Identifying barriers for staff engagement with pedagogic resources that promote the embedding of wellbeing in the curriculum
Identifying barriers for staff engagement with pedagogic resources that promote the embedding of wellbeing in the curriculum
A project co-ordinated by The University of Warwick and King's College London (KCL)
Introduction
The curriculum is crucial to students’ mental health and wellbeing; indeed, the whole process of learning, including teaching and assessment, impacts on the overall students experience at university but also on their personal wellbeing, ability to flourish and become engaged citizens.
A plethora of resources has recently been developed to support universities and staff in embedding wellbeing and student mental health in the curriculum, providing ideas for curriculum design and planning. WIHEA has funded the development of the Warwick Wellbeing Pedagogies Library and similarly AdvanceHE has released the Education for Mental Health Toolkit. Both these resources provide evidence informed guidance on how the curriculum can support both wellbeing and learning, though with substantial differences in the way information is presented.
Nevertheless, it is difficult to evaluate the impact of these resources as well as their effective uptake from staff. The perception remains that staff engagement with resources of this type is often limited.
Thus, this project aims at identifying barriers for staff engagement with pedagogic resources that promote the embedding of wellbeing in the curriculum, suggesting possible ways forward and solutions.
Project Aims and Outputs
We will co-deliver workshops to up to 50 staff at Warwick and King’s College London during which we will briefly present the two resources and prompt small group discussions about resource perceptions, difficulties in embedding within their own practices, intervention concerns, institutional implementation barriers, etc.
Staff will have the opportunity to share experiences, successes and failures whilst evaluating our resources and the HE environments in which they are deployed.
Discussion will be facilitated and recorded by trained students, and such dialogues will enable us to establish ways to overcome some of the identified barriers, make suggestions for the further development of our resources and also for the creation of future inclusive teaching practice guides/toolkits (i.e., anti-racist pedagogies, disability inclusive interventions, etc.).
We aim to be able to make recommendations to institutions on ways to promote the use of these resources and we will report to the Dean of Students and P-VC Education in this respect.
Though targeted at staff, the impact of this project transcends the division between staff and student wellbeing. Indeed, by removing barriers for staff to implement positive pedagogies, students wellbeing will directly benefit.
Project Team
Dr. Elena RivaLink opens in a new window
Project Co-lead
Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL), University of Warwick
Morenike Allison
BSc student
Dept. of Psychology, University of Warwick
Shofia Mawaddh
PhD student
Dept. of Psychology, King's College London
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