Self-care as a Relational Act for Teachers
Speaker: Professor Narelle LEMON, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia
Chairperson: Dr. Jesus Alfonso D. DATU, Director of CAISE & Associate Professor, The University of Hong Kong

January 23, 2024 (Tuesday)
HKT 11:00-12:00 Via Zoom
The seminar will be conducted in English

Abstract
Self-care is the proactive actions you take to develop, maintain, and protect your wellbeing, wellness and health underpinned by diverse wellbeing science, but so many of us don’t know this or what it can look like as teachers. This presentation talks through self-care as a strength and brings together 5 dimensions for agency of I- we and us. We will explore wellbeing science in action through mindful awareness, self-compassion, habits, time, and empowerment as the how of self-care that allows you to be curious with what can be possible while empowering you as a teacher inside and outside of the educational context.

About The Speaker
Dr Narelle Lemon is a Professor and VC Professoriate Research Fellow Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Previous to moving to Perth, Narelle was Associate Dean Education in the School of Social Sciences, Media, Film and Education at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, and is best known for her work in Pedagogy of Belonging across 4 departments and 2 research centres. Narelle is an interdisciplinary scholar across the fields of arts, education, and positive psychology. Her research expertise is in fostering wellbeing literacy in the contexts of K-12 schools, initial teacher education, higher education, and community education – that is, capacity building in wellbeing and self-care of proactive action across diverse areas of evidence-based wellbeing science in order to flourish. Narelle is interested in the lived experience of being an academic – care, collaboration, mindful and supportive practices. She is series editor for Wellbeing and self-care in higher education: Embracing positive solutions (Routledge) that is attracting much attention and supporting the dialogue of self-care being worthy of our attention. In 2024 Narelle’s first solo book called The ‘How’ of Self-Care for Teachers: Building your Wellbeing Toolbox with Routledge will be released. Narelle’s contribution to the field of education has also been acknowledged through a 2019 National Teaching Citation, awarded by Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT), in scholarship of learning and teaching for sustained development of curricula and resources to support the integration of social media into initial teacher education to benefit student learning and engagement. Narelle blogs, posts, grams and podcasts as a part of her networked scholar practices.

You can find Narelle via @rellypops in social media, Teachers Supporting Teachers Podcast on Apple, Spotify and your fav podcast platforms, and at www.exploreandcreateco.com and at ECU.

Enquiry: caise@hku.hk