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National and state policy reports have indicated that many Australian students, teachers and leaders are experiencing difficulty maintaining their well-being. The statistics relating to the incidence of mental health problems affecting our educational communities are well established and reported. According to the Economic Development (OECD) countries, 72 per cent of countries now explicitly include student wellbeing as a learning priority. The recent 2017 Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing survey of more than 5000 school leaders depicted that approximately 50% of leaders had received threats, known to impact their wellbeing. Recent studies into teacher and principal wellbeing depict teaching as a profession of high occupational stress where the job can adversely impact wellbeing (Carter 2016; Vesely, Saklofske& Nordstokke, 2014). Now more than ever, schools need to play a role in building the wellbeing of all of the members of their school community. Evidence suggests that social and emotional health and learning are interdependent. By embedding a focus on wellbeing for all members of the school community we can encourage a greater participation in the workforce, more social inclusion and more effective building of Australia's social capital.

EDU8707 aims to assist educators working in educational contexts to develop an in depth, working understanding of the complex ecology of human wellbeing and the key approaches to developing, implementing and embedding positive approaches to wellbeing in education settings. The course applies an ecological, contextual, systems-oriented approach to analyse contemporary theoretical positions to account for the increasing prevalence of impactors to wellbeing and explores enablers for wellbeing. Students investigate education wide wellbeing models in order to identify and generate universal, targeted and intense support processes and options that can be directly applied to current professional practice.

On successful completion of this course students should be able to:

1. undertake a critical review of contemporary literature exploring wellbeing in theory and practice (Assessment 1);
2. analyse contemporary perspectives on the impactors and enablers to wellbeing (Assessment 1);
3. pragmatically embed an education wide focus on well-being (Assessment 2);
4. effectively utilise advanced academic communication skills to portray Theoretical concepts and their use in professional practice (Assessment 1, 2).