Abstract:

The objective of this study is to shed light on the relationship of education and salutogenesis and the possibility of integrating health to the area of education with the aim of turning schools into healthy and well-being educational environments where students, educators and other school personnel can learn, flourish, grow as persons, and freely develop their skills and competences and, thereby, contribute to the development of the school, community, society, and environment. The study is timely and relevant owing to the health and well-being-related problems in education that notably increased because of the pandemic, and that do not show any signs of disappearing owing to current social, economic, environmental, and safety-related challenges. The study is also pertinent because it is filling widely acknowledged research gaps in the transdisciplinary area that integrates health to education. The study is conceptual as it is grounded on previous research in education and salutogenesis and trying to pave the way for empirical research combining health, well-being, and education. Moreover, the study aims to enlighten the theory development in this transdisciplinary area. The assumption of the study is that by integrating the idea of salutogenesis in education, it will be possible for schools to improve learning, instruction, and students´ and educators' personal growth, the core objectives of education. The study tries to answer the following question: May schools that apply salutogenic principles contribute to creating healthy learning environment, improve well-being of students and educators, and improve educational outcome? A literature review in the field of salutogenesis and education accounts for research material and provides the theoretical answer to the research question. Grounded on this conceptual study, future empirical research will be able to generates an empirical answer to the research question. Despite the evident lack of research regarding the relationship between salutogenesis and education, there are indications that integrating of salutogenic principles in education can deepen and broadens the understanding of teaching and learning processes and contribute to creating sound educational environments that improve students' and educators' physical and mental health helping them to prevent mental problems and burnout.

Keywords:

Education, salutogenesis, health, well-being.