Mathew White – Leading school cultures to support learning and positive wellbeing

Award winning educator, author and academic, Associate Professor Mathew White will lead the first webinar focused on positive student wellbeing – its importance and new directions in approaches – to support student success at school.

With a unique combination of deep academic and extensive practical experience in schools and other settings, Mathew will share how leading cultural change underpinned by positive psychology can make a positive impact.

In this webinar participants will:

• learn why positive well-being is important to student success at school
• learn about new directions in well-being models for schools
• explore how to lead cultural change and establish positive wellbeing and learning in schools – with a focus on:
• leadership and strategic vision; and
• measuring wellbeing to determine needs of a school community, inform identification of interventions, monitor efficacy of interventions, and measure impact on student success
• consider strategies to sustain cultural change (including the role of family and community where relevant).

About the presenter:

Associate Professor Mathew White

Mathew A. White, Ph.D., is Deputy Head of the School of Education and Associate Professor of Education at the University of Adelaide. He is also a principal fellow in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne.

He has published over 40 scientific journal articles and book chapters. Publications include Critical Perspectives on Teaching, Learning and Leadership: Enhancing Educational Outcomes (with Faye McCallum, Springer, 2020), Future Directions in Wellbeing: Education, Organisations and Policy (with Gavin Slemp and Simon Murray, Springer, 2017) and Evidence-Based Approaches in Positive Education: Implementing a Strategic Framework for Wellbeing in Schools (with Simon Murray, Springer, 2015).

In 2020, Mathew was presented the Distinguished Contribution to Research in Educational Leadership Award by the South Australian Branch of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders. He is the President of the International Positive Psychology Association Education Division and a member of the Australian College of Educators SA Branch Committee.

Mathew was a secondary school teacher for 20 years and has a decade’s senior leadership-level experience in schools and serves as a Council Member of a coeducational Anglican school. His next book Wellbeing and Resilience Education COVID-19 and Its Impact on Education (with Faye McCallum) will be published by Routledge in May 2021.