Third topic of the training was focusing on the teachers’ well-being but also the well-being of the community.

This is something I have learned:

1) It was very interesting was to stop and think about what are we talking about when we are talking about well-being. Who’s well-being are we talking about? Is there such thing as too much well-being? Is there conflicting well-being? Whose well-being is more important: those who have it less or more? Are everyone entitled for well-being? Is well-being equal? The concept of well-being sounds so innocent and good and right. But actually there’s a lot of questions behind that well-meaning word.

For me, the fundamental idea is that well-being is not well-being if it produces ill-being for someone else. But actually, I haven’t thought about this in the planetary view: what all can we humans justice in the name of well-being? How much can we destroy the planet and its resources at the same time? Fundamental well-being, I would think, is something that is not causing any harm to no one. Is that even possible? How selfish can we afford to be? Maybe it is ok to try to be reasonable with this.

2) Pedagogical well-being: It wasn’t so familiar to me as a concept although I’ve been working around that quite a lot. It is always great to have names to the phenomenon that has been around for a while. Still I’m trying to figure out what all pedagogical well-being includes or can include. I would like to read about it. Maybe in the retreat I will have a chance to at least talk about it more.

During the topic 3 there was one sentence I highlighted. It goes something like this. “We know from the research of organisations and leadership that the more there’s place for individuality, expressing feelings and individual’s experience on influencing one’s own community, the better that organisation copes with challenges and adversities.” It seems self-evident but how to make sure the goals are also common? Maybe it doesn’t have to conflict even in teaching and learning in higher education. This relationship of individual and collective in general but also in pedagogical well-being is very interesting to me. How can we “serve” all and have it all?

Then again, I believe in the circle of good: when teachers are well-being, students are more likely well-being, too, as has been shown in the research.

How could I use what I have learned during this topic to my work? At least I will now have better understanding and the names for the concepts and trust for the work I’m doing as a pedagogical specialist. I think that I also to have better justification for what we are doing as a team and we could and should communicate that to our customers (teachers in our pedagogical courses) and in our university community.

I’m really looking forward to the retreat to conclude and sum up all these topics and thoughts from this spring.