Wellbeing and Schooling Cross Cultural and Cross Disciplinary Perspectives

Collectively, the research presented in this book revisits, challenges, and rearticulates taken-for-granted wellbeing conceptualisations, policies and intervention frameworks, as critical discussion of wellbeing in relation to children and young people from a variety of socio-cultural, political, and economic settings is still relatively sparse. The contributions work synergistically to generate a sophisticated understanding of children’s wellbeing while introducing fresh and context-sensitive approaches.  Pre-conceived and taken-for-granted notions of wellbeing are problematised through four sections in (i) Re-examining conceptualisations of wellbeing in educational research and policy; (ii) Focusing on School environments, schooling, and wellbeing; (iii) Examining the significance of cultural contexts; and (iv) Amplifying children's voices. The objective is to help generate new ways of researching and thinking about wellbeing and schooling, that transcend monocultural, monodisciplinary and monomethodological strategies. The book aims to stimulate further theoretical and empirical research, as well as development of effective policies and school interventions which nuance rather than reduce complexity of both education and wellbeing.  

Ros McLellan is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, and a psychologist with a background in secondary teaching in the UK. She is PI of a recent collaborative British Council project funded through the Newton Institutional Links Programme with the Al Farabi Foundation involving research with Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan to investigate young people’s wellbeing in that context. Previous wellbeing projects focus on the impact of creative practitioners working with young people in the classroom, and transition from primary to secondary school. Research interests also include teacher learning and development, achievement motivation, and gender.

Carole Faucher is a professor in anthropology currently affiliated with the Moray House School of Education at the University of Edinburgh. Previously, she has held faculty positions at Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education in Kazakhstan, the University of Tsukuba in Japan, and the National University of Singapore.  Her research primarily focuses on issues pertaining to student wellbeing, health education and social identity processes among children and young people living in fragile settings. She has conducted research in Southeast Asia and Central Asia and has published extensively on these topics.

Venka Simovska is Professor in School Development, Learning and Wellbeing at the Danish School of Education (DPU) Aarhus University, in Copenhagen, Denmark. She is currently a member of the steering committee for Schools for Health in Europe (SHE) Research Group, and a co-convenor for Health and Wellbeing Education Research Network within the EERA (European Educational Research Association). Simovska’s interdisciplinary research interests combine educational theory, psychology and health/wellbeing promotion in schools. Her work involves qualitative and plural research approaches within interpretive and (post)critical paradigms. Latest publication: The Making ofWellbeing Measurement: A (Kind of) Study Protocol 2021). Outlines – Critical Practice Studies Vol. 22/1 (together with O’Toole, C.)