The School as an Arena for Co-Creating Participation, Equity, and Well-Being-A Photovoice Study from Norway.

Camilla Ihlebæk,Jenny Flobak,Camilla Castellan,Jo Ese

doi:10.3390/ijerph18168252

Abstract

Schools may play an essential role as an arena for co-creating community activities that enhance well-being, equity, and citizenship. Still, there is limited knowledge about physical and non-physical factors that contribute to well-being within such approaches. The aim of this study was to identify important factors for well-being as perceived by pupils, school employees, and parents in a community school in Norway. The participatory method photovoice was used, and seven pupils, six employees, and four parents participated by taking photos used as the basis for six focus group discussions. Transcripts of the discussions were analyzed using Systematic Text Condensation. The analysis showed that the participants experienced that the school’s built and natural environment, the activities happening there, and the human resources and organization at the school facilitated perceptions of safety, inclusion, and cohesion, which in turn contributed to well-being. Furthermore, the results showed that co-creating schools as a community arena could be an innovative way of ensuring participation, equity, and well-being in the community. Such an approach might be especially important in deprived areas or in multi-ethnic communities. An important prerequisite to succeed is the openness of the school’s staff to engage in co-creation with other stakeholders in the community.

Highlights

It is widely recognized that health and well-being are primarily created and maintained within arenas outside the health care sector, and communities and neighborhoods are emphasized as the key settings for health promotion [1,2]
The physical school building and its surroundings were important for all participants as a factor that encouraged well-being
The school library, kitchen and dining room, gym, venue for the leisure club “The mirror of the world”, playground, football field, graffiti paintings made by a local artist, and the large trees in the school yard were all objects in the pictures participants took to represent well-being

Summary

Introduction

It is widely recognized that health and well-being are primarily created and maintained within arenas outside the health care sector, and communities and neighborhoods are emphasized as the key settings for health promotion [1,2]. As almost all children in a community will attend elementary school, schools are seen as a key arena with unique opportunities for promoting health and well-being, as well as ensuring inclusion, equity, and democratic values [3,4,5]. It is important to gain more knowledge on how elementary schools can be developed to target such problems and to gain more insight into which factors are perceived as important for creating well-being for different stakeholders using the school as a community arena. The purpose of this study was to investigate a new framework developed in Østfold, Norway using schools as an innovative arena for co-creating community development and inclusion. Several approaches and conceptual frameworks for integrating health promotion in schools have been developed, such as Health Promoting Schools (HPS) [7], The Whole

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion