Measures of success: Exploring the importance of context in the delivery of well-being and social and emotional learning programmes in Australian primary and secondary schools

Abstract

A significant majority of Australian schools now include school-based well-being and/or social emotional learning (SEL) programmes and initiatives within their school timetable. These programmes are delivered, often with significant investment of money and time, in an attempt to successfully nurture social, emotional and academic competency and promote positive mental health within the staff and student community. This chapter explores the impact of the school context on the effectiveness of these programmes. The key aspects of school context considered here are the school social environment, the overall school culture and the school climate. These features of school context encompass important aspects of schooling that have an impact on how SEL and well-being programmes are implemented. The chapter proposes that Australian schools need to more carefully consider how the messages being delivered by any well-being and SEL programme can be assimilated into the wider school context. They also need to give greater consideration as to how that wider context can successfully accommodate the aims of each and every well-being and SEL programme. Overall, the findings of the chapter strongly suggest that Australian schools need to implement SEL and well-being programmes with a far wider consideration of context than is currently evident.