Paradoxes of Learning to Be Well: Re-examining the Curriculization of Wellbeing - Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF)

This project aims to generate new knowledge and ways of thinking about development pathways, intricacies and consequences of the formalization of wellbeing as a mandatory educational goal in public primary and lower secondary education in Denmark. Educational research typically construes wellbeing as a condition for academic achievement and strong performance in national and international comparisons. By contrast, this study is based on the hypothesis that the policy specification of wellbeing as a mandatory objective ‘curriculizes’ wellbeing; in other words, the formalization transforms wellbeing into an object of educational practices and wellbeing becomes something students need to learn, in line with other curriculum subjects. Rather than resting on the taken-for-granted assumption that such an emphasis increases the quality of education and student outcomes, we treat this as an open question and ask: How is wellbeing framed in educational policies, guidelines and measurement frameworks, and how do these framings affect the dynamics of everyday school life and students’ experiences of schooling?