This paper explores how co-creating a school community nature space in a private school for boys can support young people’s agency, self-determination, learning, and well-being. Australian youth are currently experiencing high levels of mental health and well-being concerns. Many young people feel they have little or no control over their life trajectories and worry about their futures; their top personal challenges relate to school, mental health, and relationships. Boys have lower average academic achievement, school retention, and higher rates of suspension and exclusion from school. This highlights the urgent need to find alternative ways of engaging boys in education that support their overall health and well-being. Schools have begun to recognise that they can play an important role in caring for adolescent boys. They have shifted their core focus from academic achievement to a more equal emphasis on learning, health, and well-being. By focusing on real-world, place-based participative pedagogy, our project builds on previous research in social art and design practice, community participatory research, outdoor education, and real-world experiential learning. More specifically, this research harnessed a range of innovative learning strategies, using outdoor, nature-based, non-traditional classroom environments to support multiple aspects of the care and well-being of boys in a private school in Brisbane. The research also outlines how effective collaboration across institutions and sectors can be achieved.
Co-creative Regeneration of a School Community Nature Space: Using Participative Pedagogies to Support the Care and Wellbeing of Adolescent Boys
Kerrie Mackay, Griffith University, Queensland College of Art and Design; Tanja Beer, Griffith University, Queensland College of Art and Design; Stephen Parker, Griffith University, School of Dentistry and Medicine
2024 Conference