In this project, 16 students and 5 tutors shared their experiences of barriers and enablers to mental wellbeing in learning that students have experienced. These were analysed using Thematic Analysis and were mapped to different areas of their educational experience. It became clear that many of the education-related barriers to wellbeing were actually the same as the enablers for wellbeing, meaning that a factor can be a barrier or an enabler, depending how it is designed and how the person experiences it. For example, social media can support wellbeing for some people but can undermine wellbeing for others; study skills can be a barrier if students don't have the skills they need, but can be an enabler once they're developed; and curriculum, tuition and assessment can all be enablers if designed and delivered well, accompanied with the right level of support.
These barriers and enablers can be represented as a taxonomy. This shows three central categories for both barriers and enablers: environmental, study-related and skills-related. Each of these is broken down into sub-categories and then themes of barriers and enablers. Barriers can be mapped across the taxonomy to corresponding enablers, and there are relationships between adjacent barriers and enablers.
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AuthorKate Lister is a lecturer in inclusive education at the Open University, UK, and is an associate for Advance HE. Categories
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August 2021
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