Wellbeing and School Improvement: A Scoping Review

Abstract

ABSTRACT Over the past decade, the intentional promotion of student and staff wellbeing (i.e., positive states of psychological, cognitive, social and physical being) has become recognized as an essential dimension of quality schooling. This development has coincided with a growing body of research that demonstrates significant correlations between wellbeing and positive school outcomes (i.e., attendance, academic achievement, classroom engagement, disciplinary absences). While this body of literature identifies why wellbeing is important to school improvement, it is not necessarily clear whether it provides insight into how wellbeing may be effectively incorporated into the praxis of school improvement. This paper reports on a scoping review that sought to identify how the construct of wellbeing is presented as an imperative within the school improvement (SI) literature. The review identified that promoting wellbeing in schools as a means of improving school outcomes can be understood through three core concepts: (a) the development of personal wellbeing and academic capability are complementary; (b) significant cultural and structural reform is necessary in schools to enable effective approaches to promoting wellbeing; and (c) a nurturing style leadership is a determining factor in a school’s capability to substantively promote wellbeing. The paper also provides recommendations for further research in this area.