Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Research Publications
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ItemNo Preview AvailableBelonging: a review of conceptual issues, an integrative framework, and directions for future research(TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2021-03-06)OBJECTIVE: A sense of belonging-the subjective feeling of deep connection with social groups, physical places, and individual and collective experiences-is a fundamental human need that predicts numerous mental, physical, social, economic, and behavioural outcomes. However, varying perspectives on how belonging should be conceptualised, assessed, and cultivated has hampered much-needed progress on this timely and important topic. To address these critical issues, we conducted a narrative review that summarizes existing perspectives on belonging, describes a new integrative framework for understanding and studying belonging, and identifies several key avenues for future research and practice. METHOD: We searched relevant databases, including Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, PsycInfo, and ClinicalTrials.gov, for articles describing belonging, instruments for assessing belonging, and interventions for increasing belonging. RESULTS: By identifying the core components of belonging, we introduce a new integrative framework for understanding, assessing, and cultivating belonging that focuses on four interrelated components: competencies, opportunities, motivations, and perceptions. CONCLUSION: This integrative framework enhances our understanding of the basic nature and features of belonging, provides a foundation for future interdisciplinary research on belonging and belongingness, and highlights how a robust sense of belonging may be cultivated to improve human health and resilience for individuals and communities worldwide.
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ItemIntroduction and Overview(Springer International Publishing, 2021)Abstract Over the past decade, the positive education movement has grown, with the rapid increase of research, curricula, programs, and approaches to supporting wellbeing within educational communities. We introduce positive education, unpacking the positive perspective, considering how positive education emerged from this perspective, and discussing the implications moving forward. We then provide an overview of the chapters within this Handbook. Aligned with the valuing of open dialogue and diverse perspectives, authors provide various definitions of, perspectives around, and approaches to positive education. The Handbook attempts to give light to the plurality of models and perspectives, highlights high-quality research and research-to-practice efforts, incorporates a broad range of topics, and includes international and multi-disciplinary approaches. As a whole, the Handbook aims to support collective efforts to create and shape educational environments that allow all members of our educational communities to thrive, both now and for future generations.
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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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ItemIdentifying and Shifting Disempowering Paradigms for Families of Children With Disability Through a System Informed Positive Psychology Approach(FRONTIERS MEDIA SA, 2021-12-23)Despite the emergence of socio-ecological, strength-based, and capacity-building approaches, care for children with disability remains primarily grounded in a deficit-based perspective. Diagnoses and interventions primarily focus on what children and families cannot do, rather than what might be possible, often undermining the competence, mental health, and functioning of both the children and their families. We first critically examine typical approaches to disability care for families of young children, describe the importance of a systems-informed positive psychology (SIPP) approach to care, and identify the existence of two dominant paradigms, disability is a disadvantage and experts know best. Then, we present a case study investigating families' experiences with these two paradigms and whether shifts to alternative perspectives could occur through participation in a SIPP-based program co-designed by professionals and families. Of program participants, nine parents and five early intervention professionals participated in two separate focus groups, and ten e-books were randomly selected for review. Thematic analysis of the e-books and focus group data identified two primary themes representing alternative perspectives that arose through the intervention: we will start with our strengths and we've got this. Participant comments indicated that they developed a greater sense of hope, empowerment, engagement, and wellbeing, enabled by embedding wellbeing concepts and practices in their routines and communications with their children. We suggest that benefits arose in part from the structure of the program and the development of wellbeing literacy in participants. While care needs to be taken in generalizing the results, the case study provides clear examples of shifts in perspectives that occurred and suggests that the incorporation of SIPP principles within early intervention approaches provides a potential pathway for shifting the problematic paradigms that dominate disability care.
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ItemA qualitative exploration of individual differences in wellbeing for highly sensitive individuals(PALGRAVE MACMILLAN LTD, 2020-06-02)Abstract Cultures explicitly and implicitly create and reinforce social norms and expectations, which impact upon how individuals make sense of and experience their place within that culture. Numerous studies find substantial differences across a range of behavioral and cognitive indices between what have been called “Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD)” societies and non-WEIRD cultures. Indeed, lay conceptions and social norms around wellbeing tend to emphasize social outgoingness and high-arousal positive emotions, with introversion and negative emotion looked down upon or even pathologized. However, this extravert-centric conception of wellbeing does not fit many individuals who live within WEIRD societies, and studies find that this mismatch can have detrimental effects on their wellbeing. There is a need to better understand how wellbeing is created and experienced by the large number of people for whom wellbeing manifests in alternative ways. This study investigated one such manifestation—the personality trait of sensory processing sensitivity (SPS)—qualitatively investigating how sensitive individuals experience and cultivate wellbeing within a WEIRD society. Twelve adults participated in semi-structured interviews. Findings suggest that highly sensitive individuals perceive that wellbeing arises from harmony across multiple dimensions. Interviewees emphasized the value of low-intensity positive emotion, self-awareness, self-acceptance, positive social relationships balanced by times of solitude, connecting with nature, contemplative practices, emotional self-regulation, practicing self-compassion, having a sense of meaning, and hope/optimism. Barriers of wellbeing included physical health issues and challenges with saying no to others. This study provides a rich idiographic representation of SPS wellbeing, highlighting diverse pathways, which can lead to wellbeing for individuals for whom wellbeing manifests in ways that contradict the broader social narratives in which they reside.
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ItemSystems Informed Positive Education(Springer International Publishing, 2021)Abstract Positive psychology as a discipline has focused primarily on understanding and building individual wellbeing. But the application of positive psychology within schools brings a number of challenges that transcend simplistic approaches. Schools are dynamic in nature and subject to numerous pressures and competing priorities. Positive psychology interventions can be helpful, some of the time, for some people, but there is a need to identify and transcend the limiting paradigms that drive our research, practices, and beliefs, moving beyond simplistic interventions and programs to broader awareness and mindful action. Systems Informed Positive Education (SIPE) explicitly incorporates aspects of the systems sciences into positive education practice and pedagogy to cultivate optimal learning environments that bring out the best in each individual and of the school community as a whole. This chapter describes SIPE, illustrates SIPE in action, and highlights key principles and their implications for embedding wellbeing at the heart of education.
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ItemRegional personality assessment through social media language(WILEY, 2021-10-11)OBJECTIVE: We explore the personality of counties as assessed through linguistic patterns on social media. Such studies were previously limited by the cost and feasibility of large-scale surveys; however, language-based computational models applied to large social media datasets now allow for large-scale personality assessment. METHOD: We applied a language-based assessment of the five factor model of personality to 6,064,267 U.S. Twitter users. We aggregated the Twitter-based personality scores to 2,041 counties and compared to political, economic, social, and health outcomes measured through surveys and by government agencies. RESULTS: There was significant personality variation across counties. Openness to experience was higher on the coasts, conscientiousness was uniformly spread, extraversion was higher in southern states, agreeableness was higher in western states, and emotional stability was highest in the south. Across 13 outcomes, language-based personality estimates replicated patterns that have been observed in individual-level and geographic studies. This includes higher Republican vote share in less agreeable counties and increased life satisfaction in more conscientious counties. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that regions vary in their personality and that these differences can be studied through computational linguistic analysis of social media. Furthermore, these methods may be used to explore other psychological constructs across geographies.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableThe Palgrave Handbook of Positive Education(Springer International Publishing, 2021)This open access handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the growing field of positive education, featuring a broad range of theoretical, applied, and practice-focused chapters from leading international experts.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableSupplementary analysis for lifestyle and wellbeing: Exploring behavioral and demographic covariates in a large US sample(International Journal of Wellbeing, 2020-09-30)
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ItemAssessing Wellbeing in School Communities(Springer International Publishing, 2021)Abstract This chapter summarizes the essentials of assessment, principles of good assessment, and wellbeing assessment in the context of school communities. Drawing from positive education initiatives, what wellbeing assessments in schools look like, and why they are important is outlined and discussed. Examples of good assessment tools and their use in practice are explored. The chapter further focuses on the content, processes, and systems involved in assessment, before addressing the use of assessment data in decision-making and providing examples of good assessment in practice. The chapter ends by highlighting questions schools and decision-makers may draw from in choosing and developing assessment tools and approaches for their unique school community.