MAPP07 - IfE

MAPP07
Educators’ Wellbeing and Self-Care Practices

MQF Level: 7

ECTS Value: 5 ECTS

Self Study Hours: 60

Duration: 10 Sessions

Contact Hours: 25

Mode of Delivery: Blended

Home/EU/EEA Fees: €175
International Fee: €700

Assessment Hours: 40

Entry Requirements

Applicants applying for the module are to be in possession of one of the following:

a. A Bachelor’s degree in Education (MQF Level 6 with a minimum of 180 ECTS, or equivalent) together with relevant experience in an educational setting;

b. A Bachelor’s degree (MQF Level 6 with a minimum of 180 ECTS, or equivalent) and PGCE (or equivalent) together with relevant experience in an educational setting;

c. A Bachelor’s degree in Inclusive Education (MQF Level 6 with a minimum of 180 ECTS, or equivalent) together with 3 years’ relevant experience in an educational setting;

d. A Master’s Degree (MQF Level 7 with a minimum of 90 ECTS, or equivalent) and a Permanent Teacher’s Warrant together with relevant experience in an educational setting

Overall Objectives

The module focuses on the evolving needs and challenges characterising educators, providing them with practical tools to preserve and enhance their own wellbeing and their self-care. In this way, the module caters for the wellbeing of the educator, creating happiness and flourishing. This helps educators to avoid burnout and to manage life and work-related stress. This is achieved by focusing on stress management mechanisms, self-care literature, and the different techniques and interventions outlined in positive psychology. Participants will also critique self-care discourse and identify how workplace structures, policies, and cultural expectations contribute to stress and burnout. Through theoretical insights, experiential activities, and collaborative discussions, participants will develop individual and collective approaches to wellbeing that move beyond self-care as a personal responsibility, advocating for systemic changes that foster a supportive educational environment.

By the end of this module, the learner will be able to:

Competences

Monitor one’s own holistic wellbeing by applying self-assessment measures to the different dimensions of wellbeing;
Cope with work-related stress and burnout by identifying the protective and risk factors present in the educational setting and in one’s own personal life;
Collaborate with other educators to promote wellbeing on different levels from the individual level to a community approach;
Produce action plans and strategies that balance self-care strategies with advocacy for institutional responsibility in sustaining educators’ well-being;
Ensure that effective self-care methods are used by being more sensitive to the protective factors outlined in positive psychology.

Knowledge

Define wellbeing and self-care including hedonic and eudaimonic perspectives in positive psychology;
Analyse philosophical debates surrounding positive psychology, including critiques of self-optimization culture and the responsibilities of individual educators;
Identify the risk factors that lead to burnout and work-related stress especially the factors related to the educational setting;
Reflect on the different coping and stress management strategies that can be adopted by the educator in their personal and professional life;
Identify institutional wellbeing policies, international frameworks, and environmental factors that impact the individual’s holistic wellbeing and self-care;
Describe the evidence-based strategies and positive psychology interventions, and their outcomes to enhance wellbeing and self-care.

Skills

Incorporate experiential self-care activities in their personal and professional life, while recognising the limitations of individual strategies in addressing systemic issues;
Reflect on competences, skills, values and strengths outlined in positive psychology, that help them to enhance the wellbeing of self and others;
Implement sustainable wellbeing strategies at a school-wide level, ensuring they go beyond individualized self-care rhetoric;
Demonstrate effective healthy coping strategies while minimise the use of unhealthy coping strategies when dealing with stress;
Create a concrete action plan that integrates personal wellbeing strategies with institutional advocacy.

Assessment Methods

This module will be assessed through: Forum; Reflective Journal.