Measures of Success - Exploring the Importance of Context in the Delivery of Wellbeing and Social and Emotional Learning Programs in Australian Primary and Secondary Schools

Oct 3, 2026

A significant majority of Australian schools embed school-based wellbeing and social and emotional learning (SEL) programs in the timetable, investing time and money to strengthen social, emotional, and academic competence while promoting positive mental health. This chapter examines how school context shapes program effectiveness. It focuses on the school social environment, overall culture, and climate, linking these to policy, practices, norms, and physical artifacts, and argues schools must better assimilate program messages into the wider context to ensure successful delivery and inclusion of aims across classrooms and schools.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages30

Reading Time1 h 16 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

School context and program delivery

Social environment

School culture and climate

Measures of Success ─ Exploring the Importance of Context in the Delivery of Wellbeing and Social and Emotional Learning Programs in Australian Primary and Secondary Schools Dr Helen Street University of Western Australia Abstract A significant majority of Australian schools now include school based wellbeing and/or social emotional learning (SEL) programs and initiatives within their school timetable. These programs 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 programs. The key aspects of school context considered here are the school social environment, the overall school culture and the school climate. The school social environment includes student-teacher relationships and the social and emotional competency of the teachers, their attitude, values and approach to teaching, along with their attitude and approach to their working relationships. The social environment also subsumes many aspects of the physical environment given that they have to a large degree been configured by social processes. As such the school social environment is also concerned with the built environment and the artefacts on show in the school that represent the school culture, values and overall school climate. The school culture and climate is evidenced in the social and physical environment and also in the policies, practices and social norms established in classrooms and in the wider school community. Taken together, these features of school context encompass important aspects of schooling that have an impact on how SEL and wellbeing programs are implemented. The chapter proposes that Australian schools need to more carefully consider how the messages being delivered by any wellbeing and SEL program 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 wellbeing and SEL program. Overall, the findings ofthe chapter strongly suggest that Australian schools need to implement SEL and wellbeing programs with afar wider consideration of context than is currently evident. Keywords: wellbeing, SEL programs, school context, social context, social environment, physical environment Introduction This chapter aims to address the importance of school context in the delivery of wellbeing and social and emotional learning (SEL) programs in Australian primary and secondary schools. The chapter begins with a brief discussion of the increase in popularity of school based wellbeing and SEL programs over the past fifty years. It goes on to observe how this same time period has seen a widely reported increase in mental health issues in young people. The chapter proposes that these two seemingly incongruent increases may in part have occurred due to a lack of consideration of the importance of context in the development and delivery of wellbeing and SEL programs in schools. It is suggested that many school based wellbeing and SEL programs in Australia are aimed at supporting individual wellbeing, albeit with consideration of individual social skills. It is further suggested that an individualized approach to wellbeing is limited when applied to groups of people (i.e. in classrooms and schools) . The chapter suggests that, in any group situation, social identity is arguably a more powerful driver of social and emotional wellbeing than is individual identity. As such the chapter concludes that far greater consideration needs to be given to the role of context in the design, development and delivery of wellbeing, and social and emotional competence (SEC) in Australian schools. The ‘school context’ is taken here to refer to all aspects of the school’s identity and expressio

FAQs

What does the chapter examine about wellbeing and SEL programs?

It explores how school context affects the effectiveness of wellbeing and social and emotional learning programs in Australian primary and secondary schools.

Which aspects of school context are considered central to effectiveness?

The chapter emphasizes the school social environment, the school’s overall culture, and the school climate, as they influence implementation and uptake.

Why does the chapter argue individualized SEL may be limited in schools?

It suggests that in group settings like classrooms and schools, social identity can be a more powerful driver of social and emotional wellbeing than individual identity.

Oct 3, 2026

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