“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
NELSON MANDELA
“Every person of learning is finally his own teacher.”
THOMAS PAINE
Wellbeing in education is about using wellbeing as the organising principle for our educational systems. If we wish to develop better societies then changing our current educational systems must be a key part of this. We must focus education on wellbeing.
When I refer to education, this includes all forms from infant through to adult, and as such, all institutions from universities to schools to adult learning facilities. In fact, universities are recognised by English School historian, Ivor S. Goodson, as particularly important to the change process as they are responsible for determining the content that influences activities lower down the educational chain.
My thinking and work in this area is indebted to the fantastic book ‘Sustainability, Human Well-Being and the Future of Education’ edited by Justin W. Cook from Sitra, The Finnish Innovation Fund, Helsinki, Finland.
Finnish education has been recognised around the world for its innovative and pioneering approach, putting wellbeing and sustainability at the centre of its thinking. Contributors to the book are educational experts from across the world, in particular, Finland and the USA. What is encouraging, to me at least, is that the recommendations put forward are very consistent with the drive and focus of The Age of Wellbeing.
From old to new
The main points I believe the book makes are as follows:
1. Current education is based on the historic needs of the industrial age and must change to keep up with the new challenges and opportunities of our modern age
2. Education can play an extremely important role in helping us change the future of society
3. To do this it will need a renewed purpose, best represented by expanding the capabilities of learners to lead lives that both contribute to and benefit from sustainable wellbeing
4. Transformative change, as opposed to just doing things better, or doing better things, will be difficult and require systemic support from individuals, communities, organisations and governments
In describing the transformative change required, the book tells a story of what education is now and what it should become. I’ve summarised this in the diagram below:
What will this look like in practice
More personalised, diverse, tailored learning delivered through a multitude of media will be more engaging and motivating. A focus on the growth mindset of the learner will help to build resilience and adaptability, exactly the traits required in our modern, ambiguous world. Less testing and more ongoing performance dialogue will also give learners more space to make mistakes, reflect, and grow. This will also have a positive impact on the levels of stress, depression, and anxiety experienced by many.
It follows that this new approach will also be better for the wellbeing of teachers. Less focus on targets, greater variety of project based learning, diverse groups of students and more personal development will free teachers up and raise their profile once again to become “pillars of the community.”
Of course this will also be beneficial for the wellbeing of society.“Learning organisations” can provide resources to more than just our youth. Greater ties with business, communities, and other organisations will bring people closer together with learning focused on benefiting all parties.
To counter growing stress and anxiety we need to build better and more flexible thinking, self-regard and resilience into the curriculum. We need to get our learners to imagine a better future and create ideas for getting there. However, evidence suggests that rather than schools developing students with good mental health the emphasis on exams and academic attainment is having a detrimental effect.
In line with technological developments, we need to focus more on human competencies in communication, creativity, empathy, and social skills including things like negotiation, persuasion, kindness, caring and compassion for each other. To prevent growing obesity, and mental health issues already mentioned, we need to raise the importance of exercise, diet, sleep and relaxation.
Spiritually we need to support people in identifying their strengths, personality, character and what makes them, them. We need to get more square pegs into square holes and round pegs into round holes. Cultural diversity, experience in nature and the environment, as well as greater financial and economic awareness, should also play a bigger part in what we are teaching.
It seems there are clear reasons for changing and that we will also need to implement these changes with pace. Whilst this picture remains a little hazy, what does appear to be clearer is the view that jobs will change dramatically. There is little doubt that repetitive, routine, rules-based jobs will come under increasing threat. Even some jobs involving human interaction are at risk with AI advances in the processing of natural language.
An urgent need for systemic change
So we have both a need and urgency for change, but we cannot put too high expectations on education without simultaneous change in ourselves, our communities, our businesses, and our governments. Change must happen at all levels. Parenting is one solid example of where education will need to be supported.
The great news is that there’s lots of work already ongoing in this field, most notably perhaps; because of the range, breadth and expertise of the contributors, the UNESCO Futures of Education global initiative to reimagine how knowledge and learning can shape the future of humanity and the planet.
Get in touch to build wellbeing in education
I am very keen to support developments in this area and am building a growing network of contacts. If you require support and information to move forward in this area please feel free to get in touch and I’ll do all I can to help.