Differences and similarities in children's prose from different cultural traditions: Literary features and educational potential

Design and validation of a bioethical assessment instrument for public health policies involving behavioral change: A mixed-methods study.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY It is sometimes said that "a budget is a moral document." In other words, despite common perceptions of a budget as a dry set of numerical tabulations, the corresponding decisions as to how money is collected and spent express the moral values of the budget writers. In this essay, I use my personal experiences as a classroom teacher and science education researcher to argue that an exam should be considered a moral document too. My argument rests on three propositions: first, that assessing students is a core responsibility of teaching; second, that our exams reflect our values; and third, that our values deserve explicit articulation and robust discussion.

ABSTRACT Although The Tale of Genji, a monumental literary endeavour and a cornerstone of Japanese culture, has been explored from a multitude of research perspectives including feminist and queer frameworks, its translations are yet to be viewed through a gendered lens. Of particular interest are elements of the novel that change their meaning with shifting understanding of sexuality and moral codes, which offer a multitude of interpretations for translators working under different socio-political and cultural circumstances. This paper selects textual references to same-sex desire between men as one such element, and compares how the two iconic English translations by Waley (1935) and Seidensticker (1976) approached parts of the novel that would have been seen as taboo in their respective time and place. The case study provides insight into the shifting approaches to translations of queer texts, and questions some of the assumptions about the linear developments in the history of translation.

The global ecological crisis demands an education rooted in moral and spiritual values. Islamic Environmental Education is an interdisciplinary field that combines Islamic theology, environmental ethics, and pedagogy. This study identifies research trends, conceptual gaps, and future directions by integrating bibliometric mapping and a literature review. Using VOSviewer and manual analysis of 103 documents of various types (articles, conference proceedings, and book chapters), this study maps key terms, themes, and developments. The results indicate that Islamic Environmental Education is developing within five main clusters: the implementation of environmental education in Islamic educational institutions; Islam and sustainability; Islamic values and sustainable development; religion and climate change; and Islamic-based environmental character education. Overlay analysis reveals a shift in research focus from conceptual and normative discussions toward practical implementation, environmental governance, and global sustainability. This study also found that the integration of Islamic values into environmental education holds great potential for fostering ecological awareness and sustainable behavior through Islamic schools, pesantren, and eco-pesantren. However, research gaps remain, evidenced by the weak interconnections between certain topics and the scarcity of empirical research on the effectiveness of Islamic Environmental Education programs. This study offers a novel approach by systematically identifying research gaps in the field of Islamic Environmental Education through keyword network visualization, overlay, and density analysis. These findings provide a new direction for the development of an Islamic value-based environmental education model that is more practical, empirical, and measurable.

"We need to keep in mind that battle fatigue": A commentary on moral injury among substance use treatment and community service providers.

ABSTRACT This study systematically reviewed empirical and conceptual research on Islamic educational leadership to identify its core characteristics and administrative principles. Using a systematic review method, the authors examined 18 peer-reviewed studies (11 empirical and 7 conceptual) retrieved from Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. The findings show that Islamic educational leadership operates through two interconnected dimensions: the Islamic Spiritual Core of Leadership, which includes God-consciousness (Taqwa) and sincerity (Ikhlas), and the Application of Islamic Administrative Principles, which includes trustworthiness (Amanah), honesty (Sidq), compassion (Rahma), patience (Sabr), justice (Adl), and consultation (Shura). These dimensions reflect a progression from internal spiritual values to observable leadership practices. Although leadership practices may differ across Muslim-majority and Muslim-minority contexts, the study concludes that Islamic educational leadership is grounded in universal moral and theological principles that transcend geographical boundaries.

ABSTRACT Every year, thousands of border crossers die while seeking safety and freedom in Europe. Why do Europeans fail to grieve or protest these recurring deaths at their doorstep? While media neglect and compassion fatigue are often evoked, we challenge these explanations and instead foreground racialised, colonial, and abstract depictions of non-European migrants. We argue that border deaths are framed in ways that constrain responses by erasing politics and responsibility, appealing to compassion rather than justice, and distributing moral outrage unequally. Building on Judith Butler's work, we reflect on the potential for disrupting hegemonic normative and epistemological frames that render refugee deaths ungrievable. Drawing on long-term fieldwork with activists, migrants, and citizens across European borderlands, we show how practices of mourning and memorialization can disrupt public apathy by reasserting the value and singularity of refugee lives and reframing their deaths as politically produced losses that demand grief and accountability.

The studies examining the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on bereaved people’s grief experiences largely assumed that people mostly complied with health measures. Our study explores disruptions to the measures to perform funeral and social rituals, examining in which context they took place, how they were experienced and what they allowed in the bereaved’s grieving processes. A mixed-method was used to analyze data collected through self-reported questionnaires from 472 bereaved individuals in Belgium. As we hypothesized that disruptions would act as coping strategies, leading to lower levels of grief and guilt, and greater post-traumatic growth, quantitative analyses compared people who disregarded the rules to those who complied using MANCOVA. Then, a reflexive thematic analysis explored 185 open-ended responses about disruptive rituals. Overall, 40% of the participants reported having disregarded the rules, particularly when death was unbearable and unfair. These behaviors were multiple and had various meanings and emotional connotations. In general, such behaviors were driven by a need to do the right thing, which was described as an easy or difficult choice in the face of conflicting norms and values. Contradicting our hypothesis, disruptions were associated with elevated levels of grief and guilt. People who disregarded the rules showed also greater post-traumatic growth, but only if they were ultimately able to perform the desired rituals. Our findings argue that disruptions could have served as a form of self-empowerment, enabling people to resist constraints and meet their needs, those of the deceased and other bereaved, in accordance with moral and ethical principles.

Islamic bioethics is a recent, albeit growing, academic discipline. Despite commendable contributions, the field remains critically limited. Most notably, its methodology of strict application of Islamic law to ethical analyses and recommendations often lacks sufficient moral analysis, intellectual engagement, or social context. The practice's emphasis on religio-legal rulings- without an investigation of their underpinning moral values- has resulted in a field of inquiry devoid of robust normative foundations and dependent upon ineffective and unsubstantiated claims. This paper calls for a revival of Islamic philosophical discourse to enrich Islamic bioethical practice. Although once popularized by Medieval Muslim philosophers like Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes), philosophical discourse has fallen out of favor in the Muslim world, largely due to a perceived tension with religion. This work highlights the rich tradition of philosophical discourse in the Medieval Muslim world, disproving claims of an inherent conflict between philosophy and Islam. Following an Islamic philosophical framework, three goals for Islamic bioethics are established. First, theoretical rigor aimed at continually re-assessing and re-understanding concepts integral to the practice of bioethics such as personhood, dignity, futility, autonomy, and justice. Second, a shift from essentialist understandings of the Quran- and other sources of Islamic law- to more contextual examinations in the formulation of ethical opinions. Third, an active and interdisciplinary collaboration between Muslim scholars in the determination of Islamic rulings on medical matters. Only when these goals are met is the practice of Islamic bioethics capable of meeting the needs of Muslim patients and clinicians.

Moral distress is a significant issue among critical care nurses who frequently encounter ethically complex situations that contradict their moral and professional values. In Pakistan, research on this phenomenon remains limited particularly regarding how nurses perceive and manage moral distress. This qualitative study aimed to explore the perspectives of critical care nurses in a public sector tertiary care setting regarding the causes and psychological impact of moral distress, and the strategies employed to cope with it. An exploratory-interpretive qualitative design was employed to explore moral distress among critical care nurses in a public sector tertiary care setting in Pakistan, a low- and middle-income country. This study was guided by Jameton's concept of moral distress, which describes the psychological and ethical conflict experienced when nurses are unable to act according to their professional and moral judgment due to various constraints. Employing purposive sampling techniques, 15 nurses working in Intensive Care Unit at a public sector tertiary care setting were interviewed based on their eligibility and availability. The data were transcribed, analyzed manually, and presented as themes and subthemes. Three themes were extracted. Theme One: 'The Genesis of Moral Distress: A Conflict Between Ethics and Reality', theme two: 'The Pervasive Impact of Moral Distress: Psychological and Professional Toll' and theme three: 'Navigating the Aftermath: Coping in a Constrained Environment'. Findings suggest that moral distress arises from factors such as inadequate staffing, the hierarchical system in Pakistan which gives dominance to physician over nurses, systemic and resources constraint, consequences of moral distress; anxiety, emotional breakdown and reduced job satisfaction leading to burnout. Coping mechanism included avoidance and detachment, peer and family support and spiritual healing. There was a lack of organizational support for coping with moral distress, participants urged for structured and formal support from organization to mitigate moral distress. The study underscores urgent need for organizational support, ethical education and supportive leadership to address moral distress among critical care nurses which directly affect patients care.

Many students are drawn to nursing through altruism and cultural moral values. This qualitative study examined nursing graduates who experienced the terminal illness and death of a close family member, providing them with early exposure to clinical settings and shaping their emotional insight and sensitivity to the psychosocial dimensions of end-of-life care. Their experiences often deepened their desire to enter the nursing profession and deliver compassionate, humanistic, family-centered care as clinical practitioners. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted via digital platforms between January and February 2025. Data were analyzed using an inductive reflexive thematic approach. Key themes included “nursing as a living legacy of a loved one’s illness,” “coping with emotional challenges during training,” “shaping identity through personal loss,” and “forming perspectives on death and dying.”

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the physical culture of the 1950s and it draws on the documents of a Finnish sports organisation and the curricula of physical education in schools to examine, first, what kind of physical culture was constituted inside the national frames of Finnish society and what aims it served in the 1950s. Additionally, it explores how the multi-layered emotional regimes and ethos of sport were constituted in the physical culture of the 1950s. The analysis of primary source materials reveals three major findings. First, there was a notable emphasis not only on corporeality but on moral values in PE and sport. Second, the aims of PE and sport were targeted towards equality, encompassing gender, age and upper middle-class status. Third, PE and sport offered symbolic elements and spaces where emotional regimes were both experienced and constituted.

ABSTRACT Appeals to the value of treating people with dignity are commonplace in certain community settings, especially in health, disability, and aged care. In contrast, dignity has been relatively neglected by philosophers, not receiving the careful scrutiny most other moral concepts have been afforded. This has recently changed, with a spate of new philosophical books and articles about the meaning and value of dignity. No consensus has emerged about what dignity means or about how it is distinct from other moral values. Here, we seek to advance the debate by integrating philosophical theory with findings from empirical studies. Specifically, we argue that when people appeal to dignity in community settings they are most likely appealing to the value of not humiliating people, where to humiliate another is to treat them as a social inferior. We review two previous empirical studies which we conducted to test how lay people understand dignity. By considering these two studies together and integrating our findings with philosophical debate about the meaning of dignity, we show in this paper that lay people indeed understand dignity in line with the view that dignity means treating others as our social equals.

The dynamics of friendship as the source of emotional support and interpersonal conflict in the novel Three Mistakes of My Life by Chetan Bhagat are analyzed in detail, placing the narrative within the framework of the postmodern socio-cultural context. Although the novel has been interpreted as popular youth fiction, very little has been put in place concerning the complexity of relational relations in relation to postmodernism concepts like fragmentation, instability of identity, and the loss of collective certainties. The paper hypothesizes that friendship as discussed in the novel can be seen as both stabilizing and destabilizing, the manifestation of the postmodern anxiety of relationships, and the repositioning of the moral compass in an ever-changing society. The paper examines the role of ambition, betrayal and socio-political tensions in disrupting concepts of loyalty through analytical textual reading. The research gains a subtle insight into the relationship between people in modern Indian literature by presenting the post-modern complexity of relationships instead of defining friendship as sentimental and moral in nature.

ABSTRACT In many practical contemporary contexts, people need to make correct ethical judgements about how to respond to perceived wrongdoing—in particular, whether to punish it or tolerate it. This judgement can be challenging when the wrongdoer does not accept the allegation of wrongdoing at the level of moral principle, holding that the type of action in question was not wrong. This paper interrogates the ethics of using social (as opposed to official) punishments like public castigation, social exclusion, pressuring institutions, and non‐violent interference. Social punishment in the context of moral disagreement requires the consideration of a distinct set of ethical and epistemic factors—factors capable of distinguishing the ‘tolerably wrong’ (where social punishment will not be justified) from the ‘morally intolerable’ (where it is justified).

Drawing on social cognitive theory, moral disengagement offers an explanatory framework for behaviors that violate moral standards. However, limited research has explored its specific role in adolescent-to-parent violence, particularly within the Chinese context. This study examined whether global associations between moral disengagement and adolescent-to-parent violence, as well as the interrelations among individual components, may be associated with risk for adolescent-to-parent violence among Chinese adolescents. A sample of 1310 Chinese adolescents (47.79% females; Mage = 14.05 years, SD = 0.65, range = 13-16) completed self-report measures of moral disengagement and adolescent-to-parent violence at two waves spaced 3 months apart. Data were analyzed using both structural equation modeling and network analyses. Moral disengagement was a risk factor for subsequent adolescent-to-parent violence. When examining specific components, displacement of responsibility showed the strongest link with adolescent-to-parent violence, whereas psychological violence was most closely related to moral disengagement. Moreover, previous moral justification and displacement of responsibility were associated with increases in all forms of adolescent-to-parent violence. Adolescents reporting higher levels of psychological violence were more likely to show increased endorsement of all eight moral disengagement mechanisms over time. These findings suggest that bidirectional associations between moral disengagement and adolescent-to-parent violence emerge through specific mechanisms and behavioral forms rather than at the aggregate construct level. These findings highlight the importance of addressing displacement of responsibility, moral justification, and psychological violence as potential intervention targets that may play a role in disrupting the cognitive-behavioral cycle of adolescent-to-parent violence.

ABSTRACT This study expands the triadic appraisal framework of situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) with a 3 (crisis type: human-error vs. management misconduct vs. scansis) × 2 (organizational information-giving strategy type: instructing vs. adjusting) between-subjects online experiment among U.S. adults (N = 482). Moral outrage and empathetic anger were found to be distinct forms of third-party anger, driven by different triggers. The adjusting strategy led to significantly lower organizational reputation damage than the instructing strategy in the management misconduct crisis, but not in the human error or scansis crisis. Punishment intentions were found to vary as a function of crisis type and organizational response strategy.

ABSTRACT This study examines how novice teachers in a Confucian-heritage context negotiate their personal needs while responding to external accountability demands. The purpose is to understand how these teachers navigate tensions between workplace expectations and their own perceptions of what they require to work sustainably. Interviews were conducted with fourteen early-career teachers, and the data were analyzed thematically with reference to a revised hierarchical needs framework. The results suggest that teachers’ needs can be described in hierarchical terms, but cultural norms and liangxin (an internalized moral conscience) often prompt participants to move beyond unmet basic needs in order to meet what they view as the moral expectations of teaching. Security and belonging emerged as interrelated forms of perceived support, while accountability pressures contributed to increased workload and emotional strain. Despite these challenges, many teachers continued to pursue what they understood as professional fulfillment, indicating a form of needs-level crossover shaped by both external cultural expectations and internal moral commitments. These findings point to policy and school-level arrangements that may help teachers address essential needs more consistently, while also enabling them to engage in meaningful professional development without compromising their well-being.

ABSTRACT This study explores how elite athletes construct and value the “Chinese sporting spirit” within the country’s Whole-Nation System. Grounded in the Eastern indigenous psychology paradigm, we applied Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) to verbatim transcripts of public broadcast interviews featuring 30 elite athletes. This process led to a framework built on four distinct dimensions: Patriotism, Heroism, Humanism, and Unity and Dedication. Rather than viewing these through Western relativist lenses, we found that athletes internalise Patriotism not merely as an emotion, but as a profound moral obligation within the Jia-Guo (Family-Nation) continuum. Heroism transcends the outdated model of tragic physical sacrifice; contemporary athletes are increasingly pivoting toward Zhonghe zhi mei (the beauty of harmony), seeking a holistic unity between athletic mastery and personal well-being. Humanism manifests as the profound practice of self-cultivation (Xinxing), guiding their moral choices and social responsibility. Finally, Unity operates through the deeply ingrained cultural lineage of Chuan-Bang-Dai (mentoring), ensuring intergenerational spiritual continuity. Ultimately, our results suggest that the sporting spirit is not a rigid ideological slogan. Instead, athletes actively internalise these cultural symbols as a moral compass to cultivate their inner character and fulfill their roles as agents-in-society. This research provides concrete implications for cultural sport psychology, mental health interventions, and career meta-transitions in high-performance sports.