Chapter 17: (RE)Thinking How we Care in Higher Education: A Pedagogy of Belonging as an Individual and Collective Act in the Academy

Care, self-care, and belonging are all concepts that we individually and collectively need and search out. In higher education they are not often discussed or focused on; most accurately they are more commonly hidden, ignored or dismissed. With the rise of different ways of working exacerbated by the pandemic, embodying and enacting as leaders, scholars and educators with these values and thus humanising how we work with each other has become crucial. This chapter presents a response to the change we want to see in higher education, a Pedagogy of Belonging as an ethics of care for both our students and ourselves as higher education educators. Providing a pedagogical framework for progression throughout the teaching cycle, this Pedagogy of Belonging facilitates our interconnectedness as colleagues and encourages a rethinking of care and self-care in higher education through the domain of belonging underpinned by relationships, engagement, and communication. The narrative story of what we have done as a collective faculty within and across of Faculty Learning Communities is shared with accompanying poetic representations of our voice that illustrate the impact of working and being with and through a common humanity. Pedagogy of Belonging has been central to our formation of a community to help us care for each other and humanise how we teach, engage with each other, while place these values at the heart of curriculum and pedagogical decisions.