Positive Youth Development (PYD) positions young people as active agents in their own development able to influence and be influenced by their environments (Bandura, 2003; Lerner et al., 2018). Social skills, including agency and autonomy, increase when children are given opportunities to experience and demonstrate care and compassion, social competence, connection to peers and school, and their own character (Lerner et al., 2018). Thus, school contexts are instrumental in supporting (or hindering) the development of social skills and prosocial behaviors (Benson et al., 2007; Fernandes et al., 2021). The core idea of PYD is a focus on the strengths youth have and their inherent capacity for growth and development, such that they are able to change and control their contexts, with appropriate support from their family, social, and school environments (Benson et al., 2007; Shek et al., 2019). PYD emphasizes strengths and positive growth in youth, which contributes to greater resilience in the face of challenges and leads to greater life satisfaction, which is important for positive coping behaviors in adolescence (Park, 2004).

The Five Cs (i.e., competence, confidence, connection, caring, and character) model of positive youth development (Lerner et al., 2018) conceptualize a core set of characteristics that lead to youth well-being. Through enhancement of the Five Cs, youth develop competence to contribute to themselves, their family, their community, and broader society (Travis and Leech, 2013). Connection is how youth are accepted, cared for, and affirmed through bonding with family, friends, and the broader community (Travis and Leech, 2013; Fernandes et al., 2021). Caring and compassion represent an individual sense of empathy, sympathy, and response to others (Travis and Leech, 2013). Character shows an individual’s sense of respect for morality and values (Fernandes et al., 2021). Confidence refers to satisfaction, self-efficacy, and self-worth in one’s circumstances and future possibilities (Travis and Leech, 2013). Competence is recognizing and developing one’s abilities, achievements, and performance (Travis and Leech, 2013; Fernandes et al., 2021).

Coherent with PYD, Bandura (2006) identifies four elements of human agency (i.e., intentionality, forethought or motivation, self-reactivity or self-efficacy, and self-reflectiveness or self-regulation). Agency underpins all students’ abilities and would affect their cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes as they interact with the learning ecology (Code, 2020) The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD, 2019) states that students can set up their goals reflecting changes in themselves, their school, and their community, and act responsively to effect these changes. Hence, agency is an effective short form for youth who have the 5Cs and positive outlook on themselves and their future. PYD has been used extensively in Thailand, especially among underprivileged and grassroots perspectives, as PYD promotes personal growth, community development, and fosters civic responsibility in youth (Authaisa, 2024).

Ikigai is a Japanese philosophy related to well-being and finding a life purpose. Ikigai refers to the ability to choose how one spends one’s time in order to find purpose in life (Kumar, 2022). Thus, at the individual level, Ikigai is related to people’s sense of self and personal value since Ikigai encourages motivation and agency in the journey toward one’s inner self (Kono and Walker, 2020; Mayer and Vanderheiden, 2021) Societally, Ikigai can help to build organizational values and a culture of common vision, based on finding each individual’s meaning in life while working together to create consciousness and inner life awareness in work and responsibility (Mayer and Vanderheiden, 2021). Ikigai has been applied in transformative learning and social engagement in educational settings. Because Ikigai focuses on the development of human potential and strengths through understanding of oneself and attempting growth, it can be used in a self-reflexive process, in which people engage intensely in social issues to find meaning and purpose in life (Mayer and Vanderheiden, 2021). The five elements of Ikigai include minimalism, initiating, self-awareness, flow or optimal state, finding happiness in what one is doing, and achieving happiness through recognizing consciousness or here and now through the flow experiences (Mogi, 2017; Csikszentmihalyi, 1991). These elements do need to occur in any sequence.

Kono and Walker (2020) studied Japanese university students’ perceptions of Ikigai’s goal of a life worth living and found that life affirmation depended on diversity and balance in life values. The sense of Ikigai occurred through personally valued experiences and interpersonal relationships, which gave a sense of meaning. Sartore et al. (2023) argue that Ikigai can be integrated with a cognitive-motivational model of the workplace to enhance self-determination, fundamental needs, and mindfulness. Self-determination fosters intrinsic growth, including altruistic goals. Ikigai leads to well-being and performance at work. Ikigai was used to foster self-leadership skills among university graduates during Covid 19 in Malaysia (Hall et al., 2023). Ikigai has been used to guide career planning activities for secondary school students (Rodrangsee et al., 2024). As Ikigai is associated with recognizing purpose in one’s life, this study uses the Ikigai-inspire framework as a metacognitive tool, including self-reflection to discover personal values and life purpose.

Ikigai has been interpreted into a Western lens, simplifying the framework to what you love to do (passion), what you are good at (mission), what the world needs (profession), and what you can be paid for (vocation; Garcia and Miralles, 2016). Passion arises from knowing what one enjoys doing to attain self-achievement, while mission implements passion into some highly skilled profession that delivers something the world needs, which hopefully becomes something that earns a living (Tamachiro, 2019). Kono and Walker (2020) state that applying Ikigai reflects the person’s interpersonal relationships in ways that people gain social support and related needs, which is close to the relationship aspect in PERMA. This version of Ikigai has been implemented as a positive youth development framework that aligns well with the cultural and policy framework of Thailand.

The Project focused on developing and training teachers to deliver authentic learning within a context of believing that all students could learn. The project placed students at the center of the learning process by encouraging them to initiate projects based on their own interests and contexts. Having students act purposefully, effectively, and reflectively on real-world problem-solving should develop their agency through an authentic activity (Benson et al., 2017). The project required students to approach a problem or issue in their own school or community, while their teachers functioned as coaches supporting students individually through problem-solving and reflection processes throughout the entire project.

The main intervention or training occurred in two concentrated day camps where mentors from Ging Gan Bai Learnscape used Ikigai principles to foster life purpose and self-empowerment. The first camp took place within the school grounds in July 2023 and lasted 3 days. The second camp was 2 days approximately 2 months later. Between camps, students carried on with developing their self-designed project while doing their regular school activities and learning. The mentor group helped students inquire into and discuss their own dreams, concerns, hopes, and wishes for themselves and their social circumstances. Multiple activities were used to achieve this aim.

Camp 1. The first day began with ice-breaking activities to welcome students and prepare them for the more reflective work. The mentors introduced students to important characteristics of selected professions and people to stimulate a vision for what the students might like to do as adults, encouraging them to identify their own capabilities and skills that might support those professions or vocations, and requiring students to state explicitly an ambition for their future careers. The team then encouraged students to identify and relate to the various issues and crises in society that they observed and experienced. Students were asked to identify their social strengths, such as respecting other people, self-control, self-expression, and so on. Then, students created a treasure box in which they stored the papers on which they had written their self-reflections and strengths. Note that this process of recording self-reflections was done at the end of each day.

On the second day, students were divided into groups according to the vocations (i.e., arts, farming, mechanics, sports, crafts, music, or cooking) they had identified on the first day. Team building began with a stock-take of resources in their communities (e.g., places, culture, people, and traditions) for that vocation. The mentors encouraged students to include their own strengths, identified in Day One, as part of the community resources. Students were encouraged to analyze urgent problems and consequences in their school or community, resulting in a project that they then decided to address. To help them think about that problem Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed (1979) technique of using their own bodies to create an image of the story was introduced. Students then used body sculpture and image theater activities to explore, exchange, and discuss goals and hopes for the selected problem. The mentors showed the students an inspiring clip from Klongtoey Dee Jung, a PYD project teaching music skills to underprivileged youth in Klongtoey, the biggest slum in Bangkok. The clip told how the youth in the project were developed and empowered through music practice as a team. The mentors then invited students to create a musical performance as an orchestra with different kinds of musical instruments, to enact the importance of teamwork and student initiative.

On day three, students started planning activities, places, people involved, time frame, and their roles for their project. The camp ended with students presenting their projects to the Ging Gan Bai mentors and teacher coaches and the fellow participants.

The two secondary schools created 11 projects, which included:

environmental issues topics

Camp 2. Two months later, a second camp continued the Ikigai intervention. On Day One, self-reflection was stimulated through the arts. In pairs, students drew a flower to represent their feelings about their project’s story. Students then molded clay figures to represent the obstacles they experienced in their project. In pairs, students shared their thoughts and feelings around the clay figures and how they were able to cope with the challenges. Students were encouraged to write coping words and strategies to empower themselves. In a circle, the students shared their coping words with all the participants in that school, and with the peers providing active listening and by echoing the words back to each speaker.

On the second day, the mentors focused on communication and creativity. Students were introduced to a simple model of communication (i.e., Sender, Message, Context, and Receiver; SMCR). In their project groups, including their teacher coach., students designed and made a one-minute TikTok. Student TikToks were shared with the whole group, with group feedback and team reflection. The activities ended with students writing supporting words to their peers and their coach. Students then returned to complete their projects over the next month, at which time the LSED team collected the various artefacts for analysis.

Given that the project was designed around the four Ikigai themes, we wanted to know from the perspective of the students themselves whether there was any insight or evidence that the project had worked as intended. The research was approved by the Social Science Institutional Review Board, Thammasat University August 2023. The participation was voluntary, had informed consent, parental approval, and school leader and teacher approval.

In this study, only secondary school data were analyzed, which were Wangtagu and Baan Noi Prek Utit in Pichit province. Within each school, participants were selected from students who joined the community theater and short film camp in the first-year project, giving a total of 66 students. Of these 40 were young women, 30 came from single-parent homes, 45 lived in households where their real parents had to work outside their hometown or abroad, and eight were involved with drugs due to their usage in the family. The average age was between 12 and 16 years old.

In Camps 1 and 2 and at the end of the project, students generated written reflections as per instructions. The students wrote reflections about what aspects of this project caused the most significant changes in students based on the most significant change evaluation (Intrac, 2017). These questions have been used in the Teacher Movement project of the Faculty of Learning Science and Education (2022). These data were available to the research team for secondary, non-reactive analysis (Webb, 1981). The responses were not influenced by the presence of the research team or the project treatment team.

At the end of the project, two semi-structured group discussions were conducted, one in each school. All the students participating in each school were asked to take part in an open forum semi-structured discussion. The outline of the questions was related to the reflections that the students wrote based on their most significant changes, of which the researcher went into more detail in the discussions. The researcher also asked about the challenges the students faced in doing the project, and how they coped with these challenges, or which aspect supported them through these challenges. The research team directed the content of the discussion on if and how participants believed the project had helped them change.

Data from sources were subjected to a content analysis against the a priori structure of the Ikigai framework. That means texts were coded in semantic units and grouped into insights related to the impact of the project upon student passion, mission, profession, and vocation. Verbatim quotes from reflections and discussions were coded C1 and C2 for the two camps and DA and DB for the two discussion groups. The Project number is added to the code to further instantiate the comments. To identify individual contributors a sequential number is added to anonymously identify individual students. Hence, C1P3_11 means camp 1, Project 3, person 11, and so on.

To illustrate the projects more fully, details are given of what Project P10 was about. This group worked with the Moto punk teenagers who ride motorcycles at night. The Project students used art to create a welcoming and friendly atmosphere to work together, rather than judging and criticizing them. The common activity of creating art helped create shared conversations. These activities helped change the students’ perceptions of the participants.

For example,

“I recognized that the Moto punk teenagers drive motorcycles at high speed at night because they need attention. They said that they did not look as cool as when they drove at high speed. When they drove at night, people paid attention to them.” DAP10_65

Listening to the moto punk teenagers’ insights, such as lack of attention from their family, and using moto biking as their identity were the reasons why they had become moto punks. Working together in the activities, the students in this group perceived new perceptions from the moto punk teenagers. This project made the moto punk teens recognize another ability and concentration through artwork. The project might not eliminate the fast driving of the Moto punk teenagers, but at least they had less time to go out driving as they built new identities through artwork. For example:

“I realized that the moto punk teenagers were also kind-hearted human beings who needed love, attention, and a place to show their abilities.” DAP10_62

The students exhibited many instances of self-expression across Camp 1 and both Discussion groups. The project work required students to work together each week with their friends and peers, allowing them to express and share their feelings, thoughts, and ideas in the project work. Several students reflected that the entire process encouraged students to express their thoughts, ideas, and opinions before they did their projects. For example:

“Participating in the project, encouraged me to share many new ideas with my peers. I became more expressive, liked to speak out my ideas, and was always part of the project.” C1P10_63

Within the project process students participated in dialog, asking questions, and listening as a team. Sharing insights and acknowledging peers’ perceptions of the project were critical processes in the project. For example:

“Sharing and accepting peer’s ideas and thoughts were very important. The Students Agency Project encouraged me to listen to other people more and not to take one’s own thoughts and opinions too seriously.” DAP2_7

These comments showed that working in the Students Agency Project enhanced good relationships among participants since working as a group required them to carefully think and speak in order not to cause conflicts in working.

When students were faced with problems, stress and doubt, or different ideas, group dialog helped the students find solutions and solve conflicts. For example,

“I needed to express my thoughts and ideas, together with listening to people in my groups to find the solutions together.” C1P8_56

Rather than being isolated, shy, passive, and nonchalant as before, participants gained interpersonal skills since they talked and associated with other people more. For example, C1P_22 explained, “The activities in Camp 1 introduced me to and work with new friends from another school. Working outside my school was fun.” In Camp 1, students gained new experiences working with friends from another school. Working with other people made them realize that each person had different skills and abilities. However, group support made their project successful. In this project, the students felt that they could express themselves and be accepted by their peers and teachers. For example:

“I used to be shy and did not like being in front of other people. However, in this project when I practiced and rehearsed the script, I became better at expressing myself to my peers in school and no longer felt shy in front of my friends.” DAP1_4

The students became more self-assured. At the end of Camp 1, students reflected that the activities in the camp and the project made them feel creative, fun, and experience flow in the working process. For example, C1P9_48 said “I got to do activities I liked, which were taking photographs, movements, singing, and acting.” The students gained confidence through practicing skills that they liked.

Others stated:

“We had rehearsals before making our content. Even though we rarely were free at the same time to rehearse together, we tried hard to practice individually, speak out, and ask questions as a character in our content. We worked hard and felt proud of ourselves.” DBP11_59

Sharing their thoughts and ideas with the team made students feel there were no judgments or right or wrong as in their regular classrooms. However, students took actions seriously as they got to do what they liked and chose to do themselves. Unlike the regular classroom setting, the lack of judgment gave the students the freedom to try and do the activities that they liked. For example:

“I became more expressive and shared my thoughts with other people better without worrying whether my ideas would be right or wrong.” DAP1_2

The Project process provided opportunities for the students to present their project to their peers and teachers during both camps and at the end of the project. The students conquered their shyness and self-criticism and became closer to their teachers. Being supported by the teachers empowered the students to do their projects. For example:

“Presenting my idea to and talking with our teacher in the activity made us closer to our teacher. Now we feel easy to speak our thoughts and ideas in class.” DBP3_15

In Camp 1 and 2 students were required to write a self-reflection on what they did at the end of the activity every day. Writing their strengths and self-reflections, and storing them in a treasure box at the end of their group activity made students recognize their strengths and inner values. Through these reflections, the students recognized that they had learned new skills, knowledge, happiness, and friends from the project and at the school. For example:

“I had made new friends by joining both camps. The reflections that I wrote at the end of each activity made me recognize that I gained confidence from being in this activity and felt less worried when I made furniture in the project.” DBP4_17

In Camp 2, a self-healing process was applied to the students for self-reflection regarding the problems and obstacles of the project and positive changes. Self-awareness and self-love were two key messages in students’ reflections in Camp 2. Students reflected on self-love that would happen when they stopped caring about other people too much and cared more about themselves in aspects of pursuing what they liked to do. For example:

“Let go of the problems so I would not be too serious and put pressure on myself too much. I would like to try solving the problems little by little at a time.” C2P3_15

Students also reflected on being courageous as one of the qualities of self-love, as C2P5_1, said “Do my best in what I think. Do it with confidence and courage without worrying and hesitation.”

Acknowledging their good values was very important for them to work in the Student Agency Project. For example, C2P8_53, said “Being self-assured was very important. No matter what they thought about me, it was their problem, not mine.”

The project raised students’ awareness of their negative feelings, including worries, stress, fear, and sadness. Students molded clay in the shape representing their negative feelings and acknowledged it through different negative feelings. For example:

“This was just one piece of sadness. I would get through it because I was good.” C2P10_66

Students also wrote about self-empowerment and positive thoughts in their reflections, which were keys for their being able to be successful in the project. For example:

“Keep doing what they were doing and do not give up, I would pass through the obstacles.” C2P10_64

Students who used drugs such as cigarettes and marijuana expressed in this process that they wanted to quit because they could have been better off without using drugs. For example:

“I wanted my uncle to quit smoking marijuana since [his smoking] would make me want to be addicted to marijuana again. I wanted to spend my free time helping my parents sell merchandize in the community and go fishing.” C2P3_14

Through their arts and reflections, self-love, self-awareness, self-empowerment, and support from their peers, teachers, and their family were seen to be very important for them in life and in the projects.

A key feature of the activities the students created as their projects was an informal and relaxed atmosphere. The activities helped students become aware of their feelings.

Students used cooking, games playing, and live music to create informal, relaxed, and safe spaces for the participants. As project leaders, the students had to be focused and patient when they listened to their peers’ stories. Nevertheless, participating students felt fun and flowed with the project. For example:

“Times and trust are very important in creating a safe space for participants to speak out their stories and insights. We used cooking as a medium to connect to the participants who had issues and joined the activity. We tried to cook and talked without any specific topics. Listening to the participants’ talk was the key for them to share their stories.” DAP6_30

Activities in both camps helped students to relate better to others and caused them to be aware of others thoughts and opinions as they worked as a team. The mentors facilitated the activities in both Camps, which encouraged the students to work with other people from their own and another school. For example:

“I made new friends and the mentors were very supportive of them.” C1P1_4

Students recognized the importance of asking for advice and group agreement before and after any activities in the Project. Students recognized how important it was to work, ask everyone’s opinion, and wait until they got the agreement of the entire group. The studentshad changed from working alone to working as a team and became better at listening and sharing their ideas. For example:

“There was no one absolute idea in working on the project.” C1P6_30

Group agreement and working as a team helped the students improve how to work together better the following time.

Listening to other people’s problems and issues developed students’ empathy. The students practiced deep listening (i.e., listening without judgment and responding until people who shared the stories ended). This helped them became more comfortable in sharing stories. The students learned empathy through these practices. For example:

“I cared for and empathized with other people more. I listened more than they spoke and became more patient with the people around me.” DAP6_32

Problem-Based Learning in the Student Agency Project made students thrive in terms of self-regulation and self-responsibility. Students reflected that they gained concentration and focus, and patience through practicing arts, and crafts. For example:

“Through the activities, I became focused, patient, and concentrated on the project. My group paid attention to the activities and gained experiences and new knowledge through this hard work.” DAP6_31

The projects encouraged student to think of what they like to do and allowed them to use those skills. This helped develop students’ personal motivations. Students were more self-regulated through the activities than in their regular classroom. For example:

“I had got to practice many skills in this project. First, I did not think that the team would make it successful. I got many new ideas, thoughts, and skills from being in this project.” DAP10_63

Teamwork and problem-solving as a team were key aspects of the overall project. Students solved problems as a team in their own projects. They relied on a growth mindset and positive attitude to get over disappointments and mistakes. They learned to respect each other and themselves and they realized that they had learned many new skills and gained new perceptions about themselves and skills. For example:

“We had a self-talk for self-adjustment and attitudes. Then, each student in our group decided to say sorry to all the members. The students talked and set up the goal of the project together again. We worked on the new schedule and kept to the goal. Finally, we were able to interview participants and make our campaign against garbage burning in the community.” DAP2_8

Students gained leadership from working as a teamwork. For example, DAP7_35, said “I gained leadership qualities by joining this Project as I was the oldest in school. We had to lead the younger ones in the activities to make the younger ones work together.”

Involvement in the projects had a positive effect on students’ personal life challenges. For example:

“I was able to quit drugs by joining the farming and mechanic project because I spent my free time more on making flowerpots and sinks from car tires.” DBP5_23

Getting positive and supportive relationships with their teachers was one of the key successes of the projects because students had to do self-reflection frequently with their teachers as coaches. Students gained better positive relationships with their teachers. For example:

“I had worked with my teachers more in the activities in the Camps. The teacher became more friendly with me.” C1P3_16

Completing the projects the students had created for themselves helped them achieve a valuable goal by helping alleviate the problems of their peers. For example, DAP8_52 said “During the lunch break, our group performed music at the activity space in our school twice a week. People who came to listen to our songs told us that they felt less worried about their problems and felt happier as they could share their problems with others.”

The activities the students had engaged in as listeners empowered them to support their peers through sharing their stories and problems. Students liked to provide a comfortable space for listening and giving advice to their peers as this would alleviate their problems with their low self-esteem and lack of support from their family. For example, DAP7_39 said “The participants were able to accept their issues better as they could share their problems with someone else.”

Students recognized their strengths from participating in the Student Agency Project. Success in the project came from the strengths of each member’s skills and competency. For example, DAP10_62 said “In this project, we had and were good at different skills. However, we tried to support each other, using different skills to make the project successful.”

Students felt proud of how their peers were able to cope with their problems of being bullied more and their art projects enhanced the participants’ senses of positive self as part of their self-transformation. For example, DAP10_63 said “This art project was successful and we continued the project because our teacher supported us with the funding to do the project.”

As the Student Agency Project let the students choose the activities based on their preferences, students explored and did their project to serve their school and community. For example, DAP1_1 said “I could use knowledge and experiences in this Project in real life to support and mitigate my friends who had suffered from depression.” Students recognized one’s self-worth for society or community and set up a purpose in life. For examples:

“I realized that I wanted to pursue my study in mass media doing performance arts and acting for my future study and self-development.” DBP11_60

Students reflected that they would apply experiences gained in the project in their own lives to support peers and younger students in school to cope with depression or low self-esteem. For example:

“I practiced many new skills in the project such as making furniture. I could share and teach these skills to the younger students at my school.” DAP1_5

The activities in the Student Agency Project improved the participants and made the students recognize their skills and values, which became the students’ life purpose.

Many fewer comments were made that could be aligned with the idea of profession. Students applied knowledge and experience from the activities in their everyday lives as a way of earning income. Students earned money by making crafts, farming, planting, and cooking together and selling their products to people. For example:

“I made herb juices as my vocation and cooked for members of my families.” DAP6_30