A socio-ecological study, adopting a participatory approach to exploring student wellbeing in the first year of Junior Cycle in Ireland: a snapshot of student wellbeing

With a greater focus on young persons’ wellbeing in Ireland (DES, 2018) and given the significant reform in lower secondary, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) introduced a universal social and emotional learning intervention in 2017 (NCCA, 2017) aimed at supporting the promotion of student wellbeing (SW). While there is a wide range of studies addressing SW, the experiences, perspectives, and understandings of SW in the newly introduced Junior Cycle (JC) and the Irish context in general have not been researched extensively to date. <br><br>This study seeks to explore students’ perceptions and experiences of wellbeing in the first year of JC and how they perceive school supports their wellbeing during transition.

The perceptions that are held by teachers regarding the JC Wellbeing Programme, and their experiences supporting SW in first year is explored. It is in this context that this study advances work on SW at the beginning of significant reform around SW in Irish schools, adding to the literature on students’ experiences of wellbeing, and the perceptions and experiences of teachers supporting SW in Ireland. <br><br>This qualitative research uses a case-study methodology to explore students and teachers’ perceptions of wellbeing in one large post-primary school using two main methods of data collection namely Photovoice and Interview.