Book reviews [International Journal of Emotional Education, 12(2)]

Abstract

Sensitivity to the social and emotional needs of children and young people, in all their diversity, is the first theme that runs through the book reviews for this issue. The second theme is the value of honest, person-centred relationships at home and in educational settings. The book by Long and Evans (2020) is highly topical during the period of lockdown/quarantine imposed on families following the COVID-19 pandemic. It will resonate with all those parents/caregivers who have found themselves obliged to do home-schooling for their children, whether they have the aptitude or time for this or not. The authors emphasise the importance of structured frameworks to ensure children’s safety and sense of belonging, and to allay their understandable fears and anxieties about the pandemic. To this end, they provide a wealth of creative and imaginative activities for parents/caregivers to engage with. They are also aware of the challenges facing parents/caregivers of children with special needs. O’Toole and Hayes (2020) draw on a wide range of theoretical frameworks to justify the use of different interventions to facilitate positive behaviour in primary and nursery schools. Each approach is illustrated with case studies and examples of good practice. The reader is also invited to carry out tasks and to reflect on issues that arise. The focus of this readable book is on children’s strengths and their capacity for resilience. Brown, Desai and Elliott (2020) target those who work with students in higher education and propose a new model of supervision that focuses on diversity and inclusion on campus. Their approach emphasises the crucial importance of identity-conscious supervision, which takes account of students’ ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, or religious belief. Central to the approach is a concern for building authentic relationships with students, grounded in trust and a deep commitment to students’ sense of self and identity. The authors also recognise the need for change at institutional level as universities become increasingly diverse. Their model addresses issues around conflict which almost inevitably arises in contexts where people’s values and experiences differ or even clash. In this book, as in Brown et al. (2020), the reader is invited to reflect on case studies and consider challenging situations that arise. Bond (2020) documents a personal and highly emotional account of one mother’s reaction over time to her daughter’s decision to make the transition from female to male. On reading the book, as well as the review by Karen Buckley, I reflected that access to the wise counsel of the previous three books in this set of reviews would have greatly alleviated much of the distress and turbulence in the relationship between this mother and her developing child.