Recent discussions on young people’s wellbeing in school settings have raised concerns about student wellbeing within the current culture of performativity in schools (Clarke 2023; Jerrim 2022). Furthermore, school performance demands have been linked to the accelerated pace of everyday youth life, the shortening of attention spans, and an inability to be in the present moment stemming from the rise of digital technologies. These in turn have been linked with difficulties in coping with anxiety concerning an uncertain future (Buddeberg & Hornberg 2017; Gibbons 2016).

A number of explanatory models behind these developments highlight a radical transformation in the temporal conditions that govern and regulate students' everyday life, thereby linking a decline in young people’s wellbeing to specific pathologies associated with a change in temporal dynamics at societal level (George 2014; Jennings et al. 2019; Rosa 2013). However, while the temporal dimension is explicitly referenced in problematisations of the youth wellbeing crisis, its significance for theoretical approaches to school wellbeing remains unclear and largely unexplored.

With this lack in mind, the aim of this conceptual paper is to outline the framings of temporality and wellbeing, examine their intersection and expand our understanding of the explicit and implicit assumptions about time and temporality at play in school-based wellbeing discourses. With specific emphasis on performativity cultures in schools, we pose the question of how the temporal dimensions of this notion are understood and addressed conceptually by examining the tensions inherent to various conceptualizations of performance and wellbeing in school contexts.

Aiming to connect wider theoretical approaches revolving around temporality to existing conceptualisations within research on school wellbeing and performativity, we focus on connecting three central distinctions. Firstly, we address an important analytical distinction, that of time as either a condition or an object of education. Timetables, periods and scheduling of the school day all represent instances where time functions as a condition or container of educational practices and activities: a class has a specified duration, the bell rings, recess has begun. This understanding treats time as a background or as a container inside of which educational practices take place (Compton-Lilly 2016). By contrast, Alhadeff-Jones (2017) highlights how educational science has generally not concerned itself with the experiential nature of time by arguing that time can also be understood as the object of what takes place in the classroom; i.e., that upon which a given educational practice is centered. This is linked to recent critiques and discussions within educational psychology on the ‘therapeutic turn’ in education (Ecclestone & Rawdin 2017) and on the need for cultivating spaces of deliberate slowdown and suspension in schools (Biesta 2020; Masschelein & Simons 2013; Vlieghe & Zamojski 2019). Second, we unpack the significance of the distinction between externalised and internalised notions of time in education. External modes of time management refer to practices where time is conceptualized and administered as a quantifiable resource through which human actions can take place; e.g., learning to manage your schedule using a calendar or diary, calculating how long different tasks will take, or optimizing the time spent on school activities (Burrus et al. 2016). Within wellbeing promotion, a common goal is to decrease the risk of stress and burnout among students. Internal modes of time management refer to the ability to manage the self and one’s attitudes towards time, e.g. the promotion of specific methods of deliberate slowdown or deceleration of the pace of life. Third, we link the two previous distinctions to the differentiation between hedonic and eudaimonic conceptions of wellbeing (Francesconi 2018). Hedonic conceptions of wellbeing can be characterised by being directed towards attainment of immediate, sensory wellbeing. Key factors are satisfaction, positive emotions and experiences as well as comfort. Eudaimonic conceptions, on the other hand, operate from the idea of personal growth or flourishing and can therefore be said to be less about momentary pleasurable experiences, and more about fulfillment of one’s capabilities and potential.

By illuminating the significance of temporality this paper will contribute with new understandings of wellbeing in school settings. This is significant as this theoretical enrichment can enable a more nuanced approach to wellbeing promotion in schools. For instance, this can form the basis of a framework for evaluating approaches schools already have in place to promote wellbeing and suggest avenues for further development. New light will also be shed on the role of temporality in education more broadly, which may have implications for school policies and practices more generally.

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