Jacobsen, D. MichelleFriesen, SharonTakeuchi, Miwa A.Munroe, Karena2021-01-252021-01-252021-01-16Munroe, K. (2021). School Wellness Action Research: from an Arts-Based Transformative Activist Stance (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.http://hdl.handle.net/1880/113006This study explored educational change that privileges teachers to be co-authors and drivers of school wellness action activated through an arts-based focus on hopeful futures. The SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic added school lockdowns to the context resulting in modifications to the study, primarily the exclusion of student voice and face-to-face participation. Eight participants engaged in discussion and field-testing of virtual arts-lab activities aimed at enhancing school wellness rooted in their realities as educators. Two phases of an arts-based participatory approach to action research generated creative data. Data collection included educator and researcher reflections, arts-lab observations, and my descriptions of participant-created artwork. The results provided the basis for an arts-lab toolkit for educators and an animated video story for the broader community. This participatory arts-based approach to action research was grounded in an arts-lab created from a transformative activist stance (Stetsenko, 2017). It offered opportunities for participants to affirm their control and participation in action critical for change. Second, the arts-lab tool offers participants a means to actively engage in characterizing and exploring their personal values as opportunities for school wellness improvement. Educators endorsed a four-part arts-lab where art-pieces created at every session portray ideas and provide a centrepiece for deepened conversation. Third, arts processes provide opportunities to enable agentive creativity for artists while offering contributions to the school community-in-the-making that encourage connections between the art, the artists, and the audience. The collective development of an arts-lab encourages participants to contribute artifacts to the broader community’s conversation as artists and activists.engUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.junior high schoolhigh schoolmiddle schoolwellnesswell-beingarts-basedaction researchchange-labsocial innovation labparticipatoryTransformative Activist StanceEducationEducation--AdministrationEducation--ArtEducation--Healthdoctoral thesishttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/38574