Affiliation:
University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Short bio:
Ulisses F. Araujo is a Full Senior Professor and Director of the Research Center on New Pedagogical Architectures at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. President of the PANPBL – Association of Problem-Based Learning and Active Learning Methodologies (www.panpbl.org), has been a visiting professor at the Universities of Harvard, Stanford, and Autonoma de Barcelona. In the past twenty years has published 16 books in Brazil and dozens of chapters and articles in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, and lectured in 14 universities worldwide. Active Learning Methodologies, citizenship education, and the role of positive Psychology in these fields are his research and teaching focus.
Title:
PURPOSE AND GOOD WORK: strengths for well-being
Abstract:
Purpose, and what Howard Gardner, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and William Damon call the Good Work (2001) may have a role in constructing the psychological state of Well-being. Data from research in Brazil listening to 2.000 K-12 teachers in an open-ended questionnaire interview is confirming this approach, showing that purposeful teachers, that have their profession as central in their identity, express their commitment to the virtues of Excellence, Ethics, and Engagement (the 3 Es that comprise the Good Work) in their teaching development. Teachers also showed enjoyment and self-fulfillment in their work. These constructs are embedded in the multifaceted concept of Well-being (Delle Fave et al., 2011) when considering that goals, meaning in life, positive emotions, relationships, and achievement may lead to a good life.