Nurturing the wellbeing of students in difficulty: The legacy of Paul Cooper

«This book is an opportunity to pay tribute to Professor Paul Cooper, whose long career in the field of young people with emotional and behavioral difficulties has made it possible to greatly influence the understanding of the difficulties of these children and the interventions that are implemented to them. I have never seen, in the same book, such a diverse collection of topics, but which nevertheless offers a very coherent and relevant whole.» (Caroline Couture, Tenured Professor, Department of Psychoeducation and Social Work, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières) 　 «The originality of this book lies in bringing together a set of mature reflections by international authors on the understanding of the nature of SEBD and the challenges of equitable inclusive education in relation to students with SEBD.» (Paul Bartolo, Department of Psychology, Faculty for Social Wellbeing, University of Malta) 　 Paul Cooper dedicated his academic life researching and writing to advance theory and practice to nurture and enhance the wellbeing of marginalised and disadvantaged children, at a time when such children were not only voiceless and disenfranchised but frequently at the receiving end of punitive and exclusionary practices. In this book various colleagues share their work and insights into how Paul Cooper’s pioneering work was instrumental in advancing the field they were working on and inspired them to further extend and develop the area themselves through their research and publications. Social, emotional and behaviour difficulties, the perspectives of students, nurture groups, the biopsychosocial perspective to special educational needs and disability, the wellbeing of students, especially those most marginalised, these have become keywords endemically attached to Paul Cooper.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Introducing Paul Cooper – Carmel Cefai: Introduction – Paul Cooper: A Brief and Incomplete Account of Some Early Adventures in Education – Diversity and Inclusion – michalis Kakos and Paul Cooper: Identity as Difference: On Distinctiveness, Cool and Inclusion – Brahm Norwich: The Biopsychosocial Model and What It Means for Understanding Inclusion in Education – Paul Downes: Reframing Cooper’s Emotional-Relational, Commodification and Biopsychosocial Concerns as a Spatial Turn towards Concentric Systems of Inclusion – Valeria Cavioni and Giusi Antonia Toto: Exploring Pre-service Special Education Teachers’ Self-Perceptions in Addressing Students’ Academic, Social, and Emotional Needs – Su Qiong XU: The Curriculum Reforms of Special Education in the Context of Inclusive Education in China – Nurture Groups – David Colley: From Nurture Groups to Nurturing Cities: The Impact of Evidence-Based Research – Carmel Borg: Returning from Educational Exile: The School of Barbiana and Emancipatory Nurture Groups as Projects of Hope and Possibility – Corinna Barker and Helen Cowie: Developmental Effects on the Daughters of Absent Fathers: The Need for Nurture – Engaging Students with Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties – Kate Winchester and Chris Forlin: Overcoming Disengagement of Students through an Arts-Based Programme – Colleen McLaughlin: Looking the Wrong Way – Maria Poulou: From Students «without voices» to Students with … «low voices» – Coleen Gilkes-Collymore and Garry Hornby: Exploring the Experiences of Mothers of Children with ADHD in the Caribbean.

About the Author :
Carmel Cefai PhD, FBPS, is Director of the Centre for Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health and Professor of Psychology, at the University of Malta. He has published extensively on the mental health, wellbeing and resilience of children and young people, with numerous books, research reports and journal papers.