Pressures to Collaborate in Higher Education: Finding a Mindful Practice in Navigating Relationships in Higher Education

• In Event: Mindfulness, Self-Care and (Re)Imagination in Higher Education: Practices, Perspectives, and Processes?

Abstract

In a complex and demanding higher education environment wellness for scholars is an ethical imperative and is an essential component of self care, required to prevent burnout, distress, and impairment. Berg & Seeber (2016) remind us it is not something ‘extra’ or ‘nice to do’; self care is worthy of our attention. As we navigate the contemporary higher education environment it is important to look at ways of working that bring to the forefront self care and mindfulness. Mindfulness helps interrupt this way of being and begins to place a spotlight on how we as scholars work, and provides opportunities for changing how we work. When integrated, it offers contemplative feelings of stability in the present moment that encourage an openness of mind to new concepts and a deepening of understanding of research, scholarship of learning, and leadership (Beer, et al., 2015; Cranton & Taylor, 2012; Kasworm & Bowles, 2012; Ryan, 2013; Wang & Cranton, 2012).

From the perspective of mindfulness, networks, virtual or face-to-face, are critical in the navigation of nurturing oneself. The networks are vital relationships in cultivating an academic identity (Fitzgerald, 2014; Flaherty, 2014; McApline & Åkerlind, 2010). Juxtaposed to the navigating of relationships are values and core beliefs as they are integral to identity, sense of belonging, and reflective practice. As more time is spent in academia and the formation of an academic identity is developed, it is those who are around and alongside us that influence the enactment of those values and beliefs that shape our way of being.

In this presentation we connect to the importance of cultivating and navigating relationships that are both supportive and collegial. Through personal narrative we share our experiences with finding a mindful practice that has allowed for us to confidently change our practices, model them to others, and as McApline & Åkerlind reiterate being that is “true to what we do in what we think and value” (2010, p.4) in the higher education context. We draw from a series of chapters in a forthcoming edited book to explore the way that academics understand, embrace and enact the concepts of mindfulness for cultivating collaboration. We use Goffman’s notion of Dramaturgical Theory of Social Interaction to try and explain why we do what we do by means of comparing us to actors in a theatrical presentation. Discussion occurs around developing a mindful practice that integrated social media networks and the concept of #circleofniceness that connects to the emotional and cognitive needs of being an academic, as well as the approach to collaborations that are underpinned by mindful practices of breathing, setting intentions, and being present. By sharing insights and promoting voice there is a disruption to the intricacies of what we have to be and do in the contemporary higher education context whereby mindfulness brings us to the present, rather than there being a focus on the past or the future, thus connecting how we are within our interactions, relationships and work practices.

Authors

• Narelle Suzanne Lemon, Swinburne University of Technology

• Sharon McDonough, University of Ballarat