Monday 9 September 2019

What underlies both Activism and Wellbeing?

Greta Thunberg's inspiring activism may pressure reluctant politicians into meaningful steps on climate change.  She is rightly a role-model for many young people around the globe and it was hard not to admire her bravery and eloquence, when she said to global leaders at Davos in January I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day.
As I wrote last week, though - fear and panic at world events can be toxic, and while it may spur some like Thunberg to activism, it may simply paralyse others.   I worry that fear is not generally a helpful motivator, and can lead to apathy and despair.  I do not use those terms lightly; the American Psychological Association says that our psychological responses to climate change, like conflict avoidance, helplessness and resignation, are growing; so much so that climate psychiatry is emerging as a new profession.  Journalist Britt Wray has recently noted that these mental health professionals are getting work at a time when some high schoolers don't want to apply to university any longer, because they can't foresee a future for themselves. 
We see these three things as underlying both activism and wellbeing    source
(though with students we use the word 'connected' rather than 'relatedness')

That 1.4 million school children went on strike in March to protest about climate change shows they feel they have few other options left; Wray describes this as students around the world... screaming for change in the piercing voice of despair.    'Despair' is, I suggest, not what we want, and is itself not sustainable in what needs to be done, especially by families and schools who are trying to live Missions that include 'a sustainable future'.  How do we educate students so they know the facts, and so they develop energetic activism rather than slip into paralyzed apathy?

Wray herself has the answer; that the best antidote to grief is activism.  And I've come to see this 'activism' issue as intimately linked to the 'wellbeing' issue that I have written about so often recently. because neither quality is one you can seek directly; in fact both emerge from three underlying elements that we were initially identified over 30 years by psychologists Ryan and Deci in an impressively persuasive body of work.  We are increasingly attending to these to inform decision making with students (and colleagues, for that matter):
  • Connected We want to feel known by others, heard by others and cared for by others. This means we prioritise trusting relationships that honour a diversity of perspectives; and that we seek to be united by a strong sense of shared purpose.
  • Autonomous We want to feel we can self-regulate our actions, where possible, and make our own meaning of events. This means we seek to create a culture so we are empowered to, for example, make choices with regard to our own individual wellbeing, and our own development.
  • Competent We want to feel effective and able to identify and meet challenges.  This means we can access high levels of support as necessary and that we allow flexibility to ride the peaks and troughs of demand.
So these principles are how we can feel able to act in meaningful ways in the world; by connecting with like-minded people; by being competent to effect change; and by having the autonomy to direct our own lives.  These are foundational to both action and wellbeing.

There's a lot to say about these, and if Deci and Ryan's ideas seem suspiciously like the Dan Pink's from Drive or Martin Seligmann's from Flourish, that's no coincidence.  Ryan and Deci's work pre-dates and underlies these two much more well-known authors (and others) who have made their own versions of these ideas accessible to a wide audience.  But make no mistake, these abstract principles can guide very practical issues.  Two practical examples:
  • We become aware that students were considering striking with Thunberg; in talking with them, we listened, and together explored their legitimate and heartfelt desire to make a difference -that is, be competent -  and to galvanise the community - that is, to connect people in service of a common cause.  We concluded that they need to make their decisions - that is, we respected their autonomy  - and we're meeting again with them shortly to see what we can do together.
  • A colleague identified a conflict between two aspects of her role; neglecting one would limit weekly opportunities for connection with colleagues; but neglecting the other would limit her competence in important aspects of her work.  She asked which to prioritise; the response was that we respected her autonomy, and trusted her to review how to have the greater impact on students, and to make a decision on a weekly basis, and to connect with us later on so we could understand how it was working out.
These seem like simple things, but getting either one wrong could demoralise and disempower - the last thing we want, and the sort of thing that when repeated, can lead to a sense of alienation and powerlessness; qualities highly opposed to wellbeing and activism.

We've only just clarified and made explicit our thinking on this matter, but even after a few weeks of the new school year I am already seeing the power of these three principles.  We'll be looking for opportunities to address and embed these principles into school life over coming months; we will review as the year goes, and see where we can tweak.  For now, I am hopeful they may provide an effective way of addressing twins goals of wellbeing and activism, in an optimistic way.  Watch this space.

Thanks to Ellie Alchin for making the link between self-determination theory and activism

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