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Module Specifications.

Current Academic Year 2024 - 2025

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Date posted: September 2024

Module Title Care, Wellbeing & Professional Praxis
Module Code HD411 (ITS) / EDP1084 (Banner)
Faculty DCU Institute of Education School Human Development
Module Co-ordinatorDavid Gibson
Module TeachersMaeve O'Brien, Sandra Murphy (Clarke)
NFQ level 8 Credit Rating 5
Pre-requisite Not Available
Co-requisite Not Available
Compatibles Not Available
Incompatibles Not Available
Coursework Only
Assignment based on reflective work, reading and class discussion. Three reflective pieces to be submitted during the module and a terminal meta reflection after the completion of the module. Self evaluation is included in the process.
Description

This module draws on care theory, wellbeing concepts in the contemporary interdisciplinary discourses to stimulate student refection of their experiences of care and wellbring and their undertsandings of the challenges for teacher praxis and pupil experiences.Contemplative perspectives on wellbeing, contemplative pedagogies This topic explores through meditation, breath work and contemplative exercises our own sense of wellness as well as the more conventional academic reading, discussion and analysis of theory and research.

Learning Outcomes

1. Students will develop understandings of perspectives on wellbeing and education from various disciplinary and political perspectives, including embodied contemplative approaches
2. Be able and disposed to practice breath work and contemplative wellbeing practices for their own professional wellbeing
3. Engage critically with the empirical and theoretical discourses on well-being and education in the Irish and global social contexts in their reflective writing
4. Participate critically in class discussion and group dialogue in response to set readings on professional identity construction, care ethics and wellbeing
5. Facilitate and lead group discussions with their peers on set course material
6. Integrate their experiential and academic learning and reflect on their own classroom and school practices evidenced in responses to questions and scenarios presented in class
7. Reflect critically and write about with the workshop and lecture material to produce a reflexive metanarrative on the pedagogic process and their experiences



Workload Full-time hours per semester
Type Hours Description
Assessment Feedback75reading each week, 3 short reflective pieces in course of module, 1 longer meta piece, class discussion and participation essential
Total Workload: 75

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Key understandings and conceptual frameworks for care and wellbeing are discussed and contrasted in relation concepts
a. Contemplative perspectives on wellbeing, contemplative pedagogies This topic explores through meditation, breath work and contemplative exercises our own sense of wellness. b. Perspectives on wellbeing: Psychological and Sociological Approaches Applying PERMA and HLBH models to educational contexts.Models for well-being-Allardt (1993) Having, Loving and Being combines objective and subjective dimensions and indicators of well-being as applied to schooling. Aristotle's Eudaimonia and its legacy. Wellbeing schools movement internationally. Emotions and education. c. Ethics of Care and Ethics of Concern-in the work of C. Gilligan, C. Taylor and N. Noddings. Ethical embodied selves and conceptions of the 'other'. Negotiating Moral Space and Precarious Identities. d. Embodiment, Experience and Identity- Teacher Identity in the work of Kelthchermans, Professional Responsibility and Vulnerability e. Social justice and wellbeing. Emancipatory approaches to teaching and learning and engaging with the other-drawing on the work of Freire, critical feminist pedagogy (Luke and Gore, Weiler, Ellsworth). Using some material from Training for Transformation Workshops (Hope and Timmel, 1999) among others to engage in dialogical practice and critical reflection on learning.

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment100% Examination Weight0%
Course Work Breakdown
TypeDescription% of totalAssessment Date
Assignmentn/a100%n/a
Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories:
Resit category 1: A resit is available for both* components of the module.
Resit category 2: No resit is available for a 100% continuous assessment module.
Resit category 3: No resit is available for the continuous assessment component where there is a continuous assessment and examination element.
* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a Continuous Assessment/Examination split; where the module is 100% continuous assessment, there will also be a resit of the assessment
This module is category 1
Indicative Reading List

  • Malcolm Thornburn: 2018, Care Wellbeing and Contemporary Schooling, 1, 3/13, Routledge, London,
Other Resources

54867, report, OBrien M and O Shea A, 2017, A Human Development (PSP) Framework for Orienting Education and Schools in the Space of Wellbeing, Dublin, NCCA,

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