The shifting meanings of wellbeing in Australian schooling policy

Abstract

Student wellbeing has become a prominent focus of education policy globally. Yet despite significant investment and a proliferation of initiatives, indicators of youth wellbeing continue to decline. This raises questions about how wellbeing is conceptualised in policy and why current approaches fall short. This paper critically examines how student wellbeing has been conceptualised and operationalised in Australian national education policies over the past two decades, with particular attention to its convergence with equity agendas. Drawing on an interpretive analysis of 42 national-level documents, the study explores how wellbeing is constructed as a policy problem and positioned within br..