Loving and Mattering: People Forces That Shape Children’s Wellbeing in School

The public discourse over children’s wellbeing has been laid bare in the past decade, especially during recent world events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, active shooters in schools, immigrant deportations, and assaults on minoritized identities. Despite increasing attention to protecting children and improving their livelihoods, a nuanced understanding of wellbeing, particularly from schoolchildren's perspectives, remains elusive. To illuminate this concept and capitalize on children’s unique insights about their world at school, this research employed an ethnographic approach and mixed methods with 121 predominantly minoritized Black and Hispanic children across two elementary schools. Through observations, interviews, and photovoice, the study highlighted children’s perspectives on the forces that foster meaning, joy, and strife. Findings from children’s narratives introduce the concept of “communal constructions” and the importance of “mattering” as central to children's wellbeing. The article concludes by advocating a reimagined understanding of “Loving” in schools, emphasizing cultural humility, solidarity, advocacy, children’s rights, and child empowerment to foster environments in which all children feel they belong and their unique identities are seen and heard.