Out of the Shadows: Shining a light on the lived experience journeys of HE teachers during and beyond their teacher training

Generic academic support needs of modern-day students entering the world of university include, increasingly, those of their emotional well-being and pastoral care. Amid significant concerns regarding student mental health in HE, little attention is being paid to who, and what supports the teacher encountering their students’ emotions, or indeed, if teachers themselves require emotional support during their initial teacher training, and beyond.
This qualitative study is unique and distinctive in its combined focus on staff perceptions of their psychosocial experiences and support mechanisms during their own journeys as teachers, and training to become teachers. An intimate exploration of nine teachers’ stories in their own words, in a two-part semi structured interview with a narrative focus process, teachers were invited to reflect upon the psychoanalytic concept of “holding” (Winnicott, 1965, pp.43-44), the use of reflective practice and its role in their supportive web, and to reflect upon their own lived experiences of teacher training and teaching praxis.
Findings indicate that key to HE teachers’ “holding” (support) were both reflective dialogue with self-selected, trustworthy “critical friends”, and the early embedding of reflection in initial teacher trainings. Furthermore, it was the relationship with a method, theory, teacher trainer, mentor, colleague, partner and even a cat that “held” them in their learning journeys and teaching praxis. There were consequences when participants, specifically adult returners experienced inadequate holding during teacher trainings: they were thrust into a hero’s journey and having to navigate unknown territory with few tools at their disposal.
This thesis contributes to knowledge in the field of education by viewing teacher support from a psychosocial perspective and utilises a depth pedagogy conceptual framework to understand the lived experiences and support needs of HE teachers, the tools they utilised and required to navigate an ever-changing HE landscape, and the importance of the university system exercising and reflecting upon an ethic of care (Noddings, 2002) for their emotional needs.
Keywords: Archetypes; ethic of care; fairy tales; higher education; holding; mental health and well-being; reflective practice; resilience; stories and storytelling; university context.