Beyond Individual Wellbeing: Translating Relational Wellbeing into Inclusion in Educational Contexts

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Abstract
Wellbeing has become an increasingly prominent concern within educational research and policy. However, dominant approaches frequently conceptualise wellbeing as an individual psychological attribute associated with resilience, self-regulation, and personal coping capacities. While such perspectives have generated valuable insights, they risk overlooking the relational and structural conditions through which wellbeing is shaped and sustained. This conceptual paper argues that Relational Wellbeing can provide a valuable framework for understanding and advancing inclusion, predominantly in reference to Anglophone educational contexts in the global North. Drawing on sociological perspectives on wellbeing, and a synthesis of theoretical work on power, capital and pedagogy, the paper reconceptualises wellbeing as a dynamic and socially embedded process constituted through relationships, recognition, and participation. Through a collaborative and interdisciplinary analysis, the paper examines how individualised understandings of wellbeing are reinforced by neoliberal educational discourses and explores the implications for inclusion. Four interconnected perspectives are used to develop the argument showing how relational conditions are structured, constrained and potentially transformed. First, an intersectional lens demonstrates how wellbeing is shaped by unequal relations of power and belonging in educational institutions. Second, social capital theory is employed to examine how relational inclusion may be generated through the development of bridging relationships in informal educational spaces. Third, a Bourdieusian perspective highlights how symbolic violence and unequal recognition can undermine the relational conditions necessary for inclusion. Finally, the paper considers how Radical Visible Pedagogy may support relational equality and meaningful participation. The paper concludes that inclusion should be understood not merely as access or participation, but as a relational condition grounded in recognition, equal status, and social worth across macro-level policy institutional practices, and everyday relational experiences. By positioning Relational Wellbeing as a foundation for inclusion, the paper offers a theoretical framework that contributes to contemporary debates on diversity, equity, wellbeing, and inclusive education.

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