Sustainability, Well-Being and Praxis with Children and Students

This chapter focuses on reciprocal learning experiences between students, staff and children from a local multicultural primary school in Liverpool, UK. The associated research was conducted during 2023–2024 and included a project with a class group of children who attended a nurture group within school to support their well-being, growth mindset and emotional regulation. Researchers worked alongside the children and teachers to provide active workshops using a bespoke graphic journaling workbook Thinking Strong and Feeling Smart by Heather J Ray to explore mindfulness, meditation and well-being principles. The use of interactive journals and feedback represents creative methodologies that resonate with photovoice methods, and the workshops were carefully structured to give the children some control and enable their voices to be centre stage in the process. This method is also a natural bedfellow to the Mosaic Approach, which is a creative framework for understanding children’s perspectives. This chapter also captures an active reading of a story, ‘My Bare Feet’ by Heather J Ray and subsequent reflections from students, staff and children as they broadened their perspectives on sustainability. This peace by praxis approach resonates in Freirean terms with opportunities to explore matters of well-being and mental health in a fun way whilst also promoting emotional resilience and social justice.