are identified. Strategic vectors of training of future preschool educators in Ukraine: academic integrity, integration of the content of educational disciplines, strengthening of ethical and aesthetic component of professional training, practical orientation of educational training, technologicalization and informatization of educational process, orientation of teaching methods on development of leadership skills, critical thinking, responsibility and independence of students in the process of gaining knowledge, readiness for life in the changing conditions of society are presented. The new strategy of training preschool teachers who will work in the conditions of constant transformational changes in society, development of information and nanotechnologies, network learning and communication is based on multiconceptual, interdisciplinary, integrated and systemic approaches. It provides an opportunity for future preschool teachers in the educational process to understand and maintain a balance between the pedagogical traditions of European rationalism and the sensory approaches of Ukrainian folk pedagogy according to the preschool-children education. The main focus of the strategy of training preschool teachers — shifting the emphasis from the teacher’s educational activities to the student’s activities, the transition from reproductive to a productive learning. In some EU countries, these issues have been successfully resolved, so their experience is being effectively implemented in the practice of training future preschool teachers in Ukraine.

Thomas Suddendorf