Education and children’s well-being
Jennifer Spratt
Research Summary
The researcher analyses the health and well-being strand of Scottish educational policy. She notes that it draws partly on physical health promotion, partly on ideas about emotional and social literacy and partly on social care; but the idea of flourishing (leading a life that can be valued), though the most educational of the various versions of well-being, is absent. There is a tendency to see well-being as a prerequisite rather than an outcome of education. Teachers and other professionals usually repeat this view, but examples are given where high quality learning is deemed to be an important feature of a thriving childhood. Learning can be an experience of joy. Well-being needs to be seen at two levels: children need to be well in order to access the curriculum, but more deeply, learning should be of the kind to help them to flourish and live well. These are important issues for RE teachers to consider. How can RE content and pedagogy build children’s well-being?
Researcher
Jennifer Spratt
Research Institution
University of Aberdeen
What is this about?
- This research is about the concept of children’s well-being, within the Scottish educational system. How does the concept of well-being relate to learning?
- How does Scottish educational policy use the concept of well-being?
- Is well-being seen as a prerequisite of learning, or as an outcome of learning?
- How are the policies interpreted and used by teachers, in practice?
- How do teachers’ choices and actions affect pupils’ present and future well-being?
What was done?
Relevant literature, e.g. education policy documentation, was analysed. Interviews were then carried out with nine policy professionals (six at national, three at local level) and sixteen teachers (across two education authorities). The teachers were a mixture of primary and secondary, all with health and well-being responsibilities in their schools.
Main findings and outputs
- Health and well-being is an important strand of the Scottish Curriuculum for Excellence: the policy draws on physical health promotion, ideas about emotional and social literacy and social care; but the idea of flourishing is absent.
- ‘Flourishing’ is equivalent to Aristotle’s eudaimonia or good life. Well-being policy tends to assume that children’s well-being is important as an underpinning of learning in school, but well-being can also be an outcome of learning, or even a kind of learning. All of these are important.
- Children, through learning, should discover their own individuality, develop intellectual freedom and democratic fellowship, challenge injustice and understand human emotion.
- Children’s own perspectives on learning are important and they should be listened to by teachers. Good pedagogical practice in this respect is like a partnership. Well-chosen curricular content and pedagogical methods can foster this quality.
- Examples are given. A Geography teacher teaches about inequality so that children reflect on what they have and develop empathy with others. An English teacher uses literature to promote understanding of universal human themes as well as helping pupils to build communicative and expressive skills. A Science teacher begins topics by asking pupils about what they might be interested in, how they would like to learn and how they will share what they have learned.
- It is worth emphasising that the purpose of this kind of pedagogy is not to build children’s well-being in order to improve their ‘performance’, but to develop a form of education that helps to secure their well-being and develop their individuality.
Relevance to RE
The research poses a set of curricular and pedagogical questions to RE teachers:
- When developing topics for study, how can we try to ensure that the content has interest and value for learners? Are there particular aspects of RE that have the potential to help learners to develop important qualities of well-being, such as challenging injustice or understanding human emotion?
- With regard to pedagogy, are there styles of learning or types of activity that have the potential to help learners to develop important qualities of well-being, such as their individuality, their freedom of thought or their democratic abilities?
- What do learners say about the value of RE to them as people rather than achievers? What do they say are the kinds of RE content and pedagogy that develop their individuality and well-being? What kinds of opportunities do we create for them to have these conversations with us?
Generalisability and potential limitations
The document analysis has a Scottish basis and the number of interviewees is relatively small. However, the research identifies and addresses questions worth reflecting upon, for any practitioners of education, certainly including RE practitioners.
Find out more
Childhood wellbeing: what role for education?, British Educational Research Journal 42.2 pages 223-239 (published online 2 November 2015), 10.1002/berj.3211