Wellbeing in Schools of Southeastern Europe: Integrating Research and Practice

This book on school wellbeing in South Eastern Europe offers a general overview of the challenges and possible interventions for promoting a safe, healthy and positive learning environment within schools. It provides a comprehensive understanding of the current state of the school wellbeing in the region, highlighting the areas of success and those that need improvements. It examines the cultural, political, and systemic factors that contribute to the unique challenges faced by the schools in the region. The book covers topics such as mental health, teachers’ wellbeing and teachers’ resilience, family implication in school wellbeing, school climate, social and emotional wellbeing and academic success. It explores the role of parents, policy makers, and communities on promoting wellbeing. The book includes case studies from six countries in South Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Moldavia, Romania and Ukraine. The research studies illustrate current practices for wellbeing promotion in schools and propose good practices or tools for teachers and school administrators to create a healthy and positive learning environment.

Aurora A. Colomeischi is an associate professor at the Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Romania. She coordinates a bachelor’s study programme in psychology and two master’s study programmes in school counseling and emotional education, and resilience in education. She is an active promoter of emotional education, mental health and resilience in schools and communities and has implemented various European projects to enhance school capacities for providing appropriate cultures of social and emotional learning. She has a BA in psycho-pedagogy, and two master’s degrees in school counseling and public policies with a major in career counseling. She did her Ph.D. on the sciences of education with a thesis about developing strategies and programs for social and emotional development of gifted students. Since 2016, she has been the Dean of the Faculty of Psychology and Sciences of Education and has initiated study programmes both for bachelor’s and master’s degrees, opening opportunities for youthin the region to study education and psychology. She is a former chair of the European Network for Social and Emotional Competence and in 2022 she organized and chaired the 8th edition of the international ENSEC conference. Her main research interests are related to social and emotional learning, wellbeing promotion for teachers, students and families, resilience in education, positive psychology, and school counseling.