Author: GLE Team | Published on 1 December 2023
Wellbeing is a term that has increased in usage particularly linked to education and attainment in recent years. Put simply, wellbeing describes a state of being in good health in both body and mind, having awareness of your emotions, feeling safe to express them, being able to understand and communicate your needs and manage daily situations. Someone who has good wellbeing is not necessarily free of stress and troubles, but they perceive they have the resources to manage any challenges. Poor wellbeing can make it more difficult to cope with daily life.
Wellbeing has a significant impact on our cognitive abilities, this means wellbeing has an impact on ourselves, the learners we work with, and the ability to take in and apply new information. Research has also shown that positive wellbeing strategies can have significant effects on student learning and teaching practice. This means when you are planning to implement new tools or practices to improve your gender responsive pedagogy, you need to be aware of your own wellbeing and that of your students. Wellbeing can influence your classroom culture and therefore your assessments of your teaching competencies and the way you implement gender responsive pedagogies too. Gender responsive pedagogy involves changing the way we think, and act and we might not initially feel comfortable with that, this may be the same for our learners, so it’s important to find ways to manage this discomfort in order that in not negatively impact well-being.
The following stages may help you to identify how you can generate good well-being for yourself.
Stage 1: Be Active
Embracing opportunities to be active and moving your body can add to improved wellbeing.
Stage 2: Give
Giving to others. People who are interested in helping others are more likely to rate themselves as happy.
Stage 3: Take Notice
Being aware of your surroundings and trying to be present and in the moment, not spending too much time dwelling on the past or overthinking the future can contribute to good wellbeing.
Stage 4: Connect
Connect with others, building and maintaining positive relationships.
Stage 5: Learn
Continuous learning where you can set yourself challenges and learn new things can give you confidence and joy. Well done you are already doing this by exploring these tips!
Stage 6: Repeat, Reflect and Continue- but be kind and patient with yourself
Ensuring you have a number of strategies or ‘tools’ available to you to ensure you can maintain your wellbeing is vital. Wellbeing looks different for everyone and the ways in which you can boost and maintain your wellbeing may well be different on different days. It’s important to take time and think about these numerous ways to support wellbeing and remember to implement them. These ways could range from listening to music, exercise, making a hot drink, meditation, mindful eating, chatting to a friend or playing a game. Your professional development as a teacher may seem disconnected from this, but it is very connected. If you want to improve your practise as a gender responsive educator you must ensure that you prioritise your well being.