Provision Of Pastoral Care Research Articles

Personalised learning pedagogies and the impact on student progression and retention: the case of counselling training within a university setting

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the significance of personalised learning pedagogies in relation to developing new professional identities whilst pursuing a degree and facilitating student progression and retention. The data derived from conducting a case study focusing on culturally diverse cohorts of students completing a BSc (Hons) Counselling practitioner qualification degree at the University of East London, a discipline that requires high levels of personal reflexivity and the ‘use of self’ in translating theory to practice. A review of the course teaching styles, modes of delivery, academic advising and pastoral care provision was conducted alongside collating the final year cohort’s reflections and feedback via a focus group. The findings allow the suggestion that elements strengthen the relational quality of interaction between lecturers and learners alongside diversifying learning activities to meet more ‘personalised’ needs, fostering a learning environment that promotes student satisfaction, advances inclusivity, reduces the award gap and improves course completion.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Psychological Well-Being of Catholic Priests in Canada

Among the general population, frontline workers have been identified to be at heightened risk for negative mental health consequences related to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Catholic priests, who minister to approximately 30% of Canadians, in their role as frontline workers, have been profoundly limited in the provision of pastoral care due to public health restrictions. However, little is known about the impact pandemic distress has on this largely understudied population. Four hundred and eleven Catholic priests across Canada participated in an online survey during May and June 2021. Multiple regression analysis examined how depression, anxiety, traumatic impact of events, loneliness, and religious coping style affect the psychological well-being, satisfaction as a priest, and priestly identity of participants. Results demonstrated that pandemic distress significantly impacts the psychological well-being of priest participants. Depression and loneliness surfaced as significant considerations associated with lowered psychological well-being. While neither anxiety nor traumatic distress reached a significance threshold, the religious coping style of participants emerged as an important factor in the psychological well-being of priests. Results of the study contribute to the understanding of how the pandemic has impacted a less visible group of frontline workers.

School bullying: moving beyond a single school response to a whole education approach

ABSTRACT Bullying is an issue that continues to represent a significant challenge to the provision of pastoral care in schools. In more recent decades, it has evolved in its complexity to include forms of bullying often referred to as cyberbullying or online bullying. Reflecting a wider discourse on pastoral care, recent analysis of how schools have been addressing bullying (face-to-face and online) has resulted in a recognition that initiatives to address school bullying must involve a wider community than a single school. This paper will briefly consider the scope and impact of school bullying (including its online expression) and then report on innovative research that was conducted in conjunction with UNESCO using the eDelphi method of consultation to understand the best way to tackle school bullying at a global level. We outline in detail how experts recommend a move from a whole-school to a whole-education approach to tackling bullying.

The future of pastoral care in schools: exploring whole-school trauma-informed approaches

ABSTRACT It is estimated that trauma and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) such as exposure to violence, abuse and neglect affect approximately a third of school-aged children in England and Wales. There is strong and growing evidence for the devastating impact of trauma across the lifespan, with psychological and biological effects indicated by neuroscientific research. Prolonged exposure to chronic stress can affect brain development leading to behavioural changes and problems regulating emotions. Children exposed to trauma may experience difficulties accessing and engaging with learning and a reduced ability to form trusting relationships. The scale of the problem has major implications for the provision of pastoral care, as school staff often lack sufficient training and resources to support the complex needs of children and young people affected by trauma. Drawing on my experience working as a learning mentor in the primary sector, this article considers a whole-school trauma-informed approach as a potential model for the future of pastoral care in schools.

Bridging the BAME Attainment Gap: Student and Staff Perspectives on Tackling Academic Bias

The Higher Education attainment gap between BAME students and their White peers is well documented. The cause of this gap is multifactorial, and there is a need to understand contributing factors to support the design of meaningful interventions. This study aimed to probe student and staff understanding of what contributes to the attainment gap and to collect feedback on how to reduce it. Qualitative data were collected from 110 STEM students (95% BAME and 75% female) and 20 staff (70% BAME and 80% female) from Universities in the West Midlands and Londonviaone-to-one interviews and focus groups. Questions were developed across themes of support, inclusivity, and development. Transcripts were subjected to inductive and deductive thematic analysis. Key findings included: the need for cultural awareness and representation within student support services and pastoral care provision and tailored support for students who were the first in their families to attend university. Students also felt the academic staff disproportionally represent their backgrounds, leading to a sense of not belonging amongst BAME students. BAME staff felt like tokens for diversity and reported having higher workloads than White staff, the social drinking culture felt isolating, participants felt that all staff should engage with cultural/religious training and diversity of academic staff should be improved through inclusive recruitment practices and mentoring. The results highlight the need for access to academic and pastoral support that is culturally sensitive to all backgrounds.

Pastoral Closeness in Physical Distancing: The Use of Technology in Pastoral Ministry during COVID-19

COVID-19 has posed immense challenges for society in general, and for those who work in healthcare in particular. The impact and burden of pandemic isolation on the emotional and physical welfare of patients and staff is well documented. Healthcare systems have come under unprecedented pressure as a result of the pandemic, alongside the imposition of isolation, visiting restrictions, and public health measures to curb the spread of this virus. For patients in hospital, isolation has been further compounded by the necessary use of personal protective equipment, which is a physical barrier to communication for both patients and healthcare staff. These restrictions have also impacted on how healthcare chaplains provide pastoral care to patients, their loved ones, and to colleagues. This article from the Republic of Ireland shares the experiences of healthcare chaplains in the provision of pastoral care through the use of virtual video-call technology by way of tablets and/or other mobile devices. This new approach has proved to be an innovative way of providing pastoral care while having to remain physically distant. Considering the well documented burden of isolation and the societal reality of quarantine, the use of technology is explored by healthcare chaplains with the aim of maintaining pastoral closeness and care.

Positioning care as ‘being with the other’ within a cross-cultural context: Opportunities and challenges of pastoral care provision amongst people from diverse cultures

Positioning care as ‘being with the other’ within a cross-cultural context: Opportunities and challenges of pastoral care provision amongst people from diverse cultures

The Role of Healthcare Chaplains in Resuscitation: A Rapid Literature Review.

Spirituality is becoming of increasing importance in the international healthcare context. While patients' spirituality or faith is often overlooked, there is a growing awareness that understanding, addressing and supporting patients' spiritual and faith needs can influence healthcare outcomes. This review aims to illuminate this role and highlight healthcare chaplains' potential in relation to the provision of pastoral support for families during and after patient resuscitation, and the dearth of interdisciplinary education in this field. A rapid structured review was undertaken using four databases-PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO and ATLA. Primary research studies published during the 10-year period 2007-2017 written in English addressing the chaplain's role or perceived role in resuscitation were included. An initial search using key terms yielded 18 relevant citations. This reduced to 11 once duplicates were removed. Ultimately five relevant primary research studies were included in the final analysis. This review found few studies that directly explored the topic. Certainly many view the chaplain as a key member of the resuscitation team, although this role has not been fully explored. Chaplains likely have a key role in supporting families during decisions about 'not for resuscitation' and in supporting families during and after resuscitation procedures. Chaplains are key personnel, already employed in many healthcare organisations, who are in a pivotal position to contribute to future developments of spiritual and pastoral care provision and support. Their role at the end of life, despite well described and supported, has received little empirical support. There is an emerging role for chaplains in healthcare ethics, supporting end-of-life decisions and supporting family witnessed resuscitation where relevant. Their role needs to be more clearly understood by medical staff, and chaplain's input into undergraduate medical education programmes is becoming vital.

How Patients Experience Pastoral Care in a Tertiary Health Care Setting

This research aimed to establish the level of consumer experience with pastoral/spiritual care provision in a large tertiary private hospital. Two hundred and twenty-seven patients and bereaved carers of deceased patients who had received pastoral care were surveyed, with a response rate of 20% ( n = 44). The key finding was the positive impact of pastoral care encounters, with the majority of respondents reporting provision of pastoral care to be helpful, and offered with courtesy and respect.

An interactional analysis of one-to-one pastoral care delivery within a primary school

Despite an interactional analysis being able to offer valuable insight into the institutional workings of pastoral care practice, pastoral care delivery remains largely unstudied. This paper will contribute new knowledge to the field of counselling and education by offering an interactional analysis of one-to-one pastoral care provision within a primary school. Much pastoral care practice is informed by theory, often accompanied by guidelines about how to deliver pastoral care activities effectively. The pastoral carer needs to convert these guidelines into talk in order to deliver the intervention as an interactional encounter. However useful these guidelines are, they cannot show what the actual delivery of those pastoral care activities might look like in real life. Using conversation analysis, we examine video recordings of pastoral care delivery to reveal the ways in which a pastoral carer supports a child’s behaviour, social and emotional well-being. The significance of the findings is that those who provide pastoral care can see in close detail what delivery might look like as a real-life encounter, imparting valuable knowledge that can then be applied alongside theory and guidelines to enhance professional practice. Of further significance is that the findings can also show how an interactional analysis of pastoral care work can be used to demonstrate social and emotional learning and that the work being done effectively supports children.

Trust and Doubt: The Late Medieval Bishop and Local Knowledge

In governing their dioceses late medieval bishops faced significant epistemological challenges: how was it possible to determine the truth in disputes over local customs, patronage, the conduct of divine service and the provision of pastoral care? All such problems demanded an adjudication between competing stories about rights, history and usage, and while canon law provided a framework of principles, it did not provide the answers bishops needed. Increasingly from the thirteenth century the answers came from panels of local ‘trustworthy men’. Bishops had to trust – to have ‘faith’ or belief in – informants who were often peasants. In the church courts and before visitation tribunals lay litigants, witnesses and parish representatives also used the language of faith and belief to characterize their knowledge of events and people: they had faith in their own perceptions. The role of faith in the knowledge that bishops and lay people claimed to have of the material and social world had much in common with the faith that brought Christians closer to having knowledge of God, but there were also important differences in the operation of faith in these three contexts. This essay describes and compares the epistemologies of late medieval bishops, lay people and theologians, paying particular attention to the relationship between trust and doubt in each instance.

Marland and pastoral care: critical reflections, change and an ‘ability to swim against the tide’

This reflective piece was written in response to Best’s article, published in Pastoral in Education in September 2014, on Michael Marland’s seminal text Pastoral Care. It uses examples from previously published work carried out by the author, to explore some of the key concepts and ideas explored within the book and their relevance in understanding recent changes to the structure, organisation, priorities and delivery of pastoral care within secondary education. Consideration is given to why the focus for pastoral care provision is sometimes placed on meeting the needs of the most vulnerable and needy young people. The argument is made that Marland’s work has the potential to generate focused and critical reflection on recent changes in policy and practice.

Mediating teacher professional identity: The emergence of humanness and ethical identity

Over the past couple of years, international vocational education and training has been much debated at the nexus of the commercialisation of vocational education and social justice for international students. This nexus has significantly affected the professional identity and responsibilities of teachers who are directly involved in providing vocational education and training for international students. Drawing on a research project funded by the Australian Research Council, this paper offers an alternative lens on vocational teachers’ process of mediating professional identity in response to the flow of international students and the commercialisation of vocational education. It employs the logic of relationality as a conceptual framework to interpret teachers’ journey of identity re-construction. The humanness and ethical dimensions of identity have been at the heart of the teachers’ negotiation over the kind of teachers they are and to which they aspire. The teachers in this research draw on humanness and ethical dimensions to engage in critical reflection of their own teaching practices, their interaction with international students and the socio-political context shaping international vocational education and training. They perceive their professional responsibility not only in relation to the facilitation of students’ development of vocational skills and knowledge, but also the provision of pastoral care for international students and the advocating for social justice for this student cohort.

Ministry and Stress: Listening to Anglican Clergy in Wales

This study set out to examine the experiences of stress in ministry among a sample of Anglican clergy serving in Wales. Building on recent quantitative studies of work-related psychological health among Anglican clergy in England, the study employed mainly qualitative methods to illustrate eight issues: the clergy’s overall assessment of their present health, their understanding of the characteristics of stress, their assessment of the levels of symptoms of stress within their own lives, their identification of the causes of stress within their experience of ministry, the people on whom they call for support in times of stress, their strategy for and styles of recreation, their assessment of the pastoral care provision available to clergy, and their views on enhancing initial clergy training to equip clergy to cope with stress. Data provided by 73 clergy (10 female and 63 male) portray a group of professionally engaged men and women who are well aware of the stress-related dynamics of their vocation, who are displaying classic signs of work-overload, and who are critical of and resistant to strategies that may confuse the pastoral care of stressed clergy with the accepted management role of the Church’s hierarchy of bishops and archdeacons.

Childbirth, Chills, and Fever: Manuscript Evidence for Medicine at St Guthlac’s Priory, Hereford

A single manuscript (Oxford, Jesus College, MS 37) from the collection formerly held at St Guthlac’s Priory, Hereford, presents limited evidence (in both its content and its structure) for an ongoing interest in medicine and cures on the part of the priory monks. It is suggested that the manuscript was adapted over time to meet practical considerations arising from the active engagement by the monks (or others acting on their behalf) in ministering to the wider Hereford community. These conclusions, arrived at via an analysis of the manuscript’s key texts, are supported by a consideration of trends in the provision of pastoral care in medieval Hereford.

When Mom's the Patient

This verbatim on the author's mother's death was originally submitted to a Clinical Pastoral Education Group on November 02, 2007. Its purpose was (1) to incorporate a working knowledge of psychosocial disciplines and religious beliefs and practice in the provision of pastoral care, and (2) to process, reflect, and learn from the interpersonal, spiritual, and ethical dynamics that occurred during the chaplain's mother's dying process.

Spiritual advisors and old age psychiatry in the United Kingdom

This survey investigates the role and views of NHS spiritual advisors across the United Kingdom on the provision of pastoral care for elderly people with mental health needs. The College of Health Care Chaplains provided a database, and questionnaires were sent to 405 registered NHS chaplains/spiritual advisors. The response rate was 59%. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were carried out. Spiritual advisors describe their working patterns and understanding of their roles within the modern NHS, and their observations of the level of NHS staff awareness of the importance of spiritual issues in the mental health care of older adults. They provide insights into possible negative and positive perceptions of their roles at a service level, and contribute suggestions of topics relevant to shared education between pastoral care and clinical services. This survey further highlights ethical and operational dimensions at the point of integration of the work of spiritual advisors and multidisciplinary teams.

The personal tutor’s role in pre-registration nursing education

Providing support for students has always been an inherent part of the lecturer's role. Widening access to students from backgrounds not traditionally associated with higher education has necessitated a review of the personal tutor system, as potential students may not be equipped with the academic skills to meet the demands of higher education. Ten randomly selected lecturers in one institute of higher education were interviewed to elicit their views and experiences of the personal tutor's role. The findings showed that the role of the personal tutor was considered both demanding, as students have increasingly different needs, but also fulfilling. The provision of pastoral care was viewed as integral to the role of the personal tutor, although most lecturers reported that they adopted an all-encompassing model of support that ranged from providing academic, professional, psychological and financial advice. Time factors and workload were identified as important structural constraints.

Deliberate self-harm in adolescence: a challenge for schools

ABSTRACT Acts of deliberate self-harm (DSH) by adolescents are thought to be on the increase. Many of those who self-harm are of school age and it is to be expected that schools (and their teachers) will be aware of the problem and will respond appropriately as part of their pastoral-care provision. However, a recent survey of research in pastoral care and personal-social education undertaken by the author found virtually no reference to DSH. It appears that empirical evidence about schools’ experience of, and responses to, DSH does not exist. This paper reports some of the findings of a Nuffield Foundation-funded study undertaken in England in 2003/2004. A variety of self-harming behaviours, from cutting to unnecessary risk-taking, were reported by the 34 teachers and other professionals interviewed in schools, pupil referral units and support agencies such as child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). The findings indicate that teachers’ awareness of DSH is patchy and that their reactions are often those of shock, panic and anxiety. The implications of the findings for those in education are considered in the context of a discussion of the literature. The contested status of the concept of deliberate self-harm, the need for a cautious raising of awareness, and the importance of supervision for front-line workers in schools are amongst the issues considered.

Establishing a Learning Mentor Service within a Cluster of Primary Schools: Learning from Evaluation

This paper describes a learning mentor service commissioned by the Children's Fund that has been established in a cluster of primary schools, offering a possible model for the provision of pastoral care to support children at risk of underachieving. In particular, it explores issues relevant to the implementation of the service, namely communication, co-ordination and time, and identifies benefits and outcomes of the service, as perceived by the various stakeholders. Evaluation of this service, on which the paper reports, highlights the importance of developing a clear quality care pathway, and putting systems in place to obtain information regarding the outcomes of the service.