Creating a Positive School Culture Through New Educational Practices

Introduction

Positive schooling is an approach to education that incorporates student wellbeing and virtues as learning goals, besides academic achievement. Positive schooling programs seek to bring about optimal student behaviors and enhance mental health through constructs such as character strengths (Park, 2004), resilience (Fleischmann, 2018), and hope (Worrell & Hale, 2001), among others. While proponents have put forth definitions of positive schooling (Noble et al., 2008) and there are a variety of theories identifying positive traits, strengths, and emotional and cognitive states, in this chapter, we discuss conceptual models of positive education based on psychological and socio-ecological theories. Existing theories and empirical evidence have been critically analysed to understand positive education. Key aspects of the Positive Schooling Model (PSM) include how character strengths fit within the school framework and how they can be utilised for better engagement and performance in classrooms (Akram & Rana, 2013). Positive culture is an interplay between individual and environmental processes in the school environment. The chapter discusses the processes through which positive outcomes can be achieved within positive schooling programs. Understanding the processes underlying this change will provide researchers and educators with a roadmap for future positive schooling interventions.

One of the main reasons for mental health issues in students is the component of stress in their everyday lives (deAnda et al., 1997; Elias et al., 1985; Goldstein, 2015; Wenz-Gross et al., 1997). Students are becoming less resilient to adversities of everyday life causing them to rely on negative coping mechanisms. The main stress components for the students are academic stress, the fear of failure, interacting with fellow peers and fear of judgement (Elias et al., 1985, Goldstien, 2015). Other major factors for students’ stress are over expectations by parents, mainly trying to inflict their needs on their children, trying to make children the carrier of their parents’ dreams. Now, this causes a lot of emotional disturbances along with other neurotic problems like anxiety, stress and so on. The current generation is obsessed with fame as the definition of success. Along with the stress factors from school, digital technology also contributes to the mental health of students (Jacobson & Forste, 2011). In addition, with this, depression (Bryson, 2020; Kuperminc et al., 2001) and suicides rates (Cutler et al., 2001; Jennings, 2020; Lee et al., 2019) are increasing at a rapid rate globally. This calls for a need to create a safe and secure environment for students in order to protect their mental health (Akram & Rana, 2013).

Students spend most of their time at school interacting with their peers, teachers, and school administration (Akram & Rana, 2013). School is the best place to bring about the difference with regard to the mental health of students. The present day school utilizes advanced technological tools for the teaching learning process (Andrei, 2017; Murphy, 2016). Now, we can observe a new trend in schools to promote mental health, where they focus on building trust, gratitude, respect, patience and virtues like these by making these as the theme of the year in their schools. This is a form of positive education; however, positive education has strong theoretical foundations and if used with the right application it can yield best results by creating a positive environment in the school.

This chapter looks at the various strategies that can be employed in the school environment in order to create and sustain a positive culture working with the students, teachers or facilitators and the school administration. The chapter contains a lot of examples of evidence-based practices used in schools to create a positive environment. Through these methods employed in schools, we are aiming to enhance the happiness levels of the middle schoolers and increase their well-being and life satisfaction. By the end of this chapter, you will be aware of the need for positive education in schools, role played by teachers and school administration in the promotion of positive environment and students’ role in building and sharing positivity in school and at home.