Conference Agenda

Whether students feel comfortable at school has become a key indicator for successful teaching (Hagenauer & Hascher, 2018), a cooperative school climate conducive to learning (OECD, 2017), and a factor influencing the further success of students' educational careers (Bücker et al., 2018). In recent years, studies have also increasingly focused on opportunities for participation and co-determination in schools and lessons (Anderson et al., 2022; Graham et al., 2022). Through active participation in school and lessons, students can experience basic democratic skills; they learn to articulate their own concerns and interests and to be taken seriously with them (Quenzel et al., 2023). The political self-efficacy experienced in this way strengthens the concrete sense of belonging to the (experienced) community and the abstract confidence in the legitimacy of democratic decision-making processes (Johnson, 2015).

Different studies also find evidence that participation opportunities have a positive impact on student well-being (Sykas & Peonidis, 2022). Quantitative studies on the relationship between participation and well-being, however, are rare to date. Additionally, participation in school includes a wide range of possible actions and can range from talking to student representatives to actively involving as many students as possible in the lessons and in all matters relevant to school. Studies on whether these various forms of co-determination (such as whether students are asked for their opinions or whether they can actively shape school and lessons) also have a different impact on well-being are still outstanding. Since participation also demands time and commitment, for example when differences of opinion are openly discussed and solutions have to be worked out, it is also theoretically conceivable that participation can reduce well-being. The research findings listed above and theoretical considerations suggest that it is important to investigate the question of whether and when student well-being is related to the opportunities for participation in schools. In this paper, we intend to address this question.

When analyzing the relationship between participation opportunities and student well-being, it seems central to take into consideration the gender of adolescents. Numerous studies show that girls suffer more frequently from physical and psychological complaints from puberty onwards and have lower life satisfaction than boys (Potrebny et al., 2019). In turn, the frequency of experiencing discomfort and life satisfaction is closely related to student well-being (Löfstedt et al., 2020). Although the relationship between health and student well-being is well established, a range of studies find little evidence of a relationship between gender and student well-being (Ott, 2021). In contrast, other studies do suggest differences between female and male adolescents in terms of their well-being (Palsdottir et al., 2012). Consequently, the findings on gender-specific student well-being are ambiguous. Simultaneously, the perceived participation opportunities are also assessed differently in the group of girls and boys. For example, Müller-Kuhn et al. (2021) were able to show that there is a correlation between the gender of the students and the assessment of participation opportunities, whereas girls feel that they can participate more in school. We will therefore discuss the relationship between participation opportunities and well-being separately by gender in order to examine whether the available participation opportunities in school influence the well-being of girls and boys differently.

Student participation in schools and its link to a student's sense of belonging and wellbeing is a increasing concern among mainstream education providers in many jurisdictions and has been focus of numerous research studies internationally. Research studies focus on various aspects of student participation such as its link to antisocial behaviour, academic performance and well being (Gonzalez et al. 2020) or student participation in decision making (Cheng et al. 2020). Similar to education policy in most European countries, the Irish Department of Education aims to ensure that the experience of students throughout their primary and post primary education will be one that enhances, promotes, values and nurtures their wellbeing. The Wellbeing Policy Statement and Framework for Practice (Government of Ireland, 2018) highlights the importance of student participation and the inclusion of students in the life of the school in a manner that will enhance their sense of belonging, security and connectedness to school. This case study aims to explore student perceptions in terms of how they participate in classrooms, at a whole school level, and in decision making in relation to matters that affects them. Students were also asked about thier own sense of belonging in the school. This research was carried out by Dublin City University in conjunction with Educate Together (School Patron Body) and teachers in four Educate Together schools. The study was partly funded by the Teaching Council of Ireland under the John Coolahan Research Fund.

The key findings of the study highlight the classroom and whole school activities in which students participate most and least, the factors that students’ claim prevents their participation, student perception of the degree to which they are involved in decision making in the school and their level of influence on decision making. The findings also highlight students’ perception of belonging in the school and what helps them to feel a sense of belonging in the school.

Wellbeing in schools is a field characterized by the proliferation of research over the last decade. Wellbeing is often used as a measure of quality of life, referring to a wide range of phenomena, socioeconomic indicators or subjective experiences. The conceptualizations draw upon different disciplines – from psychology and philosophy to childhood studies, economics, social welfare studies and political science. A recent systematic review focusing on bibliometric and network analysis of the research on wellbeing in educational contexts published in the years 1978-2018 identifies a pattern of an emerging discipline, with an initial 15-year inception period followed by a 10-year consolidation period and a decade of rapid exponential growth (Hernández-Torrano, 2020). The same review reveals that the most influential research is conducted in predominantly English-speaking countries dominated by the US, followed by the UK, Australia and Canada, while European and specifically Scandinavian research is scarce. This article engages with wellbeing in schools in the context of the Danish ‘Folkeskole’ (public primary and lower secondary schools, students aged 6-16 years).

Wellbeing has become a core issue in educational reforms and related scholarship, both internationally and in Denmark (e.g., Thorburn, 2018; McLellan, Faucher & Simovska, 2022). In the literature, wellbeing is typically defined as ‘being well’, or having an optimal psychological experience and functioning, positively associated with students’ motivation, learning and academic achievement (Adler, 2017; Bücker et al., 2018). Consequently, educational research, policy and practice have mostly endorsed the ‘transformative’ potential of the concept—that is, its potential to inform school development and interventions conducive to the thriving, inclusion and engagement of students (e.g.McCallum & Price, 2016). However, research has suggested that the (over)use of the concept can easily swing from being transformative to being ‘tyrannical’ (Simovska & Kousholt, 2021), excluding certain subjectivities and entailing the dominance of simplified ‘feel-good’, ‘positive thinking’ or similar individualistic agendas in schools (cf. Watson et al.). Furthermore, the aspirations of measuring and promoting school wellbeing are characterized by inconsistent and often contradictory uses of social and educational theory (Wright & McLeod, 2015; Spratt, 2017; Simovska & O'Toole, 2021) and a scarcity of children’s and young people’s perspectives.

Against this background and with an ambition to contribute to amplifying children’s voices related to wellbeing at school and refining the concept theoretically, in this article, we explore children’s perspectives on wellbeing in school.

For the analysys, we deployed the model of student wellbeing developed by Simovska and colleagues (Simovska, 2016; Simovska & Kousholt, 2021; O’Toole & Simovska, 2022). The model builds on the key theoretical assumptions originating in neurocognitive science, specifically the 4E approaches (Varela, Thompson & Rosch, 1991). In this theorizing, wellbeing is construed as Enactive, Embodied, Embedded and Extended. In other words, the mind and the body are treated as inextricably connected (enactive and embodied) and intertwined with the social, physical and material worlds (embedded and extended). Accordingly, conceptualizing school wellbeing entails accommodating students’ lived experience in the context of the material and discursive (power) relations, (in)equalities and opportunity/adversity dynamics they encounter in a specific historical, political and sociocultural setting of the school.

Bullying – a subset of aggressive behaviors characterized by repetition and an imbalance of power – is a cross-cultural worldwide phenomenon that causes harm and even trauma to many children and youth (Nielsen et al., 2015). Peer bystanders in schools provide an audience in 85% of bully-victim incidents but intervene to prevent the bullying only in 10% of them (Jeffrey, 2004). In their silence, they confirm the norm of bullying. While the vast majority of bystanders passively or actively encourage bullying, it is important to understand what the predictors of bystanding and defending behaviors are.

Empirical research showed that the presence of other bystanders leads to the diffusion of responsibility and reduces helping behaviors among children (Plötner et al., 2015). Past research focused only on the bully and the victim roles, however, current theory suggests a broader perspective including three bystander participant roles – outsider, pro-bully, and defender (Salmivalli, 2014). Among the intrapersonal parameters that are associated with these roles are empathy (Pozzoli et al., 2017), moral disengagement (MD; Thornberg et al., 2013), self-regulation (Valdés-Cuervo et al., 2021), and awareness of bystanders of their own role (Salmivalli, 2014). Specifically, mindfulness, as a present-moment awareness, is a protective factor in relation to bullying behavior (Georgiou et al., 2020) and may be relevant in relation to the other participant roles.

Empathy – the ability to identify and understand how someone is feeling and to respond appropriately (Davis, 2018) – was found to be negatively correlated with aggression and positively correlated with defending behavior among children (Nickerson et al., 2008). However, empathy does not always lead to prosocial action (Davis, 2018), and children often act in a manner that is not in line with their internal moral standard, known as moral disengagement (MD). MD plays a role in antisocial behaviors and is an important parameter in research on bullying in schools. Adolescents who scored high on MD self-reports were less likely to take the defender role and more likely to act as passive bystanders (Thornberg et al., 2013). Self-regulation, which is the ability to understand and manage one’s behavior and reactions to feelings and incidents happening around, may constitute a protective factor in relation to bullying behavior (Georgiou et al., 2020). Self-regulation is associated with healthy social relationships, while dysregulation is associated with aggressive tendencies (Valdés-Cuervo et al., 2021). Although the relationships of these three factors with aggressive behavior are well-established, much less is known regarding their association with the other participant roles.

Mindfulness – awareness of everyday life in a non-judgmental and non-reactive manner (Brown & Ryan, 2003) – was recently examined in relation to aggressive behavior among school children. This body of research shows that individuals who scored high in dispositional mindfulness, are less aggressive and that this relationship may be mediated by MD (Georgiou et al., 2020). Nonetheless, the relationship of mindfulness with the other participant roles is unknown.

The main goal of the present study is to examine whether empathy, MD, self-regulation, and dispositional mindfulness are related to the participant roles in the bully-victim dynamic amongst middle and high-school students. Since mindfulness, empathy, and self-regulation can be cultivated by mindfulness practice (Bishop et al., 2004), this understanding may have implications.

Objectives

This paper presents findings from the Minds@Play cluster randomized controlled trial. We aimed to determine whether:

1. Compared to controls, children who receive a mindfulness intervention within the first years of primary school have better outcomes in the areas of attention, executive functioning, social-emotional well-being, emotional regulation and behavior;
2. There are sustained changes in teacher practice and classroom interactions; and
3. The implementation predicts the efficacy of the intervention and the cost effectiveness relative to outcomes.

Theoretical Framework

The importance of the early years of primary school: It is well established that the first three years of school are a critical period for later school success.(Cohen & Syme, 2013) The skills learned during these years include both traditional academic skills (e.g., reading) and cognitive and non-cognitive life skills (e.g., attentional control, self-regulation and social-emotional competence; Gutman & Schoon, 2013) Although these skills begin to emerge during the preschool years, these skills are further developed, reinforced and established during the primary school years.(Cohen & Syme, 2013; Duncan et al., 2007)

Impact of social isolation related to distance learning during COVID-19: Internationally, many jurisdictions introduced remote learning periods in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This dramatically limited the number of social interactions these children could have with their peers, at a period which is critical for their development not only academically, but also socially. Recent international reports have highlighted the substantial negative impacts on children’s mental well-being due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Liu et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020) Therefore, research needs to focus on the outcomes of these students once they recommence physically attending school. Focus is needed on both immediate and long-term outcomes.

Mindfulness as an approach for life skill development: Mindfulness is broadly defined as the ability to pay purposeful attention to a present moment focus, non-judgmentally, with acceptance or curiosity, bringing attention back if distracted.(Kabat‐Zinn, 2003) Numerous programs have been developed for both children and adults to build sustained attention, self-monitoring, self-regulation, switching attention, and selective attention(Lutz et al., 2008) as well as mental flexibility, engagement, openness, and creativity.(Pirson et al., 2012) Such programs propose that individuals can become more ‘mindful’ (characterized by improved attention, self-regulation and executive functioning) by learning and practicing these skills. It is possible that providing children with a mindfulness intervention that directly targets the skills required to make a successful transition back to physical schooling may have significant immediate and long-term outcomes.

Evidence and limitations for mindfulness-based interventions in primary school children: The rapidly growing interest in mindfulness-based interventions has been matched with a growing number of studies, reviews, and meta-analyses (Hwang et al., 2017; Maynard et al., 2017; Sedlmeier et al., 2012; Vøllestad et al., 2012). A systematic review by Dunning et al. (2019) found that across 35 studies, mindfulness interventions had positive effects on cognitive (effect size = 0.25), socio-emotional (effect size = 0.22), behavioral (effect size = 0.14) and academic (effect = 0.27) outcomes (Maynard et al., 2017). However, similar to other reviews, the review raised concerns about the quality of current studies on which existing evidence is based (Maynard et al., 2017). Control groups are often weak or non-existent, selective samples are used, measures are limited and rely on self-report, and methods are inconsistent. In addition, few studies have examined the use of mindfulness in young students during the primary school years. The lack of robust research can expose individuals to unintended and adverse consequences which may result from poorly or incorrectly implemented interventions focused on mindfulness.(Van Dam et al., 2018) There is a clear gap between interest and investment in mindfulness-based interventions in schools in early childhood.

Although wellbeing is a complex term, it can be understood as a social model of health which places individual experience within social contexts, emphasizing the promotion of health rather than causes of illness (Atkinson et al., 2012). Critically, 18% of children and young people in England suffer a severe mental health illness (NHS, 2022), and yet 70% of those who experience mental health problems have not received appropriate support at a sufficiently early age (DfE, 2018). To combat this, schools are increasingly expected to support mental health and wellbeing, but receive few resources to do so. As such, there is a need for establishing mechanisms for supporting the health and wellbeing of children and young people which are relatively easy embedded within the school day, as well as using limited financial resource, to ensure sustainability.

Substantial benefits for wellbeing may be derived from contact with nature (WHO, 2016), and schools that promote children’s engagement with nature have reported children have fewer social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties and higher academic engagement and achievements (Browning and Rigolon, 2019). Despite this, six in ten children reported to have spent less time outdoors since the start of coronavirus and the initial lockdown (Natural England, 2020) and opportunities for outdoor learning in school are diminishing due to staff confidence in outdoor teaching and high demands in delivering the curriculum (Plymouth University, 2016). Although providing good quality greenspace within communities may begin to address this, undertaking activities outdoors which support children developing an affective relationship with nature can bring benefits for health and wellbeing ‘over and above’ those expected from visiting nature alone. One approach to addressing this is through arts and creative practice within nature.

There is a growing consensus around the importance of arts for children in schools, with evidence suggesting that arts education can aid physical, cognitive, social and emotional development, as well as improving both mental health and social inclusion (Durham Commission on Creativity and Education, 2019). Muhr (2020) argues that arts-based activities offer a powerful way for people to connect to nature because they evoke an embodied response that fosters an emotional connection. In a systematic review, Moula, Palmer and Walshe (2022) synthesised existing evidence concerning the interconnectedness between arts and nature, and their impact on the health and wellbeing of children and young people. The review suggested that engagement with arts in nature was found to increase nature connectivity with nature explicit, thereby increasing children’s broader wellbeing. However, despite the evidence as to the benefits of arts-in-nature practice for both children’s wellbeing and their nature-connectedness, it is important to consider their reach and sustainability. Such programmes are often stand alone or require significant funding for long-term engagement of external creative practitioners and organisations. There is a need for greater sustainability with implications for how creative practitioners delivering arts-in-nature practice engage and work with primary schools and how the practice is embedded in the school culture and ethos. Accordingly, this paper reports on the findings from a survey of creative practitioners delivering arts-in-nature practice with children to explore the following research questions:

RQ1: What are the perceived impacts of the arts-in-nature practice undertaken by organisations?

RQ2: In what ways do organisations work with volunteers, teachers, and schools to make their arts-in-nature practice more sustainable?

RQ3: What are barriers to greater reach and sustainability for organisations and practitioners in delivering arts-in-nature practice for children in schools?

This is part of a wider Branching Out project to establish how successful elements from an established mental health arts-in-nature programme can be scaled up from small, school-based approaches to whole school communities.

A recent report by UNICEF (2021) revealed that across Europe 16.3% of children aged 10-19 years are living with a mental disorder, equating to 9 million children and young people (CYP). In England this is thought to be even higher with 18.0% of children aged 7 to 16 years and 22.0% of young people aged 17 to 24 years living with a probable mental disorder (Newlove-Delgado et al, 2022). The Covid-19 pandemic has caused many additional stresses for children and families (Crawley et al., 2020) and those already experiencing social and economic disadvantage are also more likely to experience mental health difficulties (Reiss, 2013), with concerns in the UK that the socio-economic mental health gap is widening (Collishaw et al., 2019). Poor mental health impacts on many areas of a young person’s life, including educational disadvantage and increased risk of school exclusion (Ford et al., 2018) with many young people unable to satisfactorily engage in their education and schools increasingly looking for ways in which they can support the mental health and wellbeing of their pupils.

Forest School is an outdoor educational experience, usually in a wooded area, that takes place regularly over an extended period of time (minimum of two seasons in the UK). It is facilitated by a trained practitioner, who supports the CYP to lead their own learning (Knight, 2011). Its popularity has been increasing across the UK and internationally over the past 20 years, with a developing body of research evidence of the positive benefits on young people’s emotional wellbeing and behaviour (McCree, Cutting & Sherwin, 2018; Coates & Pimlott-Wilson, 2019). Forest School sessions are designed to build confidence and wellbeing through providing enjoyable and achievable challenges in a supportive environment, developing good relationships (between young people and adults and supporting relationships between the young people) and using reflection to encourage the CYP to internalise positive self-narratives as they emerge.

Scotswood Garden is an award winning independent charity based in an urban area of the North East of England. The garden is located in one of the most deprived neighbourhoods of the UK, classified in the highest 10% for income, education, skills and training, health and crime deprivation (DCLG, 2019). The education manager (Menter) has Level 3 Forest School accreditation and extensive experience delivering sessions with local schools and delivering Forest School training. Through school-community partnerships, the Breeze project uses the Forest School approach with CYP experiencing social and emotional difficulties, including mental health concerns and difficulties engaging in education. Following a pilot year in 2017-2018, Breeze worked with four local schools from 2018 to 2021; sessions took place at the community garden and were initially co-planned and co-delivered between the Forest School practitioner and school staff for one day a week over a school year (some adaptations were necessary during school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic). In parallel two members of school staff engaged in Forest School training and accreditation and over the school year gradually took on independent delivery of sessions. After the first year, schools either continued to access the garden independently or were assisted to find suitable alternative woodland and schools were invited to join a Breeze Forest School network, which continues to develop with new schools and offers on-going support to aid long-term sustainability.

This paper will present evidence of the impact of the Breeze project for the CYP in relation to wellbeing and engagement in education, together with the processes that led to change and affordances and barriers experienced. Findings will be discussed in relation to European context and relevance in supporting CYP’s wellbeing and engagement in education internationally.

This paper presents a literature review that highlights educational perspectives on social justice, equity and children and young peoples’ agency when schools address health, wellbeing and sustainability challenges. The study furthermore explores the approaches and contributions of interventions addressing these challenges. As pointed out in UNs Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022 and the UNESCO 2021 policy paper Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education, the crises following the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing global environmental and climate change has deepened the global learning crisis. The pandemic has highlighted our close links with nature and increased a long-standing concern for the physical, mental and emotional well-being of children and young people. The pandemic has also highlighted the interconnectedness of health and wellbeing challenges and broader sustainability challenges related to the degradation of nature, and environmental and/or climate change (Franzolin et al. 2022; Malqvist and Powell 2022). Research on global challenges in education’s response to the pandemic underline the critical role of education to strengthen children and young peoples’ agency, as well as the need for equitable education (Darlington et al. 2022, Hill et al. 2020). Due to the resurgence of interest in young peoples’ agency in research within the related areas of health, wellbeing and sustainability education, it has become clear that agency is understood and conceptualized in many different ways, from what we have power to do, to experiences of reflecting and deciding (Gallay, Pykett and Flanagan 2021; Lorimer, Knight and Shoveller 2022).

Global environmental changes in conjunction with substantial social justice issues related to health and wellbeing are impacting us all, raising significant concerns related to how education can address these sustainability challenges. Although they are impacting us all, we are not all of us “in this together”, as some are more afflicted by health, wellbeing and sustainability issues because of race, ethnicity, gender, economy and geographic locality (Andreotti et al. 2018). Current research findings indicate that Nordic countries typically relate to educational ideas such as democracy, and critical citizenship (Carlsson 2023), whereas other countries, such as Japan, might have more natural science or health science grounded understandings of how to address these challenges (Dean and Elliot 2022). In low and middle-income countries in regions such as Central/South America and Southern Africa, social justice issues have had a broader societal resonance conceptualized in debates about health, wellbeing and climate challenges (Lotz-Sisitka 2009; Torres and Faucher 2022). Perspectives on inequalities and social justice issues related to health, wellbeing and sustainability challenges are understood in different ways in different cultural contexts, which underlines the relevance of education research exploring and recognizing many forms of social and cultural diversity (Carlsson and Torres 2022; Dean and Elliot 2022).

Broad explorations of educational perspectives on social justice and equity in relation to how health, wellbeing and sustainability challenges are addressed in education, and the approaches and contributions of interventions addressing these challenges has been relatively absent, especially ones that takes into account the agency of children and young people. The literature review study is guided by the following research question: Which educational perspectives (on social justice, equity and young peoples’ agency), approaches and contributions of educational interventions in schools, or in collaboration with schools, addressing health, wellbeing and sustainability challenges can be identified in literature? The key findings from the analysis of the included journal articles in the study will be presented at the conference. Below I report on the methodology and primary findings from the search and selection processes in the literature review, and highlight a few selected interim findings on educational perspectives identified in the studies.

Suicide prevention is a significant issue for all K12 schools. Stone (2021) indicated that every school counselor will provide mental health services to students who have suicidal thoughts or behaviours statistically. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), suicide is the one of the most leading causes of death in individual between ages of 10-19 in the United States (CDC, 2020). In addition, deaths by suicide has increased 57.4% between 2007 to 2018 (Curtin, 2020). A recent report issued by Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT, 2022) highlights the suicide rates all over Turkey. The statistics demonstrated that the northern part of Turkey, especially the city Trabzon has the highest suicide rates than all over Turkey. According to TURKSTAT data, while the current suicide rate was 3.86 per hundred thousand in Turkey in 2022, this figure was 4.13 for Trabzon.

School counselors have a key role in preventing suicide in K 12 schools. In the line with American School Counseling Association (ASCA) Ethical Standard A.9 (2016) as well as the ASCA position statements (2020) related to suicide prevention/awareness and suicide risk assessment, school counselors are liable to assess suicidal risks of students at K12 schools.

Somatic Experiencing is a psychobiological approach that focuses on the improvement of capacity and resilience levels without prioritizing pathology. SE does not work on the traumatic event but works on the impact of the traumatic event on the body and autonomic nervous system (Levine, 1997, 2010; Payne, Levine & Crone-Godreau, 2015). The autonomic nervous system has two channels called sympathetic and parasympathetic. When a person encounters a stressful situation or a traumatic event and the trigger is too powerful, extreme activation can emerge in the sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous systems (PNS). When SNS is overcharged; heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate increase, pupils dilate, and the digestive system and salivation decrease. When people are stuck on the parasympathetic level, they can undergo depression, dissociation, burnout, and numbness (Levine, 2010, 2015; Heller ve Heller, 2004). If such high activation continues for a long period, it becomes chronic and can lead to mental health disorders. Therefore, it is crucial to regulate the nervous system and increase the capacity for the containment of emotions and resiliency. A healthy nervous system works in the balance between SNS and PNS in a harmony. SE focuses on bodily sensations and approaches the impact of traumatic experience with titration, thus, it supports the person to process activation of traumatic events without retraumatizing him/her (Levine, 1997; 2010). SE can be used in working with trauma or stressful or adverse experiences and is an effective approach in emergencies to building coping mechanisms in a short time (Levine; 1997, 2010; Payne et. al, 2015).

The increase in the need for resources to build resilience and coping skills highlighted the need for approaches that will support people in need, especially in professions like teaching. Somatic Experiencing (SE) is an approach that addresses the problems of stress, negative life experiences, and trauma while focusing on the body and its reactions (Levine, 2010). This approach helps to understand the sensations in the body and to build the innate balancing capacity of the nervous system (Brom, et al., 2015; Levine, 2010). This study is aimed to see the effectiveness of SE on school counselors’ coping and self-care skills. Therefore, it aims to support school counselors dealing with most suicidal issues in Turkey.

During last decades there has been a growing interest in investigating teachers’ well-being. According to Dodge et al. (2012), wellbeing is defined as the state in which individuals have the necessary social, physical, and psychological capabilities they rely on to cope with a specific physical, social, and psychological challenge. Teachers’ wellbeing is considered to be inextricably linked to their educational effectiveness and the educational process as a whole. However, the meaning of wellbeing at work is often confused with occupational satisfaction and most of the research carried out focuses on this direction.

The purpose of this proposal is to study the primary education teachers’ perceptions regarding their wellbeing at work. Specifically, an attempt is made to study the teachers’ social and emotional wellbeing in their professional field. Social wellbeing refers to the supportive and collaborative teachers’ relationships within the context of the occupational environment. It also concerns the ability to express and manage concerns, personal perceptions, etc. parameters that affect 'school policy' or decision-making. For example, if teachers have created a bad relationship with their students or with their students’ parents, this condition will affect their social wellbeing negatively. Also, a bad or a good support from the school leadership will affect negatively or positively, respectively, the teachers’ social wellbeing.

Emotional wellbeing is defined as teachers' ability to manage their emotions. In fact, their efficiency is related to the successful management of their emotional reactions to both the behaviors of their students and other factors that are sources of stress. Difficulties in communication, lack of support, interpersonal relationships with colleagues, etc. are some examples of stress sources. In cases where teachers’ emotional wellbeing is reduced or non-existent, then they become distant and/or alienated from their teaching activities and lead to emotional exhaustion. Teachers’ emotional wellbeing is a priority for effective teaching, since there is no reason to study the students’ emotional health if teachers’ emotional wellbeing is not studied.

This proposal aims to study primary school teachers’ wellbeing, deploying the teachers’ perspectives. The results of the research are expected to elucidate the way primary school teachers' wellbeing is conceptualized and its effects on their work. Their wellbeing is not only their responsibility, but a collective responsibility that concerns all those involved in the workplace and is the key to the teachers’ progress and the school unit.

What do primary school teachers know about the concept and content of wellbeing at work? What level of wellbeing at work is considered ideal? What do primary school teachers know about social wellbeing? What do primary teachers know about emotional wellbeing? How social and emotional wellbeing relates to wellbeing at work? How is the primary school teachers’ wellbeing at work supported? With which suggestions do primary school teachers agree for improving wellbeing at work? Those are some of the questions that this research tries to answer.

This research study investigates the nature and effectiveness of strategies in promoting teacher wellbeing via teacher education and policy reform around the world. Thus, this research has two objectives. The first is to develop and test a unifying wellbeing framework that contextualises the plethora of current educator and general wellbeing theories and frameworks. This unifying framework will be used as the basis for the required coding and thematic analyses of approaches toward promoting teacher wellbeing. The second purpose of this paper is to identify the different strategies and policy reforms targeting teacher wellbeing; determine what strategies effectively promote teacher wellbeing; and determine whether (or where) teacher wellbeing is being holistically supported. The unifying framework will be tested using survey responses from two samples, one reflecting a general population within the USA consisting of 1,524 adults, and one reflecting the occupational setting of 228 early childhood educators across New Zealand (this proportion of the study has been completed). Based on this framework, an international quantitative research synthesis, with meta analyses being conducted where feasible, of the impact identified teacher wellbeing interventions have on supporting teacher wellbeing in primary and secondary schools will be conducted. Drawing from three international databases (Scopus, EBSCOHOST, APA PsychInfo) yielded a total of 1,190 texts. 794 of these were removed during preliminary as they did not meet our predetermined criteria, leaving 396 texts for full text review.

Internationally nations are facing crisis level teacher shortages (Viac & Fraser, 2020). Teacher burnout is rampant, attrition is rising, and job satisfaction is in decline (Viac & Fraser, 2020). Yet this issue is not new, with above average levels of burnout and challenges facing the wellbeing of teachers being well documented for decades (Zee & Kooman, 2018). Indeed, in the wake of COVID19, a global shift is occurring, with more governments recognising the significance of mental health. Some examples include the Victorian government introducing workplace laws placing mental health hazard reduction requirements on par with physical hazards (Victoria State Government, 2021), and the Education staff wellbeing charter in the UK (Department for Education, 2021). With the velocity by which environments and practices can change, however, is a reactive, rather than proactive, approach to mental health going to successfully address these ever increasing, decades lasting crises facing our educators? A strengths based approach, informed by positive psychology, is becoming increasingly common in how we educate and care for our students. Yet such an approach appears rare when fostering educator health and wellbeing. Should we not ensure educators are equipped with the skills to allow them to thrive and be more resilient to adverse or ‘black swan’ events?

Lack of consensus, however, exists regarding how best to support teacher wellbeing. Within the last decade, for example, numerous different frameworks, and identification of indicators of teacher wellbeing have been published (e.g., Stoloff, Boulanger, Lavallee, & Glaude-Roy, 2020; Viac & Fraser, 2020; Beltman, Hascher, & Mansfield, 2022; Uusiautti et al., 2014; Brady & Wilson, 2021; Hobson & Maxwell, 2017). Thus, without a consistent approach or understanding, we surely cannot expect policy makers to effectively promote teacher wellbeing.

Health in physical education (PE) has in recent decades received growing public and political attention. PE is recognized as playing an important role in promoting health and well-being among children and adolescents.

From a biomedical perspective, researchers and stakeholders argue that PE should advocate a public health approach where physical activity (PA) is seen as a central means of avoiding lifestyle-related diseases and maintaining good health (i.e. McKenzie et al., 2016; Sallis et al., 2012). However, other researchers claim that the biomedical perspective reproduces a narrow understanding of health, which ignores how different environmental and social contexts impact people’s health (Harris et al., 2016; Kirk, 2018). When PE teachers uncritically accept and reproduce such approach, it can result in a simplified form of PE that primarily aims to promote PA participation for the improvement of physical health (Kirk, 2018; Maivorsdotter et al., 2010). Critical PE scholars contest the prevalent biomedical perspective on health for its narrow conceptualization of health and its exclusive focus on physical activity and disease prevention. Instead, holistic (critical and/or salutogenic) perspectives that emphasize the complex nature of health are advocated.

Holistic perspectives on health emphasize sociocultural aspects, strengthening factors, and resources that actively promote health in a relation between the individual and their surroundings (Kirk, 2018; Tinning, 2015). An additional line of research highlights aspects of sustainability where environmental, economic, and societal issues become part of holistic perspectives on health (Lundvall and Fröberg, 2022; Olive and Enright, 2021). According to Gray et al. (2015), it is important that stakeholders, teachers, and students regard health as a holistic concept encompassing social, emotional, psychological, and physical domains to deconstruct and challenge the current and prevalent narrow views of health. A salutogenic strengths-based approach can offer PE teachers a broader and more nuanced perspective on health, emphasizing how movement activities can enrich people’s lives (McCuaig and Quennerstedt, 2016; Quennerstedt, 2019). One limiting aspect, however, is that most articles concerning holistic perspectives have been theoretical and merely discussed the different perspectives on teaching health in PE. Little has been done to empirically explore and/or implement holistic perspectives in authentic PE settings (Mong and Standal, 2019). The prevailing narrow conceptualization of health and the dearth of empirical research with holistic perspectives on health highlight the need for more research and a broadening of perspectives. Hence, the overarching purpose of this study is to contribute to knowledge about what characterizes empirical research literature with holistic perspectives on health and discuss implications for teaching PE. Based on the aim, the research question is:

- In what ways do empirical papers with holistic perspectives on health address the teaching of health in elementary, secondary, and upper secondary school PE?

The school subject Physical education (PE) and its role within the broader public health work have long been a subject of discussion. Academic studies revolving around the health benefits of PE can broadly be categorized as being rooted in either a biomedical or resource-based health perspectives (Mong & Standal, 2019). In short, these perspectives represent different views on the question of ‘what’ health is, and subsequently on ‘why’ health should be part of PE and ‘how’ it should be taught. In the biomedical perspective health is understood as absence of disease and the ‘what’ of PE is often narrowed down to maximizing levels of moderate and vigorous physical activity. The ‘why’ becomes prevention of various non-communicable diseases. The ‘how’ is then dominated by instructional methods of pre-determined content developed by experts (Mong & Standal, 2019). On the other hand, a salutogenetic or resource-based health perspective are proposed to highlight and broaden the educative potential of PE (Quennerstedt, 2008). In this line of research health is understood as a collective and individual resource, and the ’why’ shifts from the preventing of risks to the nurturing assets for health. The ‘how’ is often described in terms of student-active and inquiry-based or critical didactical approaches, and a much broader array of skills, attributes and knowledge can be explored for the ‘what’ of health in PE.

Critical Health Literacy (CHL) is often put forward as a promising conceptual framework for health education (Nash, Patterson, Flittner, Elmer, & Osborne, 2021; Peralta, Rowling, Samdal, Hipkins, & Dudley, 2017). The concept have roots within emancipatory critical pedagogy (Freebody & Luke, 1990; Freire, 1970; Nutbeam, 2000) and consists of three overlapping and interconnected domains, (CHL-A) information appraisal, (CHL-B) understanding social determinants of health and (CHL-C) abilities that enable actions to the benefit of health and well-being in a collective (Chinn, 2011; Haugen, Riiser, Esser-Noethlichs, & Hatlevik, 2022). In this study we focus on the third domain of CHL, which revolves around social actions that adolescents can take to become active agents for health and well-being in a collective. The importance of cognitive and analytical skills for understanding and appraising health-related information is apparent in that most of the research on CHL in school contexts are being conducted within this domain (Haugen, Riiser, et al., 2022; Sykes & Wills, 2019). However, the ability of young people to act to the benefit of one’s own and others health and well-being are inevitably also dependent on social and democratic interaction abilities (Chinn, 2011). PE is an appropriate context for developing social interaction abilities (Ciotto & Gagnon, 2018), and PE contexts are particularly well suited because they qualitatively differ from regular classroom settings by providing a more dynamic and interactive learning environment (McHugh, 1995). Importantly though, learning does not automatically occur as a result of participating in PA or sport within PE, but are dependent contextual and didactical considerations (Bailey et al., 2009).

In Norway PE is a school subject that is graded from 1-6 on equal terms as traditional academic subjects like Science and Language Arts. The grade reflects teachers’ assessment of several competences, attributes and skills described in national standards, including physical, social, and cognitive domains.

The main hypothesis for this study is that achievement in PE (as measured by expected grade) is associated with CHL-C. We also investigate how participation in sport club activities, leisure physical activity (PA) and parents’ education influences the association between PE and CHL-C.

There is an ongoing discussion about what constitutes knowledge in the school subject of physical education and health (PEH). Previous research from both the teachers' and the students' perspective indicate that the object of knowledge remains somewhat unclear and that there is a lack of learning taking place in PEH (see e.g. (Modell & Gerdin, 2021; 2022). In Sweden, research and government reports (see e.g., Larsson 2016; Swedish Schools Inspectorate 2018; have over the years emphasized the importance of discussing the objects of knowledge in PEH. Despite this, both teachers and students find it difficult to express themselves about knowledge, learning and learning processes in the subject (Redelius & Hay 2012; Wiker 2017). When it comes to assessment and grading, character-building elements tend to be important (Quennerstedt 2006), while it is unclear which objects of knowledge are central (Larsson & Karlefors, 2015). Recent studies of Swedish PEH practice (Modell & Gerdin, 2021; 2022), for instance, demonstrated how both teaching and assessment/grading practices in PEH are shaped more by the norms and values of competitive and club sports rather than the PEH curriculum. The results also demonstrate that there is an ongoing prioritisation of practical over theoretical knowledge in PEH practice, involving an emphasis on doing and being active without any clear learning objectives.

The role and purpose of schooling emphasizes both general education and subject-specific knowledge. School curriculum documents can be interpreted as saying that knowledge of important societal values is something that schools must convey, but at the same time such knowledge should not be graded (Wibowo, Krieger, Gaum & Dyson 2022). Wibowo et al. (2022) point out that in order to promote a more general and holistic education in PEH, both subject-specific knowledge and generic knowledge such as social, emotional and values knowledge are needed. In this study, it is investigated whether theories of general education knowledge that puts emphasis on social, emotional and values learning can be useful for investigating learning in PEH. The intention is to investigate the possibility of understanding objects of knowledge in PEH by drawing on Michael Uljens non-affirmative theory where an education with both subject-specific and generic knowledge is seen as important (Uljen's 2021). As pointed out by Sjöström and Tyson (2022, p. 52), "It's about connecting a focus on subject learning with clear value-based perspectives such as education and democratic upbringing".

The overall aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of knowledge in PEH from an educational perspective by examining upper-secondary school (age 16-19) students' perceptions of learning and assessment in PEH. The study is guided by the following research questions: (i) What do students perceive that they learn in PEH?; and (ii) What knowledge do students perceive to be assessed in PEH?

Since the publication of the Ottawa Charter (WHO, 1986) schools have been regarded as a central location for health promotion. In particular, a holistic approach involving all members of a school and the school community is considered desirable (WHO Expert Committee, 1997). School leaders are seen as key players in the implementation of health promotion measures (Dadaczynski et al., 2021; Gieske & Harazd, 2009; Zumbrunn et al., 2016), although little is known about how exactly they manage health promotion and what characteristics are important for their related leadership practices (Dadaczynski et al., 2022). At the school leadership level, various contextual and personnel factors, such as gender, attitudes toward health promotion, or health literacy of school leaders may be relevant to the implementation of health promotion (Clarke et al., 2015; Dadaczynski et al., 2020; Dadaczynski & Paulus, 2015).

This comparative project focuses on the extent to which school leaders from Malaysia and Switzerland were able to implement school health promotion during the Covid 19 pandemic. The comparison between Switzerland and Malaysia is of interest because the two countries differ in terms of educational governance. In Switzerland, school principals can set local priorities, but at the same time must adhere to governmental guidelines. In contrast, Malaysia has a much more centralized system: in education, formal goals are clearly set for schools. Notwithstanding these differences, both countries faced similar challenges in the context of the Covid 19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the national and local context influences the extent to which school leaders are empowered and enabled (see Sears & Marshall, 1990) to respond to challenges such as the Covid 19 crisis and are able to make adjustments according to the local context.

The following research questions were of interest:

What is the level of implementation of emotional and social health promotion in Swiss and Malaysian Schools?

What are the relationships between health promotion implementation and contextual factors and School leader’s attitudes and wellbeing in Switzerland and Malaysia?

Can we explain the different levels of implementation with regulations and educational policy in the two countries?

Health promotion (HP) is linked to democratic and social values including equity and societal cohesion (Akerman et al., 2019). Health literacy, the critical and empowering component of HP, has been acknowledged as a health determinant across the life span (Carlsson, 2015; WHO, 2013). Schools are key arenas for HP (Paakkari & George, 2018). Apart from having positive implications for student wellbeing and academic performance, HP in schools can be operationalized to address some social issues such as the humanely problematic health divide (Braveman et al., 2011; Cerda et al., 2021; Mannix-McNamara & Simovska, 2015). This study explores the articulation of school-based HP in Swedish education policies, in relation to democratic and social values (e.g., autonomy, empowerment, and equity). The study also investigates how far this articulation acknowledges health literacy as a core element in HP work.

School-based HP can be a contested domain where different agendas compete. For example, some health discourses may encroach on personal autonomy, while others may depoliticize health (Malmberg & Urbas, 2019; Paakkari & George, 2018; Petersen, 1996). HP work in schools has been repeatedly problematized from moral and social perspectives including inquiries into how far it adheres to democratic tenets and how well it fosters autonomy and empowerment (Danielsen et al., 2017; Jensen, 1997; Paakkari & George, 2018). It is informative to explore school-based HP from a sociological perspective to elucidate the links between ideologies, social values, and behaviors at the individual, group, and institutional levels.

Scholars have repeatedly highlighted the relations between policy discourses and health-related activities or outcomes in schools (e.g., Danielsen et al., 2017; Wolpert et al., 2015), suggesting that educational policy discourses co-shape the manner in which health issues are addressed in school contexts. Swedish schools incorporate HP in the legally mandated student health services governed by local student health plans at both the municipal and school levels. However, there is a national guide that outlines the general aims, responsibilities, and potential areas for action across the whole country (Swedish National board of Health and welfare and Swedish National Agency for Education, 2017).

In this study, four education policies were analyzed, the national guide for student health services in Sweden and three municipal student health plans. The analysis was informed by Fairclough’s (1992) model of critical discourse analysis. The findings indicate that policy articulations in the analyzed documents exhibit an awareness of the democratic and social dimensions of HP. However, tensions were identified between different discourses deployed in the documents including ethical, public health, biomedical and governance discourses. For example, there was a tension between the biomedical and public health discourses, where the former frequently focused on risk factors and framed students as passive recipients of care, while the more socially oriented public health discourse acknowledged the meaningfulness of the social determinants of health and the value of student empowerment.

While the local policies mostly recapitulated the national guideline, they occasionally negotiated and recontextualized parts of the national discourse. This recontextualization was sometimes beneficial in the sense that it concretized key social values such as student participation. However, local discursive representations could also inadvertently undermine the democratic dimension of HP. For example, one municipal health plan used the floating term “norm-breaking behavior” which is potentially open to uncritical interpretations at the school level with possibly unfavorable implications for student autonomy as well as for equity. The differences between the three municipal documents may be related to differential interpretations of the national document but can also represent a local adaptation to the sociodemographic context in which the policy is to be deployed. The policies acknowledged health literacy in spirit rather than semantics.

The Green Paper on Aging (European Commission, 2021) recognizes that living a healthy childhood shapes our future prospects, health situation and wellbeing, and presents three key questions: How can healthy and active ageing policies be promoted from an early age and throughout the life span for everyone? How can children and young people be better equipped for the prospect of a longer life expectancy? What kind of support can the EU provides to the Member States? To contribute to answering these questions, a partnership representing the Schools for Health in Europe Network (SHE) was created to carry out the School for Health in Europe project for Active and Healthy Aging (SHE4AHA), an ERASMUS+ Project (2021-1-DK01-KA220-SCH-000032766) involving Denmark, France, Iceland, Portugal and Slovenia.

SHE has a set of materials that policy makers, school board and teachers can use to make each school a Health Promoting School.These SHE material includes the SHE School Manual 2.0 (Vilaça, Darlington, Miranda, Martinis, & Masson, 2019), the SHE Rapid Assessment Tool (Safarjan, Buijs, & Ruiter, 2013), which is an assessment of the current situation and priorities of schools regarding health promotion and education, and a set of European Standards and Indicators for Health Promoting Schools version 2.0 (Darlington, Bada, Masson, & Santos, 2021). The main aim of the SHE4AHA project is to show that the Health Promoting School (HPS) framework can be used as a validated and evidence-based contribution to implement the Commissions’ green paper on ageing that calls for solutions to support healthy and active ageing from an early age. The SHE4AHA project will develop teaching material to help schools around Europe to use and implement the SHE material.

Portugal has been a member of the European Network of Health Promoting Schools (ENHPS) since 1994, and in 2005 Health Promotion and Education (HPE) became compulsory for all schools. Currently in our country exist the following priority areas of intervention which have been worked on within the values of health promoting schools: Mental Health and Violence Prevention; Diet and Nutrition Education; Physical Activity; Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies; Affects and Sexuality Education. Portuguese school curriculum should empower students with knowledge, attitudes and values to help them to make choices and decisions appropriate to their health, and physical, social and mental wellbeing, as well as the health of those around them, giving students an active and participatory role in school-based health and wellbeing promotion (Lopes, Ladeiras, & Lima 2015). Health promotion and education, as a component of the National Strategy for Citizenship Education, is mandatory at all levels of education. To operationalize it, each school or network of schools has a multidisciplinary team for health education, including a representative of the local health unit, the school psychologist and other technicians. The coordinating teacher of this team should liaise the activities/project of HPE with the coordinating teacher of the strategy for education for citizenship of the school.

Therefore, a critical health education approach within the paradigm of health-promoting schools (e.g. Clift & Jensen, 2005; McNamara & Simovska, 2015), was used as a theoretical framework for this study.

Against this background, this study aims to investigate: i)How do teachers' conceptions about health, health determinants, health promotion and ethics in health promotion (SHE values), the setting approach, and the SHE Pillars evolve during the Course?; ii)What is the current situation and priorities of schools in relation to health promotion and education?; iii)How do the teachers who participated in the in-service training organize themselves to plan, implement and monitor health promotion processes in their schools?; iv)What are the perceptions of these teachers regarding the teaching material developed by the SHE4AHA team?

Objective

This paper presents findings from a quasi-experimental study to evaluate the Mental Health in Primary Schools program. We aimed to determine whether compared to matched comparison schools, primary schools that implemented the MHiPS intervention had:

1. Improved Teacher outcomes related to their attitudes, confidence and skills in identifying and responding to the mental health and wellbeing of their students
2. Increased school prioritisation of mental health and wellbeing
3. Improved engagement with school and community mental health support.

Theoretical framework

In recent years there has been increasing international policy attention related to child mental health. This is timely and follows reports of worrying increases in mental health concerns in schools and increased presentations of children with mental health issues to medical services. The Report on the Second Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing (Lawrence et al., 2016) [4] found that the impact of mental health disorders on children’s education includes absenteeism, impaired functioning at school, and poorer academic performance compared to peers without mental health concerns. Left unaddressed, mental health challenges in childhood are related to increased school absenteeism, poorer peer relationships and increased risk of substance abuse and unemployment (Patel et al., 2007).

Schools are one setting where children can be supported in their development of mental health competencies, especially as some children require effective mental health support to succeed at school. Their success in adjusting emotionally and socially when young is a strong predictor of their adjustment into adulthood (Vogler, 2008). While there are effective interventions available to change this trajectory, the prevalence of childhood mental health continues to increase, with children not accessing help soon enough or for long enough (Tully, et.al., 2019). A range of barriers exist inhibiting children from accessing mental health services, including lack of parental knowledge, cost of treatment, stigma and lack of service availability (CCCH, 2006; CCCH, 2012; Rhodes, 2017). Schools have been responding to this by increasingly focusing on prevention and intervention, with many incorporating wellbeing into their values and vision (Allen, 2017).

The primary school period presents a unique opportunity to intervene early and modify the trajectory of many mental health issues and prevent progression to chronic conditions. The intervention in this study has been designed to leverage this developmental window and address the gaps in the school-based child mental health system by introducing the concept of a Mental Health and Wellbeing Coordinator (MHWC) role. The MHWC is an experienced qualified educator who will be an additional resource for the schools and will take up their role alongside participation in a comprehensive training program designed within an implementation science framework. The role and the training program combine to form the “MHWC model”, which aims to build mental health capacity within the school. The MHWC will act as the liaison between the school and community-based health and other community-based services. The role within schools involved:

• Receive evidence-based training around supporting the mental health needs of primary school students;
• Embed evidence-based training and professional development (Tier 1 practices & frameworks) across the school and build the capability of teaching and education support staff to better identify and support students with mental health issues;
• Support the referral pathway for students identified as requiring further assessment and intervention within the school or to external community-based services (the MHWC role will not involve providing 1:1 counselling support to students);
• Work proactively within school and community services
• Connect wellbeing initiatives across the school and be responsible for implementing whole-school approaches to mental health and wellbeing, including the social and emotional learning curriculum.

Children’s mental health promotion aims to create supportive living conditions and reduce harmful mental health risk factors (Klemera et al. 2017; Min et al. 2017; WHO 2001). Early childhood education and care and basic education are key development environments in which children’s well-being and mental health promotion can be significantly affected (Barry & Jenkins 2007). The promotion of mental health in the environments of everyday life affects the well-being of the individual in a long term; therefore, early intervention is particularly important in children's mental health problems (Cefai & Camilleri 2015). In a school environment an implementation of a structured and systematic plan for the health and well-being of all pupils and of teaching and non-teaching staff strengthens healthy settings for living, learning, and working (SHE Network 2020). In Finland, basic education is a single-structure system that provides compulsory schooling for all young people between 7 and 15 years and in grades 1–9 (Ministry of Education and Culture 2021). Finnish education system includes early childhood education and care, which refers to children’s planned education and care. It is an important step in a child’s growth and learning path. The right to participate in early childhood education and care is subjective, meaning that all children under school age can participate in it. (EDUFI 2021.)

Like many countries of Northern Europe, Finland is a parliamentary democracy with a majority in parliament (The Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers 2021). Municipal administration, in turn, is based on the self-government of municipalities. Municipalities have the overall responsibility for mental health promotion of children. Municipalities have a dual management system, which means that local authority management is characterized by division into political and professional management. Political management consists of decision-makers elected to municipal councils, boards, and committees. Professional management, in turn, consists of leading office holders who act as professional representatives of the administration and participate extensively in the various stages of the decision-making process in their area of administration, such as early childhood education and care, and basic education. (Local Government Act of Finland 410/2015; Constitution of Finland 731/1999.)

Public health nurses in child health clinics and schools assess the physical, mental, and social condition of children, provide vaccinations, support parents, and promote healthy growing environments for children and healthy family lifestyles (Student Welfare Act of Finland 1287/2013; Health Care Act of Finland 1326/2010; Government decree 338/2011). Although public health nurses generally aim to promote mental health in children, it is also important for them to identify the risks for potential mental disorders during childhood.

Knowledge on mental health promotion in children is widely available (Drange & Havnes 2019; Neuhaus et al. 2020). However, there is a need to obtain stronger and broader evidence about these issues from the perspective of political decision-makers and leading officeholders in municipal administrations, as well as professionals working with children, such as public health nurses (O’Reilly et al. 2018). The socioecological model of health promotion (Stokols 1996) formed a theoretical framework for this study. The model covers both risk and promotive factors at five levels of the socioecological environment (i.e., individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and public policy). This study aimed to describe promotion of children’s mental health at the organizational level of the socio-ecological environment, specifically in the early childhood education and care, and basic education from the perspective of political decision-makers and leading officeholders, as well as public health nurses.

For approximately half of the individuals suffering from a mental disorder, the onset of illness occurs during adolescence, and in more than a third, the disorder emerges by the age of 14 (Solmi et al., 2022). The estimated worldwide prevalence of mental disorders was reported to be 13.4 % (CI 95% 11.3 – 15.9) for this population (Polanczyk et al., 2015). In addition, mental disorders among adolescents have increased in recent years, with the increase being most notable with respect to developmental and mood disorders (Steffen et al., 2018). Increasingly, digital technologies, such as mobile apps or web-delivered programs, are being used to try to counteract the declining mental health of adolescents. The range and variety of these tools is growing rapidly, and more and more studies report on their potential and value (Lucas-Thompson et al., 2019). An updated overview of tools and programs is essential and the proposed paper presentation aims to provide this overview. Findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis (Wright et al., in press) will be presented that outline the current state of digital, evidence-based programs promoting mental health in young people, and provide insight into the characteristics and effectiveness of such programs. The domain of interest is the promotion of mental health with a focus on mental health literacy, well-being, (mental health) help-seeking behavior, stress management, relaxation, mindfulness, resilience and positive psychology.

The ongoing advances in technology mean that more and more mental health promotion programs may be provided successfully, either partly or fully, through digital media (Kaess et al., 2021). As barriers to mental health services increased during the pandemic (due to lockdowns and restrictions), the advantages of choosing a digital mode of delivery have become manifold, e.g., cost-effectiveness, anonymity, accessibility, adaptability, etc. These all serve to lower the threshold when seeking mental health support (Bauer et al., 2005). Accessible, adaptable digital programs lower usage barriers in schools and other institutions, as they require relatively little expertise or effort compared to face-to-face (F2F) interventions. In addition to the high accessibility and availability of digital tools, their potential for successfully promoting young people’s mental health has repeatedly been reported in recent meta-analysis and/or systematic reviews. Harrer et al. (2019) found such tools to have positive effects on depression, anxiety, stress, eating disorder symptoms and role functioning. The findings of Clarke et al. (2015) and Sevilla-Llewellyn-Jones et al. (2018) support the effectivity of online interventions with respect to the treatment of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Noh and Kim (2022) reported beneficial results when preventing an increase in depressive symptoms, but not for anxiety or stress. Furthermore, well-tailored digital interventions are likely to increase engagement with a support tool and to aid the transfer of specific skills into the daily lives of young people (Lucas-Thompson et al., 2019). Indeed, web-based interventions have been reported to improve individuals’ quality of life and functioning (Sevil-la-Llewellyn-Jones et al., 2018).

Within this paper presentation, findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis (Wright et al., in press) on digital tools for mental health promotion among 11–18 year olds will be presented. The review focused on three areas. First, it was of interest to determine, what digital-based interventions promoting mental health are available for children and adolescents aged 11 to 18. Second, the effectiveness of these interventions was analyzed. Third, the factors underlying their effectiveness were assessed. In this paper presentation, special attention is given to the third area, and deeper insights are provided into the impact of moderating factors that potentially influenced the effectiveness of the interventions. In addition, import implications for the design of future interventions are suggested.

Introduction

This study explores the role of the teacher in working with student health in high school. Teachers have been identified as crucial in promoting student health and wellbeing but it is traditionally not considered a teacher task. The article presents findings from an empirical study in which the views of the teachers are in focus.

School is considered a suitable and vital arena for working with the health of children and young people. This can be done by implementing various programmes and initiatives lead by teachers or other professionals, or in a more informal way in the everyday school practice.

Student health has been and still is a concern for the Student Health Services (SHS). It is however with the teacher that the students spend most of their time in school. A good relationship with the teacher, support from the teacher in meeting academic demands and classroom participation has proven beneficial to student health. There is also a well-documented reciprocal relationship between health and academic achievement. Overall, the same factors which promote learning, also promote health.

In Sweden, where the study is set, student health work “shall be primarily preventive and promoting” (Education Act, 2010:800). Teachers are not explicitly tasked with health promotion but stipulated to cooperate with the SHS regarding student health. While the teacher is not presented as a central actor in the Education Act, other guiding documents highlight the teacher as important for student health. Teachers thus have a role in working with student health but what this role entails is not clear in the governing documents.

The aim of the article is to contribute knowledge about how Swedish high school teachers describe their role(s) in working with student health.

Brief Previous Research

Student health work has been empirically explored before but the role of the teacher in this work is a field in need of further empirical investigation. Much of the research regarding teachers’ involvement in student health work examines various programmes and initiatives implemented at the respective schools. The focus of this article is how teachers describe their role in the informal, everyday student health work, not in a programme or an initiative.

Teacher involvement in health promotion has been criticized. Student mental health promotion can be regarded as an additional task to the existing abundance of teacher tasks. Expanding the role of the teacher is criticized as it can cause added stress and pressure. Lastly, teachers’ increased awareness of mental health problems among children and adolescents, can result in teachers starting to identify many behaviors and experiences previously deemed ordinary or understandable, as indicative of mental health problems

This study contributes knowledge about how teachers describe their roles in student health promotion. This knowledge can be used to improve student health promotion further and contribute added understanding of the complex professional role of the teacher.

Theoretical Points of Departure

The study is based on theories of social constructivism in which social phenomena are understood and become active deeds by means of human interaction; people interpret, reinterpret, negotiate, and use various strategies to influence which interpretation takes precedence, thereby influencing how a phenomenon is understood.

The teaching-learning process and academic achievements in schools are significantly shaped by the relationship quality between teachers and students and therefore by teachers’ relational competence (Juul & Jensen, 2017). Furthermore, relationships among teachers, other pedagogical staff and school leaders are important for the social environment at a school (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009). Research has shown that good relationships are positively associated with various health outcomes and promotes mental health and well-being (Chernyshenko et al., 2018; Durlak et al., 2011). Conducive elements for positive relationships are interpersonal competencies such as empathy and compassion as well as self-regulating skills helping to deal with challenging situations (Flook et al. 2015; Singer & Klimecki, 2014).

These competencies can be enhanced through professional development programs preferable whole school interventions (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009). It is assumed that teachers who increase their own social-emotional competencies as a result of participating in training will thus not only positively influence the interpersonal atmosphere and the way of relating to each other, but this will – directly and indirectly – also benefit the social-emotional development of the students (e.g. Jennings et al. 2017).

To date, social emotional interventions have mostly been investigated in quantitative experimental studies. However, due to the complexity of these interventions’ implementation, it has been argued that a mixed-methods approach is feasible and enables tracking more closely the multi-level changes (Nielsen et al. 2019). Hence, this study included interviews with school staff and leaders to investigate their lived experience of their relationships at school during the program implementation.

This study focuses on the “Empathie macht Schule“ project – a whole-school approach targeting all educators and other school staff, including leaders. The program bases on the work of Juul and Jensen (2017) aiming at the cultivation of educators’ empathy, mindfulness, compassion, and relational competence at three elementary schools in Berlin, Germany. Central features of this program have previously been carried out in various European countries, including a Danish teacher training (Jensen, E., Skibsted, & Christensen, 2015, Lund Nielsen, 2016) and an ERASMUS project (Nielsen at al., 2019). The training comprises six modules focusing on topics of wellbeing and mindfulness, relational competence and empathy, self-regulation and working with conflicts, challenging relationships, and children with special needs, bereavement and loss, collaboration with parents, and collegial reflection practices.

Although there are some important indications from the research to date, it remains rather unclear how qualitative and quantitative data sources analyzing the process and various outcomes are able to depict the overall picture of a social-emotional intervention effect and careful implementation practices in elementary schools.

Research question

In this presentation, we aim to relate the findings from the qualitative interviews to the individual quantitative data and finally embed them on a quantitative level in the dataset of sample of Cohort 1 collected to date, focusing on aspects relevant for relationship quality on the one hand and on self-regulating skills and distress on the other.

• How do teachers experience their relationships in their professional context, especially important change moments following the training?
• How does the perceived relationship quality change as a result of the training?
• How is this related to various aspects influencing the interpersonal self-efficacy – such as mindfulness and self-compassion as well as perceived stress?
• To what extent can the qualitative data be used to inform the understanding/interpretation for the quantitatively collected data and vice versa?

Children’s individual characteristics, such as temperament, play an important role in a successful transition to school. Temperament’s role has been found to be important especially in skill development, but it has also been suggested that the association between children’s temperamental characteristics and their further success in school might, actually, be related to the interaction between teacher and student (Viljaranta et al., 2015). Previous research has shown that students’ temperament is associated with the quality of teacher-student interaction (Curby et al., 2011), and that it evokes certain kinds of instruction and other educational responses among teachers (Coplan & Prakash, 2003; Keogh, 1986). However, not much is known about the relations between temperament and teacher-student interaction in the very beginning of students’ schooling. Based on previous studies showing that certain temperamental characteristics are perceived as more acceptable than others by teachers (e.g. Martin, 1989), it is possible that students’ temperament plays a crucial role in the way how teacher-student interaction starts to form during the first grade. For example, when students are showing more acceptable characteristics, teacher-student interaction is more likely to be adaptive than when students are showing more difficult or demanding characteristics.

In this study we aimed to examine, first, whether students’ temperamental characteristics are related to the ways how teachers and students interact with each other and, second, whether students’ temperamental characteristics are related to the variation in daily interaction between teachers and students. The study is carried out in Finland.

Health is closely intertwined with social class: people at the top of the social hierarchy have fewer diseases and live longer than those less privileged, even in a society with low levels of inequality and a well-developed welfare state like Norway (Dahl & Elstad, 2022), the empirical context of this paper. Although youth is one of the healthiest periods in life, and generally marked more by equality than inequality in health (Friestad & Klepp, 2006), it is a key period for lifestyle establishment and therefore particularly important to understand (Burdette, Needham, Taylor, & Hill, 2017). Habits formed during youth also accumulate over the years in ways that gradually and powerfully increase social inequalities in health (Power & Matthews, 1997).

What determines differences in health practices is a complex question. Structural conditions are clearly important, but so are health cultures, i.e. distinct moralities and sets of practices related to the body, particularly physical exercise and diet. In previous research, what is explored is primarily parents’ perspectives on and investments in their children’s health. This can be a fruitful inroad to the issue of intergenerational transmission of ‘healthstyles’ – embodied notions and practices of health – but it may give the impression that it is a straightforward process to mould children’s health dispositions, which may not be the case. In the present paper we take the perspective that children also exercise agency in matters of health, especially as they enter adolescence and often are allowed more freedom to make decisions on how to spend their time and when and what to eat, and move in between school, peers, leisure activities and the family. In this paper, we ask how young people assume, engage in and navigate classed health practices as they move through youth, and what their parents’ roles are in shaping the conditions for young people’s health practices.

This warrants a focus on how children negotiate, rather than passively receive, the health culture they are socialised into. We build on Bourdieu’s understanding of the socialised body (Bourdieu, 2007). In his thinking, the socialised body or ‘habitus’ is built up of the ‘active residue or sediment’ (Crossley, 2001, p. 93) of past experiences, and functions like a scheme that shapes people’s actions, perceptions and thoughts. As people who occupy similar positions in the social space will experience the world in similar ways, habitus is always classed. Mollborn et al.s’ (2021: 577) concept of ‘collective health habituses’ refers to ideas of health that are shared and incorporated among people in particular contexts. We take the view here that the transmission of health dispositions is located within broader – and classed – parenting ethoses, what Lareau (2003, 2015) calls child care logics. Lastly, we propose that relational resources (Eriksen, Stefansen, & Smette, 2022) in the family can add to our understanding of how health practices are nurtured.

All networks hold a meeting during ECER. All interested are welcome.

The mental health of children and young people is increasingly highlighted in educational policy agendas. The Covid 19 pandemic has added a tone of urgency to the expression of concerns about mental health, and schools are increasingly positioned as possible sites of impact, support and intervention. As a result, school-based mental health interventions are increasingly common. Many of these are focused at the level of the individual and draw on western knowledge frameworks. Such programmes tend to ignore the social, political and historical contexts of mental health and wellbeing, including the role of colonisation and how forms of exclusion at the intersection of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, racism, and disability coalesce to frame schooling experiences over time. This paper draws on postcolonial theory to consider the tensions between individualistic and social/ political approaches to mental health and wellbeing and reflects on recent curriculum policy moves. It engages an inquiry into mental health education curriculum policy in Aotearoa New Zealand, exploring the basis of new curriculum articulations and what these might offer, reflect, promise, and obscure.

Educational approaches to wellbeing in contexts where children’s everyday lives face the adverse impacts of global changes, including climate change, deserve more in-depth consideration. As it stands, despite the high diversity of contextualized implementations of wellbeing education programs, these are conditioned by the existence of well-functioning school facilities (buildings and grounds). There is no doubt that the school represents a unique setting for the promotion of social and emotional wellbeing (Barry et al, 2017). Nevertheless, we must question any homogenous school-based wellbeing intervention that is not context-sensitive (McLellan et al, 2022). With that in mind, how can we continue to nurture children’ wellbeing when the school is no longer considered a viable or safe space? While scholars, policy makers and practitioners have been debating whether it is the school duty of the school to promote wellbeing (Primdahl et al, 2018), the dependance of prevailing student wellbeing model(s) on strong and stable school infrastructures has so far never been genuinely questioned, not even during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Climate-induced changes tend to impact children from the poorest communities more deeply (Zmirou-Navier, 2021). In its 2022 report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted that the adverse impacts of climate change “disproportionately affect marginalized groups, amplifying inequalities and undermining sustainable development across all regions.” For example, it is expected that by 2030 almost 125 million children in Africa will be subjected to water scarcity, malnutrition, and displacement because of climate change (Fambasayi & Addaney, 2021). Extreme weather events are themselves traumatic experiences, and losing a school magnifies the negative psychosocial consequences generated by the loss of other resources and sentimental possessions (Shultz, 2016). The number of affected schools is striking. As example, Kenya has recorded that in 2018 alone, 700 schools were impacted by disastrous climate-changed events and had to close as a consequence (Fambasayi & Addaney, 2021). In 2016, Hurricane Matthew damaged 300 schools and affected a total of 700 in Haiti, while 86 were used as shelters and thus disrupted their educational purpose (Shultz, 2016).

The intertwining of climate and social justice is clear beyond argument. Since the 1960s, social justice has been at the core of the climate change discourse, bringing into our awareness key themes such as global environmental inequality (Bourg, 2020). The current popularity in the Global North of school-based ecoliteracy programs, which aim at enhancing human-environment relationships, is a major outcome of this trend (McBride et al, 2013). However, the connection between knowledge on the impacts of environmental hazards on populations and knowledge pertaining to children’s wellbeing in the most affected regions has remained, up to now, underdeveloped. This paper draws from a social justice perspective to propose an alternative framework that sustainably supports the wellbeing of children in locations where school buildings are no longer available/accessible, appropriate for learning, or even considered safe spaces due to extreme weather events (e.g., heat waves, wildfires, etc.).

Sexuality is a central part of human identity, integrity, well-being, and satisfaction with life in general, in addition to being vital for human reproduction (Kågesten & van Reewijk, 2021; OECD 2020). Therefore, sexual health promotion across age groups and settings is crucial from an individual as well as a societal perspective. The most widespread and established definition of sexual health is developed by the World Health Organization (WHO 2006a), which defines it as a concept of physical, emotional, mental, and social well-being in relation to sexuality. Thus, according to this definition a holistic perspective on sexuality and sexual health promotion is crucial. Furthermore, an important element of sexual health promotion is sexual health literacy – a component of the broader concept of health literacy (Vongxay et al., 2019), which in practice means to take responsibility for one's own and one's family/ community health (Sørensen et al., 2012). More precisely it is a combination of skills in various dimensions of sexual health, which enables an understanding and application of sexual health information and communication (Dehghankar et al., 2022; Kågesten & van Reeuwijk, 2021). Focusing on health literacy as a health promotion action is a holistic, sustainable, and cost-effective strategy (Okan et al., 2020). Therefore, alongside the concept of sexual health defined by WHO (2006), sexual health literacy will be a central concept for the sexual health promotion perspective in this review study.

Sexual health programs and interventions in schools constitute a multidisciplinary and primary health promoting method. School is a crucial platform for students to learn about sexual health and develop a capacity to make informed decisions regarding their sexual health (WHO, 2015). It is furthermore one of the few arenas that reaches nearly all adolescents, regardless of socio-economical background. When healthy adolescent sexuality development and a positive understanding of the self in relation to others is promoted, it will not only be beneficial in this specific period in life but also regarding the future of the adolescents (Kågesten, et al., 2021). Numerous previous review studies have however measured the effects of sexual health interventions in schools from a risk-perspective, although it is not considered to be an optimal nor an effective health promotion approach (McCracken et al., 2016; Lameiras-Fernández et al., 2021). A risk-approach does not either cover the positive sexuality content that adolescents themselves wish to learn more about (Fowler, Schoen, Smith & Morain, 2022; OECD 2020). Furthermore, most of the existing reviews on sexual health interventions includes all international studies or studies exclusively conducted in North America or Australia (e.g., Wang, Lurie, Govindasamy, and Mathews 2018), although school systems, culture as well as political context differs a lot depending on continent as well as country. Previous studies have argued that for sexual health promotion in schools to be effective, various contextual socio-economical as well as political dimensions need to be taken into consideration (McCracken et al., 2016; Vongxay et al., 2019). To the authors’ knowledge, there are no previous systematic review studies evaluating sexual health-promotion interventions, with a focus on the positive sexuality, conducted in Europe. Therefore, this review aims to systematically gather and synthesize the current evidence on sexual health-promoting interventions in order to assess the effectiveness of sexual health-promoting programs conducted in schools in Europe.

This research paper is stage 2 of a PhD study concerned with the design, implementation and evaluation of a systems informed model of positive education for developing Irish primary schools. The conceptual framework will be informed by data collected from multiple stakeholders involved in developing schools and includes the perspectives of principals, teachers, students and parents.

Wellbeing in school starts with the staff. They are in the front line of the work and it is hard for them to be genuinely motivated to promote emotional and social wellbeing of others if they feel uncared for and burnt out themselves (Weare 2015 as cited by NCCA 2017, p. 29). Despite this, Sharrocks (2014), noted that is a dearth of research which focuses upon teacher wellbeing.

Research by the Morgan and Nic Chraith (2015), noted that the vast majority of teachers took the view that teaching has become more stressful in the previous five years and over 93% of respondents thought that the work had become more demanding. Factors that contributed to this increase in stress included the greater need for documentation and school improvement plans, the demand on schools to solve problems of concern in society. This was considered an important influence in making teaching more challenging and stressful. As a result, catering for individual differences was also significant as was the number of children with behaviour difficulties in classrooms. Teacher wellbeing has subsequently suffered following the gloab pandemic with Burke and Dempsey (2021) noting that seven out of 10 of teachers reported feeling more stress and six out of 10 reported a decline in wellbeing during the first six months of the pandemic.

As a result, the purpose of this study is to unravel the experience of wellbeing of teachers in developing schools (*a developing school in this study is a school that has been set up since 2013), using Actor Network Theory (ANT). ANT posits that ideas, practices and ‘facts’ are effects of heterogeneous webs of relations between actors, or ‘assemblages’, a notion similar to Deleuze’s ‘agencement’ (Law, 2008). ANT is used in this research to identify how practices, assemblages, and webs of relationships human and non-human things impact on the wellbeing of new school principals. Furthermore, ANT is used to identify ‘problematisations’ or challenges to teacher wellbeing in developing schools.

Consequently, the key research questions of this research are:

• What does wellbeing mean to developing school teachers from the perspective of both school wellbeing and personal wellbeing?
• How do professional and personal relationships impact on teacher wellbeing in developing schools?
• What wellbeing structures or supports are available to teachers in developing schools.
• What wellbeing practices are in operation in developing schools?
• What links exist between wellbeing and the ingrained structures within the education system?
• What are the challenges or concerns that teachers experience and the ‘things’ or actors that enable or hinder wellbeing?

Teachers are among the occupations most affected by work-related stress (Aloe et al., 2014). About a third of teachers in Switzerland report feeling stressed at work on a daily basis (Kunz Heim et al., 2014). Chronic stress can in turn result in employees being unable to work due to physical or mental health issues (Bödeker, 2000), leaving the profession in search of other career options, or retiring early (Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2017). Worldwide, schools are struggling with staff shortages as increasing numbers of teachers are leaving the classroom due to challenging working conditions (Goldhaber & Theobald, 2022). Hence, there is an urgent need for effective organizational health interventions (OHI) in the education sector. The proposed project explores how OHIs are designed in schools with a focus on participation.

The study is based on the Job Demands-Resources Model (JD-R) (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014), which assumes that job demands, such as time pressure or heavy workload, can trigger a health-impairment process that can result in negative strain (e.g., exhaustion). In contrast, personal and professional resources, like social support or appreciative leadership, have a positive impact on employees´ motivation, work engagement, and consequently mental well-being (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014). A balance between job demands and resources can be achieved by actively redesigning work, which includes strengthening personal and professional resources, fostering motivating work requirements as well as reducing demanding working conditions (Tims et al., 2012). Within the theoretical framework of the JD-R, this process is described as “job crafting”(Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). OHIs make use of this concept by encouraging employees to actively shape their workplace through participatory approaches. Thus, participation in health promotion is understood as "a process which allows employees to exert some influence over their work and the conditions under which they work" (Heller et al., 2004, p. 15).

Past research has shown that a high level of participation can positively influence the effectiveness of health interventions (Schelvis et al., 2016). It has been argued that participation makes employees feel more empowered and in control of the changes affecting their workplace (Nielsen & Christensen, 2021). At the same time, there is evidence showing that participation can sometimes backfire, as the participation process requires considerable resources and consequently lead to an increase in workload and higher stress levels (Schelvis et al., 2016). While there is a broad consensus on the importance of participation in OHIs, it is often not well understood why some participatory interventions fail, while others succeed (Nielsen & Christensen, 2021). Especially in the school context, there is a lack of long-term studies that evaluate the entire process of participatory OHIs (Dadaczynski et al., 2015). Recently, several authors have therefore called for more in-depth investigations that provide a better understanding of “what works for whom in which circumstances”? (Nielsen & Christensen, 2021; Nielsen & Miraglia, 2017; Roodbari et al., 2022). This study, therefore, aims to provide a detailed insight into the quality of participatory processes as well as identify relevant contextual factors which influence the participatory process in OHIs in schools.

The following research questions are guiding the analysis: How does the implementation of the intervention proceed in the different schools (process)? How does the initial situation (context) influence the quality of the process?

Education systems emphasize academic achievements and neglect the development of emotional skills which constitute fundamental life skills. Emotional literacy is intertwined with the socio-emotional development of children. It is associated with emotional wellbeing and positive interpersonal relationships (Alemdar & Anilan, 2021). Steiner & Perry (1997) coined the term emotional literacy. The concept of emotional literacy puts emphasis on emotion perception, emotional understanding and emotion management. Emotion literate children can tolerate frustration and have greater academic achievements. Emotion literacy is linked to wellbeing, school adjustment and prevention of emotional and behavioral difficulties (Joseph, Strain & Ostrosky, 2005). It is a component of wellbeing with multiple benefits for children’s development as it fosters academic achievement and promotes mental health (Francis, Chin-Vella, & Brodrick, 2020). Socio-emotional skills are associated with improved coping with school stressors, increased understanding of consequences of behavior and lower rates of interpersonal violence (Zins & Elias, 2007). In addition, emotional wellbeing can nurture educational equity and social justice. According to Weare (2004), emotional literacy includes the following competencies: self-understanding, understanding the causes of emotions, managing emotions effectively, using information about emotions for problem-solving, understanding social situations and making relationships, as well as effectively communicating and managing relationships appropriately.

Literacy and intelligence have overlapping features and include similar components. Scholars assert that there is no distinction between intelligence and literacy and are used interchangeably (Kliueva & Tsagari, 2018). According to Alemdar & Anilan (2021) the term intelligence implies that it is a capability that it is innate, whereas literacy suggests that it is teachable and can be improved.

Emotional literacy and socio-emotional competence is crucial to be cultivated within school context (Carnwell & Baker, 2007. Nikolaou & Stamatis, 2020). Preschool curriculum should include activities that aim to develop a vocabulary of emotions, expand emotional understanding and teach social skills. Teachers should observe the signs of children’s distress and take into account their emotions. This will lead to children’s wellbeing (Figueroa-Sanchez, 2008. Nikolaou, Stamatis, & Papavasileiou, 2022).

Education should re-envision its goals (Nikolaou & Stamatis, 2022). Education programming should include the development of multiple forms of intelligence and design an educational curriculum for the whole child (Burroughs & Barkauskas, 2017). Socio-emotional learning interventions have been demonstrated that lead to positive outcomes. They ought to be curriculum embedded and to include family and community partnerships. They also nurture a wider school ethos and a healthy school climate. Whole-school approaches, staff training, daily practice of skills and school policy contribute to the effectiveness of socio-emotional learning interventions programming (Wigelsworth, Veritoy, Mason, Qualfer, & Humphrey, 2022). Teachers’ emotional intelligence can contribute to the enhancement of students’ emotional self-awareness and the establishment of meaningful relationships with students (Dolev & Leshem, 2016). It also fosters better class management and improved climate. According to Haddon et al., (2005) emotional literate schools cultivate a sense of emotional safety which is related to relationships that nurture trust, empathy and respect. The quality of the relationships within school community is linked to the sense of connectedness. Therefore, the development of positive relationships is essential to be an important educational goal.

The present research study aims to explore teachers’ views on the characteristics of emotionally literate teachers, their views on the ways that teachers can nurture emotional literacy in schools as well as their views on the obstacles to cultivating emotional literacy among other research questions.

Relative to most European contexts, diversity is seen to be a recent phenomenon in Irish society. Traditionally, Ireland had higher outward than inward migration rates and the Catholic Church was culturally and socially dominant. Both these factors meant that Irish society was perceived (somewhat erroneously) to be culturally and ethnically homogeneous (Bryan, 2009). However, since migration rates and religious attitudes began to shift in the mid-1990s, the growth in both visible and less visible forms of diversity has been rapid (Ní Dhuinn & Keane, 2021; McGinnity et al., 2020). This swift growth in diversity means that, like its European neighbours, the Irish education system must ensure that young people are supported in developing the skills and dispositions necessary for living in diverse societies. These are often referred to under the umbrella term of intercultural competence, a longstanding priority of the Council of Europe (Barrett, 2020; Barrett et al., 2014).

One element of intercultural competence that has been attracting attention in recent years is empathy (as seen, for example, in the EU Digital Citizenship Education programme). Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and share others’ thoughts and emotions (Weisz & Cikara, 2021). However, it is not limited to intercultural competence alone. Regarded more broadly as a powerful predictor of adaptive intra- and inter-personal outcomes (Konrath & Grynberg, 2013), empathy can be positioned as a key element of social and individual wellbeing. Higher empathy has consistently been linked to enhanced social relationships (e.g., Dekovic & Gerris, 1994), increased prosocial behavour (e.g., Eisenberg et al., 2010), reduced prejudice (e.g., Miklikowska, 2018), and increased civic responsibility (e.g., Hope & Jagers, 2014). These outcomes align well with the WHO’s Health Promoting Schools Framework (1991), which emphasises how healthy relationships are important for individual wellbeing and can, in turn, lead to healthier communities.

Research indicates that empathy is malleable and dynamic (e.g., Main et al., 2017). One of the putative pathways towards enhanced empathy is empathy education, often conducted as part of school-based social and emotional learning (SEL) programmes (Davis & Begovich, 2014). This paper introduces an empathy education programme called Activating Social Empathy (ASE), which was designed to be facilitated by second-level teachers, with the aims of increasing empathy, improving interpersonal skills, promoting prosocial behaviour, and increasing social responsibility among students aged between 12-15 years. The ASE programme previously underwent feasibility testing followed by more rigorous randomised control trial (RCT) testing. Findings from the RCT study were promising in that increases in empathy, social responsibility values, emotional self-confidence, and helping and defending behaviour were found among students who had engaged in the programme, compared to students on a wait-list.

However, it has been recognised that after RCT evaluation, monitoring of programme implementation in the real world is needed due to the effects of a variety of factors at the individual, school, and macro-educational system levels (Domotrovich et al., 2008). Thus, a study was developed with the aim of exploring how the ASE programme was being implemented in schools, to identify factors that may be influencing quality implementation and enactment, and to better understand teacher and student interpretations of and perspectives on the programme. The objectives of this study were to explore: 1) how the programme was being implemented; 2) how acceptable it was to teachers and students; and 3) teachers’ and students’ perceptions of how effective it is in terms of influencing both empathic motivations and skills, and prosocial intentions and behaviours.

This paper will present a brief overview of the study’s overall results before focusing in particular on the findings related to the participants’ perceptions of the programme’s effectiveness.

Social-emotional wellbeing at school is related to students’ connectedness to their cultural selves, their sense of ethnic group belonging and pride, and the ways they participate confidently as critical citizens who recognise and protect the rights, beliefs, values and identities of others. Using a Kaupapa Māori approach, this chapter discusses the social-psychological conditions for cultural connectedness and ethnic group belonging for primary school students (n = 2149) aged 5–12 years and secondary school students (n = 584) aged 13–18 years in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Few empirical studies have examined the affective and social-psychological drivers of cultural connectedness and ethnic group belonging to the social-emotional wellbeing of diverse students. In this paper, I contribute to this the discussion by focusing on how self-perceptions about the value of cultural identity (as it relates to ethnic group membership) affects the social-emotional wellbeing of students in schools in New Zealand. This paper explores the ways diverse students “act and make choices, are acted upon, and relate to each other in a variety of ways” based on their understandings of cultural identity and sense of cultural connectedness. Using a Kaupapa Māori approach, this study examined the social-psychological conditions for cultural connectedness and ethnic group belonging for primary school students (n = 2149) aged 5–12 years, and secondary school students (n = 584) aged 13–18 years, from one regional cluster of schools (n = 16) in the northern region of Aotearoa, New Zealand. This paper evidences the ways social-emotional wellbeing at school is related to students’ connectedness to their cultural selves, their sense of ethnic group belonging and pride, and the ways they participate confidently as critical citizens who recognise and protect the rights, beliefs, values and identities of culturally-diverse ‘others’ in a rapidly changing national context.

A critical consideration in the New Zealand's progressive curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2015), which stipulates that schools should provide all students with opportunities to “create an Aotearoa New Zealand in which Māori and Pākehā recognise each other as full Treaty partners, and in which all cultures are valued for the contributions they bring” (p.10). The New Zealand Curriculum puts students’ culture at the center of teaching and learning, asserting that: a) students should experience a curriculum that acknowledges the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, and the bicultural foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand, and b) that the curriculum should reflect New Zealand’s cultural diversity and values the histories and traditions of all its people. The New Zealand curriculum asserts that all children should feel proud of who they are, where they come from, and what their culture has to offer the world. As the world around us diversifies, it will become more important to be aware of the values and practices of our own culture/s, in order to have an appreciation and willingness to learn about other cultures.

Not only are schools’ central places for forming ethnic identities, but the way teachers and students talk, interact and act in school, both reflects and helps shape developing understandings about ethnic hierarchies. Evidently, students’ experiences at school can influence how they choose to culturally or ethnically self-categorise, how boundaries between their ethnic groups are formed, negotiated and interpreted, and how the processes of racialisation and boundary-forming affect students’ interactions and opportunities.

Massive migration flows are less and less “temporary” crises that may be readily solved, and more so an ongoing reality that is here to stay for a long time, with an enormous impact on the education, health and wellbeing of children and youth around the world. Prior to the war between Ukraine and Russia, which pushed around 8 million Ukrainians out of their country, there was a similar movement of people in South America. In 2015, more than 7 million Venezuelans began leaving their country, largely remaining in neighboring countries as undocumented migrants (a majority) and refugees (a small share) (R4V, 2023).

About 5.4 million children, mostly from Venezuela and Colombia, remain displaced across South America. Ecuador, a country of 17 million people, hosts the highest number of recognized refugees in Latin America (72,229) (Integral Human Development, 2023) and has given about 200,000 migrants permission to stay (if only temporarily). Out of more than 4.3 million school students in the country, almost 2% (80,074) are not Ecuadorian nationals. The high number of Venezuelan students indicates that at least 70% have recently arrived.

While the Ecuadorian legal framework guarantees equal rights before the law for all inhabitants, both migrants and locals (Ecuadorian Government, 2008), some legal loopholes were used to prioritize citizens during the pandemic. For instance, migrants were originally relegated to the end of the Covid vaccination queue (phase three) and were left out of government cash transfers to the most impoverished people. Concurrently, regardless of migration status, children have maintained their right to be enrolled at school. After the pandemic, further provisions were made so children could be enrolled at any moment during the school year, which was not previously allowed.

In Ecuador, the “best interest of the child” (UNHCR, 2006; Kalverboer et al, 2017) has been used to advocate for the nationalization of children regardless of foreign or local nationality, privileging the right to national identity. Similarly, family reunification is a priority for refugees in the country. At the same time, United Nations guidelines (UNHCR, 2021) on the “best interest of the child”, for example, privilege completion of the school year over child reunification. A human rights approach demands to explicitly include children's rights in policy, regulations and decision making. This paper examines the concept of the “best interest of the child” in policies and perspectives of decision makers regarding migrant children’s access to schooling in Ecuador, as means to their wellbeing.

BACKGROUND: While student and teacher health enjoy a high level of interest in empirical health research, research on the health of school leaders has barely been on the research agenda. The few studies available indicate, among other things, that school principals are frequently affected by psychological stress, which is more pronounced compared to other occupational groups (Dewa et al., 2009; Philips et al., 2008). Findings in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020 indicate that school principals feel stressed primarily due to workload, interpersonal conflict, a lack of resources, and personal pressure (Hansen et al., 2020). Looking at physical and psychological exhaustion, 45% of school principals and school board members surveyed in a German study reported that they find it difficult to recover at the end of a workday, and one-third often/always feel psychologically exhausted (Dadaczynski et al., 2021). In a Swiss study, 29% of school leaders reported reduced well-being, a quarter find it difficult to recover after a workday, and one in five school leaders often feel psychologically exhausted at work (Sandmeier et al., 2021). How school leaders cope with work-related stress and the extent to which work-related coping behaviors are associated with mental health has not been studied to date.

RESEARCH QUESTION: Based on the job demands-resources model (Demerouti et al., 2001) and transactional stress theory (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), the relationship between work-related stress and mental health of school administrators during the COVID-19 pandemic will be examined. In addition, we will analyze how school principals cope with work-related stress and the extent to which coping behaviors may explain the relationship between stress and mental health.

This study involved two research approaches: 1) a case study and 2) a robust literature review. These were conducted to strengthen the very sparsely studied phenomenon of teacher wellbeing in the primary school context. By combining these two methods, we are able to obtain a broader and deeper picture of the studied phenomenon. This study answers two research questions: 1) What experiences do teachers have regarding their wellbeing during teacher classroom management (TCM) implementation? 2) What studies have been conducted on teacher wellbeing in dealing with students with externalising conduct? Therefore, the aim of this study was to strengthen our understanding of teacher wellbeing using a multimethod approach.

The diversity of pupils and their different difficulties challenge teachers’ skills and methods in teaching. Some behavioural challenges require rapid intervention and a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach by the teachers. An internationally recognised tool, TCM, aims to support pupils’ socio-emotional development, improve teacher–pupil interaction, and strengthen school–home cooperation. This case study examines teachers’ experiences of TCM in the Finnish primary school context. The study is qualitative, and the data (N = 16) was collected through focus group interviews.

The theoretical framework of this study includes various indicators of teacher’s wellbeing. A systematic literature review was conducted to develop a robust theoretical framework for this paper. Wellbeing is a multidimensional notion and an understudied phenomenon (Berlanda, et al., 2019; Reddy et al., 2018; Weiland, 2021). Wellbeing theorists study the individual trait of flourishing, “understood as optimal ways of functioning characterised by goodness and wholeness” (Cherkowski & Walker, 2016). Research on human flourishing focuses on the importance of healthy relationships (Cherkowski & Walker, 2016), centrality of emotion and affect (Fredrickson, 2001), and feelings of competence (Dollansky, 2014). We therefore included Gibbs (2018) thoughts about teachers’ identities, autonomy, and efficacy.

Seligman’s (2002, 2011) wellbeing theory stemmed from positive psychology, studying positive human qualities, habits, and mental models, rather than the analysis or exploration of deficits and negative attributes (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). In 2002, Seligman claimed that ‘happiness’ is made up of three elements: positive emotion, engagement, and meaning. In 2011, Seligman revised his theory to include two other elements: relationships and accomplishments. According to Seligman (2011), positive relationships, or a lack thereof, have a critical influence on overall wellbeing; wellbeing should be viewed as a construct.

Researchers recently have followed Seligman’s approach to viewing the issue of teacher wellbeing through a positive psychology lens. The conversation turned to retaining teachers through mindfulness (De Stercke, Goyette, & Robertson, 2015), with positive teacher leadership practices focused on wellbeing for all (Cherkowski, 2018). Cherkowski (2018) specifically emphasised teacher wellbeing as a priority in its own right. This is in contrast to focusing on wellbeing as a tool to prevent burnout and attrition or solely to benefit students. In this paper, we aim to develop a deeper understanding of teachers’ wellbeing regarding students’ externalising conduct in classroom/schools as a preventive approach to wellbeing in education.

Teaching is an increasingly demanding profession linked to many intrapersonal, interpersonal, societal, organizational, and administrative obstacles, hurdles, and challenges (Mäkelä & Hirvensalo, 2015). In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the effort and complexity of the teaching profession while requiring teachers to adapt to new job demands (e.g., shift to remote teaching). Specific physiological and psychological job demands and the limited individual preconditions for their fulfillment can cause teachers to experience feelings of insufficiency, relatively high levels of stress, low job satisfaction, and absenteeism (Bogaert et al., 2014). Thus, some teachers leave the teaching profession during their productive years, and older teachers consider, and often choose, early retirement (Dunlop & Macdonald, 2004).

The work ability concept was proposed to identify whether individuals are able to continue to meet the physical and psychosocial requirements of their profession. Work ability is defined as a balance between personal resources and work characteristics or as the individual capacity to complete required work tasks and cope with the job demands successfully (Ilmarinen et al., 2008). For our research, we define work ability as a teacher’s self-perception or evaluation of their capacity to continue working contentedly in the teaching profession, given the characteristics of the job and their personal resources.

The importance of work ability in the context of well-being is that it predicts the quality of life in the physical, psychological, relational, and environmental domains (Milosevic et al., 2011). Among teachers, work ability was a significant and important predictor of current job satisfaction (Ünlü & Filiz, 2019).

In recent years, several studies, meta-analyses, and reviews have been published to identify and better understand a range of work-focused antecedents of work ability as a way to maintain and enhance work ability and, therefore, teachers’ well-being (cf. Cadiz et al., 2019). Considering the JD-R theory (Schaufeli & Taris, 2014), work ability can be influenced negatively by job demands (e.g., job insecurity, pupil misbehavior, time pressure, and work overload). Furthermore, the JD-R model assumes that high job demands and insufficient job resources may cause burnout. Based on the health impairment process (Schaufeli & Taris, 2014), we propose that high job demands and lacking job resources might result in a higher strain (burnout), and burnout can have an unfavorable effect on work ability.

Although these relationships have already been the research subject, the most frequently used diagnostic tool—the Work Ability Index (WAI) has been criticized (cf. Hlaďo et al., 2020). The main reasons are that the WAI overlaps with the construct of burnout and does not reflect the job specifics of the teaching profession.

Considering this research gap, the main goals of our paper are: to (1) develop and validate a new research instrument measuring work ability among teachers conceptually distinct from burnout and (b) examine the relationships between job demands, job resources, burnout, and work ability among lower secondary school teachers.

Emotions play a crucial role in school contexts concerning a child’s academic achievements, social functioning, and well-being (Denham et al., 2012; Valiente et al., 2020). As schools are complex emotional arenas, teachers constantly experience emotional situations in the classroom involving children with emotions. More specifically, the teachers get emotionally involved as they interact with children (Valiente et al., 2020). These interactions can also act as learning situations for children, where they can learn from emotions and regulate them (Kurki et al., 2017). For the interactions to be beneficial for supporting children’s learning, it requires a good teacher-student relationship as well as the teachers being sensitive to the child’s signals and needs and attuned to the child’s emotional state (Guo et al., 2021). These emotional interactions are reciprocal: children’s emotional displays and behaviours affect the teacher’s emotions and actions and vice versa (Lavelli et al., 2019). Despite a variety of research exploring this reciprocal relationship at a general level, exploring teacher’s emotions and their impact on students (Frenzel et al., 2021), there are less contextualized studies on how teacher’s own interpretations and related emotions in emotional interactions are connected to how they interact with the emotional child. Therefore, more research is needed on how teachers interpret emotional situations and what kind of emotions they themselves experience in these situations.

Co-regulation of emotions has been used as a term to describe adult-child interactions, where the adult supports and helps the child to learn to regulate their emotions (Lunkenheimer & Lobo, 2020). Prior research indicates that children are highly dependent upon these interactions in order to regulate their emotions, internal emotional states, and behaviours (Bernier et al., 2010; Erdmann & Hertel, 2019). In the school context, teachers can become important co-regulators of the children’s emotions (Spilt et al., 2021). More specifically, as the teachers set the standards for appropriate social behaviour, the teachers become role models who support the children in handling their emotions (Valiente et al., 2020). However, teachers are not always aware of their impact as co-regulators of children’s emotions (Kurki et al., 2016; Silkenbeumer et al., 2018). Hence, understanding how teachers identify their own emotions and thoughts and the way these emotions and thoughts affect their co-regulation with the emotional child, is needed.

The aim of this study is to explore teacher’s own reflections, thoughts and emotions about classroom situations and the ways these contribute to the teacher’s co-regulation of the child’s emotions. Hence, the following research questions (RQ) are:

1) How do teachers interpret emotional classroom situations?

2) How do these interpretations contribute to teacher’s co-regulation in emotional classroom situations?

Worldwide, the prevalence of issues compromising well-being and mental health among children and adolescents has grown significantly during the last decades. Results of the most recent 2017/18 study on school children’s health and health habits with 45 countries participating showed that in Sweden, children at an age of 11 years indicate lower life satisfaction compared with children in other European countries, but even at 13 and 15 years of age, the satisfaction of Swedish children is below average (Inchley et al., 2020). Saarni (1999) considered emotional competencies as a set of skills which can mitigate the negative effect of school-related stress that students report. Emotional and social skills have been associated with positive youth development in school, by promoting healthy lifestyle behaviours, and reducing the likelihood of depression, anxiety, conduct disorders, violence, bullying, conflict, and anger (Sancassiani et al. 2015).

Another area of importance for students´ well-being is leisure time activities. The importance of leisure for students’ well-being was evident in a study by Ratelle et al. (Ratelle et al., 2005), where it was shown that a conflict between school and leisure activities was associated with poorer academic outcomes (e.g., poor concentration at school, academic hopelessness, few intentions to pursue studies), which were further associated with higher levels of depression and low life satisfaction. Pointing in a similar direction, other research has shown that a higher time of engaging in screen-based sedentary behaviour was associated with more inattention problems, as well as with less psychological well-being, perceived quality of life, and self-esteem (Hoare et al., 2016).

In recent reviews and meta-analyses, both leisure-time physical activity and school sport were shown to have an inverse association with mental ill-health in children and adolescents; in other words, higher physical activity levels are commonly associated with lower mental health challenges (Biddle et al. 2019; Rodriguez-Ayllon et al., 2019). Focusing solely on the school environment, school-related physical activity interventions were shown to reduce anxiety, increase resilience, and improve well-being children and adolescents (Andermo et al., 2020).

Pollard and Lee (2003) attempted to remedy the inconsistency around the dimensionality of well-being in their systematic literature review. According to their compilation of the literature, general child well-being comprises five main dimensions: the psychological, cognitive, social, economic, and physical dimensions. In the present study, we focus on the psychological, cognitive, and social well-being dimensions of well-being.

In accordance with Pollard and Lee (2003), the psychological well-being dimension should be related to children’s emotions and mental health, comprising levels of anxiety, distress, nervousness, stress, and self-esteem about school. Cognitive well-being is related to individuals’ perception of their capability to function in an intellectual context. Social well-being refers to having supportive and well-functioning social relationships: Individuals who feel that they can develop and maintain satisfying and healthy relationships with surrounding people tend to have high social well-being, while individuals who feel the opposite are more likely to experience social isolation (Pollard & Lee, 2003).

Purposes

The main aim of the present study is to examine the long-term changes in students´ well-being and the impact of leisure time activities on students´ well-being. Specific research questions:

How has students’ well-being changed over time in different education- and feedback systems over the last five decades?

How has students´ well-being changed over time regarding different subgroups, e.g., cognitive ability, gender, socioeconomic status, and leisure time activities?

According to the theory of Environmental Sensitivity, individuals differ in the way they respond to environmental stimuli, due to differences in the depth of information processing (Pluess et al., 2015). The trait of sensitivity is normally distributed in the population (Pluess et al., 2020), and it is possible to identify three groups, according to different levels of environmental sensitivity (low, 30%, medium, 40% and high sensitivity, 30%) (Lionetti et al., 2018). Highly sensitive people have a deeper experience of the environment, are more affected by their experiences and are more susceptible to environmental influences, whether negative or positive (Belsky & Pluess, 2009; Pluess et al., 2020). Even at school, highly sensitive children differ in the extent to which the school environment impacts on their quality of life, well-being and learning outcomes and, according to the Vantage Sensitivity model (Pluess & Belsky, 2013), highly sensitive people show a greater response to positive experiences, including those occurring within the school environment (Pluess & Boniwell, 2015). The present study aims at investigating whether a teacher-training intervention for enhancing the quality of classroom interactions in the domains of emotional support, classroom organization and instructional support (Pianta et al., 2008) might be more effective for highly sensitive children’s wellbeing than for low sensitive children. Based on the vantage sensitivity model, the hypothesis is that highly sensitive children, would show a significantly higher increase in well-being scores after the intervention, compared to low sensitive children. The outcomes of interest are: identity safety, emotional support, optimism and self-esteem. The role of teachers’ sensitivity, self-efficacy, job and life satisfaction are also investigated.

Introduction

In 2020, the Norwegian curriculum was renewed and introduced a new cross-curricular theme ‘Public Health and Life Skills’ (PHLS) into schools. We have in this project focused on the potential of cross-professional cooperation when teaching PHLS in school. Specifically, we have studied how teacher students and public health nurse students discuss what they consider to be the most important sources of health information in their lives and their reflections on the different sources' trustworthiness.

The research questions asked is: Which sources of health information are considered central and valid by teacher students and public health nurse students? And which understandings of health are expressed by the students?

There are limited knowledge on the potential of cross-professional teaching of health and well-being in the Norwegian context. However, international research show that the introduction of similar subjects/topics in schools has resulted in an increased collaboration with external health organizations (Kirk, 2020; O'Higgins et al., 2007). In the Norwegian context, the school health service is a central actor with a purpose to facilitate for a good social milieu in schools and should contribute to students' health, preventing illness and injuries (Helsedirektoratet, 2021).

Research shows that school nurses play an important role in school, particulalry when working with students in vulnarable situations (Federici et al., 2021; Kvarme, 2017), and the importance of cross-professional collaboration is emphasized as important. At the same time, research shows that there can be challenges in cross-professional collaboration for teachers and school nurses partly because of the professions' different understandings of knowledge and different epistemologies. While the teacher profession seems to value personal knowledge and experience as most important, the nurse profession emphasize scientific knowledge (Bråten & Strømsø, 2005; Karseth & Nerland, 2007; Nerland & Karseth, 2015).

Previous research on the two professions understandings of health is therefore of interest to this project. Health is a complex concept, and studies show that teachers and school nurses understanding of health has consequences for their work. A pathogene understanding of health seem to dominate the professions practices, despite recent research emphasizinng salutogene and critical perspectives on health as more conducive approaches in schools (Mong & Standal, 2019; Quennerstedt, 2019; Samdal, 2021).

Health literacy is a concept widely used in the healthcare system, but not sufficiently explained in education settings. Concept of health literacy includes and explains the relationship between an individual's level of literacy and his/her ability to maintain, improve and participate in his/her own and health care of others. Obviously, health literacy is related to literacy – discovering, understanding, evaluating and using information to make everyday life decisions about health care, disease prevention and health promotion in order to maintain and/or improve quality of life over the life course. Health literacy is being put into practice gradually, linked to the overall level of health education in society as a whole. As health literacy studies in European countries show, the overall level of health literacy varies from country to country and from social group to social group, currently exacerbated by the presence of pandemics and viral diseases. Scholars argue that the social determinants of health literacy need to be taken into account when developing public health strategies to improve health equity in Europe, stressing that limited health literacy is a challenge for health policy and practice across Europe. In this context, parental health literacy is challenged by: a) the constraints of the pandemic, where parents are in closer contact as usually with their children but are not always able to respond appropriately to their child's needs (especially for younger children); b) changes in the general health system, where each person's individual responsibility for their own and their family's health is increasing; c) parental health literacy is seen as an important competence in monitoring or supervising the health status of their child: children are dependent on parental care and can suffer in situations where parents' own education and health knowledge are insufficient. Research confirms the links between parental health, educational attainment and children's learning achievements, underlining the importance of parental competence in health-related issues. Schools, with education at their core, can be an important tool for improving health literacy not only for children but also for parents. At least this was the hypothesis of our study.

The objective of our study is to find out the views of both parties (parents and educators) on the current situation of parent health literacy in Latvia and possibilities of school-parent cooperation in health literacy. Our research is based on literature on health literacy theories, health literacy empirical studies, and policy documents related to health literacy. Our empirical study was led from September, 2021 to May, 2022 based on focus group discussions and interviews. For empirical study were set three main questions: 1) what is parents' understanding of health literacy? 2) what factors in school-parent cooperation promote, limit or hinder parental health literacy? 3) how can school-parent cooperation in the development of parental health literacy be improved? The results of the study show mixed perceptions of health literacy among parents, teachers and school management, supporting the assumption that health literacy in educational settings of Latvia is just a developing process and requires systemic cooperation to promote health literacy and a clearly defined terminology for health literacy.