Interpreting the mental health and wellbeing agenda in adult community learning

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to engage critically with debates surrounding the mental health and wellbeing agenda for adult community learning (ACL), with particular consideration of creative arts provision. It draws on a qualitative research project involving five creative arts ACL groups in the English West Midlands and two mental health participatory arts organisations based in London. Of the ACL groups, one was targeted for mental health recovery, two were targeted for wellbeing, and two were mainstream. Fieldwork involved participant observation, interviews and group discussions with attendees, and interviews with volunteers, ACL and art therapy practitioners, ACL project organisers, and managers working in the organisations taking part in the research and other adult learning settings. The article outlines key critical debates. It then interrogates three related themes, drawing on a range of evidence from the study: (1.) the discourse of confidence and self-esteem; (2.) interactions between educational and mental health and wellbeing-related goals and outcomes; and (3) the role of creative arts subjects in the mental health and wellbeing agenda for ACL. Implications for policy and practice are set out in conclusion, including consideration of ACL curricula and pedagogical approaches in the area of mental health and wellbeing.

KEYWORDS:

• adult community learning
• mental health
• wellbeing
• creative arts
• social purpose education

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all the participants who took part in this research and the ACL and arts organisations involved for supporting it. Thank you also to the other researchers who contributed towards the project. The article draws on unpublished research report, Lewis, Spandler et al. (2016). My thanks to Professor Kathryn Ecclestone for her permission to include findings from a chapter of this report, which we co-authored. The research was supported by the RCUK/AHRC Connected Communities Programme under large grant no. AH/K003364/1.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Notes on contributors

Lydia Lewis

Lydia Lewis At the time of writing, was a Research Fellow in the School fo Education at the University of Wolverhampton. She has conducted critical sociological research across the areas of education and mental health. She founded and, for eleven years, co-convened the British Sociological Association's Sociology of Mental Health Study group.