This book brings together reflections from seventy academics – everyone from doctoral students to a retired provost – who share their lived experiences in graduate school and beyond. Career seekers, adjunct professors, those in or considering graduate school, and tenure-track professors alike will find truths revealed through these shared experiences of struggle, triumph, loss and hope.

This book records the stories of doctoral study experiences of the twenty-two writers. These research degree experiences are embedded in the lives and careers of the writers and the twenty-two distinctive projects draw from those individual lives and careers. The authors write about meeting the continuing demands of older and younger family members and of their struggles with ill health and work place demands while working through their studies. There is also the joy of coming to see themselves and being seen as research scholars and supporting and celebrating with others as they move through candidature proposals and ethics applications to graduation. Apart from the stories that bring the writers to their particular projects and that colour their individual journeys, storying methodology is most often selected for the research, all of which is undertaken within the arts, humanities and education. Phenomenology, narrative, ethnography are central to most of the studies and the detailed accounts of each research topic, methods and outcomes locate each of the research projects in rich bodies of knowledge. Valued writers and readers in these fields, Mary Beattie and Elaine Martin have read each reflection and provided in turn a foreword and an afterword which bookend the volume and further enrich these reflections on learning, life and work.

A major and continuing problem for theological education and the practice of Christian ministry is how to best achieve a genuine integration between theory and practice, theology and experience. The key claim of this book is that theological reflection, beginning with experience, is a method of integration and that pastoral supervision is a vehicle for theological reflection. In establishing this claim, John Paver demonstrates that the model and method have potential to be a catalyst for reform within theological colleges and seminaries. Three different theological reflection models are developed and critiqued in this book, and their capacity to be developed in particular contexts is explored. This book does not stop at ministry, cultural and personal integration, but is bold enough to make recommendations for structural integration within the theological institution.

This book focuses on the lived experiences of higher education professionals working in the face of stress, pressure and the threat of burnout and how acts of self-care and wellbeing can support, develop and maintain a sense of self. In considering the place of self-care in higher education, we are challenged with the tension that exists when it comes to the valuing of self-care and our individual and collective wellbeing. In Reflections on Valuing Wellbeing in Higher Education, authors present and explore the ways in which they manage and reframe their wellbeing and self-care, through mindfulness, compassion, connection to breath, ref lection, demonstrating individual and collective embodiment and resistance to neoliberalism and environmental destruction. Covering various contexts of higher education, such as learning and teaching, research, leadership and engagement, this book offers practical strategies grounded in literature and evidence-based research. The self in self-care is relational. It is not just about self. We need others for inspiration, motivation and, indeed, the act. This book will be of great interest to professionals and researchers specifically interested in studies in higher education, wellbeing and/or identity as well as those navigating a career in higher education.

This book explores the challenges of an academic teaching career. The authors discuss the issues that may arise in the tenure process, scholarship activities, publishing, and providing service to their academic communities as well as how to keep teaching lessons relevant and fresh.

Should academic careers always unfold in exactly the same way? Is there one best way of being an academic? This book says no. Assumptions about who academics are and what they should do are becoming increasingly narrow and focused on achieving so-called ‘excellence’ in teaching and research above anything else. This book problematises this and explores the scope for doing academic careers differently. Authors paint individual or group portraits of their academic careers, working with metaphors which challenge the dominant discourses of how academic careers should be led. From rejecting the pressure to focus on ‘one big thing’, to prioritising nurture and care, transcending disciplinary boundaries, reshaping own daily practice, connecting with communities, and being academics outside academia, the chapters in this book offer those considering, starting, or developing an academic career a treasure trove of many alternative possibilities. Presented as a portrait gallery through which readers are encouraged to meander at will, this compilation of insights into alternative academic lives will help to inspire and encourage current academics to re-think and take ownership of their careers in their own terms, according to their own strengths, weaknesses, and circumstances.

Dr Wai-Fah Chen — a Chinese-born American academic and widely recognized structural engineering specialist in the field of mechanics, materials, and computing — has certainly led a fascinating life. A well-respected leader in the field of plasticity, structural stability, and structural steel design over the past half-century, he has made major contributions to introduce the mathematical theory of plasticity to civil engineering practice, especially in the application of limit analysis methods to the geotechnical engineering field. Having headed the engineering departments at the University of Hawaii and Purdue University, Chen is a widely cited author and the recipient of several national engineering awards, including the 1990 Shortridge Hardesty Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers and the 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Institute of Steel Construction.This book traces the life journey and reflections of Dr Chen. It presents a remarkable opportunity to understand his personal history and cultural passions: his struggle to achieve the American dream, his life as an eyewitness to the rise of China, and his career path to establish a solid engineering reputation. Presenting his scientific achievements spanning the last 40 years of his career, readers will thus be privy to his personal thoughts, experiences, and perspectives on these events.

Everyone ought to be profoundly concerned with the "development" of the leaner and consequently the development of society. The ultimate standard (value) for such development is to attain a more adequate level of value and moral awareness, sensitivity, reasoning, and action. The why, what, and how of the value education "emphasis" are being seriously confronted in a more dedicate and systematic manner. This is perhaps symptomatic of something much deeper in our personal and social fabric. Dissonance, conflict, tensions are inevitable ingredients in our development toward self-actualization as we struggle with the sticky matter of life. The challenges are many, the roads are arduous, and the journey is lengthy but who cannot say immensely worthwhile and "Value-able".

Critical Reflections on Teacher Education argues that educational philosophy can improve the quality of teacher education programs in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The book documents the ways in which the market model of education propagated by governments and outside agencies hastens the decline of philosophy of education and turns teachers into technicians in hierarchical school systems. A grounding in educational philosophy, however, enables future teachers to make informed and qualified judgements defining their professional lives. In a clear and accessible style, Howard Woodhouse uses a combination of reasoned argument and narrative to show that educational philosophy, together with Indigenous knowledge systems, forms the basis of a climate change education capable of educating future teachers and their students about the central issue of our time.

Shaping Work-Life Culture in Higher Education provides strategies to implement beneficial work-life policies in colleges and universities. As compared to the corporate sector, higher education institutions have been slow to implement policies aimed at fostering diversity and a healthy work-life balance, which can result in lower morale, job satisfaction, and productivity, and causes poor recruitment and retention. Based on extensive research, this book argues that an effective organizational culture is one in which managers and supervisors recognize that professional and personal lives are not mutually exclusive. With concrete guidelines, recommendations, techniques, and additional resources throughout, this book outlines best practices for creating a beneficial work-life culture on campus, and documents cases of supportive department chairs and administrators. A necessary guide for higher education leaders, this book will inform administrators about how they can foster positive work-life cultures in their departments and institutions.