Self-Awareness: An Essential Practice in Educators’ Self-Care Toolkit

“Put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others.” The ubiquitous airline safety message has been a recurring refrain for educators. The phrase is a reminder to address our own basic needs in order to take care of others. Yet, how often do we as adults include self-awareness in our self-care practice to reflect on what we need to learn, grow, and be there for others?

As an early childhood educator and lifelong learner, I often reflect on what it means to “put on my own oxygen mask” as it relates to modeling self-awareness for children, a foundational social and emotional competency. Self-awareness requires time and ongoing practice to think about the new information we learn.

Even more mentally demanding is reflecting on what to do with what we learn; yet, awareness of our thinking, or metacognition, is essential to the learning process. Metacognition and reflective practices help us apply what we learn to different contexts.

Any early childhood educator will share how much time they spend with children practicing SEL and self-awareness skills necessary to identify emotions, make friends, and resolve conflicts. In his book, Know Thyself: The New Science of Self-Awareness, Prof. Stephen M. Fleming emphasizes the interconnectedness of self-awareness and “mind-reading,” or awareness of others. Research shows that children develop an awareness of others’ perspectives after the age of four and even as late as six or seven.

Fleming notes that along with awareness of others, self-awareness is equally important and should be an ongoing practice throughout life. Metacognition is strengthened through strategies like journaling, mentoring, and mindfulness activities. Most of us weren’t taught about metacognition in school or ways to monitor and reflect on what we learn as we age.

Challenging times can impact our ability to learn and remain self-aware. As the pandemic dragged on, I made a daily commitment to practice a self-awareness strategy Fleming describes as taking a “third person perspective on yourself.” I’m thankful I did. In focusing on my self-awareness, I uncovered the following ways I can support my own learning and metacognition to better serve other learners:

• Curiosity as a catalyst for deeper learning: Curiosity is an essential ingredient for the motivation to learn. Witnessing a learner have a visible “a-ha” moment sustains my passion as an educator. Adults can model curiosity by being curious alongside children, asking authentic questions, and showing what it takes to have a “hungry mind.” As part of my self-awareness practice, each day I noted what piqued my curiosity by journaling my new learning and questions. Formulating questions is a skill that can and should be practiced. One effective and simple strategy that all learners can practice is the Right Question Institute’s Question Formulation Technique.
• Learning to unlearn: “Unlearning” habits or negative memories of our education may be necessary to reinvigorate the joy of learning. Metacognition is critical to the “unlearning” process. Amid the triple pandemic of COVID-19, systemic racism, and economic inequity, I became self-aware of the patterns I had to unlearn to cultivate my own “liberatory consciousness” as coined by Dr. Barbara J. Love. I joined the Embracing Equity community to support my unlearning process and strengthen my stamina for complex conversations. When adults have the self-awareness to acknowledge and address their own unlearning, they are better prepared to engage children in critical, and often messy, conversations around racial differences and inequities.
• Finding community in learning: The pandemic had a profound effect on student well-being and learning due to social isolation and lack of collaborative learning experiences. Adults have similar needs to learn in community. I was reminded of this as I advanced my professional learning through the Learning Sciences Exchange fellowship. I had the privilege of collaborating virtually with a cohort of researchers, educators, policy makers, and journalists. Learning is not finite. We are privileged to live in an era with an abundance of opportunities to advance our professional learning. The divergent thinking and idea sharing that arise in community learning are critical to solving the ongoing challenges that face education.
• Embracing the joy and playfulness of learning: In the words of Jean Piaget: “Play is the answer to the question – How does anything new ever come about?” Early childhood educators know that children are actively learning and practicing essential skills through play. Children aren’t the only ones who benefit from play – adults need it, too. Recently, I found joy in returning to an old passion by re-learning how to play my French horn. As play coach Jeff Harry suggests, start by practicing self-awareness to reflect on the play that brought you joy as a child. Discover ways you can recreate these playful moments as an adult.

I understand that drawing comparisons between self-awareness, the science of learning, and an overused oxygen mask metaphor may be simplistic. However, in prioritizing my self-awareness practices the past two years, I was reminded that everything we carry as educators is mirrored in our interactions with children. Through our ongoing practice of self-awareness and reflection, we can model for children the critical skills that are essential to learning and life.

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For more on early childhood educators and social emotional learning, we invite to you to explore the work of the Early & Elementary Education Policy team at New America.