1st Edition

Navigating Tensions and Transitions in Higher Education Effective Skills for Maintaining Wellbeing and Self-care

Edited By Kay Hammond, Narelle Lemon Copyright 2025
266 Pages 20 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

266 Pages 20 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

266 Pages 20 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

With a focus on skills development, this book provides guidance on how to navigate transitions between career stages in higher education and how to maintain wellbeing in the process. In a fast-paced and ever-changing environment, a career path in higher education can demand rapid transition. This book provides comprehensive coverage of the kinds of transitions one may face in higher education... Read more

1. Lived experiences of transition and wellbeing in higher education: Revealing hidden spaces

Kay Hammond and Narelle Lemon

SECTION 1: The evaded, hidden, and often unsaid transitions

2. Body in the loop: Navigating academic midlife

Catelijne Coopmans

3. Transitions in and out of your first sabbatical: A walk in the forest

Patricia Lucas and Kay Hammond

4. Embracing transitions: Stories along the career paths of four Japanese women in higher education

Izumi Watanabe-Kim, Akiko Fujii, Chiyo Hayashi and Yoko Kobayashi

5. Deciding not to die: On becoming an academic

Lauren Hansen and Danni Hamilton

SECTION 2: Transitions of opportunity in the digital age

 6. Transitioning towards AI-powered academia: A self-care perspective

Bronwyn Eager

 7. Who I am in transitions to online teaching: A social practice theory-based autoethnography

Meenal Rai

SECTION 3: Transition from industry to academia

8. The rise of academic apprenticeships in the UK: How professionals experience the transition from industry to academia

Iona Burnell Reilly

9. From Researching Professional to Professional Researcher: Learning the Rules of the Game

Timothy Clark

10. Self-discovery, flow, and facilitating transformative threshold spaces as an act of self-care in higher education

Melissa Silk and Narelle Lemon

SECTION 4: Ambiguity, possibility, and identity (re)formation of transformations

11. Designing my path through higher education: Identities, transitions, and instigations

Linus Tan

12. Transitioning from PhD student to full-time academic: An autoethnographic study of two early career researchers 

Urmee Chakma and Sun Yee Yip

13. Postgraduate research suite: A place of peer support at different transition points during the PhD journey

Thinh Ngoc Pham and Yao Wang

14. Adjust, Balance, Connect: The ABCs of self-care practices during a doctoral journey

Rahmila Murtiana

15. A Kitchen of My Own: The process of making food as a form of self-care

Minoli Wijetunga

16. Becoming a Jellyfish: Floating in Emotions to Find Life in Academia

Miriam Jaehn

17. Mind the gap! International doctoral scholars’ and supervisors’ perspectives of wellbeing and help-seeking behaviour

Dely Lazarte Elliot, Catherine Lido, Zyra Evangelista, Imene Zoulikha Kassous, Alla Al Najim and Ines Alves

Biography

Kay Hammond is a senior lecturer in the School of Public Health and Interdisciplinary Studies at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. Her diverse background in education, psychology, language teaching, and performing arts influences her teaching, research in the scholarship of teaching and learning, and staff/student experiences of wellbeing.

Narelle Lemon is a vice chancellor professoriate research fellow and professor in education at Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia. She is an interdisciplinary scholar specialising in arts, education, and positive psychology. Her research focuses on enhancing wellbeing literacy in K–12 schools, teacher education, higher education, and community settings, emphasising evidence-based practices for proactive flourishing.