After presenting at the SEDA conference in May 2023, I was asked to widen the conversation to include the LTHE Community via the Wednesday Twitter Chat. I am honoured to do so; while I have been using Twitter since 2013 recent changes in ownership have meant it is now trickier to maintain our social networks, so this is a lovely opportunity to continue to build community.
To teach well we must know ourselves, be authentic, and inspire others with our passion and continued desire to learn (Hooks, 2003; Brown, 2018). We must support each other by sharing information and working collegiately and collaboratively. In addition, as we move to a world where increasingly roles are being replaced by automation, we need to focus on what makes us individual, personalised humans (Gleeson, 2018).
This can be challenging when the university sector is described as an anxiety machine (Morrish, 2019). University staff have been found to have significantly lower well-being, motivation, and energy to spare than the rest of the population (Wray & Kinman, 2021). As an academic developer, coach, and yoga teacher, I think it is important that we not only teach our academics the knowledge, skills, and behaviours to teach and research but to also maintain their well-being during and after the process. The Academic Professional Programme, which culminates in the Advance HE Fellowship, at Brunel University London attempts to do just that.
In the programme, participants are introduced to government priorities and regulations and assess these affect their own practice. They are encouraged to compare these with their own teaching philosophies and identify where compromises have been made. They contemplate what universities and education are for and they identify their own values and overall purpose. To support them with this, they experience individual coaching in progress meetings and informal group coaching through action learning sets.
Inspired by Kathryn Waddington's (2021), The Compassionate University, in which she declares we are now seeing a move towards compassion as "a response to the ..tyranny of neoliberalism" (p. 5), compassion and community are key themes running throughout the programme. For example, participants are introduced to key people whose liberationist pedagogical works inspired its design – Bell Hooks, Henry Giroux, Nel Noddings, and Paulo Freire, amongst others, and are encouraged to find their own role models and in the final session participants take part in a loving-kindness meditation and are introduced to contemplative pedagogies.
Throughout the programme, self-compassion (Neff, 2003) is encouraged and modelled as is the importance of setting boundaries where possible (Brown, 2018). By accepting that we are enough as we are, we can move to continually develop our whole self so we can continue to support others. This often means recognising and bringing our whole self to our practice. It means encouraging others to do so too in a union of mind, body, and spirit (Hanh & Weare, 2017). Participants on the programme have told us that not only have they enjoyed the course – they have also learned to become reflective practitioners and learned to connect with themselves, their students, and staff across the university.
I look forward to engaging in a conversation about compassion universities and the methods we can employ to encouraging them.
References
Brown, B. (2018). Dare to lead: Brave work. Tough conversations. Whole hearts. Random house.
Gleeson, N. (Ed.). (2018). Higher Education in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Palgrave Macmillan
Hooks, B. (2003). Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope. Routledge
Nhất Hạnh, T and Weare, K (2017) Happy teachers change the world: a guide for cultivating mindfulness in education. Parallax Press.
Morrish, L. and Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) (United Kingdom) (2019). Pressure Vessels: The Epidemic of Poor Mental Health among Higher Education Staff. Occasional Paper 20, Higher Education Policy Institute.
Neff, K. (2003). 'Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward oneself'. Self and identity, 2(2), 85-101.
Waddington, K. (Ed.). (2021). Towards the compassionate university: From golden thread to global impact. Routledge.Wray, S. and Kinman, G., (2021) Supporting staff wellbeing in higher education.
Guest biography
Sarah Wolfenden is a Senior Lecturer in Academic Development; an ILM qualified performance coach; a Senior Fellow of Advance HE; an Aurora mentor; a 500hr YAI accredited vinyasa, nidra and yin yoga teacher, a co-opted primary school wellbeing governor, and a chartered information professional. She has worked in the UK Further and Higher Education sector since 2004. She is also a part-time doctoral researcher, looking at coaching and staff wellbeing in universities.
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