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© Oxford University Press 2002. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain
SUMMARY
Health and well-being have mostly been separated from of well-being are divided into four categories: school
other aspects of school life. Health services and health conditions (having), social relationships (loving), means
education have been available for school-aged children in for self-fulfilment (being) and health status. ‘Means for self-
Western societies for a long time. Recently, more compre- fulfilment’ encompasses possibilities for each pupil to study
hensive school health programmes have been developed, according to his/her own resources and capabilities. ‘Health
e.g. the WHO ‘health promoting school’ and ‘coordinated status’ is seen through pupils’ symptoms, diseases and
school health programme’ in the USA. They focus on how illnesses. Each well-being category contains several aspects
to implement health promotion and health education in of pupils’ life in school. The model takes into account the
school. However, a theoretically grounded model based on important impact of pupils’ homes and the surrounding
the sociological concept of well-being is needed for planning community. Compared with others, The School Well-being
and evaluation of school development programmes. The Model’s main differences are the use of the well-being con-
School Well-being Model is based on Allardt’s sociological cept, the definition of health and the subcategory means for
theory of welfare and assesses well-being as an entity in self-fulfilment. Making the outline of the well-being concept
school setting. Well-being is connected with teaching and facilitates the development of theoretically grounded sub-
education, and with learning and achievements. Indicators jective and objective well-being indicators.
INTRODUCTION
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (Green and Kreuter, 1999). Recently, more com-
(UN, 1989) article 24 states that ‘States Parties prehensive school health programmes have been
recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment developed, e.g. the WHO ‘health promoting school’
of the highest attainable standard of health …’. idea (Parsons et al., 1996; WHO, 1998; Turunen
Furthermore, the Ottawa Charter (WHO, 1986) et al., 1999) and the ‘Coordinated School Health
and the Jakarta Declaration (WHO, 1997) em- Program’ in the USA (Allensworth and Kolbe,
phasize the importance of the settings in which 1987; Marx and Wooley, 1998).
the prerequisites of health are created. School is Comprehensive health programmes in school
the main setting for health promotion among have moved towards wider and wider interpreta-
children and adolescents. tion of the health concept. Still, these programmes
Previously, health in school has for the most derive their conceptual basis from the theory of
part been separated from other aspects of school health and health promotion, and not from the
life. Health services have long been available for concept of well-being. In our understanding,
school-aged children in Western societies. The the next critical step is to define a theoretically
other parts of the school health core have been grounded model of school well-being, based on
health education and a healthy school environment the sociological concept of well-being. Such a
79
80 A. Konu and M. Rimpelä
conceptual model (Earp and Ennett, 1991) • safe and orderly school climate
should present and define the concept of well- • high expectations for student achievement,
being, place health aspects into this context, and and
at the same time provide guidelines for indicators • student achievement data used for evaluating
of measurement of well-being both at the programme success.
individual and school levels.
Janssens has classified school evaluation and
In this paper we present a proposal for the
presented criteria for school organization and
conceptual model of well-being in schools
teaching atmosphere (Janssens, 1995). These
grounded on Allardt’s theory of welfare (Allardt,
criteria require that:
1976a; Allardt, 1976b; Allardt, 1981; Allardt,
1989). Widely interpreted, well-being is the key • the approach to teaching is logical and coherent
concept of the School Well-being Model; it takes • the school provides a secure and well organized
into account environmental considerations, learning environment, and
social relationships, personal self-fulfilment and • the school maintains good relationships with
health aspects. the pupils’ homes, next school grade (stage)
and surrounding community.
These studies concentrate on the effectiveness
COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL
of school. They partly share the same goals as
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES
the projects concerned with pupils’ health, but
the concepts of health and well-being are not
In recent literature, four approaches can be
discussed explicitly.
identified from the programmes to support pupils’
growth into good and well-balanced people and
members of society, and to give them the know- Measuring the quality of school
ledge and skills needed in life. Beginning in the late
Effectiveness studies were developed in further
1970s, effectiveness was emphasized as the main
studies measuring the quality of school (Riley
challenge of school development (Rutter et al.,
and Nuttall, 1994; OECD, 1995). These studies
1979; Teddlie and Stringfield, 1993), leading further
also include some qualitative indicators concern-
to measuring the quality of school (Riley and
ing parents’ and pupils’ school satisfaction and
Nuttall, 1994; Nevo, 1995; OECD, 1995). Health-
social relations in schools. A more comprehensive
related school programmes such as the WHO’s
perspective of the quality approach is illustrated
‘health promoting school’ (Parsons et al., 1996;
by Nevo (Nevo, 1995).
WHO, 1998; St Leger, 1999) and the ‘Coordinated
School Health Program’ in the USA (Allensworth
Evaluating the school as a whole is important from two
and Kolbe, 1987; Marx and Wooley, 1998) were different perspectives. On the one hand, a school might
developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. be interested in an overall review of its educational
and administrative activities in order to improve its
overall functioning and performance. On the other
The effective school approach hand, a demand for accountability may demand
School effectiveness studies have been under- demonstration of the merit of the school and the
taken mainly in the United Kingdom and in the extent that it fulfills its goals and meets the need of its
USA (Rutter et al., 1979; Teddlie and Stringfield, ‘clients’.
1993). They have revealed remarkable differences
between schools as to how they use their resources Nevo also points out that the life of a school is far
and are able to fulfil their main aims. These more complex than that which can be reflected
studies have listed the characteristics of an effective through student achievement.
school (Rutter et al., 1979; Teddlie and Stringfield,
1993; Sahlberg, 1997). Teddlie and Stringfield To assess the quality of a school and understand the
nature of its problems, one should look into a wide
have a five-factor model for evaluating school
array of issues related to goals of the school, its edu-
effects [(Teddlie and Stringfield, 1993), p. 3]: cational philosophy, the characteristics of its students,
the quality of its teachers, the variety of its educational
• strong principal leadership programmes, its physical resources, its social atmos-
• pervasive and broadly understood instructional phere, its educational accomplishments, and more
focus [(Nevo, 1995), p. 154].
Well-being in schools: a conceptual model 81
Even though many aspects related to health Program (CSHP) developed in the late 1980s
and well-being in school are mentioned in the (Marx and Wooley, 1998). CSHP has its roots
quality of school literature, they have not been back in the 1920s, when a book entitled School
operationalized as quality indicators. Health Services was published, followed by
Healthful School Environment (1953) and Health
Health promoting school Education (1957) (Davis and Allensworth, 1994).
Allensworth and Kolbe expanded the concept by
The WHO revised Global School Health Initiative
adding five more areas to the original three
(WHO, 1998) states: ‘A health promoting school
(Allensworth and Kolbe, 1987). They proposed
can be characterised as a school constantly
that a school health programme should include
strengthening its capacity as a healthy setting for
eight components: health education, physical
living, learning and working’. It proposes four
education, health services, nutrition services,
strategies for creating health promoting schools:
counselling and psychological and social services,
• Strengthening the ability to advocate improved healthy school environment, health promotion
school health programmes for staff and parent/community involvement.
• Creating networks and alliances for the These eight components were developed and
development of health promoting schools defined further by representatives of almost
• Strengthening national capacities 60 US national organizations. As a conceptual
• Research to improve school health programmes. base, they use the WHO definition of health
(McKenzie and Richmond, 1998). According to
St Leger traces the early genesis of the health
McKenzie and Richmond, education initiatives
promoting school back to 1950 when the WHO
will succeed only if they also address students’
established an Expert Committee on School
health and well-being.
Health Services (St Leger, 1999). In 1966, WHO
St Leger and Nutbeam have created a model for
released a publication Planning for Health Edu-
mapping linkages between health and education
cation in Schools, which addressed pragmatically
agencies to improve school health (St Leger and
the planning and implementation of school health
Nutbeam, 2000). According to them, the model
programmes. The European Region of WHO
provides a map for school health promotion to
(Burgher et al., 1999) initiated a project, The
identify priorities and directions in school health
European Network of Health Promoting School
planning and implementation.
(ENHPS) in 1992. The ENHPS conceptual con-
struction is based on WHO’s broad definition of
health and the Ottawa Charter idea of health pro- Evaluation of comprehensive school
motion, and on its further development by Bunton development programmes
and Macdonald (Bunton and MacDonald, 1992;
These four above-mentioned approaches are
Parsons et al., 1996; Rasmussen and Rivett, 2000).
valuable in developing schools further. However,
In 1997, 37 countries in Europe were par-
when studied from the well-being perspective,
ticipating in the network. The regional networks
all of them seem to be based on too narrow a
for the development of health promoting schools
view of well-being in school. The effective school
were promoted and fostered in the southern part
approach serves more economic purposes than
of the Western Pacific (1995), Latin America
the needs of the ‘clients’, pupils. The approach of
(1996), Southern Africa (1996), South East Asia
measuring the quality of school continues with
(1997) and the northern part of the Western
this strategy, although it looks more into pupils’
Pacific (1997) (WHO, 1999). The ENHPS confer-
and their parents’ contentment with school.
ence resolution (Burgher et al., 1999) in Greece
The state of the art of comprehensive school
in May 1997 outlines 10 principles for the health
health programmes has been recently assessed in
promoting school: democracy, equity, empower-
several literature reviews. Lynagh et al. con-
ment and action competence, school environment,
ducted a worldwide information search from the
curriculum, teacher training, measuring success,
Medline and Eric databases to find programmes
collaboration, communities and sustainability.
that would carry out the Ottawa Charter settings
idea of the health promoting school (Lynagh
Coordinated school health programme et al., 1997). The researchers concentrated on the
In the USA, the movement for the Compre- school programmes that dealt with tobacco,
hensive (lately Coordinated) School Health alcohol and UV radiation. They could not find any
82 A. Konu and M. Rimpelä
programmes carrying out the health promoting 1989). He notes that in Nordic languages the word
school programme as a whole. The researchers ‘welfare’ also stands for well-being, and that it covers
paid attention to the need for a well organized aspects both of level of living and quality of life
intervention that would carry out and evaluate (Allardt, 1989). According to Allardt, well-being has
the health promoting school ideas. to be determined historically and has to be defined
St Leger presents the potentials and real again when living conditions change. Well-being is
benefits of the health promoting school, but is a state in which it is possible for a human being to
cautious about labelling a school as such (St Leger, satisfy his/her basic needs. In the indicator systems
1999). Recent literature on health promoting of well-being, both material and non-material basic
schools primarily relates to topic-based interven- human needs have to be considered. Allardt divides
tions, ‘which largely are implemented through only these needs into three categories:
one or two building blocks of health promoting
• having
schools’ [(St Leger, 1999), p. 55]. Lister-Sharp
• loving, and
et al. recommend the development of new
• being.
outcome measures for school health promotion
interventions after making systematic reviews of ‘Having’ refers to material conditions and
health promoting schools and health promotion impersonal needs in a wide perspective. ‘Loving’
in schools (Lister-Sharp et al., 1999). They also stands for the needs to relate to other people and
call for a theoretical basis or assumptions under- to form social identities. ‘Being’ denotes the needs
pinning the interventions (Lister-Sharp et al., 1999). for personal growth, i.e. integration into society
The comprehensive health programmes in and living in harmony with nature. The positive
school (ENHPS and CSHP) apply the WHO def- side of ‘being’ may be characterized as personal
inition of health (Parsons et al., 1996; McKenzie growth, whereas the negative aspect refers to
and Richmond, 1998; Rasmussen and Rivett, alienation. An example of the indicators for
2000), and they strongly refer to the social and being is a question of ‘to what extent a person
mental aspects of health. In empirical studies, the can participate in decisions and activities influ-
outcomes are mainly defined as health status and encing his/her life, opportunities for leisure time
health behaviours or as feelings, values, attitudes activities (doing) and the opportunities for a
or competencies of a person. An ever wider def- meaningful working life’ [(Allardt, 1989), p. 7].
inition of health is an explicit attempt to correct Allardt assigns health to the ‘having’ category.
the limitations of the health paradigm. Yet, health Furthermore, he states that health is often seen
remains the key concept of these programmes. as the central element of well-being [(Allardt,
Therefore, regardless of comprehensive approaches 1976a), p. 134] and that it is a resource that affects
in theoretical discussion, the practice of school the other parts of well-being. In a Scandinavian
health promotion is often reduced to rather trad- survey on level of living and quality of life, the
itional health interventions. exploratory factor analysis placed health and em-
The WHO definition of health refers to social ployment as a factor on their own (Allardt, 1976a).
and psychological well-being (WHO, 1986). In In his updated indicator system of welfare,
fact, the definition may be the major origin of the Allardt points out that both objective and
often confusing ways the concept is used in the subjective indicators are needed (Allardt, 1989).
health promotion context. Instead of aiming at still He cross-tabulates ‘having’, ‘loving’ and ‘being’
wider interpretation of health, another alternative with the dichotomy of objective and subjective
may be to start the construction of a theoretical indicators and obtains six cells of different types
basis from the sociological concepts of welfare of indicators (Table 1). Here, Allardt explains
and well-being. The conceptual model needs to that the objective indicators are based on ex-
be rather detailed to facilitate the evaluation of ternal observations and the subjective indicators
the success of school development programmes are people’s expressions of their attitudes and
and the assessment of pupils’ well-being in school. perceptions of their living conditions.
Allardt uses the concept ‘welfare’ in the sociological A conceptual model of well-being in school, the
tradition (Allardt, 1976a; Allardt, 1976b; Allardt, School Well-being Model (Figure 1), has been
Well-being in schools: a conceptual model 83
Table 1: Allardt’s (Allardt, 1989) cross-tabulation of ‘having, loving and being’, with the objective and the
subjective indicators of well-being
defined based on Allardt’s model of well-being. both with well-being, and teaching and education.
It has been developed to fit the school setting According to the literature, the connection
by applying the literature on school health and between learning and health is strong (Wolfe,
school evaluation. In this model, well-being, 1985; Symons et al., 1997). Questions as to which
teaching/education and achievements/learning pedagogical methods are good for achieving both
are interconnected. ‘Teaching and education’ educational goals and pupils’ well-being are
affects every category of well-being and is beyond the scope of this paper.
connected with learning. One important part Pupils’ homes and surrounding community
of education is health education; its aim is to have their own impact on schools and school
strengthen pupils’ health literacy (Nutbeam, children. The basic education of children always
2000). ‘Learning’ or achievements are connected relies on pupils’ homes. Each human being lives
84 A. Konu and M. Rimpelä
in a society and its impact should not be under- Hannum see teacher affiliation as a part of school
valued. With these in mind we will concentrate climate. It means that teachers feel good about
on well-being in schools. The concept of well- each other, their work and their students, and
being has been divided into four categories: that they are committed to both their students
and the welfare of students (Hoy and Hannum,
• school conditions (having) 1997). Sabo states that when pupils are asked
• social relationships (loving) how they like school, they will often reply how
• means for self-fulfilment (being), and they like their teachers (Sabo, 1995). Manage-
• health status (health). ment in schools affects pupils’ contentment and
well-being in school but also pupils’ achievements
The School Well-being Model (Figure 1) is (Teddlie and Strinfield, 1993; Baldursson, 1995;
presented here from a pupil’s viewpoint. From a Liinamo and Kannas, 1995; Nevo, 1995; Samdal,
teacher’s or other school personnel’s viewpoint it 1998).
would look roughly similar, but some of the indi- Bullying belongs to the negative part of social
cators in the well-being categories would need relationships. Salmivalli et al. argue that bullying
to be changed. Also, ‘teaching and education’ can be seen as a group phenomenon based on
would need to be changed to more suitable social relations and roles in the group (Salmivalli
supplementary education. ‘Learning’ could be et al., 1996). The pupils may act as assistants
augmented by achievements in work. of the bully, reinforcers of the bully, defenders of
the victim or outsiders.
School conditions (having)
‘School conditions’ includes the physical environ- Means for self-fulfilment in school (being)
ment surrounding a school and the environment According to Allardt, ‘being’ refers to each
inside a school. The areas to be discussed are safe person being respected as a valuable part of a
working environment, cosiness, noise, ventilation, society (Allardt, 1976a; Allardt, 1989). A person
temperature, etc. The other aspect of ‘school needs to have possibilities for influencing the key
conditions’ deals with learning environment. elements of his/her life as well as active leisure
It includes at least curriculum, group sizes, time. Opportunities for a meaningful working life
schedules of studies and punishments. The third and for enjoyment of nature are also crucial parts
aspect includes services to pupils like school of self-fulfilment.
lunches, health care, trustee and counselling. Applied to the school context, ‘being’ can be
seen as the way in which the school offers means
for self-fulfilment. Each pupil should be considered
Social relationships (loving) an equally important member of the school
‘Social relationships’ refers to the social learning community. It should be possible for each pupil
environment, student–teacher relationships, rela- to participate in the decision-making affecting
tions with schoolmates, group dynamics, bullying, his/her schooling and other aspects of school
cooperation between school and homes, decision- life concerning himself/herself. Opportunities for
making in school and the atmosphere of the improving knowledge and skills emphasizing
whole school organization. The school climate the pupil’s own interest fields at his/her own pace
and learning climate have their effect on the well- are crucial. Positive learning experiences enhance
being and contentment of pupils in school. Good self-fulfilment. Appropriate teaching for each
relationships and atmosphere are said to promote pupil together with guidance and encouragement
a person’s resources in a society and to improve produce these experiences for different kinds of
achievements in school (Samdal, 1998). learners.
In the School Well-being Model, the relation- The amount of respect a pupil receives for
ship between schools and homes is placed in the his/her work is essential; parents’, teachers’ and
‘social relationships’ category. Furthermore, peers’ contributions are all important. Respect is
the school’s relationships with surrounding com- fundamental in order for studying to be mean-
munities are important (e.g. relationships with ingful. Opportunities for leisure time activities
social affairs and health care systems). during breaks and a close connection with nature
The student–teacher relationship has an act as a counterbalance to work and thus support
important role in well-being in school. Hoy and self-fulfilment.
Well-being in schools: a conceptual model 85