Journal of College and Character is a professional journal that examines how colleges and universities influence the moral and civic learning and behavior of students. Published quarterly, the journal features scholarly articles and applied research on issues related to ethics, values, and character development in a higher education setting.
Aims and Scope
Journal of College and Character is a professional journal that examines how colleges and universities influence the moral and civic learning and behavior of students. The journal publishes scholarly articles and applied research on issues related to ethics, values, and character development in a higher education setting.
Published quarterly, the journal encourages the submission of manuscripts from around the world and from a wide range of academic and professional fields, including higher education, student affairs, psychology, religion, sociology, business, social work, philosophy, law, and education.
The journal audience includes faculty, administrators, graduate students, and practitioners in student services and campus ministry, as well as others engaged in research and practice in moral education in colleges and universities.
Journal of College and Character is a professional journal that examines how colleges and universities impact the moral and civic engagement of students. Read the current issue.
The Journal of College and Character considers manuscripts of these two types of articles: Peer Reviewed Articles; and Opinions and Perspectives. Read more to see how to prepare your manuscript..
Submit a manuscript to the Journal of College + Character. Complete guidelines for preparing and submitting your manuscript to this journal are provided below.
Formerly known as JCC Connexions, Odyssey is the official blog of the Journal of College and Character. Odyssey provides a platform for emerging and established scholars to contribute to conversations about moral, civic, and character development in higher education.
Inside This Issue. . .
What happens inside a university is not always a matter of public concern. Classroom pedagogy, innovations in food preservation or disease treatment, a college football team defeating its archrivals, or a public figure making a political pronouncement at a commencement ceremony may all make headlines—but they rarely sustain public attention. The fall of 1964 at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) was not one of these events. It was a student revolt that defined the trajectories of politics inside campus for years to come. Read more.
Critical thinking skills are essential in today’s educational landscape. They play a pivotal role in addressing future challenges and fostering economic competitiveness. However, many current teaching practices fail to effectively nurture fair-minded critical thinking. This study investigated how preservice teachers acquire and promote critical thinking skills, focusing on the perspectives of both instructors and students regarding pedagogical strategies in hybrid learning environments, particularly in the context of the AI age. Read more.
The crises that continue to rock our society seem never ending, especially for queer and trans* folks who continue to deal with the politicization of their bodies and threats to change the legality of gay marriage. These sociopolitical debates pose challenges for people of all ages but especially for students at colleges and universities. Partaking in an institution that is heavily heterosexist and white-knuckling the gender-binary, queer and trans* students are already struggling to fit within higher education. Read more.
The mental health crisis on American campuses has been increasing over the past several decades. The Healthy Minds Study received data from over 350,000 college students in the United States between 2013-2021 (Lipson et al., 2022). It found that over 60% of college students “met criteria for one or more mental health problems, a nearly 50% increase from 2013” (Lipson et. al., 2022, p. 138). How can faculty at institutions of higher education partner with students in promoting better mental health outcomes? I will explore how faculty can support students struggling with mental health and provide ideas for faculty to engage students as allies in this fight. Read more.
In our last article, we built the case for caring by showing that care pedagogy positively impacts student learning, engagement, and retention (Massaglia, Kruzic, & Martin, 2025). Care is more than “being nice”; care is a deliberate, theory-informed practice rooted in educational traditions such as humanistic learning theory, ethics of care, and critical caring pedagogy (Chinn & Falk‐Rafael, 2018; Maslow, 1968; Noddings, 2012). To recap, care is not inflating grades, telling students what they want to hear, saying “yes” all the time, and/or solving their personal problems. Read more.
