In this innovative and cogent presentation of her concept of sustainable happiness, Catherine O’Brien outlines how the leading recommendations for transforming education can be integrated within a vision of well-being for all. Solution-focused, the book demonstrates how aspects of this vision are already being realized, and the potential for accelerating education transitions that enable people and ecosystems to flourish. Each chapter assists educators to understand how to apply the lessons learned, both personally and professionally. The aim is to support educators to experience themselves as change-makers with growing confidence to implement new teaching strategies and inspire their students to become change-makers as well—engaged in deep learning that develops character, connections with life, and invigorating collaborations that revitalize the very purpose of education.

Today’s greatest health challenges, the so-called diseases of civilization—depression, trauma, obesity, cancer—are now known in large part to reflect our inability to tame stress reflexes gone wild and to empower instead the peaceful, healing and sociable part of our nature that adapts us to civilized life. The same can be said of the economic challenges posed by the stress-reactive cycles of boom and bust, driven by addictive greed and compulsive panic. As current research opens up new horizons of stress-cessation, empathic intelligence, peak performance, and shared happiness, it has also encountered Asian methods of self-healing and interdependence more effective and teachable than any known in the West. Sustainable Happiness is the first book to make Asia’s most rigorous and complete system of contemplative living, hidden for centuries in Tibet, accessible to help us all on our shared journey towards sustainable well-being, altruism, inspiration and happiness.

Happiness, Well-being and Sustainability: A Course in Systems Change is the first textbook bridging the gap between personal happiness and sustainable social change. The book provides a guide for students to increase their skills, literacy and knowledge about connections between a sense of well-being and systems change. Further, it can help students live a life that brings them happiness and contributes to the well-being of others and the sustainability of our planet. The book is presented in seven chapters covering the subjects of systems thinking, personal and societal values, measuring happiness, human needs, ecological sustainability and public policy. In addition, each section includes engaging exercises to empower students to develop their own ideas, prompts for group discussion, suggestions for additional research and an extensive list of resources and references. The book is written in the context of systems thinking with a style that is approachable and accessible. Happiness, Well-being and Sustainability provides essential reading for students in courses on happiness, social change and sustainability studies, and provides a comprehensive framework for instructors looking to initiate courses in this field. A website to support the professors teaching the book is available at : https://www.happycounts.org/coursebook.html

We're bombarded by messages telling us that more, bigger, and better things are the keys to happiness-but after we pile up the stuff and pile on the hours, we end up exhausted and broke on a planet full of trash. Sarah van Gelder and her colleagues at YES! Magazine have been exploring the meaning of real happiness for eighteen years. In this much-needed volume, they marshal fascinating research, in-depth essays, and compelling personal stories that lead to a life-altering conclusion: what makes us truly happy are the depth of our relationships, the quality of our communities, the contribution.

This edited collection challenges the common preoccupation with knowledge acquisition and academic achievement by comparing the aims and cultural beliefs which drive education in different countries throughout the world. Through case studies from countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Europe, the authors present how education can be approached holistically to foster student happiness and well-being. The book illustrates wide-ranging interpretations of what it means to provide a "good education," and how student-centered, holistic approaches to learning can be effective in promoting creativity, tolerance, student well-being, and an appreciation of environmental and societal responsibilities. Based on rigorous mixed-method empirical research, it highlights how the integration of happiness in education can not only enhance academic excellence but can also have a positive impact on the students’ overall well-being. This cutting-edge book focuses on the holistic development and well-being of students and will be a relevant reading for educators, researchers, and students in such diverse fields as psychology, the sociology and philosophy of education, intercultural education, education policy and politics, leadership/management, mental health, and international and comparative education.

The Role of Education in Enabling the Sustainable Development Agenda explores the relationship between education and other key sectors of development in the context of the new global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. While it is widely understood that there is a positive relationship between education and other dimensions of development, and populations around the world show a clear desire for more and better education, education remains an under-financed and under-prioritised sector within development. When education does make it onto the agenda, investment is usually diverted towards increasing access to formal schooling, without focusing on the intrinsic value of education as a tool for development within the international development community more broadly. The authors explore these tensions through a review of literature from a range of disciplines, providing a clearer picture of the relationship between education and other development sectors. The book challenges silo-thinking in the SDGs by exploring how achieving the SDG education targets can be expected to support or hinder progress towards other targets, and vice-versa. Drawing on examples from both low and high income countries, the book demonstrates how ‘good’ education functions as an ‘enabling right’, impacting positively on many other areas. The book’s scope ranges across education and development studies, economics, geography, sociology and environmental studies, and will be of interest to any researchers and students with an interest in education and the SDGs.