This project investigated the rise of wellbeing as an influential concept in educational policy. Drawing on Foucauldian genealogy and critical policy analysis, it explored: (i) how policy approaches to mental health promotion in schools changed over time; (ii) how wellbeing became a key object of educational policy; and (iii) it explored the shift from targeted interventions to universal approaches as a prominent mental health strategy in educational settings.
Select Publications
Katie Wright & Julie McLeod. (eds) Rethinking Youth Wellbeing: Critical Perspectives. Springer, 2015
Julie McLeod and Katie Wright. ‘Critical policy studies and historical sociology of concepts: wellbeing and mindfulness in education’. In D Leahy, K Fitzpatrick and J Wright (eds) Social Theory, Health and Education. London: Routledge (in press).
Katie Wright. ‘Inventing the normal child: psychology, delinquency and the promise of early intervention. History of the Human Sciences 30.5 (2017): 46-67
Julie McLeod & Katie Wright. ‘What does wellbeing do? An approach to defamiliarize keywords in youth studies’. Journal of Youth Studies 19.6 (2016): 776–792
Katie Wright. ‘From targeted interventions to universal approaches: historicizing mental health and wellbeing’. In Katie Wright. & Julie McLeod, eds. Rethinking youth wellbeing: critical perspectives, 197–218. Singapore: Springer, 2015
Julie McLeod & Katie Wright. ‘Inventing youth wellbeing’. In Julie McLeod & Katie Wright, eds. Rethinking youth wellbeing: critical perspectives, 1–10. Singapore: Springer, 2015
Katie Wright. ‘Student wellbeing and the therapeutic turn in education’. Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologist 31.2 (2014): 141–152
Katie Wright. ‘The therapeutic school: historicizing debate about educational policy and practice’. In Local Lives/Global Networks, Refereed Proceedings of the Australian Sociological Association Conference, Newcastle, 2011
Katie Wright 