ABSTRACT
Four years into the shockwave of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact has challenged school leaders to reflect upon structures, systems, and approaches to school life. At all levels of schooling internationally, wellbeing has appeared as a problem for school leaders to manage from a student perspective and teacher and staff point of view. Further, an international teacher shortage is rapidly approaching. Is it possible to have a more integrated approach to wellbeing education? While there have been advances in the past decade of research, COVID-19 has accelerated school leaders’ challenges in leading effective teams that integrate systematic and consistent evidence-informed approaches into wellbeing. As the world emerges from the first three years of the pandemic, education is poised to reassess the role of wellbeing in learning and professional practice. This chapter proposes an ecological approach to wellbeing education whereby school leaders, teachers, and students interact with their environment and explores the overarching issues assessed in this book. It positions the wellbeing education theory and developments of teacher professional practice in the geopolitical dynamics that are challenging schools and schooling. Finally, the chapter argues that education has the potential to provide more holistic, reflective, and culturally responsive wellbeing approaches and learning in schools and schooling. Moreover, education is at a critical juncture to move forward in this significant development of professional practice.
