Associate Professor Melinda Webber has focused her career on telling the good stories that other people ignore. She has shone a light on what’s working well for Māori students – their strengths and what’s helping them succeed. She also shines a light on the pockets of excellent culturally responsive practice she finds in schools. Melinda…
How can we remind people that they are part of a collective and that a collective can solve anything? In this podcast Denise talks with Dr Chris Jansen about leading change. In contrast to old models of the heroic leader dashing in to save us all, Chris emphasises the need for everyone to be involved…
How can we help parents – as well as children – to learn about wellbeing? In this interview, Dr Ase Fagerlund shares the story of a multi-year, multi-school project she has led in Finland. As well as working with schools to support teaching of wellbeing to students, Ase also worked with groups of parents to…
Can coaching be about whole-system change as well as individual support? In this interview with Denise Quinlan, Christian van Niewerburgh explains why coaching is not an indulgence – at its heart, coaching is about being able to support the wellbeing of others. Christian values the range of ways coaching can support wellbeing in education: teachers…
How can we help schools coordinate and evaluate the work they are doing on wellbeing? In this interview, Lea Waters explains how her work has culminated in a model that helps school do just that. She outlines the progress she has seen in wellbeing in education and stresses the importance of taking a big picture…
How can we use the Health Curriculum in schools to teach students about individual and collective wellbeing? Dr Katie Fitzpatrick and HPE leader Kat Wells talk to Denise about Mental Health Education and Hauora – their HPE curriculum resource for NZ schools. They explain how important HPE is for building wellbeing literacy and why ‘educative’…
Why should we value and endorse a coaching culture in schools? In this interview, Clive and Denise discuss the overlap of organizational coaching and positive psychology. A growing body of research demonstrates that coaching conversations can support performance and wellbeing. Clive believes that giving people an opportunity to consider a preferred future is a powerful…
How can we support wellbeing for Māori students and staff? In this episode Wiremu shares his school experiences both as a Māori student and as a school counsellor. He describes a sense of not belonging – that this wasn’t meant for him even though he is tangata whenua, a person of this land. To help young…
Low down: Dr Tayyab Rashid, developer of the Strengths-Based Resilience program for school and university students, and author of the Positive Psychotherapy Clinical Handbook talks to Denise about implementing wellbeing work in schools. He emphasises the importance of schools adapting programmes to their context – of adapting and interpreting the work for their students. His…
Why does paying attention to culture matter for Wellbeing? In this episode, Denise and Brenda discuss how families and schools can work together to build a resilient context for community members. Internal resources are only part of the equation for strengthening wellbeing and resilience. Brenda argues that we need to think about wellbeing in terms…