Wellbeing In Doctoral Education

This book offers a range of personal and engaging stories that highlight the diverse voices of doctoral students as they explore their own learning journeys. Through these stories, doctoral students call for an academic environment in which the discipline-specific knowledge gained during their PhD is developed in concert with the skills needed to maintain personal wellbeing, purposely reflect on experiences, and build intercultural competence. In recent years, wellbeing has been increasingly recognised as an important aspect of doctoral education. Yet, few resources exist to help those who support doctoral students. Wellbeing in Doctoral Education provides a voice for doctoral students to advocate for improvements to their own educational environment. Both the struggles and the strategies for success highlighted by the students are, therefore, invaluable not only for the students themselves, but also their families, their social networks, and academia more broadly. Importantly, the doctoral students’ stories should be a clarion call for those in decision-making positions in academia. These narratives demonstrate that it is imperative that academic institutions invest in providing the skills and support that doctoral students need to succeed academically and flourish emotionally.

Supporting Student and Faculty Wellbeing in Graduate Education recognizes new pressures impacting graduate students and their supervisors, teachers, and mentors globally. The work provides a range of insights and strategies which reflect on wellbeing as an integral part of teaching, learning, policy, and student-mentor relationships. The authors offer a uniquely holistic approach to supporting the wellbeing of both students and academic staff in graduate education. The text showcases optimized approaches to self-care, self-regulation, and policy development, as well as trauma-informed, arts-based, and embodied pedagogies. Particular attention is given to the challenges faced by minority groups including Indigenous, international, refugee, and immigrant students and staff. Providing a timely analysis of the current issues surrounding student and faculty wellbeing, this volume will appeal to scholars and researchers working across the fields of higher education, sociology of education, educational psychology, and student affairs.

This book is tailored for those navigating the diverse landscapes of doctoral work in physical and health education. Delve into the doctoral journey as our expert authors unveil the challenges unique to the realm of physical and health education. From research methodologies to innovative pedagogical approaches, the authors offer insights into overcoming obstacles and thriving in the academic arena. Immerse yourself in the narratives of seasoned scholars who have walked the same path. Their stories of resilience, breakthroughs, and personal growth serve as sources of inspiration, providing you with practical advice and mentorship toward your academic pursuits. Contributors are: Daniel W. Balderson, Joe Barrett, Stephen Berg, Heidi Jancer Ferreira, Colin G. Pennington, Simon Schaerz, Eishin Teraoka and William Walters.

The workplace has significant influence over our sense of wellbeing. It is a place where many of us spend significant amounts of our time, where we find meaning, and often form a sense of identity. Creating a Place for Self-care and Wellbeing in Higher Education explores the notion of finding meaning across academia as a key part of self-care and wellbeing. In this edited collection, the authors navigate how they find meaning in their work in academia by sharing their own approaches to self-care and wellbeing. In the chapters, visual narratives intersect with lived experience and proactive strategies that reveal the stories, dilemmas, and tensions of those working in higher education. This book illuminates how academics and higher education professionals engage in constant reconstruction of their identity and work practices, placing self-care at the centre of the work they do, as well as revealing new ways of working to disrupt the current climate of dismissing self-care and wellbeing. Designed to inspire, support, and provoke the reader as they navigate a career in higher education, this book will be of great interest to professionals and researchers specifically interested in studies in higher education, wellbeing, and/or identity.

Student wellbeing is foundational to academic success. One recent survey of postsecondary educators found that nearly 80 percent believed emotional wellbeing is a "very" or "extremely" important factor in student success. Studies have found the dropout rates for students with a diagnosed mental health problem range from 43 percent to as high as 86 percent. While dealing with stress is a normal part of life, for some students, stress can adversely affect their physical, emotional, and psychological health, particularly given that adolescence and early adulthood are when most mental illnesses are first manifested. In addition to students who may develop mental health challenges during their time in postsecondary education, many students arrive on campus with a mental health problem or having experienced significant trauma in their lives, which can also negatively affect physical, emotional, and psychological wellbeing. The nation's institutions of higher education are seeing increasing levels of mental illness, substance use and other forms of emotional distress among their students. Some of the problematic trends have been ongoing for decades. Some have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic consequences. Some are the result of long-festering systemic racism in almost every sphere of American life that are becoming more widely acknowledged throughout society and must, at last, be addressed. Mental Health, Substance Use, and Wellbeing in Higher Education lays out a variety of possible strategies and approaches to meet increasing demand for mental health and substance use services, based on the available evidence on the nature of the issues and what works in various situations. The recommendations of this report will support the delivery of mental health and wellness services by the nation's institutions of higher education.

This textbook is a practical, user-friendly and essential guide for doctoral students, their supervisors and advisors and administrators of doctoral programs in nursing and health sciences. Nurses and health scientists have a relatively young tradition of doctoral training, and this means students often come to doctoral studies without a clear understanding of what is required to be successful at this level of education. Supporting students to successful completion of doctoral studies involves a complex fusion of skills, and yet researchers and academics receive little specialist training in this crucial area of teaching and learning. Strong pedagogies around doctoral supervision and writing are essential because in addition to the scientific, research and educative skills required, it is important to be able to establish and maintain enabling professional relationships within which both parties can thrive, and that can withstand the years of critique needed for doctoral work. The authors offer supervisors, advisors, students and administrators practical advice on helping students thrive, and steering them through various challenges that can arise during doctoral candidature. With a focus on nursing and health sciences, the authors take a global approach, recognising the international focus of doctoral training in nursing and health sciences. The authors of this book are experienced supervisors and advisors to doctoral students and together, have well over 100 successful doctoral completions and more than 1000 publications. They draw on a series of interviews and case studies to share their knowledge and experience and provide insights and guidance to inspire and support student progression and ensure students get the most out of their doctoral studies.

This book explores the concept of the ‘hidden curriculum’ within doctoral education. It highlights the unofficial channels of genuine learning typically acquired by doctoral students independent of the physical and metaphorical walls of academia. The doctorate is a huge and complex undertaking which requires a range of support beyond academic foundations. The exchange between official and hidden curricula is therefore key, not just for achieving the qualification, but to also achieve transformative growth. This book offers a framework for a ‘doctoral learning ecology model’ to scaffold learning and sustain wellbeing by leveraging both formal and hidden curricula. This illuminating book will be of interest and value to doctoral researchers, supervisors, and mentors.

With the view of improving doctoral education, contributors from diverse cultural, political and disciplinary contexts critically analyse challenges and opportunities that impact on the experience of doctoral researchers and university staff, providing reflection opportunities for readers including policy makers.