Dr Clare Killingback writes that supporting student wellbeing in higher education is only sufficient through a systems-wide approach including all players in a university.
My teaching practice has been heavily influenced by compassionate pedagogy in response to the challenges I have noticed around poor student wellbeing. Compassionate pedagogy is an educational approach that notices and actively addresses or mitigates distress and disadvantage in a learning environment. At the heart of a compassionate pedagogy is an emphasis on the promotion of student and staff wellbeing and flourishing so that there is holistic student development.
Inclusive education
I have found there are student wellbeing and compassionate responses I can do at an individual lecturer level. These responses often link to the areas of activity in the Inclusive Education Framework such as assessment and feedback practices with coherent assessment design and manageable workload, or in terms of community and belonging with effective ongoing personalised academic and pastoral support.
In inclusive education, these activities are underpinned by key principles or ways of working with wellbeing, empathy and authenticity being most relevant to compassionate pedagogy in my view. Therefore, as well as drawing on the expertise of my colleagues in student support, I have been exploring how I can integrate wellbeing into the curriculum so that it is not separate to pedagogic practice. By this I mean I have been explicitly teaching about wellbeing and mental health, tips from the ‘Every Mind Matters’ campaign, how to deal with stress and self-care strategies etc.
‘Relationship rich’ education
However, I need to go careful that I don’t just end up ticking another box by thinking that because I teach my students about wellbeing support strategies that this will suddenly make everything better. And so, as part of developing my compassionate practice I have been drawing on the work of Felton and Lambert (2020). They highlight the importance of relationship rich education and the role of our human relationships in supporting an excellent undergraduate education.
We well know from both the literature and our day-to-day life in teaching that the quality of our lecturer-student and student-student connections are essential in creating meaningful, inclusive, and engaging learning environments.
Whilst I firmly believe that compassionate pedagogy at a curriculum and lecturer enacted level is an important step in seeking to enhance student wellbeing, it is bigger than this. We can, and probably have to, start with these individual lecturer action plans as a necessary but not sufficient first step. It will be sufficient only when the systemic thinking supports all individuals. To put this another way, compassionate pedagogy and relationship rich approaches are relevant to all players in a university.
For example, as staff facing increasingly demanding workloads in this challenging economic climate, we know that a free lunchtime yoga session or a staff wellbeing app isn’t going to be the cure all. Yes, I need to prioritise a balanced life and look after my own wellbeing (which incidentally does involve some yoga!). Leaders, which includes lecturers as we lead students, ‘should not be modelling an unhappy, stressed, workaholic adulthood’ (Stern, 2022).
Whole university approach
But from my perspective, a crucial element in supporting university staff, who in turn support the students, lies in fostering rich relationships through a whole university approach. After all, what is a university if it is not a network of relationships; indeed, any organisation is fundamentally a network of human relationships – without that, it doesn’t exist, or it exists poorly. And so, these compassionate, relationship rich principles need to extend in all directions, not just lecturers-students and students-students, but lecturers to line managers, to associate deans, to deans, to professional support staff, to Pro-Vice Chancellors, to Vice-Chancellors and so the list goes on.
Just as I invest in my students and personal tutees and get to know them in the good times, it’s equally important to cultivate good quality relationships across all levels of the university network. This ensures that in challenging times, there is already a foundation of trust and rapport to rely on. We all need to know that someone has our back.
Compassion
As Worline and Dutton (2017) state, ‘we look to leaders for guidance, particularly in times of suffering, as we search for a vision of compassion’. And compassion is an important part of that relationship lens through which to lead – no matter what our role in a university – where do I notice distress in those around me and what steps can I take to address or mitigate that distress? Particularly given the need for such rapid change in many universities at present facing squeezed finances – these changes will naturally create a level of distress and suffering.
Universities can address these changes in various ways. Responding through a compassionate lens which values people and relationships and seeks to design systems and processes where compassion is more likely, is, I would suggest, a good starting place for a university wide systems-based approach. Such an approach would invariably influence and enhance the overall student experience.
Systems-wide
And so, the call to action, as part of our response to addressing student wellbeing from my perspective, is that at all levels in the university, we need to be attentive to compassion in our everyday interactions. Just as implementing inclusive education at an institutional level necessitates that university staff review their practices and address identified inequalities, so a systems-wide compassionate approach requires every staff member to notice and appropriately respond to the distress of students and colleagues within the learning and teaching context.
As leaders, it’s crucial to exemplify compassion and foster high-quality relational connections in our leadership practices. So, a key part of supporting student wellbeing is grounded in compassionate leadership practices. Compassionate leadership (and I mean leaders in all senses including professional support staff not just academics), promotes belonging, trust, mutual support and results in more motivated and engaged staff with high levels of wellbeing (West 2021).
Courageous conversations
A systems-wide approach to student wellbeing must acknowledge that some of our policies and processes do not always promote compassion. Therefore, we may need to adapt them as necessary, which may require engaging in courageous conversations to challenge and reform any dysfunctional organisational systems and processes. And staff at all levels need to be open to the application of skills of compassion in our university environments. This is not to dismiss the psychosocial costs to compassion or compassion fatigue, but rather to shine a light on the role that compassion can play in our university systems.
Is this idealistic given the current challenging climate? Possibly. Does it mean we don’t try? Absolutely not. We cannot have a diffusion of responsibility; the small steps we take in promoting compassion in our universities across all systems will be important in supporting the wellbeing and flourishing of all students and staff.
Many thanks to Professor Becky Huxley-Binns, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, Canterbury Christ Church, for her input and encouragement with this post.
Dr Clare Killingback is a Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy and a Fellow for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at the University of Hull. She is passionate about shaping the future of physiotherapy through innovative teaching methods and committed to fostering excellence and creating compassionate learning environments.
