Questions Relating to Moral Development : JCC, May 2022

JCC Connextions, Volume 8, No. 2, May 2022

Here are some important questions relating to moral development that are explored in articles in the May 2022 issue (vol. 23, no. 2) of the Journal of College and Character:

1.  How is the four component model used as an analytic framework to examine moral character experiences?

An Examination of Students’ Moral Character Experiences: Using the Four Component Model and Self-Evolution Theory  
Patricia M. King and Tim Sparks

The authors introduce the four component model (FCM), which describes both the internal processes that play distinct roles in the production of moral behavior and their associated sets of relevant, teachable skills. They use the model as an analytic framework to examine college students’ moral character experiences reported in the Wabash National Study. Read the article. 

2.  What are the ingredients to a fullfilling career and life that colleges and universities should teach college students?

From Daughter to Scholar: Reflections on a Father’s Yearnings
C. Clare Strange 

Clare Strange responds to her father’s 2005 article published in the Journal of College & Character. She shares how she has followed the guidance he set forth, and how those recommendations shaped her life and moral development as an undergraduate student and beyond. Clare is the daughter of Carney Strange, professor emeritus of higher education and student affairs at Bowling Green State University. Read the article. 

3. Why is it important to meet students where they are in terms of identity development and mental health when addressing the students’ anxiety issues?

What Independent and Interdependent Self-Construal and Anxiety in Chinese College Students: A Path Analysis
Tony Xing Tan, Yanhong Liu, Gen Li, andZhiyao Yi

Students scored similarly on interdependent self-construal and independent self-construal, but independent self-construal predicted lower anxiety score, while interdependent self-construal did not. Findings were discussed within China’s higher education context where competition is encouraged and celebrated. Read the article. 

4. What types of practicies increase trauma survivors' recovery and resilency?

Recovering Through Service: Meaning Making and Resiliency to Trauma 
Angela Clark-Taylor

Findings from this research illustrate that the meaning-making process inherent in critical community engagement aids college students’ resiliency to trauma by focusing on the meaning making of trauma and recovery through service that develops students’ critical consciousness. This evidence that critical community engagement can increase trauma survivors’ recovery and resiliency creates an imperative for student affairs professionals to better understand the role trauma may play in college students’ development. Read the article. 

5. What How do students connect their lived experiences to their conception of diversity in the campus enviornment?

From This Angle: First-Generation College Students and Photovoice as Meaning Making of Diversity of Campus
Rashné Jehangir, Kelly Collins, and Terra J. Molengraff

The authors examine how first-generation, poor, and working-class college students make meaning of and perceive diversity. The authors explore how students connect their lived experience to the conceptualization of diversity within higher education. Using the photovoice method, students collected visual data and provided narrative texts around the concept of diversity.Read the article. 

6. How have culture centers evolved in increasing cross racial understanding on their campuses?

Creating Coalitions: Culture Centers, Anti-Asian Violence, and Black Lives Matter
Anna Gonzalez

The author examines  the role of modern-day culture centers across the country in higher education which took on a significant role in coalition building between Asian American and Black communities during the COVID-19 pandemic and the current time of racial reckoning.Read the article.