Reflections on Valuing Wellbeing in Higher Education by Lemon, Narelle;

Short description:

This book focuses on the lived experiences of higher education professionals working in the face of stress, pressure and the threat of burn out, and how acts of self-care and wellbeing can support, develop and maintain a sense of self.

Long description:

This book focuses on the lived experiences of higher education professionals working in the face of stress, pressure and the threat of burnout and how acts of self-care and wellbeing can support, develop and maintain a sense of self.

In considering the place of self-care in higher education, we are challenged with the tension that exists when it comes to the valuing of self-care and our individual and collective wellbeing. In Reflections on Valuing Wellbeing in Higher Education, authors present and explore the ways in which they manage and reframe their wellbeing and self-care, through mindfulness, compassion, connection to breath, ref lection, demonstrating individual and collective embodiment and resistance to neoliberalism and environmental destruction. Covering various contexts of higher education, such as learning and teaching, research, leadership and engagement, this book offers practical strategies grounded in literature and evidence-based research.

The self in self-care is relational. It is not just about self. We need others for inspiration, motivation and, indeed, the act. This book will be of great interest to professionals and researchers specifically interested in studies in higher education, wellbeing and/or identity as well as those navigating a career in higher education.

Table of Contents:

1. Reforming our acts of self-care in higher education: Developing a sense of self individually and collectively Section 1: Being present and non-judgmentally aware of self-care 2. Yoga and the Contemplative Path: Placing Meaning at the Centre of Self-Care and Wellbeing in University Life 3. Finding the Spaces In Between 4. Wellbeing through self-reflexivity: Understanding our underlying motivations, gratitude, strength identification and support. 5. Self-care and environmentalism: Finding a socially-just balance as an early career social work researcher 6. Tales from the soft play fifth shift: mother, teacher, mentor, academic and student 7. A community of practice-educators as self-care: a sustainable strategy for both academic and practitioners alike Section 2: Awareness in caring for self and others 8. A systems pathway to self-care in academia: Me, We, and Us as avenues to integrated long-term self-care 9. Cultivating whole-heartedness in the academy during a time of COVID: Insights from/within an inter-collegial friendship 10. Peer reviewing journal articles: A duoethnographic exploration of emotion in the digitalised space 11. Finding an audience who care: Examining research crowdfunding through a lens of self-care 12. "Ding!" Co-creating wellbeing in a Friday online research writing group