Conceptual and methodological problems in the emerging field of wellbeing education

Overview

Interest in the area of wellbeing education is burgeoning. It has emerged both from increased recognition that wellbeing and human flourishing are central to the goals and purposes of education, and from an understanding that schools have an important role to play in supporting students who are experiencing distress and mental health difficulties. Academics interested in wellbeing education bring a range of perspectives from disciplines including, philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology and more. In spite of this broad interest, or perhaps because of it, key epistemological, conceptual, and methodological issues have seldom been addressed, and there remains a lack of clarity and coherence on key issues in this emerging field.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to advance greater awareness of the theoretical underpinnings of wellbeing interventions and initiatives in schools, and to facilitate greater coherence, analytical rigour and refinement of principles, concepts and approaches.

To meet this aim, we invite papers that speak directly to issues of epistemological positioning and conceptual underpinnings of wellbeing interventions and initiatives in school contexts. We invite papers that address, but are not limited to, the following issues:

• Systematic reviews or mapping of the various approaches to wellbeing promotion in schools.
• Epistemological positionings of dominant school wellbeing approaches.
• Clarity on/distinctions between promotion of wellbeing aligned with goals of education on the one hand, and prevention of mental health difficulties on the other.
• Conceptual frameworks needed to scale-up or shift from discrete interventions to system-wide and whole-school approaches
• Appropriate analytic and evaluation tools for exploring the impacts of wellbeing approaches in complex, dynamic school settings.
• Methodological approaches that consider the impacts of wellbeing education on equity and social justice.
• The future of wellbeing education in a changing and uncertain world.

Timeline and key dates

Deadline for submission of full article: 5th of October, 2023

Enquiries can be directed to Special issue editors to Catriona O'Toole and Venka Simovska.

Submission guidance

Full papers are to be submitted via the journal's ScholarOne platform, selecting the special issue title from the dropdown list.

Author guidelines are available on the journal webpage.