Oana and Matt (Part 2) on mental health, teaching path and reflective practice (CAL119 S6E13)

Changing Academic Life

This is Part 2 of my discussion with Matthew Barr and Oana Andrei who work together in the Education and Practice Section in the School of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow. Oana and Matt each share their personal experiences with mental health challenges. Oana shares her journey from postdoctoral research to becoming a lecturer, highlighting how she dealt with burnout by taking up Taekwondo. Matthew discusses his long-term management of depression and the importance of normalizing such conversations in academic settings. We also talk about their learning, teaching and scholarship career paths, the significance of reflective practice and how it has been integrated into their teaching methods. They also discuss their commitment to inclusion and diversity in education, alongside their passion for teaching and the innovative graduate apprenticeship degree program they have implemented that widens access by enabling work-based learning and student support. The episode offers valuable insights into the importance of personal wellbeing, the role of supportive workplace environments, and what a teaching-focussed path can involve.

Overview

00:29 Episode Introduction

02:00 Picking up on the question about mental health

02:46 Oana Shares Her Experiences With Burnout

08:05 Matt Shares His Experiences With Depression

12:45 Choosing Teaching Focussed Career Paths

16:36 Oana Moving From Research To Teaching Track

19:06 Promotion Criteria in a Learning, Teaching and Scholarship Track

24:14 Apprenticeship Degree Program

31:50 Doing a Master in Education

34:39 A Framework for Reflection

38:52 Wrapping Up

39:18 Revisiting Belonging

44:09 Thanks For The Podcast

46:27 End

Related Links

Oana Andrei, Lecturer (Ass Prof) Uni of Glasgow webpage and LinkedIn profile

Matthew Barr (Senior Lecturer) Uni of Glasgow webpage and LinkedIn profile

The reflective writing resources Matt mentioned:

• Manchester’s Academic Phrasebank: http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/
• The guidance here on Portsmouth’s website: https://myport.port.ac.uk/study-skills/written-assignments/reflective-writing-introduction

Their paper on how the apprenticeship degree program might widen access to HE:

• M. Barr, O. Andrei and M. Kallia, "Widening Access to Higher Education through Degree-level Apprenticeships in Software Engineering," 2023 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), College Station, TX, USA, 2023, pp. 1-8, doi: 10.1109/FIE58773.2023.10343199.