Introduction

There has never been such a strong focus on wellbeing (Harrison et al., 2016). The Covid-19 pandemic has reminded us of this, as to have the constant economic, societal, political, and environmental changes (Kern & Taylor, 2021; Lemon & McDonough, 2021). However, in the education sector, including higher education, there remains a paradox. Some educators focus on wellbeing for self but are situated in an environment where wellbeing is not valued; others work at a site where wellbeing is valued in theory but not taught how to grow or maintain with and for self, young people, youth, and adults. This raises the question: if an educator does not have a wellbeing literacy that draws on diverse areas of wellbeing science for themself, how are they able to do this for and with those they are teaching?

Educator wellbeing is influenced by two critical factors: (1) context and (2) individual capacity to thrive (Ainsworth & Oldfield, 2019). Curry and O’Brien (2012, p. 182) note that when educators from any sector:

understand their own wellness and actively demonstrate the self-regulatory processes encompassed in living well, [they] are more likely to accurately assess, develop, facilitate, and inspire well practices among … [those] with whom they work. They may be more resilient to the daily stressors of the education system.

This interconnecting relationship between context and individual is often missing in sector or professional conversations, training, and policy change (Lemon, 2022; Lesh, 2020; McKay, 2019). Hence, we propose that a wellbeing literacy supports the repositioning of wellbeing whereby we teach rather than treat for student and educator flourishing while supporting and enhancing our own wellbeing.

Wellbeing literacy is a new field within positive psychology and is the capability to comprehend and compose wellbeing language, across contexts, with the intention of using such language to maintain or improve the wellbeing of oneself, others, or the world (Oades et al., 2021). As a capability about and for wellbeing, wellbeing literacy facilitates the building, maintaining, and protecting of individuals, collectives, and systems, providing opportunities for them to flourish. With a wellbeing literacy, a vocabulary is developed about wellbeing, cultivating comprehension, context sensitivity, and intentionality. It is an umbrella term for many domains of wellbeing. Wellbeing literacy is necessary to recognise opportunity and build future capacity, and to process the current realities within a given an education system. From this perspective, wellbeing literacy promotes academic and wellbeing capabilities (the ability to be and do). Language, knowledge, and language skills of wellbeing make it possible to intentionally communicate wellbeing for self and others. We can thus support the reflection, repositioning, and reframing of interactions, intentions, and experiences of wellbeing. Wellbeing literacy is therefore relational. It is a process of exchange and embodiment between an individual and their environment, as recognised by Oades et al. (2021) who suggest that: “individuals, groups, and systems, including those within educational contexts, require this capability to flourish” (p. 327).

Wellbeing literacy is a fundamental tool that, when integrated, can enable a wellbeing education within and across forms of education. The authors of this paper see belonging as one of the domains to our wellbeing as educators, as well as a means of facilitating meaningful change for our students within the higher education context. It is a Pedagogy of Belonging (PoB) (Lemon, 2023) that enacts, scaffolds, and helps us maintain and extend our wellbeing. While this looks different for each of us, in all vignettes our activities are premised upon an intentionality that comes with exploring, enacting, and/or embodying a wellbeing literacy. This intentionality is about a sustained shift in language, not a quick fix and/or a one-off solution: it is an ongoing conversation between ourselves individually and collectively and way of being that benefits I, we, and us.

PoB provides a framework to view best practice of belonging for students in higher education. It also provides a framework for educators to view and deliver positive practices and pedagogical approaches, allowing for the co-creation of a wellbeing literacy. The nature of the relationships, processes of engagement, and communication that underpin PoB means educators are bringing key variables to the classroom essential for hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing. These essentials include meaning, passion, purpose, positive emotions, building of relationships, learning with and from one another, accomplishment, and health (Ryan & Deci, 2001).

Current approaches to wellbeing literacy in higher education often focus on individual skills and competencies, such as stress management, resilience, and self-regulation (Oades et al., 2021). While these skills are important, they do not fully capture the relational and contextual factors that shape students’ experiences of wellbeing. As a result, these approaches may be limited in their ability to promote lasting changes in students’ wellbeing, particularly in the face of systemic challenges such as social isolation, academic pressure, and structural inequalities (Lemon & McDonough, 2021). PoB addresses these shortcomings by focusing on the interpersonal and institutional dimensions of wellbeing, such as fostering supportive relationships, creating inclusive learning environments, and promoting a culture of care and compassion.

Belonging has been conceptualised in various ways in educational research. Some scholars emphasise the psychological dimensions of belonging, such as feelings of acceptance, value, and fit within a learning community (Pittman & Richmond, 2007). Others focus on the social and structural factors that shape students’ experiences of belonging, such as peer relationships, teacher support, and institutional policies (Thomas, 2012). PoB draws on both of these perspectives, recognising that belonging is a complex and multifaceted construct that is shaped by individual, interpersonal, and institutional factors. We position our work within a growing body of research that highlights the importance of fostering belonging through holistic, contextually sensitive approaches that attend to the diverse needs and experiences of students (Allen et al., 2021).

Dominant paradigms in wellbeing education often reflect individualistic and decontextualised assumptions about the nature of wellbeing. These approaches tend to locate the sources of wellbeing within the individual, emphasising personal responsibility and self-improvement (Lemon, 2022). While individual factors are important, however, this perspective overlooks the ways in which wellbeing is shaped by social, cultural, and institutional contexts. Moreover, these approaches often assume a one-size-fits-all model of wellbeing, failing to account for the diverse needs and experiences of students (Gravett et al., 2021). PoB challenges these assumptions by recognising the inherently relational and contextual nature of wellbeing. We argue for the need for alternative approaches that prioritise community, inclusivity, and contextual sensitivity in promoting student wellbeing. By attending to the complex interplay of individual, interpersonal, and institutional factors, our approach offers a more holistic and equitable vision for wellbeing education in higher education.

In this paper, we highlight how we have approached the intersection of educator and student wellbeing literacy and our pedagogical decisions that align to a PoB. We share educators’ perspectives through vignettes from the diverse disciplines of animation and games, screen studies, creative writing, and initial teacher education, across both postgraduate and undergraduate degrees from the school of Social Sciences, Media, Film and Education at Swinburne University of Technology. Individual and collective enactment and embodiment of a PoB enable our wellbeing to flourish.

Pedagogy of Belonging

The Pedagogy of Belonging (PoB), developed by one of the authors (Lemon, 2023; 2024) during the pandemic, aims to facilitate meaningful change by fostering a sense of belonging and promoting wellbeing literacy across four departments and two research centres. PoB celebrates existing practices that support students, provides a common language for educators to articulate how they bolster student success and inclusivity, and unites themes that scaffold belonging over a 12-week semester. As a systems-informed positive education intervention, PoB blends positive education practices with pedagogy to cultivate an optimal learning environment for the entire community (Kern & Taylor, 2021).

PoB is underpinned by an approach to care and self-care in higher education that emphasises connectedness, inclusion, self-awareness, and self-examination (Pizzuto, 2018). It creates space for pausing and listening to the needs of educators and students, allowing them to develop a sense of equanimity (Powietrzynska et al., 2014). By exploring belonging, care, and wellbeing with an acceptance of vulnerability and cultivation of resilience (Duckworth, 2016), PoB challenges the “uncaring neoliberal, competitive, and individualising” notions prevalent in higher education (Gravett et al., 2021, p. 1).

Acknowledging students’ diverse lived experiences, PoB provides scaffolding and support to contextualise their studies within higher education and related disciplines. It makes transparent key factors in pedagogical decisions that impact retention, such as academic and social integration (Tinto, 1996), institutional support (Tinto, 1993), and engagement (Kahu, 2013; Masika & Jones, 2015; Thomas, 2012). PoB illuminates three intersecting elements: relationships, communication of processes, and engagement. Institutional support encompasses structures, systematic support, processes, and clear communication. Positive social interaction is fundamental for a sense of belonging and success in university life (Ahn & Davis, 2020; Pittman & Richmond, 2007). Belonging is centred on forming and maintaining relationships, with connectedness and esteem needing to be authentically felt through multidirectional interaction and relationship-building (Lähdesmäki et al., 2016). Engagement, underpinned by regular social interaction, is vital to belonging in education (Baumeister & Leary, 1995), with both academic and social engagement being critical for students’ reported belonging (Allen et al., 2021; Thomas, 2012).

PoB facilitates a wellbeing literacy, providing a language to discuss experiences, feelings, and emotions while acknowledging diverse lived experiences. It balances doing, caring, and support, emphasising a safe space for honesty and vulnerability, and recognises that learning occurs when discussing problems from practice, unpacking lessons from mistakes, and understanding professional growth.

Authentic inquiry

Framed by hermeneutic phenomenology, our authentic inquiry highlights participatory, interpretative pedagogical practices in varied disciplines. We emphasise learning as iterative and contingent (Alexakos, 2015). Aligned with practice-led models, our approach integrates research in practice, research for practice, and research through practice (Webb, 2008). We facilitate learning through active, collaborative activities, considering the cultural influence on mental constructs involving “participatory, proactive, communal, [and] collaborative” (Bruner, 1996, p. 84) that enable us to engage with “the cultural ‘situatedness’ of all mental activity”, premised upon the claim that society “provides us with the toolkit by which we construct not only our worlds but our very conceptions of ourselves and our powers” (1996, p. x).

In undertaking an authentic inquiry, we appreciate learning is exploratory and may not be adequately expressed until a later date, reflectively and retrospectively. However, in choosing to work in this way, we adopt a “willingness to listen and understand what others are saying before judging” (Tobin & Alexakos, 2021b, p. 22). In this way, we develop and deliver curricula through a constructivist approach to pedagogy. The constructivist paradigm is associated with researchers such as Peters, Le Cornu, and Collins (2003, p. 1), who value learning that is informed by “consciousness of who you are and why you do what you do, personal/social relationships and learning as construction”; and by Foster and colleagues (2002, p. 3), who value “pedagogy which elicits generative thought and creativity as the needed ‘knowledge’ of the future”. Our authentic inquiry embraced through practice-led approaches to teaching recognises that: “[a]lthough practice-led researchers frequently both produce and draw on concrete observations and measurements, the starting point is usually an idea […] a concern with how humans construct the world through ideas, images, narratives and philosophies” (Webb, 2008, p. 1). As such this approach has become a highly reflective and reflexive way for us to understand our teaching, students, learning spaces, and pedagogical decisions while also illuminating, articulating, legitimising, and humanising who we are and what we do individually and collectively as educators. Our practices exemplify our belief that we are not “privileged over the research” (Alexakos, 2015, p. 4). Rather we recognise that we are co-researchers, wrestling emergent and contingent learnings, that are constantly in flux.

In the next section of this paper, we share four vignettes of what educator wellbeing can look like in practice. While each of these vignettes outlines a different pedagogical approach or example of action, we all have employed the PoB framework to foster passion and enhance discipline-specific success. Within these guidelines, we celebrate relationships, focusing holistically on how we foster belonging, humanise learning, and build a wellbeing literacy for and with each other in the higher education context.

Vignettes

Character design: leading by example

In the creative arts, the term character typically refers to a visual agent in a linear or interactive narrative. Character design refers to the development of said agents: the iterative design of a person/animal/thing acting or appearing in stories and other built experiences. The simplicity of these cartoon characters can belie the skills and knowledge required to professionally design them: a mastery of illustration and design skills, anatomical knowledge, and technological literacy.

Students in the animation and games disciplines are expected to improve their drawing, sculpture, and associated skills to produce effective character designs. We offer in-class experiential design instruction (Bindal, 2022) to first- and second-year students, who have a wide range of creative abilities from novice and associate up to the standard of emerging practitioner. With this dissonance between the desired design outcome and the ability needed to produce it—as well as the wide variety of skills one class of students may possess—it is important to foster an inclusive, supportive, and informative environment for all participants. For this, we ensure that individual improvement is rewarded at assessment (not simply the best illustrators), and we innovate in two ways: first with a novel use of technology, and second with live student feedback.

In physical classrooms, we use an online chat space called Discord when we teach character design. This is software typically employed by physically distant, games-development teams to type messages, swap images, and house voice meetings. In class, the software provides choices for this cohort of students with different abilities and levels of confidence. Of course, students can still discuss their artwork/progress with peers and teachers during in-person sessions, but Discord also provides the opportunity for students to chat with peers online or in other classes across the character design unit. Similarly, they can share their work in any way that suits them, from referring to their computer screen to targeted/public displays of their work online. Despite the confronting nature of publicly sharing work, many students willingly choose to share across classes, offering constructive critique of other students’ work. As a minimum, we ask that all students sign up for Discord to review work-in-progress and related feedback. We provide the opportunity for participants to clearly indicate who they’d like feedback from: only teachers or teachers/peers.

Giving students so many choices can mean extra labour for teachers, but we manage this process carefully, through a mix of in-person and online instruction, a flexible blended-learning model that has positive health and wellbeing benefits within and beyond the community it facilitates. While it is important to provide in-person feedback, with students at their class computers, most feedback for students occurs when they share work through Discord. The teacher brings that work on-screen in front of the class, drawing over each artwork, demonstrates how it might be improved. In this way, the class can see live feedback, engaging experientially with the teacher’s process. Furthermore, the teacher converts their revision to an animated gif, showing before/after changes with annotation, and shares these outputs beyond the individual class, across the entire student cohort in the unit. With teachers managing many classes over a given week, students benefit from shared feedback outside of their own class structures, and while teachers are working within their assigned workload, their expertise is shared to full cohort, for maximum effect. Furthermore, with most students using this mediated form of communication in class, there is less personal contact (lessening the risk of COVID-19 transmission, and facilitating participation for students with accessibility challenges). In this way, teachers demonstrate best practice, and students engage with feedback experientially, rather than being given access to opportunities for improvement, after the fact. With these choices, students engage, create, critique, and learn within their own comfort and community, and teachers offer feedback passionately and sustainably, expediting rigorous student outcomes in an environment of greater safety and enjoyment.

Studying comics in the margins

My case study for inclusive curriculum design is a third-year creative writing unit focused on comics, manga, and graphic novels. Students create their own comics as part of the unit. With PoB, students’ confidence has increased dramatically. This class fosters the development of a skilled, inclusive, and creative generation of graduates, using robust curriculum and comprehensive resources to support students’ research, creativity, and general wellbeing, bolstering them in the production of portfolio-ready student outcomes.

Comics are often perceived as the marginalia of popular culture. Teaching a class on comics means spending time justifying and familiarising students with the form: this process doubles as an opportunity for students to develop and share their own creative ideas, iteratively, and to familiarise themselves with each others’ developing critical insights. Cruz (2019, p. 72) refers to the marginalisation of comics as a historic and endemic oversight. The medium is often mischaracterised as a niche hobby rather than a cornerstone in understanding how multimodal communication is integral to everyday life. As an educator, I aim to afford comics their due critical and creative value, by deliberately encouraging students to articulate how this aligns with their own experiences of marginalisation. I aim towards developing curricula that disrupts the conservative canon, through genuine engagement with issues of inclusion and diversity in the classroom, including but not limited to supporting the needs and experiences of students from marginalised groups and underrepresented backgrounds. What better opportunity to take a radical approach to belonging than studying a medium that is traditionally for outsiders?

My first approach to inclusive curriculum is establishing a diverse canon of literature. It is straightforward to ensure the canon of work includes different genders, races, disabilities, ethnicities, and sexualities, but Bakshi points out this can be tokenistic if the works are not approached thoughtfully (2021, p. 120). When the diverse canon is contextualised rather than pigeonholed, we can empower students who may not have previously imagined themselves or their peers to be scholars or media creators. My commitment to diversity and inclusion, in unit materials and design, also fosters a stronger culture of respect, prompting the class to engage with a wider variety of perspectives to enrich and broaden our learning.

In past semesters, students tended to struggle with the common problems of deadlines, presentations, research, and class discussion. This is a global problem exacerbated by the pandemic, requiring a strategic response (Porter et al., 2021, p. 44). We are working with a greater density of disabled people (Porter et al., 2021, p. 48). Therefore, innovative adjustments in class delivery are required. Like all elements of curriculum design, accessibility involves conscientious planning. Lectures, tutorials, and assignments are designed to be accessible for different ability levels and study plans. PoB supports educators with time and resources to redesign class delivery and assessment in flexible ways, creating equitable and accessible opportunities for all students with varying needs, to participate more fully. The immediate results of inclusive curriculum design are portfolio-ready assignments and overwhelmingly positive student feedback. In the long term, I believe this approach fosters a more supportive and well-rounded learning process, where we care for each other and our stories.

Risky business? Establishing a community of practice in creative writing

I talk about community of practice a lot—with students, with fellow writers, and with industry partners. What does community of practice look like in creative writing? Earthed community of practice is a generative web of interconnectivity. I try to “pay it forward”, welcoming students and emerging writers to be part of my journey as a writer-academic and practice-led researcher, sharing my thinking, and writing outputs and industry connections so that students and emerging writers can springboard from them, in order to forge their own relationships and establish their own pattern of practice.

I have been asked why I would “risk” professional relationships, which have taken many years to establish, to provide opportunities for undergraduates. I don’t subscribe to this line of inquiry. By embedding professional opportunities in capstone unit offerings, such as the third-year unit: literary industry practice, I replicate industry activity in the classroom. Our partner organisations provide current students with accredited, professional, networking, and publication pathways through a variety of activities and roles. Students present their projects-in-progress (creative artefacts or industry internships), together with their evolving reflective analysis, as they progress. This simulates workplace expectations, where graduates of Communications and Creative Arts are required to communicate information in an organised and structured way, compressing their ideas into a presentation and seeking feedback from peers and experts in the field. The classroom interaction thereby reflects the contemporary literary industry as a diverse community of practice where iterative exchange is necessary for the ongoing development of projects.

More broadly, I establish community of practice in creative writing through opportunities to gather, publish, and share work. I’ve invited contributions from students and emerging writers to ACE Anthology (Prendergast et. al., 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023). ACE is a collection of stories by emerging writers, financially supported by the Australasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP) and RISE (Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand) Funding. ACE arose because of my activities in managing the Prizes and Partnerships Portfolio for the Australasian Association of Writing Programs.

Together with international and national industry partners, including Ubud Writers and Readers Festival and the Australian Short Story Festival, we offer a suite of six prizes (including publication pathways and networking opportunities) for emerging writers and translators. I have built this portfolio over the last decade. In recent years, I have developed these partnerships to facilitate internship and professional practice opportunities for students and emerging writers. One of the prizes in this portfolio is a “Sudden Writing” Prize, offered in partnership with Voiceworks/Express Media, for emerging writers under 25. At Swinburne, we offer a “sister” prize: a “Sudden Writing” Prize for Swinburne students, in partnership with the Swinburne Student Union. I facilitate a “Tell Me” Spoken-word event, where students can read from their work. “Tell Me” mimics industry Community of Practice gatherings, such as the new “Spoken Word Circle” series at 45 Downstairs, hosted by Melbourne’s iconic “underground” theatre in Flinders Lane. After being invited to read at this gathering, I extended this invitation to students.

Aside from providing publication pathways for students, these activities also represent an opportunity for me to mentor students in all aspects of prize and event management.

My activities as a writer-researcher situates me as part of a community of practice: reading-as-a-writer, writing-as-a-reader, editing-as-a-writer, writing-with-an-editorial eye, engaging in governance and service-to-the-discipline activities for peak national bodies. These are not “standalone” activities that represent some kind of “threat” to my activities as a teacher, curriculum developer, and discipline leader. The opposite is true. These activities are interconnected—each bolsters and sustains the other in compelling and critical ways. A case in point: one of my current PhD students, a superb writer and thinker, whom I’ve known since undergraduate years, and who acted as Communications and Website Manager when I directed Australian Short Story Festival (2019), wrote to me recently: “I’m the new Marketing and Communications Coordinator [Jewish Museum] and I am utterly THRILLED […] thank you for all you have done to mentor and support me these last years. I owe so much to you […] for helping me to learn and grow from a terrified country kid to someone who takes a chance applying for a job I didn’t think I’d get!”.

Fostering community of practice does not, to my mind, represent a risk. Rather, it ameliorates risk by effecting meaningful change. For example, I am the founding staff member of a group called Gender Agenda @ Swinburne. The group began in 2018 because a group of transgender and gender diverse students approached me regarding their experiences, at university. In short, they were having a truly rugged time. Why did they approach me? Because, they said, they recognised me as an ally based upon my approach to designing and delivering curriculum that includes transgender and gender diverse perspectives and practitioners. A small group of students from this unit, and others from the gender diverse student community, advised me that they were having a truly rugged time. My response was: We can do better. As a result, I initiated Gender Agenda, with the aim of improving the student experience by facilitating meaningful change. While Gender Agenda is not an example of a pedagogical approach, per se, it arose due to teaching innovations in an undergraduate unit I convene: Diversity in Australian Writing (a unit focusing contemporary storytelling). To my mind it’s an example of PoB as something we “live” as humans, practitioners, and practice-led researchers—which is to say, I do not include material focusing First Nations’ authors and LGBTIQ + perspectives and practitioners to “tick a box” but because it’s emblematic of my activities as an individual within a diverse community of practice, of which these authors (and students) are a part—which is to say, it illustrates my commitment to inclusion and diversity as an element of what it means to practice PoB. Gender Agenda is, now, well recognised among the Swinburne community. The work we’ve undertaken has been recognised by two Vice Chancellor’s Awards for Inclusion and Diversity (2019 and 2020). All credit to the students.

Community of practice is a generative web of interconnectivity. As we engage with students as emerging practitioners, within the context of a community of practice, we adhere to Audrey Rule’s overview of the themes of significance for authentic learning (Rule, 2006, pp. 2, 3, 4, 6). At every turn, I am bolstered by the expansive vision—the deep and abiding generosity—of writer-researchers, as well as transcultural Arts’ Community leaders. As I include students and emerging writers in this journey, I am doing no more or less than engaging authentically with the imperatives of community of practice. This is in keeping with Stein et al.’ (2004) definition of authentic learning as “authentic for the learner [individually] while simultaneously being authentic to a community of practice” and, that is, inclusive of objectives that combine “personal meaning and purposefulness within an appropriate social and disciplinary framework” (p. 241). Risky? I’m not sure. Community of practice is sustaining and utterly glorious.

Academic“influencers”: digital and wellbeing literacy via Instagram

This vignette shares the process of scaffolding the digital and wellbeing literacy and professional growth of pre-service teachers (PSTs) who undertake a work-integrated learning (WIL) unit of study in an initial teacher education course, as a part of a wider project that is integrated into 28 initial teacher education units, running from 2018 (Lemon & O’Brien, 2019; Lemon et al., 2023). The vignette is focused on the first primary school WIL experience that PSTs undertake in their degree. We explore how PSTs develop professional social media profiles on Instagram that are used to enact and demonstrate their digital and wellbeing literacy throughout a 4-week WIL experience. The Instagram project is embedded as a part of an assessment which requires them to post three posts and comment on three peers posts during the WIL weeks. These are then screen shot and placed in the Instagram section of their Adobe portfolio.

In developing the PSTs digital and media literacy, we aim to extend their confidence and ability to select and use appropriate technology to develop resources. Specifically using social media, they create a professional online identity, form networks, and communicate through multimodal forms. To build their capacity and knowledge of social media use in a professional context, a scaffolded approach is applied via explicit teaching. Each week before the WIL experience, the PSTs learn to create Instagram posts using Adobe Express on their phones. A prompt is provided so that PSTs can practice creating and posting.

We look to building PSTs’ capacity to understand what we can be and do through intentionally incorporating and employing language about and for wellbeing. To achieve this, wellbeing and self-care literacy is explicitly taught throughout the weeks of study. The self-care and wellbeing curriculum is drawn from Lemon and McDonough’s (2020) work on mindfulness in professional experiences and is used to engage the PSTs with theory, evidence-based research, and real-life or hypothetical examples. In this way, we support productive coping strategies for stress and anxiety that may challenge healthy coping mechanisms throughout the placement.

While on placement, the Instagram project prompts support PSTs to create and curate content that shares their learning with others, facilitating peer-to-peer learning and support, community, and mutual respect. We ask PSTs to acknowledge the place of wellbeing as a core area in their growth and iterative learning. The posts are produced on Instagram in order to authentically capture real-time experience. The use of the #swinprofexp hashtag along with the unit code as hashtag enhances the community approach and promotes participation in a recognised community of practice. PSTs who are in later units of study act as leaders across cohort, supporting the growth, development, and maintenance of self-care across the scaffolded learning cycle.

Reflecting upon our vignettes as a shared approach and pattern of practice

To be human is to foster practices of mutual nourishment and collective responsibility in our pursuit of knowledge. The act of teaching, more than ever, is a “daily exercise in vulnerability” (Palmer, 1998, p. 17). This highlights the need for spaces that encourage curiosity and exploration (Brown, 2021), as well as an approach characterised by gentleness, centeredness, and a foundation of kindness, compassion, and mindfulness (Zajonc, 2013). In this analysis, we have shared original contributions to knowledge and practice, through our understanding and interpretation of our experiences as part of a journey of authentic inquiry.

Through cross-curricular design, integration, and intentionality, the vignettes provide opportunities for educators and students to view, listen, write, speak, cultivate, create, and action wellbeing within, and alongside, a vast range of cognitive learning experiences. In this way, we cultivate a wellbeing literacy that is multi-modal and embodied, experientially, through conscientious practice. Individually and collectively, we explore language, knowledge, and skills of wellbeing that impact across multiple units, year levels, courses, and departments, within one school, as exemplars of activities enacted more broadly for us, as individuals, across the university. We focus on capability, bolstering our collective capability to be and do, supporting positive and proactive functioning to facilitate optimal outcomes.

Cultivating meaning

When we think about empowerment and our work as educators, we recognise the ways that our job as educators is linked to our sense of meaningful activity, and purposefulness, more broadly. Withing the context of our wellbeing, we recognise that meaning is critical to fostering a sense that one’s life matters and that we can make a difference to the lives of others (Butler & Kern, 2016). One shared approach is job crafting: reshaping and reimagining our approach as educators in meaningful alignment more with our impetus for practice. In so doing, we balance our motivations, skills, and preferences with the demands of the job and the efficacy to meet these demands (Slemp et al., 2015). This arises from a combination of adjustments required due to the pandemic, but also from finding ways to engage with our passions in innovative ways that enhance and invigorate the student experience, in ways that are personally meaningful (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001).

Curiosity to explore with each other

Curious people “seek out, explore, and immerse [themselves] in situations with potential for new information and/or experiences” (Kashdan et al., 2018, p. 130). Curiosity is often neglected in pursuit of wellbeing (Kashan & Steger, 2007), but it is influential in decision-making, and crucial for healthy development (Kidd & Hayden, 2015). We have noticed that PoB sparks a curiosity about our pedagogy with each other as colleagues and with students. Across the three domains we focus in PoB (relationships, engagement, and communication), we create and cultivate a shared language that enables collective reflective practice and most importantly celebrates what we are doing in our classrooms. We have shifted from veiled practice, where classroom learning and pedagogical decisions are hidden from view, in favour of sharing: showcasing what we do in order to foster adaptation of our ideas other across the school and other disciplines. As such, we aim to bring colleagues together through mutual curiosity and action, facilitating pedagogical development that both supports student success and our connection to meaning, positive emotions, and a sense of accomplishment.

Multimodal ways of being with each other

Utilising multimodal ways of communicating enhances how we work with each other and across modes of delivery of learning. This builds a sense of belonging, enhancing our individual and collective wellbeing literacy underpinned by relationships. We can see through the cases shared on the use of Discord and Instagram that spaces, digital in this case, are established and maintained to build connection over time. These transfer across to blended ways of working together. Feedback, support, insights, and new knowledges are explored and co-created. Writing and drawing are other ways of exploring meaning-making. When provided with the opportunity to explore different ways of being with each other, we support various ways of connecting with others, places, and/or experiences. These experiences empower I, we, and us to make our thoughts public and to change how we think, view, and situate ourselves in the world (Binder & Kotsopoulos, 2011).

Passion and positive emotions … it’s about us, not just the students

To be a strong educator and practitioner is a niche skill set we value that enhances our wellbeing. With this comes a modelling—whether drawing in front of a class, inviting students into professional writing opportunities, exploring inclusion through and with comics, or developing professional competency visibly in an online space. Each educator enters moments of flow, doing in front of/with the students, and thus invests in the curriculum and profession. We carve out the time to do this in class. With this comes a vulnerability and mutual enjoyment, as one shows best practice and passion. This display of positive meaning and positive emotions is evident in all cases, with this interconnection considered reciprocal (Fredrickson, 2001). Not only does finding positive meaning and passion trigger positive emotions, but also positive emotions broaden our thinking that in turn increase the likelihood of finding positive meaning. Subsequently, there is an energy loop between the educator invested in setting the task, then watching and supporting the students as they engage to build knowledge and capacity. As positive emotions are contagious, initiating an upward spiral toward enhanced emotional wellbeing (Fredrickson & Joiner, 2016), it is what we are calling an energy loop that enhances the wellbeing for the educator, students, and colleagues.

Conclusion

In this paper, we have demonstrated how the Pedagogy of Belonging (PoB) serves as an ethics of care for both students and educators, promoting best practices through the embodiment of principles that foster supportive, compassionate, and kind interactions. By sharing our experiences across diverse disciplines within one school, we have highlighted the importance of a common language and collaborative activities that enhance our collective sense of belonging. Through the vignettes, we have showcased how PoB enables us to cultivate meaning, engage in curious exploration, employ multimodal ways of being, and foster passion and positive emotions in our work as educators.

Our paper contributes to the existing literature on wellbeing literacy and belonging in higher education by illustrating how PoB bridges the gap between theory and practice. By critically engaging with the limitations of current approaches to wellbeing literacy and examining the conceptual link between wellbeing literacy and belonging, we have positioned our work within the broader discourse on inclusive and contextualised wellbeing education. The vignettes serve as concrete examples of how PoB can be implemented across different disciplines, challenging dominant paradigms and offering alternative approaches to fostering student and educator wellbeing.

In conclusion, we argue that by scaffolding belonging within and across our curriculum and pedagogical decisions, we are embodying and enacting sustainable pathways for our wellbeing as educators. Through PoB, we develop a wellbeing literacy that honours both academic and personal capabilities, including social and emotional competencies and character development (Oades et al., 2021). As we enhance our own wellbeing, we are better equipped to cultivate an integrated wellbeing literacy in the higher education context for and with our students. By proactively and conscientiously engaging in these practices, we aim to humanise higher education and live out our commitment to creating more inclusive and nurturing learning environments for all.