Pedagogy of Belonging: Cultivating wellbeing literacy in higher education

Abstract Wellbeing literacy is the capability to set intentions and comprehend and compose wellbeing language. This is cultivated and embodied across contexts with the intention of maintaining or improving the wellbeing of oneself, others, or the world. In this paper, as co-authors we share the way we understand our wellbeing as educators in higher education, that is, through a Pedagogy of Belonging. Belonging is one of the domains to our wellbeing as academics and educators, as well as students in the studied higher education learning context. Pedagogy of Belonging helps us develop our wellbeing literacy individually and collectively. Through an authentic inquiry framed by hermeneutic phenomenology, we highlight four vignettes, showcasing what this looks like across different disciplines located in one school of an Australian university. In these vignettes, we look at what it means to engage with diverse areas of wellbeing that enhance our collective capacity to flourish. We have paused, listening deeply to our academic and wellbeing needs, addressing these together to develop a shared language that supports our wellbeing. We describe the valuing of meaning, curiosity associated with relationship building, multi-modal ways of being with each other, passion, and positive emotions that promote academic wellbeing capabilities that, in turn, support, develop, and sustain a wellbeing literacy. In demonstrating how a wellbeing literacy can be developed, maintained, and/or improved, we open new avenues of investigation that interrupt the dehumanising of higher education learning contexts.