Dr Selena Coburn has recently achieved her PhD in Education, on the impacts of the pastoral care of students on the teacher’s role.
“It feels great to be finished,” Dr Coburn says, “having the excitement of handing it in, then getting the email to say you’ve achieved your PhD.”
Dr Coburn had the convenience of doing her PhD completely online, “which was great”, through the University of Southern Queensland; there were no fees due to an agreement between Australia and New Zealand, under the Australian Government Research Training Programme Scholarship.
In her research, Dr Coburn looked at (among other things) tutor’s childhood experiences, especially their early childhood education experiences and whether it affected how they approached pastoral care. She noted that within the research participants, only one had trained as a teacher, and all had worked in various industries prior to coming to teaching. “You’ve got to be a certain kind of person to want to work closely with people in this type of environment,” she says.
Dr Coburn cited that during the Covid lockdowns she and her colleagues were confronted with the complex issues that some students were dealing with and one of the questions that it brought up was “Is this the new normal; will we carry on like this?”
“Since Covid, lives are more complex, [and] I think the lives of our students are becoming more complicated. Covid has revealed a whole lot of things in terms of mental health and the students’ multifaceted lives, such as juggling children, the care of elderly parents, or dealing with their own health.”
She explained this complexity comes into the tutor’s role because of their relationship to the student, as “the role of an educator is not just about delivering content.”
“… Our programmes aren’t just for school leavers, with more second-chance learners who left school, got a job and [now] want to move up in their roles by returning to education,” Dr Coburn explained, adding mature learners often have complicated lives outside the classroom. “They are looking after families, or elderly parents, or working two jobs, or had a redundancy, or a health scare and this adds to the challenges of studying.” Helping students with pastoral support – which often took the form of just being a listening ear – was an increasing component in the tutor’s role, Dr Coburn asserted.
Dr Coburn noted that as tutors they can be the independent voice in the students’ lives, outside their sphere of family and friends. “The crises that students have are often not forever,” they can be temporary, and students will overcome them.
One of the big questions Dr Coburn sought to unpack was “how do you define pastoral care in a tertiary environment – what is the difference between academic care and pastoral care?” adding that it’s not well defined in the tertiary literature.
She also delved into the theory and notion of care. “Everybody wants to be cared for by someone; sometimes just knowing that there’s someone there to talk to, is enough. We can guide the student towards further support if they need it.”
Being listened to while the student asked for an extension on their assignment was giving them needed validation. “Students sometimes need to talk it through to be able to move on with their assignment,” she explained. “They want to tell you why [the extension] is legitimate.”
Dr Coburn says overall, this type of informal pastoral care is successful – listening to the student and offering them more time via extensions – gets the desired results. And while it affects the time tutors spend with individual students, sometimes it is pivotal – “It can be the difference between them succeeding or giving up and pulling out,” she says.
“In our jobs we are measured through our timetabled teaching hours, however that care and support that we provide to students is not really acknowledged (measured). It adds an extra layer on top of the academic role that we have in our job description.”
“There is an expectation from the institution that tutors provide pastoral care [but] there’s a gap for what that means to someone at the coalface.”
Tutors who took part in the research talked about the time they’d spend (on pastoral care). “They expressed concern about how you manage care, as it’s becoming more and more common for students to seek tutor support.” This, in turn is adding an extra layer of complexity to the role of an educator, and to a greater extent.
She emphasised it’s not just academic support tutors provide, explaining that pastoral support is different, and pointing out that the ITP sector has excellent support systems in place for students through Student Support Services, including health nurses, chaplains and counsellors. “But they don’t necessarily need that… everybody’s got their thing going on, sometimes they can find support with other students,” she said.
For example, students with children often gelled together and could support each other as they managed the balance between study and their families. And study was providing these students with an opportunity to move forward in their lives, so achieving their qualification was important to them.
“We’ve aways been proud of how we care for our students in the ITP sector; often they’ve come to us, because they’ve recognised we can provide them with the learning environment they need; it’s been a game changer for some of them. One of the cool things about Polytechnics – is that they provide support that’s accessible to everyone; you can go through as an independent individual, but support is there if you need it.”
And due to the support Dr Coburn had received in her career, she found it a natural extension of her role to mentor her students. “I’ve been really lucky to have had great role models… who I could look up to, who’ve been very supportive, both in business and in the Polytech sector.”
She noted as tutors they recognise this need for strong role models, as many come from the business environment. “Teachers already have an identity of being a person who’s interested in providing that level of support and care to others… It’s such an important part of our identity. We want to help people be successful.”
One thing the research brought up for Dr Coburn was questioning herself - “Why did I never consider teaching?” as a career option. “It seems so obvious now, but I probably thought I didn’t have the patience for little kids,” and she hadn’t looked at secondary or tertiary options at the time.
A focus on other people had started early on in Dr Coburn’s life. “My mum was a nurse. We had it drummed into us at a young age to be caring and kind. Someone always cared about me … but not everybody gets that.”
She had entered the hospitality industry after high school. “You’re working with people because you like people”, she explained, and then later, “I moved into education as I had industry knowledge, combined with a genuine want to help other people.”
Dr Coburn feels she’s well suited to the Polytech space. “We do really well at providing that holistic approach and provide experiences in education that are authentic.”
She noted that a new era of younger people coming into the tertiary space may bring new challenges.
“Our lives have become more complex; study is less about coming to class and learning in traditional ways. Students are seeking greater flexibility as they navigate their education journey, because they are often juggling study with other commitments.”
Dr Coburn admits “doing study like this always throws up more questions than answers… In some ways it feels like just the tip of the iceberg.”
“There is still so much to be done to really understand how we can continue to provide excellent education experiences for students in a sustainable way into the future.”
It’s Dr Coburn’s hope that the research will lead to changes in the way pastoral care is recognised as part of the tutor role in tertiary education.
“Where I want this to go to, is there being some kind of metric or value apportioned to pastoral care within our polytechnics, so that the time put into caring for students by their tutors can be acknowledged.”
“I want it to bring the idea of care forward, bring it into the light; it’s an important part of what we do; [It’s] a strong foundation in the Polytechnic sector, we should be celebrating the importance of care within education.”
Moving forward, Dr Coburn said there was “a whole lot more research” to carry out; she would be attending conferences both here and in Australia and writing articles to be submitted to academic journals.
“It’s getting it out there, talking about the role of pastoral care in higher education, and including care in the narrative of our roles as educators and the value it creates for learners, institutions and society as a whole.”