Arguing for a holistic approach to student support, this book explores how to better serve students in African settings through the services and programmes offered at universities, providing empirical studies, case studies and theoretical explorations from four Southern African countries.

Acknowledging the ultimate role of student support services in improving and enhancing the overall student experience, the book includes voices and perspectives of lecturers, students and support staff to gain an on-the-ground understanding of challenges faced. Chapters cover a wealth of themes related to student support and services, such as accommodation and student life, sexual and gender-based violence support services and ICT services, and explore educational settings in Zimbabwe, Malawi, South Africa and Eswatini. The book explores areas for growth and the need for multi-level engagement and responsibility in higher education, where the obligation of curating an inclusive and conducive learning environment is shared amongst all key stakeholders. By shining a spotlight on African approaches and innovations, the book contributes underrepresented viewpoints to the established field of global higher education discourse.

The book will be of interest to scholars, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of higher education, student affairs practice and higher education administration, as well as African studies. The book will provide useful insights more broadly for international scholars in the global south interested in student support and services in resource-constrained settings.

The book comprehensively explores the metaverse's application in China's vocational education, particularly focusing on its impact on digital transformation and pedagogical innovation.

Through 59 case studies, the book systematically examines the metaverse's conceptual framework, functional positioning, technological architecture, and pedagogical system in vocational education. Based on this foundation, the book conducts empirical investigations into students' cognition, attitudes, and acceptance of metaverse technologies and their impact on learning outcomes and technological adaptability. Four representative cases from Chinese vocational institutions are featured in the book, vividly illustrating innovative practices in metaverse applications such as reconstructing teaching scenarios, optimizing training processes, strengthening industry-education integration, and expanding employment services. The authors propose systematic strategies to advance the digital transformation of vocational education and offer solutions to practical challenges, such as technological costs, data privacy, and platform standardization. This work provides essential theoretical grounding and practical insights into leveraging metaverse technologies to promote high-quality, competency-based talent cultivation in the new digital era.

The book will appeal to policymakers, educators, and researchers working in vocational education and metaverse in education.

This book examines the educational needs of school-aged children with autism in China. It addresses the gap between the available resources and the growing demand for specialized education.

The author presents a comprehensive assessment system based on well-established models, such as the iceberg theory and Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The framework prioritizes three levels of need: physiological, developmental, and advanced developmental. This ensures that interventions are tailored to each child's unique requirements. The book emphasizes the importance of comprehensive treatment models focusing on long-term, individualized education strategies rather than short-term interventions. It provides teachers with practical guidance on assessment methods, teaching strategies, and interventions across eight domains. These approaches aim to address the core challenges in social communication, behavior, and cognition commonly experienced by children with autism. In addition to meeting the diverse needs of students with autism, the proposed system serves as a roadmap for creating a more responsive educational environment.

By connecting theoretical frameworks with practical solutions, the book offers valuable insights for special education professionals, policymakers, educators, researchers, and students interested in special education, autism spectrum disorders, and educational psychology.

Child Development: Theories and Critical Perspectives provides a perceptive and engaging overview of theories in child and adolescent psychology, uniquely combining traditional scientific perspectives with critical (postmodern) approaches. This new edition has been extensively revised to incorporate recent advances in the field, featuring a new chapter, 'Theorizing about children's digital worlds', that explores contemporary issues including social media, artificial intelligence, internet addiction and the banning of mobile phones in schools.

The authors skilfully place developmental theories within philosophical and cultural contexts, tracing historical developments across different schools of thought while exploring their interconnections and practical implications. Early chapters cover mainstream theorists such as Piaget, Skinner, Freud and Vygotsky. Other influential theorists include Maccoby and Thelen, and contemporary thinkers such as Overton and Stetsenko. Significant figures less well-known today, like Dewey and Rubinstein, are also introduced. The text also addresses broader frameworks including lifespan perspectives, systems theory, evolutionary theory, epigenetics, feminist approaches, children's voices and Indigenous theories. Current controversies such as 'decolonizing' developmental psychology and the role of universities in knowledge production are also discussed.

Written with students in mind, the book includes valuable pedagogical features such as recommended readings, discussion questions, activities and relevant websites. Essential reading for postgraduate students in developmental psychology, education, social work and social policy, its lucid style makes complex theoretical concepts accessible to readers at all levels, including those with limited background in psychology.

Timothy D. Grundmeier's Lutheranism and American Culture examines the transformation of the nation's third-largest Protestant denomination over the course of the nineteenth century. In the antebellum era, leading voices within the church believed that the best way to become American was by modifying certain historic doctrines deemed too Catholic and cooperating with Anglo-evangelicals in revivalism and social reform. However, by the mid-1870s, most Lutherans had rejected this view. Though they remained proudly American, most embraced a religious identity characterized by a commitment to their church's confessions, isolation from other Christians, and a conservative outlook on political and social issues.

Grundmeier shows that this transformation did not happen in a vacuum. Throughout the Civil War and early years of Reconstruction, disputes over slavery and politics led to quarrels about theology and church affairs. During the war and immediately after, the Lutheran church in the United States experienced two major schisms, both driven by clashing views on the national conflict. In the postbellum years, Lutherans adopted increasingly conservative positions in theology and politics, mainly in reaction to the perceived "radicalism" of the era. By the final decades of the nineteenth century, Lutherans had established a rigorously conservative and definitively American form of the faith, distinct from their coreligionists in Europe and other Protestants in the United States.

Although Grundmeier focuses on a single religious tradition, his study has implications for several areas of Civil War scholarship. First, it demonstrates how the Lutheran experience diverged from that of other Protestant groups, thereby expanding our understanding of how American Christians responded to the era's crises, including slavery, sectionalism, and national identity. In addition, his work reinforces and extends many of the findings in other historical fields: the political culture of the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, the views of German and Scandinavian immigrants, and the various forms of conservatism among white northerners. Grundmeier's most significant contribution, however, is examining a previously unexplored subject. In the vast corpus of works on the Civil War era and American religious history, scholars have almost entirely overlooked the views and experiences of Lutherans. Lutheranism and American Culture seeks to remedy that neglect and serve as the starting point for understanding the formative decades of this distinctive faith.

Creativity and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at Times of War, Exile, and Trauma draws upon decades of clinical experience to illuminate the unique challenges and profound insights that emerge when practicing psychoanalytic psychotherapy within a multifaceted social terrain.

With reference to clinical case material and theoretical insight, Alfandary offers readers unprecedented access to therapeutic work conducted in Israel amid ongoing cultural tensions, military conflicts, and intergenerational trauma. Drawing from Winnicott, Bion, Klein, and Freud, the author explores how exile, trauma, and war fracture both individual identity and the social fabric, and how these ruptures can also spark unexpected creativity and growth. The book also covers a range of themes, including immigration, cross-cultural work, Holocaust memory, military trauma, and antisemitism, revealing how psychoanalytic practice adapts and responds to Israel's distinctive social pressures while offering universal insights into human resilience, trauma recovery, and the therapeutic relationship.

Creativity and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at Times of War, Exile, and Trauma will be of great interest to psychoanalytic psychotherapists, social workers, and psychologists. It will also be relevant for academics and scholars of trauma studies, literary studies, and interdisciplinary researchers.

The book adopts a critical interdisciplinary perspective and examines the crisis and prospects of the social psychological domain. It ventures into the realm of social psychology, metatheory, integrative potential, and activism in support of the socially and economically oppressed.

This book addresses the sociocultural imagery that stimulated the research in social psychology in India. It explores how trans-disciplinarity will culminate in perspectives and ideas that make social psychology transformative, change-oriented, and responsive to various social challenges.

The book will be helpful to teachers, scholars, and students interested in understanding the social psychology of India. This book will be a valuable reference read in interdisciplinary social sciences and schools of psychology, political science, sociology, philosophy, and critical legal studies. It provides an accessible and engaging approach to dealing with the complexities of interdisciplinary social psychology in India.

This inspiring book provides readers with information which will help them to understand why they feel overwhelmed or anxious when under pressure, what they can do about it, and how to make the necessary mindset and lifestyle changes to become more resilient so they can cope well with the challenges they face.

Showcasing the innovative and easy- to- remember 'FUEL Your Resilience' model, which stands for Flexibility, Use of resources, Energising, and Locus of control, the book offers a structured, practical approach which utilises the power of psychology to enable people to build resilience skills in focused, proven, and practical ways. The book provides practical strategies that can be implemented immediately to help individuals, team members, and employees remain productive in stressful situations by understanding, developing and applying their resilience skills. Readers will feel liberated and empowered to move forward and cope well with pressure, challenges, and changes, with more energy, enthusiasm, and confidence.

It is valuable reading for all professionals, particularly those in high pressure environments such as health, mental health, education, business, finance and law.

This book delves into one of the most profound and timeless pursuits of humankind: happiness, exploring its meaning, origins, and pathways across cultures, disciplines, and traditions. Drawing from psychology, philosophy, biology, and workplace dynamics, it offers a nuanced understanding of well-being, revealing the intricate forces that shape human flourishing. Moving beyond scientific frameworks, this volume brings together insights from the world's major religious traditions to explore how faith, virtue, and spiritual practices foster a fulfilling life. It examines the intersection of happiness with morality, purpose, and transcendence, offering a holistic perspective on what it truly means to live well. This book is about exploring and attaining of happiness which really comes out of sacred Religious Scriptures representing to the World practicing religions. One thing that is interesting in Scripture is that 'Love of God' is often used to attain happiness. Doing religious practices mean more about faithfulness, trust and obedience to God.

Seamlessly integrating empirical research with timeless wisdom, this book serves as an essential resource for students, scholars, and educators in Psychology, Positive Psychology, Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Liberal Arts. Equally invaluable for mental health professionals, counsellors, leaders, and individuals dedicated to personal growth, it offers practical insights drawn from both scientific inquiry and spiritual traditions, guiding readers toward deeper well-being and fulfilment.

A comprehensive study of D. T. Suzuki's Zen philosophy and philosophical psychology in relation to his Buddhist understanding of the "cosmic Unconscious."

This book explores how the Japanese philosopher D. T. Suzuki (1870-1966) developed an integral synthesis of Eastern and Western sources to establish a modern philosophical psychology of the "cosmic Unconscious," which he in turn used as the basis to interpret every aspect of Zen art, meditation, and enlightenment. Beyond Freud's personal unconscious and Jung's collective unconscious, according to Suzuki, is the cosmic Unconscious of Zen, which as absolute nothingness is the fountain of inexhaustible creative potentialities and the source of all Zen-inspired arts. The book demonstrates that, like the Kyoto School of modern Japanese philosophy, Suzuki's Zen endeavors to overcome the existential problem of nihilism or relative nothingness by shifting to the openness of absolute nothingness wherein emptiness is fullness and all things are disclosed in the evanescent beauty of their suchness. Suzuki, however, formulates his scheme in terms of a depth psychology where the cosmic Unconscious is the encompassing locus of absolute nothingness. Ultimately, the book argues that, by integrating both Eastern and Western views of the unconscious psyche, including the different schools of Zen and Mahayana Buddhism, as well as American, French, and German theories of the unconscious, Suzuki's Zen concept of the cosmic Unconscious constitutes a significant original contribution to philosophical psychology.

While New Amsterdam has captured public imagination and scholarly attention for centuries, the Dutch borderland settlement that became Albany, New York, was no less vital to the development of early America. In The Ancient House, historian Erin Kramer examines how early relationships between the Dutch and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) built a foundation for the town's oversized role in European and Indigenous diplomacy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Albany (called "the ancient house" by a Haudenosaunee orator) was an essential space where Indigenous people articulated what it meant for Europeans to settle in their world. Kramer illustrates how Haudenosaunee people shaped the town, its politics, and the laws enforced there through a century of negotiations, and how they sought redress and hold colonists to their agreements. By incorporating Haudenosaunee stories into the broader narrative of New York history, The Ancient House reveals how Albany became a negotiated community, a site of dialogue, and a critical central place in early America.

Free people of color were both architects of equal rights and active participants in the Civil War, on and off the battlefield. Their unique status as already free persons before emancipation shaped their experiences of military service, political activism, and community life in ways distinct from those newly freed from slavery and affected how they navigated the pursuit of equal rights.

In this groundbreaking work, Warren Eugene Milteer Jr. brings the stories of free people of color to the forefront, revealing that freedom was not simply the absence of enslavement but a powerful foundation of identity, rights, and belonging. Their determined struggles and strategies before, during, and after the war helped redefine what it meant to be a citizen in a nation grappling with democracy and equality. Through military service, vital civilian roles, and political advocacy, free people of color stood at the heart of the nation's most transformative conflict. Centering their voices and histories, Out of This Strife Will Come Freedom shows how their sacrifices and strategies helped forge America's path toward justice, reshaping our understanding of freedom and their enduring legacy in the national story.