Staff and Student Wellbeing
One of the themes that appeared in our earlier reasearch was how staff wellbeing influences student wellbeing. Staff discussed the way in which the institutional environment effects their own wellbeing. They also identified how their personal feelings and experiences play a key role in the classroom. We understand this to be a sort of ‘student/staff wellbeing loop’ in that staff wellbeing was profoundly interlinked to students’ wellbeing within the teaching and learning setting and this can be challenging in the context of wider pressures on staff performance. Teachers reflected on how struggles associated with excessive workload and working in a stressful environment prevent staff from being able to positively impact student wellbeing. Members of staff focused on their need to maintain their own wellbeing in order to effectively embed best practices, and to discharge their responsibility towards students’ welfare and pastoral needs more effectively.
There is a close interwoven relationship between staff and student wellbeing. This means that certain pedagogical or even personal practices implemented by staff and students can help improve the respective wellbeing of the other.
For student wellbeing practices within the learning environment, please see the ‘Be Well Learn Well’ page. The staff wellbeing pedagogies have been derived from approximately 26 interviews, conducted by the Wellbeing Project Officers, who aimed to gain an insight on teaching strategies from different academics across various faculties at the University of Warwick.
