PUBLICATIONS

Designing Thriving School Ecosystems: The Synergy of Biophilic Design, Wellbeing Science, and Systems Science

Fiona Gray and Andrea Downie

This article presents a novel approach that integrates biophilic design, wellbeing science, and systems science into a holistic strategy designated as the Biophilic Wellbeing Systems Approach (BWSA). This transdisciplinary approach aims to enhance student wellbeing in educational settings by fostering a deep connection with nature, supported by positive psychology and systems thinking. The research explores how these combined disciplines can shape educational environments that improve learning outcomes and promote human thriving. The study advocates for a transformative redesign of school environments, emphasising the interdependence of individual and planetary health, drawing on Indigenous wisdom and contemporary scientific knowledge. This foundational strategy holds significant potential to fundamentally change how schools are designed and operated. By fostering environments that deeply integrate wellbeing principles, this approach not only influences the physical buildings but also extends to the entire school ecosystem. It works synergistically to promote educational excellence and holistic wellbeing, ensuring that all elements of the school environment contribute to the overall development and health of students and staff.

Next Level Flourishing in Education: A Case Study of ‘Wholebeing’

Aaron Jarden, Andrea Downie, Kirsty Finter and Rebecca Jarden

This chapter describes a case study of a mid-sized all-girl independent school, in Melbourne, Australia. With an appetite for more than mainstream positive education, school leaders were equally interested in how they could address rising ill-being (mental ill-health) concerns in their staff and student population. Looking towards the future, they were attracted to systems informed, proactive, and preventative approaches that would build well-being, enable potential, and better position their school for future stressors. With such a brief, the authors along with school stakeholders co-designed a tailored whole school sustainable strategy, adopting a systems perspective to jointly focus on well-being, ill-being (mental ill-health), and resilience. Our ‘wholebeing’ approach specifically considers how well-being, ill-being, and resilience interact towards building positive mental health and sustainable flourishing in this school’s education system. Across the school context, primary outcomes included increases in well-being, decreases in ill-being, and greater resilience. Secondary outcomes included improved physical health and increased learning, academic engagement, and performance. This case study presents details of this transilient journey, from inception (e.g. initial meetings with key stakeholders), to development (e.g. key activities such as forming an internal champion group, an Appreciative Inquiry Summit, whole staff meetings, and in-depth interviews and observations with staff and students of all ages at all levels), to the delivery of the school’s co-designed strategic focus on wholebeing less than 1 year later. We share our lessons learned and detail our approach and underlying rationale so others may learn from our experiences. We see this work as the next level in sophistication of systems informed positive education design, delivery, and implementation; wholebeing.

Using Theory of Change for Fostering Well-Being and Engagement in Learning Communities

Tan-Chyuan Chin, Edwina Ricci, Adam Cooper, Andrea Downie, Dianne Vella-Brodrick

This chapter presents a Theory of Change (TOC) approach for assessing, designing, implementing, and evaluating well-being learning experiences to optimize collaborative community practices in an interconnected learning system. A rationale for why a TOC approach is necessary to progress the research and application of well-being strategies, interventions, and curriculum/programs in learning communities is provided. Two Australian case studies of learning communities are presented. An initial process framework, the “System and Individual contributions to learning Communities using Theory of Change” (SyInC–ToC), is introduced to provide school networks, and local and state governments with essential principles for developing well-being capabilities across their communities.

Systems informed positive psychology

Margaret L. Kern, Paige Williams, Cass Spong, Rachel Colla, Kesh Sharma, Andrea Downie, Jessica A. Taylor, Sonia Sharp, Christine Siokou & Lindsay G. Oades

Despite the rapid growth and uptake of the positive psychological perspective by researchers and general audiences, hype regarding the field’s potential can lead to exaggerated claims, over-inflated expectations, disillusionment, dismissal, and unintentional harms. To help mature the field, we propose Systems Informed Positive Psychology (SIPP), which explicitly incorporates principles and concepts from the systems sciences into positive psychology theory, methodologies, practices, and discourse to optimize human social systems and the individuals within them. We describe historical underpinnings of SIPP, outline the SIPP perspective, clarify epistemological, political, and ethical assumptions, and highlight implications for research and practice. We suggest that SIPP can generate possibilities for creating sustainable unimagined futures.