1st Edition
Prioritising Wellbeing and Self-Care in Higher Education How We Can Do Things Differently to Disrupt Silence
This book illuminates international voices of those who feel empowered to do things differently in higher education, providing inspiration to those who are seeking guidance, reassurance, or a beacon of hope.
Doing things differently comes with an awareness and curiosity to explore what can be. Increasingly, more and more professionals in higher education are choosing themselves, happiness, families, relationships, kindness, and compassion over arbitrary notions of institutional prestige, continuous pressure to overwork, and competitiveness with others. The chapters in this book do more than highlight flaws in the system, they call for proactive engagement in interrupting and reimagining what is broken. The authors share their own experiences as a way of encouraging readers to take small steps towards self-care, to notice their surroundings, and to embrace change as an empowering tool. The focus is on becoming the change we aspire to see, with a collective readiness to instigate positive transformations.
Sharing ambitious ideas to encourage change, this book is a valuable resource for those seeking to enhance their self-care and wellbeing in the higher education context, and for those seeking to engage with others in support of these efforts.
1. Unmasking Wellbeing: Voices Redefining Self-Care and wellbeing in higher education
Narelle Lemon
Part 1: The setting
2. Rethink: Rethinking Expectations in Academia: How Lowering Expectations of Ourselves and Others Improves Wellbeing
Louise Grimmer
3. Laughter: Flourishing in academia: Laughter as survival, self-care, solidarity, and resistance
Katrina McChesney and Kirsten Locke
4. Visibility: Queer visibility and self-care in academia: Exploring the contradictions of identity, activism and silence
Lauren Black
5. Place: Diversity Killjoy: The Places in Between
Raine Melissa Riman
Part 2: Repositioning learning and teaching for self and others
6. Confront: Confronting failure as self-care: Critical honesty as a springboard for
positive change in teaching and learning
Christopher Little
7. Awe: Finding Wonder and Awe Together in Higher Education
Linda Noble and Malgorzata Powietrzynska
8. Awareness: Beware the awareness gap: a novel support framework for design education
Shaun Britton
9. Hope: Doing things differently through the lenses of Gestalt philosophy and practice-based learning: A hopeful outlook on the benefits of co-creating with students to support wellbeing for the Higher Education community
Julia Ouzia and Estrella Sendra
10. Place: It’s about Place: Inside Indigenising the curriculum
Megan McPherson and Tiriki Onus
Part 3: Connection, interconnection, and companions
11. Heterotopia: Reflecting on university heterotopias and the need for spaces of hope and possibility in higher education
Sarah Barradell, Tracy Fortune, and Jeanette Fyffe
12. Balance: Balance: How A Unique Student Fellowship Model Enables Proactive Wellbeing
Mikayla Hunter, Jamie Pfau, Hera J. M. Casidsid, Stephaney Patrick, Emily Brownell, Anita Durksen, Nyla Comeau, and Jennifer E. Enns
13. Connection: Fostering an ecosystem of connection
Emily Rooney
14. Belonging: A cat named Jiji: belonging, identity, and navigating cultural displacement in academia
Bertha Chin
Part 4: Emerging Researchers, mentoring and finding one's self
15. Boundary: Listening to the stillness and darkness of academia: Boundaries that encircle international emerging researchers
Yue Xu and Yuqi Lin
16. Transformation: Cultivating a daily journaling practice for wellness, self-care and thriving in academia
Khairunnisa Haji Ibrahim
17. New: Does belonging affect wellbeing? A researcher experiences of transition from a conflict-affected country to Australia
Abdul Qawi Noori
Part 5: Taking a closer look at leadership
18. Expansive: Expansive Education Leadership: Two viewpoints on learning, and leaning into, spacious leading
Deena Kara Shaffer and Alice J. Hovorka
19. Balance: The Reverse Bungee: Balancing Rapid Changes in Perception and Academic Leadership
Mark Freeman
Biography
Narelle Lemon, VC Professoriate Research Fellow at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia, is an interdisciplinary scholar specialising in arts, education, and positive psychology. Her research focuses on enhancing wellbeing literacy in K-12 schools, teacher education, higher education, and community settings, emphasising evidence-based practices for proactive flourishing.
