Hello everyone - I'm listening to the Mindful Education Summit (free online for a very limited time at https://www.mindfuleducationsummit.com/) and I'm reminded of this topic Dave brought up the other day now that I hear Mark Greenberg answer the question "what do you say to people [teachers] who say they don't have time to take care of themselves?" as follows:
"...I would say to them that you'll find that you actually have more time if you take care of yourself, and I can show you how. But there is a bigger issue here that we need to recognize and that is blaming the victim. In this case, the teachers are sort of the victims of the inadequate models we have of education and the way we treat teachers. And if we think that the solution to this is to make teachers more resilient to a lousy, horrible context, then we are missing half the picture."
Mai
--
Mai Kuha
Department of English
Ball State University
On 10/10/18, 2:16 PM, "Teaching Linguistics on behalf of Kuha, Mai" <[log in to unmask] on behalf of [log in to unmask]> was all:
Thanks for sharing, Dave. It is obviously a very important subject.
Discussing this topic constructively is challenging, as you suggest. I don't know if my contribution meets that criterion, but here goes. The first question that occurs to me is this: are our mental health problems actually 70% exploitation on the part of employers and 30% mental illness? Or is it some other proportion? In my experience, exploitation is certainly the bigger issue, but we often see "10 tips for better work-life balance"-type advice offered to academics.
Mai
(contingent worker with no hope of getting unionized in this gig economy)
--
Mai Kuha
Department of English
Ball State University
On 10/10/18, 5:12 AM, "Teaching Linguistics on behalf of Dave Sayers" <[log in to unmask] on behalf of [log in to unmask]> was all:
Hi everyone,
It's World Mental Health Day and I thought it might be helpful to discuss mental
health among academics. This is obviously a sensitive subject, and it can be easy to
become despondent! So if you're contributing to the discussion, please try to offer
constructive ideas for improving mental health in our line of work.
For my part, I faced a mental health issue late last year due to work pressures. I
didn't actually realise it was coming about until I was in an unrelated occupational
health meeting, and happened to mention I was quite tired and stressed, whereupon the
occupational health nurse produced two questionnaires, the answers to which revealed
a moderate case of stress and depression.
I decided to do something about it, so I spoke to my union who were very helpful in
beginning to address the root of the issue. This became a very big undertaking which
involved collecting a huge amount of email correspondence and meeting notes where
these issues had arisen. Naturally this in itself contributed to my work pressure!
But gathering it all together and beginning the process of addressing the issues,
with the help of the union, was extremely beneficial to my mental health.
In the end I left that job (for largely unrelated reasons), but I believe that the
process was on the right track; and I would strongly recommend it to others. If you
are in a similar position, and if your stress is clearly emanating from a particular
issue or relationship at work, I can recommend trying to gather all the information
you can demonstrating how it has come about, and working either directly or with your
union to address it.
I know it's not always that simple, and indeed for many a union relationship is
difficult for other reasons. And there are other issues impinging on mental health
that are rather more systemic, such as unrealistic contact hours, growing
administrative burdens, and so on. Any advice people have about these would also be
great to hear!
I hope you're all well and I hope this discussion brings about some positive
strategies for improved mental health.
Dave
--
Dr. Dave Sayers, ORCID no. 0000-0003-1124-7132
Senior Lecturer, Dept Language & Communication Studies, University of Jyväskylä,
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