PUBLICATIONS

Using Theory of Change for Fostering Well-Being and Engagement in Learning Communities

Tan-Chyuan Chin, Edwina Ricci, Adam Cooper, Andrea Downie, Dianne Vella-Brodrick

This chapter presents a Theory of Change (TOC) approach for assessing, designing, implementing, and evaluating well-being learning experiences to optimize collaborative community practices in an interconnected learning system. A rationale for why a TOC approach is necessary to progress the research and application of well-being strategies, interventions, and curriculum/programs in learning communities is provided. Two Australian case studies of learning communities are presented. An initial process framework, the “System and Individual contributions to learning Communities using Theory of Change” (SyInC–ToC), is introduced to provide school networks, and local and state governments with essential principles for developing well-being capabilities across their communities.

Systems informed positive psychology

Margaret L. Kern, Paige Williams, Cass Spong, Rachel Colla, Kesh Sharma, Andrea Downie, Jessica A. Taylor, Sonia Sharp, Christine Siokou & Lindsay G. Oades

Despite the rapid growth and uptake of the positive psychological perspective by researchers and general audiences, hype regarding the field’s potential can lead to exaggerated claims, over-inflated expectations, disillusionment, dismissal, and unintentional harms. To help mature the field, we propose Systems Informed Positive Psychology (SIPP), which explicitly incorporates principles and concepts from the systems sciences into positive psychology theory, methodologies, practices, and discourse to optimize human social systems and the individuals within them. We describe historical underpinnings of SIPP, outline the SIPP perspective, clarify epistemological, political, and ethical assumptions, and highlight implications for research and practice. We suggest that SIPP can generate possibilities for creating sustainable unimagined futures.