Realising Learning and Wellbeing Space in a Community Setting

Abstract

The impact of learning on adults’ wellbeing goes beyond academic and economic concerns and includes its emotional, social and embodied influence on how we feel and act as individuals and selves in relation. For marginalised groups, including people with learning disabilities, where learning takes place and with whom it takes place are significant in enabling voices to be heard, equality of opportunity and social justice as we strive together to make happy, fulfilling lives.
The purpose of this research project is to investigate the relationship between learning and wellbeing, specifically with regards to the experience of adults with learning disabilities accessing a social care and learning services provider in their local community in Scotland.
Drawing on literature from the geography of wellness, space and spatiality, adult learning, care ethics, disability and the phenomenology of lived experience, the outcome of the research is the formulation of a conceptual framework - the Optimal Learning and Wellbeing Environment (OLWE) – which demonstrates the coming together of learning and wellbeing as key concerns of marginalised adults, and their supporters, navigating their journeys beyond mainstream education.

Date of Award	28 Jan 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Winchester
Supervisor	Adrian Skilbeck (Supervisor) & David Raper (Supervisor)