Conference Agenda

The panel discussion aims to highlight the scholarship and collaboration in the Health and Wellbeing Education network (NW8) since its establishment in 2011, as well as explore possible directions for the future of health and wellbeing education research, linking to the conference theme of EERA 2026 “Knowing and Acting: The changing conditions and potentials of education research”. Wellbeing and Mental Health have been described as one of the EERA supertopics, i.e. as one of the most important research topics that have been addressed in EERA’s three decades. In a discussion of EERA supertopics Deleye et al. (2025) finds that the growing focus on societal challenges is having a strong impact on the content and type of educational research, fulfilling demands providing research that is directly useful to policy. Research is produced under certain norms of what is perceived as a high academic standard. At the same time, and as noted by Cheek (2024), highly valued inputs are resources gained externally for research, and thus research funding govern research and limit its autonomy. Quoting Alvesson & Spicer (2016, p. 193) “at one level we are completely independent, but we all march to the same tune without even thinking about it” Cheek underlines that in so marching, we regulate ourselves and our practices through perceived imperatives such as “needing” to publish in high-impact-factor journals, or obtain external research funding from highly prized brands of funders, such as Horizon funding. To have transformative impact in the contexts we find ourselves in, while maintaining the necessity of critiquing how health and wellbeing education are being framed in policy, research and practice, involves questioning on how we are positioning ourselves and other stakeholders in our research. The aim of the panel discussion is to create a space for engaging with questions on where power is at play in research decisions, and to share strategies that can help resist ‘boxed in’ thinking. It is drawing on an examination of the specific “landscape” of health and wellbeing education research created through the collaborations in NW8, as well as inspiration from the EERA 2026 conference theme. The panel discussion is guided by the following questions:

• How can the landscape of health and wellbeing education research be described through the perspectives highlighted in research collaborations over the last 15 years in EERA NW8?
• How can health and wellbeing education research in the era of fake news, predatory journals or pressures of performativity, secure the sincerity and authenticity of, as well as trust in, academic knowledge?
• How can we as an academic community meaningfully bridge political or economic prerogatives while ensuring that scientific knowledge serves the broader public good without compromising academic autonomy?

The panel discussion comes in three parts, with the first highlighting the scholarship and collaborations in Health and Wellbeing Education Research network since its establishment in 2011, drawing on a compilation of Network 8 annual reports, highlighting contributions, and special calls over the years, as well as on an overview of the research focus in book projects and special issues authored by NW8 members since 2011 (see reference list). The second part looks to the future of health and wellbeing education research where invited panel participants are asked to share their reflections on the changing conditions and potentials of education research and its possible impact on the future development of the field. This includes (but is not limited to) reflections on potentials in the research field which can help us resist ‘boxed in’ thinking limiting research autonomy. The third part is a discussion drawing on comments and questions from the session participants.