Faculty of Education - Research Publications
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ItemNo Preview AvailableSocial and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Aboriginal controlled social housing(BMC, 2023-10-06)BACKGROUND: Little is known about the wellbeing and aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living in social housing. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living in social housing face common social housing challenges of low income, higher incidence of mental health issues and poorer health along with specific challenges due to the impacts of colonisation and its ongoing manifestations in racism and inequity. A greater understanding of social and emotional wellbeing needs and aspirations is essential in informing the provision of appropriate support. METHODS: Surveys of social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) were completed by 95 Aboriginal people aged 16 years and older living in Aboriginal Housing Victoria social housing in 2021. The survey addressed a range of domains reflecting social and emotional wellbeing, as defined by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. RESULTS: Most respondents demonstrated a strong sense of identity and connection to family however 26% reported having 6 or more health conditions. Ill health and disability were reported to be employment barriers for almost a third of people (32%). Improving health and wellbeing (78%) was the most cited aspiration. Experiences of racism and ill health influenced engagement with organisations and correspondingly education and employment. CONCLUSION: Strong connections to identity, family and culture in Aboriginal peoples living in social housing coexist along with disrupted connections to mind, body and community. Culturally safe and appropriate pathways to community services and facilities can enhance these connections. Research aimed at evaluating the impact of strengths-based interventions that focus on existing strong connections will be important in understanding whether this approach is effective in improving SEWB in this population. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial was retrospectively registered with the ISRCTN Register on the 12/7/21 with the study ID:ISRCTN33665735.
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ItemDevelopment of the Flourishing Classroom System Observation Framework and Rubric: a Delphi Study(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2022-07-30)Abstract This paper describes the development of the Flourishing Classroom System Observation Framework and Rubric, which provides a framework and practical approach to defining and describing multiple interconnected observable characteristics of a classroom system that individually and together can be targeted to cultivate collective flourishing within schools. Beginning with a working theoretical model based on existing literature, a three-round Delphi study was used to develop the framework and related rubric. In round 1, 35 experts answered open-ended questions regarding observable behaviours of collective wellbeing in the classroom. Analysis of responses resulted in a framework with five dimensions, each with three sub-dimensions. In round 2, 23 experts sorted and categorised statements that potentially described each of the 15 sub-dimensions. Analyses created definitions of each sub-dimension and statements describing how they manifest for teachers, students, and the class, along with a description of the learning environment for each dimension. In round 3, 18 experts reviewed the definitions and descriptions, resulting in a final 15-dimension framework with a related rubric of 45 descriptive statements. The resulting framework and rubric provide an organising structure to identify observable system elements that shape a flourishing classroom culture.
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ItemTracing the Growth, Gaps, and Characteristics in Positive Education Science: A Long-Term, Large-Scale Review of the Field(FRONTIERS MEDIA SA, 2021-12-03)This large-scale quantitative review used publication data to track the presence of positive education terms over a 100+ year period across 35 psychology journals and education journals utilizing two analytical methods. First, computer-generated linguistic word count analysis identified that positive education terms have shown small but steady growth in psychology and education research for more than a century. From 1904 to 2016, positive education terms have risen consistently, with increases in 1952, 1982, 2010, and 2014 to over 4, 5, 6, and 7 percent, respectively. Four new terms were present in the top 20 most prevalent terms following the official launch of positive education in 2009: well-being, satisfaction, motivat*, and engag* (note: terms ending with an asterisk are word stems). Three terms also increased in rank order prevalence from 2009 onwards: emotion*; health; and goal*. The second analytical method involved in-depth human coding of a subset of positive education abstracts (n=2,805) by a team of five researchers to identify trends pertaining to how positive education research has been conducted in terms of paradigms, designs, methods, tools, samples, and settings from 1950 to 2016. College students and students in secondary school make up the most common samples, with little research in the early childhood years. Quantitative, cross-sectional studies using self-report surveys have been the most common design and method used over the past six decades, suggesting room for growth in qualitative methods and the need for greater longitudinal and intervention designs. The human coding was also used to classify positive education variables into broader categories of research. Nine categories were identified: positive functioning; well-being; ill-being; strengths; agency; connection and belonging; identity and personality; school climate and outcomes; and demographics. By tracking positive education science over time, the current paper allows researchers to take stock of the field, identify gaps, outline areas of growth, and pursue fruitful topics for future research.
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ItemStrength-based parenting and stress-related growth in adolescents: Exploring the role of positive reappraisal, school belonging, and emotional processing during the pandemic(WILEY, 2022-02)INTRODUCTION: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has changed the way families live, interact, and connect with others, resulting in higher levels of stress for many teenagers who struggle with the ongoing uncertainty and disrupted school and family life. The current study examined the psychosocial factors that influence the capacity of adolescents to grow through the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: The sample included 404 secondary school students ranging in age from 11 to 18 (M = 14.75, SD = 1.59; 50.2% female, 46.8% male, and 3% non-/other gendered or declined to answer) from an independent high school in Australia. Data were collected from a battery of questionnaires that assessed strength-based parenting (SBP) and the effect of three psychosocial factors (positive reappraisal, emotional processing, and school belonging) on stress-related growth. RESULTS: Structural equation modeling showed that (SBP) was significantly associated with stress-related growth (SRG). Positive reappraisal and emotional processing were also positively and significantly associated with SRG and mediated the effect of SBP on SRG. Moreover, school belonging was positively linked to positive coping, emotional processing, and SRG, as well as mediating the association of SBP with positive reappraisal, emotional processing, and SRG in adolescents during the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that teenagers can experience SRG during the COVID-19 pandemic, and adolescents adapting by engaging in constructive coping responses such as positive reappraisal and emotional processing is positively related to SRG.
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ItemTaking "Thanks" for Granted: A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Gratitude in the UK and Australia(SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2022-04)Examinations of the influence of culture on how gratitude is experienced are sparse, as are studies that simultaneously explore developmental differences in understandings of gratitude. This paper presents three studies that examine whether perceptions and experiences of gratitude differ across children, adolescents and adults in two individualistic, WEIRD and Commonwealth cultures—Australia and the UK. Studies 1a ( N = 88, ages 17–39) and 1b ( N = 77, ages 17–25) provide initial insights into “features of gratitude” in Australia through two stages of a prototype analysis. These features are compared to a previous prototype study of gratitude in the UK, alongside a further comparison to the US. Study 2 employs vignettes to examine how perceptions of the benefactor, benefit and mixed emotions influence the degree of gratitude experienced across adolescents and adults in Australia ( N = 1937, ages 11–85), with a comparison to the UK ( N = 398, ages 12–65). In Study 3, factors examined in Study 2 are adapted into accessible story workbooks for younger children (Australia N=135, ages 9–11; UK N=62, ages 9–11). Results across these studies demonstrate similarities and differences in understandings and experiences of gratitude across cultures. While adults across Australia and the UK responded similarly to gratitude scenarios, cross-cultural differences are observed between children and adolescents in these two countries. Developmental differences are noted in relation to more sophisticated reasoning around gratitude, such as recognition of ulterior motives. These findings highlight the need for gratitude research and interventions to be cross-culturally, and developmentally, responsive.
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ItemTeacher Perspectives When Learning Trauma-Informed Practice Pedagogies: Stories of Meaning Making at Work(FRONTIERS MEDIA SA, 2022-06-17)This qualitative study focused upon ways teachers make meaning when working with students who are affected by trauma. An 11-month longitudinal design was used to explore teachers’ perspectives (N = 18 teachers) as they reflected upon the impacts of trauma within their classrooms and as they learned about trauma-informed practice strategies. Data from group interviews and participant journals were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results emerged that suggested common pathways in the ways teacher perspectives evolved; and these pathways were then analyzed in light of the meaningful work literatures to further suggest how work became more meaningful to these teachers when learning trauma-informed practice strategies. Teachers fostered a greater sense of meaning at work via two pathways: first by increasing their own wellbeing via personal use of trauma-informed strategies; then second, by incorporating trauma-informed strategies into their pedagogy to more effectively engage their students with learning. Increasing meaningful work for teachers who are working with trauma-affected students has promising implications for teacher professional development and workforce sustainability in schools experiencing high rates of teacher turnover and burnout as a result of teacher exposure to adverse student behavior.
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ItemFlourishing Classrooms: Applying a Systems-Informed Approach to Positive Education(Springer, 2021-12)Although positive education has made significant progress towards fostering student wellbeing at the individual level through the application of positive psychology interventions, adopting a systems-informed perspective will support the field to also approach wellbeing at the classroom and collective levels. Arguably, this approach will promote a more widespread and sustained level of wellbeing in schools. The current conceptual paper focuses on how the classroom as a system can be used as a powerful context to create collective wellbeing. We define group-level flourishing, explain how a systems-informed perspective allows classrooms to create collective wellbeing, introduce the Flourishing Classroom Systems Model, and consider implications and applications of this model.
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ItemShifting Teacher Practice in Trauma-Affected Classrooms: Practice Pedagogy Strategies Within a Trauma-Informed Positive Education Model(SPRINGER, 2019-09)This study explored how primary and secondary school teachers changed their practice pedagogy as they underwent training in trauma-informed positive education (Brunzell et al., Contemp School Psychol 20:63–83, 2016b. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40688-015-0070-x). TIPE integrates teaching strategies from two practice paradigms: trauma-informed education and positive education in order to educate vulnerable students who struggle in school due to trauma histories from abuse, neglect and/or violence. Over the course of 1 year, teachers (N = 18) co-designed and/or adapted TIPE through an iterative procedure of appreciative inquiry participatory action research. The aim was to strengthen teacher capacities in order to assist their students to overcome classroom-based adversity and to bolster their learning. This study privileged teachers’ phenomenological experience of TIPE by investigating the experiential aspects of planning for and implementing curriculum and classroom management. Two emergent themes were found in the qualitative data: (1) increasing relational capacity and (2) increasing psychological resources. These results were analysed through contemporary frames of teacher practice, which revision the purpose of teacher practice as a set of practice challenges to better assist teachers in educating their vulnerable student cohorts.
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ItemTrauma-Informed Teacher Wellbeing: Teacher Reflections within Trauma-Informed Positive Education(EDITH COWAN UNIV, 2021-05)For the last 15 years, teacher wellbeing has been a priority area of exploration within education and positive psychology literatures. However, increasing teacher wellbeing for those who educate students impacted by trauma has yet to be comprehensively explored despite repeated exposure of teachers to child trauma and their experiences of associated negative effects such as secondary traumatic stress, vicarious traumatisation, compassion fatigue and burnout. This study follows teachers’ understandings and reflections upon their own wellbeing after learning the literatures supporting trauma-informed positive education. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used as the methodological approach to represent teachers (N = 18) in order to privilege the language, voices and experiences of participants. Results yielded a new set of domains of trauma-informed teacher wellbeing to assist teachers to increase their own wellbeing when working with students. The likely upsurge in students and teachers across the world experiencing trauma symptoms (primary and vicarious) arising from the COVID-19 global pandemic makes this research timely and relevant.
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ItemEvaluation of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander strengths based coaching program: a study protocol(BMC, 2021-07-23)BACKGROUND: Increasingly, strength-based approaches to health and wellbeing interventions with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians are being explored. This is a welcome counter to deficit-based initiatives which can represent a non-Indigenous view of outcomes of interest. However, the evidence base is not well developed. This paper presents the protocol for evaluating a strengths-based initiative which provides life coaching services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community housing tenants. The study aims to evaluate the effect of life coaching on social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) of tenants in three Victorian regions. METHODS: The More Than a Landlord (MTAL) study is a prospective cohort study of Aboriginal Housing Victoria tenants aged 16 years and over that embeds the evaluation of a life coaching program. All tenant holders in one metropolitan and two regional areas of Victoria are invited to participate in a survey of SEWB, containing items consistent with key categories of SEWB as understood and defined by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and key demographics, administered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peer researchers at baseline, 6 and 18 months. Survey participants are then invited to participate in strengths based life coaching, using the GROW model, for a duration of up to 18 months. Indigenous life coaches provide tenants with structured support in identifying and making progress towards their goals and aspirations, rather than needs. The study aims to recruit a minimum of 200 survey participants of which it is anticipated that approximately 73% will agree to life coaching. DISCUSSION: The MTAL study is a response to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and organisational requests to build the evidence base for an initiative originally developed and piloted within an Aboriginal controlled organisation. The study design aligns with key principles for research in Indigenous communities in promoting control, decision making and capacity building. The MTAL study will provide essential evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of strengths-based initiatives in promoting SEWB in these communities and provide new evidence about the relationship between strengths, resilience, self-determination and wellbeing outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial was retrospectively registered with the ISRCTN Register on the 12/7/21 with the study ID: ISRCTN33665735 .