The editorial team would like to thank all those who submitted manuscripts and those who stuck with the process through to the publication phase. Your work is “Renewing Minds, Transforming Lives, and Creating Safer Communities,” locally and globally.
The purpose of JGET is threefold: 1) to discuss, describe, 
share, and report on the work that practitioners across diverse disciplines are involved in on a daily basis which transforms lives and creates safer communities; 2) to be a platform for scholars whose works are translatable to real world, relevant, practical solutions that transforms lives and create safer communities; 3) to promote the social and emotional development of children, youth, and adults.
GC SCORED has adeptly aligned five core social emotional competencies with the RUMERTIME Process™. The RUMERTIME Process™ is an acronym that stands for Recognize, Understand, Manage, Express, Reflect on your Thoughts, Interactions, Mindsets, and Emotions (RUMERTIME™).
Elements of the RUMERTIME Process™ are infused throughout this issue’s four publications. A cursory glance of these articles may result in you missing the symbiotic relationship between the pith of the articles and social emotional competencies (SECs). So as not to fall prey to this situation, it is important to recognize and understand the lens through which you view SECs, as a philosophy and/or as a practice. GC SCORED views social emotional competence as essential to all relationships and interactions just as air is to life.
The RUMERTIME Process™ is a five step, social-emotional problem-solving strategy that helps individuals across the lifespan move from a position of inter and intrapersonal imbalance to inter and intrapersonal balance and from unconscious living to conscious living.
In this JGET issue four SECs(Self/Social Awareness, Self/Relationship Management Skills) have been interwoven and connected to the author’s main ideas and thesis statements. The authors in this issue sought to recognize and understand through qualitative research, literature reviews and a phenomenological approach practical and culturally responsive problem-solving strategies that are accessible and scalable for practitioners in diverse settings.
GCSCORED defines self/social awareness as, “The ability to ACCURATELY recognize and understand your Thoughts, Interactions, Mindsets and Emotions(TIME™). HONESTLY evaluating and assessing your Mindsets, Attitudes, Relationships, Knowledge, Emotions, Resources, and Skills/Strategies(MARKERS™)while reflecting on the relationship between one’s TIME™ and MARKERS™ and the impact they have on self and others in diverse situations. (Larrier, 2018)”
For example, utilizing SEC lens the article highlighting homelessness among children discusses the importance of concurrently promoting the academic success of this population while supporting their healthy development and their ability to contribute to the global economy. The skills required to support student’s healthy development and to contribute positively to the global economy are social emotional skills, such as self-awareness, relationship management skills(being able to listen), critical thinking skills, self-management skills, responsible decision-making skills.
Furthermore, the article on academic at-risk high school students underlines the inadequateness of SECs being at the root(Cause) of students behaviors, academic performance and attendance issues, home, school and community issues(symptoms).
The articles on listening skills and critical thinking skills provide avenues for individuals to learn to manage their TIME™. In the RUMERTIME Process™ the Manage Plot is aligned with self and relationship management SECs. These are defined as “The ability to use your awareness of your TIME™ to choose what you say and do in order to positively direct your behavior with self, others, and in diverse settings. (Larrier, 2017)”
If we want to interrupt and disrupt the rapid increase in homelessness, school failures, bullying, anxiety, depression, etc., across the lifespan locally and globally, we as a society must begin changing the lens through which we assess and solve problems. It is imperative that we move from a mindset and practice of “symptom” eradication/elimination to a mindset and practice of “cause” exploration and transformation.
JGET aims to move beyond disciplinary boundaries towards wider transdisciplinary dialogue on factors influencing the social and emotional determinants of an individual’s life course, which are increasingly hybrid, diasporic, border-crossing, intercultural, multilingual, and global.
LaVerne Shaw-Bailey
Editor-in-Chief, GCSCORED