Promoting wellbeing through positive education: A critical review and proposed social ecological approach

Simon Coulombe,Kendra Hardy,Rachel Goldfarb

doi:10.1177/1477878520988432

Simon Coulombe, Kendra Hardy + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/1477878520988432

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Abstract

Youth wellbeing is a pressing international problem, and it is a key concern of educational institutions, considering the substantial amount of time that youth spend in school. Educators require empirically validated and theoretically sound methods to support students’ wellbeing. This article critically examines the literature on youth wellbeing and interventions in positive education and proposes an innovative, social ecological approach to promoting wellbeing in education. Personal Projects Analysis is a complementary approach addressing several gaps identified in existing interventions (e.g. lack of consideration of ecological and cultural contexts, need for a person-centred approach to support unique goals of diverse students). Implications and applications are discussed to demonstrate how school leadership and educators can apply Personal Projects Analysis to promote the wellbeing of all students.

Highlights

Mental health is an indicator of the overall wellbeing of youth around the world (e.g. Global Youth Wellbeing Index; Sharma, 2017)
We argue that positive education researchers and practitioners’ work will be advanced by more comprehensively integrating social ecological theories and concepts from education and developmental and educational psychology which examine the impacts of the school environment on youth development and wellbeing (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Cohen, 2013; Eccles et al, 1993; Eccles and Roeser, 2009)
Several scholars have used the personal project notion as an efficient way of operationalizing person-environment fit by focusing on environmental support for people’s projects and how this relates to wellbeing (Sugiyama and Thompson, 2006, 2007; Wallenius, 1999, 2004). Linking this back to Eccles and Roeser’s (2009) person-environment fit theory, we propose that a personal project approach could inform positive psychology interventions that harness the broad school system environment to support the unique projects that are relevant and meaningful to students, considering the diversity of contexts in which youth are embedded

Summary

Introduction

Mental health is an indicator of the overall wellbeing of youth around the world (e.g. Global Youth Wellbeing Index; Sharma, 2017). A whole school approach was implemented in Tecmilenio High School in Mexico, which seeks to promote wellbeing through the development of mindfulness, healthy habits, goals and achievement, resilience, positive relationships, engagement, as well as other character strengths (Escamilla, 2017) Both of these approaches have been associated with positive outcomes, including increases in academic performance, positive emotions, engagement and overall wellbeing (Escamilla, 2017; White and Kern, 2017). Through the consideration of system-based principles, SIPP as well as its application to the classroom context demonstrate the critical importance of integrating broad systems approaches into wellbeing interventions to support a collective and cohesive result Despite that it is systems-informed, the Flourishing Classroom Systems Model, does not explicitly connect the multiple systems that students are part of (e.g. family, local community, cultural group), in addition to the classroom context. In this illustrative PPA, 40% of the 10 projects listed are related to education or

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Findings

Conclusion