Pastoral Care Work in Higher Education: Breaking the Silence

Abstract

In this article we draw attention to the relatively under discussed issue of the emotional labour involved in providing pastoral care and the toll it takes on staff in higher education. We present a composite vignette[1] which draws on a combined experience of our 15 years as educators across three institutions. In offering an immersive account of the everyday workings of student facing roles, we highlight the effort involved in offering pastoral support to students in the classroom and beyond, and call for acknowledgment and recognition of this 'hidden' work. We reflect on the implications of this unrecognised work for higher education management practices and hope to start a conversation, a movement for a radical and kinder academia.

[1] We have adopted this approach to protect anonymity of students, colleagues, institutions. Methodologically, we first collated our individual accounts of moments, locations, interactions and experiences and chronological career accounts and then crafted a joint composite vignette in the first person to represent our experience and illustrate our argument. The vignette is constituted of our combined lived experiences but does not map onto a specific chronology of events, location, individuals or institutions.