American pioneers of positive education explain ‘tipping point’ for Australian schools
In schools across the nation, a blend of psychological science and teaching pedagogy has slowly been turning teens’ mental health around – and it’s striking back against social media’s influence.
Modern Australian teenagers are lonelier and more overworked than the generations before them, addicted to smartphone screens, and their parents are more concerned than ever about bullying on the playground and online.
But in schools across the nation, a blend of psychological science and teaching pedagogy has slowly been turning teens’ wellbeing around, combating the influence of social media in young people’s lives.
It’s called “positive education”, and its American pioneers say the movement has reached a “tipping point”.
Schools who aren’t already on board are missing out on the now-proven benefits, they say, as parents increasingly demand more support for mental health and neurodiversity in both the classroom and the playground.
What is ‘positive education’?
Researchers Dr Barbara Fredrickson, from the University of North Carolina, and Professor James Pawelski from the University of Pennsylvania, are far from household names, but they are big news in the field of positive psychology, and its school-based spin-off, positive education.
The aim of the game is to present students – and their teachers – with a set of skills to confront negative emotions and process them constructively; to become “acrobatic arguers against their most catastrophic thoughts”, in the words of movement founder Martin Seligman.
It’s a field of research and practice that Professor Pawelski said is “easy to misunderstand”.
“It’s easy to misrepresent it as (putting on) a smiley face. We have nothing against smiles but that’s not a good summation of the field as a whole, which is much more about wellbeing, flourishing, (and) resilience,” he said.
The tipping point
Just over a decade since its introduction in Australia via a handful of elite private schools – including Geelong Grammar School in Victoria and Ravenswood School for Girls in NSW – positive education has tens of thousands of disciples in the public, independent and Catholic sectors.
Aussie kids should count themselves “really lucky”, Dr Fredrickson says, that wellbeing is taken more seriously here than it is overseas.
“We’re behind in the United States – we can call out an epidemic of loneliness, but then not much happens in terms of institutional change,” she said.
“In the United States we do better at doing the research than applying it, unfortunately,” Prof Pawelski added.
The Positive Education Schools Association now has 101 institutional member schools on the books across Australia, including 26 in NSW.
PESA chairwoman Leonie Smith said the “PosEd” philosophy took a hit during the pandemic, when “overwhelmed” schools were forced to focus almost exclusively on key learning areas, but had slowly regained ground.
“The sand shifted … but since Covid, there’s been a greater understanding of the benefits,” she said.
“(Positive education) strategies and practices will enhance and grow our young people’s wellbeing and our staff wellbeing, so I think we’re still on that trajectory,” she said.
Prof Pawelski said PosEd was rapidly “moving toward a tipping point”.
“It will be something that schools don’t want to be left behind on, because parents will begin asking, ‘Well, what is your wellbeing program?’,” he said.
“Administrators are going to have to have an answer for that.”
The ‘reality check’
Mount St Benedict College principal Michael Hanratty and St Andrewds College Marayong principal Stephen Kennaugh are both adherents to the philosophy.
Dr Kennaugh described it as a “reality check” for students so often inundated with negativity online.
It was the “negative perception that students have of themselves, and wanting to change that … to a more positive narrative” that inspired the move to PosEd in the first place, he said.
“(On social media) there’s 20 negatives to every one positive, and that’s what they’re being bombarded with. This is a chance to reexamine that.”
Mr Hanratty undertook a “complete reboot” at his Pennant Hills school in 2022, spending a year focusing on positive psychology for his teachers first and hiring a Dean of Wellbeing in Sheri Upasiri.
The pair both believe that “feeling good and performing well has an academic outcome”.
“Between 20 and 25 per cent of young people in the high school years experience high or very high levels of psychological distress,” Mr Hanratty said.
“Anything that schools can do, in a world that is pretty scary for teenagers these days, that makes them well – not just physically well, but able to function well – is going to be helpful.”
Equipped for life online
Screen addiction and cyber-bullying are ever-present concerns for parents, educators and researchers alike, but Dr Fredrickson and Prof Pawelski believe the strategies offered up under PosEd can be part of the solution.
“Social media … (is) causing a lot of harm and damage, if kids get on too early and they have unrestricted access,” Prof Pawelski said.
“But be that as it may, when students do have access … it’s important that students be equipped.
“What do you do, if you read something that is mean and nasty toward you?
“We don’t want them to shut themselves off into some kind of shell, which often happens with kids who are bullied, nor though do we want them to be completely vulnerable to this kind of stuff.
“What we’re talking about is resilience … the strategies they can take to make sure that this doesn’t fester.”
Communities had to decide which parts of life mobile phones were not a part of, Dr Fredrickson added.
“Many kids and young teens feel like they have too much social media time – they’re not saying ‘give me more of this’ – the kids themselves are recognising ‘this is not the best part of my day’,” she said.
And it’s not just about what’s happening on school grounds, either.
Clinical psychologist and founder of the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) Matt Sanders said parents equally needed self-efficacy and wellbeing tools, and should be on the same page as their child’s school to get the best results.
“There is an overwhelming strength of evidence that the closer the connection that parents have … in the home-school partnership, the better kids are off,” he said.
It’s not a linear journey
Every year, Ravenswood co-hosts a ‘wellbeing conference’ with its brother school Knox Grammar.
The event brings dozens of students from across Sydney and beyond to the all-girls school’s Gordon campus for a day of keynote presentations from experts and student-led workshops – including, most recently, Dr Fredrickson and Prof Pawelski.
Knox Grammar school captain Arjun said more young people his age could “absolutely” benefit from positive psychology.
“It reminds us of the importance of hope, perseverance, and staying optimistic, even when things feel overwhelming,” he said.
“In a world that can often feel fast-paced and uncertain, positive psychology provides us with tools to build resilience and move forward with purpose.”
Ravenswood Year 12 student Zara said she wanted all students to know “that mental health and wellbeing is not a linear journey, and wellbeing is centred around one’s ability to cope with challenges, rather than the state of being happy”.
During her visit to the school in June, Dr Fredrickson was impressed to see students at Ravenswood “articulating the nuances” of psychological science – something unimaginable in decades past.
“Back when I was in high school, no one was talking about these kind of things … that it’s okay to have these conversations about having a tough day and leaning on somebody for support,” she said.
Originally published as American pioneers of positive education explain ‘tipping point’ for Australian schools
