How faculty development can contribute to the well-being of academics: Reflections from practice

Guest post by Dr. Inken Gast, Maastricht University, The Netherlands

The current corona crisis has created more attention for the topic of well-being in Higher Education. Here in The Netherlands, universities now seem more concerned with the well-being of both their students and faculty. For example, we are aware that many of our students are struggling with isolation (which can lead to burnout or depression), and try to counteract this development. There is also more awareness for the additional workload and stress faculty currently has to face, and universities are trying to minimise negative outcomes as much as possible. Once we have overcome this health crisis, however, I hope that the discussions about work well-being do not disappear. Issues regarding well-being at work already existed in Higher Education (actually in the whole education sector) before the current crisis and will continue to exist afterwards.

The challenges of well-being in Higher Education

As a workplace, Higher Education (HE) is characterised by high pressure and uncertainty. Academics must deal with a high workload and have to balance various roles simultaneously. As researchers, academics for example face increasing pressure to publish and secure funding. As educators, changes in the HE sector such as increasing student numbers, personalised education, and the digitalisation of education create additional pressure. When adding management roles and service tasks, the list of responsibilities grows longer and longer, putting the psychological well-being of our staff at risk.

Taking a look at work well-being in general, we notice that well-being is often seen as the absence of ill-being. Interventions for example are often aimed at helping people to deal with burnout or workaholism. People follow trainings on creating a work-life balance and try to become better time managers. However, the positive effects of this kind of trainings are often short-lived once people are back in their normal work environment facing the same issues again. Creating positive change in this regard requires a change of the work environment itself. Instead of only “treating the symptoms” and trying to support staff members once “the ship has sailed”, we should try to create positive change in our immediate work environment and try to prevent well-being issues to arise wherever possible.

But what is well-being, really?

The concept of well-being is much more complex than only being the absence of ill-being. Well-being can be seen as a multidimensional concept. The model of psychological well-being by Ryff and Keyes (1995) for example defines six dimensions of well-being: (1) Self-acceptance: having a positive attitude toward oneself, feeling positive about one’s past life; (2) Positive relations with others: having trusting connections with others, being concerned about others’ welfare; (3) Autonomy: having a sense of self-determination, being able to resist social pressure; (4) Environmental mastery: being able to effectively manage one’s environment, making effective use of surrounding opportunities; (5) Purpose in life: having a sense of directedness and meaningfulness in one’s life; (6) Personal growth: feeling a sense of continued improvement and development, being open to new experiences. Although this model focusses on general well-being, it can also be applied to the work context.

How can faculty development support the well-being of academics?

Recently at a national conference of faculty developers in The Netherlands, I talked about my current research on the well-being of academics and my own experiences as a faculty developer. There I realised that we as faculty developers are often caught up in our own small bubble. Our main concern usually lies with supporting the development of pedagogical knowledge through our faculty development programmes. We try teaching new faculty how to teach, but we do not realise that we are actually doing much more than that already. The way we create our faculty development programmes, the way we coach new faculty members, the way we create communities actually contributes to the well-being of faculty. Taking the model of Ryff and Keyes (1995) as a basis, I want to share some tips about how we as faculty developers can make a positive impact on the well-being of academics.

• Self-acceptance: Negative teaching experiences can be discouraging, especially for new faculty. Create reflection moments and encourage reflection on past teaching experiences and own teaching behaviours. Reflection can help academics to acknowledge and accept positive and negative aspects of their own teaching and can help to create a positive attitude towards themselves.
• Positive relations with others: I often hear from the participants in our own faculty development programme that they usually do not talk about teaching with their colleagues. Try to create possibilities for faculty to share experiences and learn from each other. You can create communities or create a system for peer coaching, but encouraging active discussions during trainings or informal activities already can create positive change.
• Autonomy: I am often amazed by the misconceptions new faculty hold about supposed restrictions regarding course design and teaching. When entering university, new staff members heavily rely on information provided by their colleagues regarding rules, regulations, teaching practices etc. Many times, I had faculty talking to me about certain restrictions and practices they had “heard about”, which impacted their course design and created the illusion of diminished autonomy. As faculty developers, we can clarify the practices of our institution but also encourage faculty members to make use of their autonomy and dare to make changes to existing courses.
• Environmental mastery: Faculty development programmes already often target this dimension by helping academics to develop pedagogical knowledge and design their courses. Try to think of ways to encourage and support new and innovative ideas outside of structured faculty development programmes. Create incentives for faculty to keep developing themselves and their courses.
• Purpose in life: Many academics genuinely enjoy teaching, but often enough, research is more explicitly incentivised. Encourage people to identify (again) with their role as educators. Create possibilities for faculty to talk about their beliefs and values regarding teaching and how teaching creates meaning for their lives.
• Personal growth: Offering various possibilities for staff development at various stages of an academic career is important. New faculty members have other needs compared to senior faculty. Try to encourage experimentation with new teaching methods and provide feedback. Reflection on one’s own professional development journey can help faculty to become more aware of their own professional growth.

Of course, these are only a couple of examples. I encourage you to take a look at your faculty development activities and think about how you can make an effort to support the well-being of the academics you work with. Let’s start 2022 by making a positive change!

References

Ryff, C.D. & Keyes, C.L.M. (1995). The Structure of Psychological Well-Being Revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(4), 719–727.

Dr. Inken Gast is Assistant Professor at the Department of Educational Research and Development at the School of Business and Economics at Maastricht University (UM) in The Netherlands. She is a researcher, teacher, and faculty developer. Her research focuses on professional development and employee well-being inside and outside of Higher Education. She teaches various courses at Bachelor and Master level. She is involved in the Master programme Learning and Development in Organisations hosted by the School of Business and Economics at UM. As a faculty developer, she is responsible for trainings and faculty development programmes especially for new faculty. You can find her on Twitter @InkenGast.

This post is part of the “Around the world” series on faculty development. Watch this space in the coming months for more inspiration on professional development approaches in Higher Education from around the globe.