Wellbeing and Pastoral Care
James Greenwood-Reeves
A short entry like this cannot cover everything to do with wellbeing and support. But I hope to cover some really crucial points, quickly.
First off, law is hard. Worse still, the way we teach it puts even greater pressure on students, with particular disadvantages for those who aren’t used to our (weird) legal systems, Higher Education’s shibboleths, and the “hidden curriculum” (Moss 2013).
Second, there are other, enormous, structural reasons why students may struggle, which are outside the control of even the most dedicated personal tutor (Ferris 2021). These include the ‘cost of living’ crisis, changes to visa rules, university bureaucracy, and inconsistency of support for students who are sick, disabled, or neurodivergent, or have caring responsibilities.
Third, law school staff – particularly early career colleagues, who are likely to have more repeat teaching responsibilities – are squeezed for time and may struggle to have the resources (and indeed office space) to spend the quality time they’d like to with tutees.
Good pastoral support and a strong sense of belonging are crucial to student satisfaction and attainment – which is particularly important for international students and racially minoritised students (Quyoum, Powell and Clark 2022). In this difficult context, what are the best approaches to providing great pastoral support to all our students? And how do you do that, without burning out?
First, discover where to find things and whom to ask for help. You won’t know everything (and may forget, or find that people, processes, or those handy hyperlinks change as time passes). Find out where the student support team are, where students can go for assessment queries, and where to send students who are facing really serious difficulties. I personally have been in this industry for quite a while, and still find myself reaching out to some familiar faces and friendly colleagues every week, for one reason or another. Do not be afraid to ask for help. Just remember to thank people. And one day, when someone asks you for help, remember to pay it forward. Only kindness will save us, in the end.
Second, establish a relationship with each tutee. Laura Hughes-Gerber, Noel McGuirk, and Rafael Savva (2024) point out a simple but effective six-point roadmap for this:
- Establish contact with each student. Make sure to have a one-to-one meeting, and if possible, try also to have a group meeting with your tutees, early on. I have tutees who met for the first time many years ago, in such a tutee group meeting, who are still best friends years after graduating. After all, community and a sense of belonging are things students can help each other to build, too.
- Provide assurance that you can help, and that they’re doing the right thing in reaching out to you. We are all emotional creatures, after all, and we all benefit from reassurance and positive reinforcement.
- Engage in frank and clear dialogue: listen, take notes, learn who they are and what they need. They have a spaniel called Freddy? Excellent! They are interested in history? There may be optional modules for them! They like ballroom dancing? Brilliant, is there a student union society for that…?
- Make sure to signpost the support they need. If you are unsure where to direct them, tell them you will find out and get back to them as soon as you can.
- What other helpful information could you provide, about timescales, potential risks to look out for, or your experience of similar circumstances in the past? What information might help reassure them? Also, be proactive in helping develop that sense of belonging. What societies, upcoming events, peer support groups, and so on, might help anchor your student to their course and to their peers?
- Make sure to follow-up: check on how they’re doing, and encourage them to check in with you. If you’re worried about “chasing” them, you can reassure them that they’re not in trouble and that you just want to be sure they’re safe and sound. Ask after Freddy the spaniel, too, if that helps!
Third, remember to be authentic. Students respond to honesty and openness, and indeed vulnerability (O’Connor 2024). I was lucky enough to work with, and learn from, my friend and colleague, Rosie Fox, early on in my career. Her office is full of warmth, personality, Pride colours, and cute novelty mugs. It is very visibly a safe space. Rosie wears her heart on her sleeve. The students respond to this. Students open up to her, because she’s open with them. While you don’t need to reveal everything in your personal life to your students, their trust needs to be earned and deserved.
Finally, remember to take care of yourself too. You alone cannot fix academia. You alone cannot fix race or disability awarding gaps, or the horrendous lack of financial support for our most precarious students. Do what you can, but you must protect yourself. We would never expect our students to work themselves into a state of illness. Don’t do it to yourself. Another excellent colleague of mine, Rachael O’Connor (2024: 8), really hits this home: “How can we engage in authentic supportive relationships with students and colleagues if we don’t practice what we preach ourselves?”
This leads to my final point: take care of others, and let others take care of you too. There just might come a time when you need some friends. Foster community with colleagues, join your local union branch, get coffee together. None of us can do it alone.
Where Next?
Whether you’re just getting started, or feel like a refresher could be helpful: finding a more experienced colleague – at your institution or elsewhere through attending an Academic Conference – to provide mentorship.
Or
Often, wellbeing and pastoral care issues arise acutely in the context of Administrative Roles, whether you’re providing wellbeing and pastoral care yourself, or supporting colleagues to do the same.
Where After?
Read through some of the chapters in How to Offer Effective Wellbeing Support to Law Students, edited by yet another excellent colleague of mine, Lydia Bleasdale (Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2024). It’s really very good.
Join your local union. Nobody can succeed in academia alone, we certainly can’t try to improve it alone, and we’re stronger on both fronts when we’re united.
Sources:
Lydia Katherine Bleasdale (ed) How to Offer Effective Wellbeing Support to Law Students (Edward Elgar 2024)
Graham Ferris ‘Law-Students Wellbeing and Vulnerability’ (2021) 56(1) The Law Teacher 5
Laura Hughes-Gerber, Noel McGuirk, Rafael Savva, ‘Looking back to look forward: scaffolding the student support pathway for students through the eyes of an early career legal academic’ in Lydia Katherine Bleasdale (ed) How to Offer Effective Wellbeing Support to Law Students (Edward Elgar 2024)
David M. Moss, ‘Hidden Curriculum of Legal Education: Toward a Holistic Model for Reform’ (2013) Journal of Dispute Resolution 19
Rachael O’Connor, ‘Navigating a student support leadership role as an early career academic: supporting yourself to better support others’ in Lydia Katherine Bleasdale (ed) How to Offer Effective Wellbeing Support to Law Students (Edward Elgar 2024)
Aunam Quyoum, Stephanie Powell and Tom Clark ‘Exploring the BME Attainment Gap in a Russell Group University: A Mixed Methods Case-Study’ (2022) 12 Education Sciences 860
Further Reading:
Kennon S Sheldon and Lawrence S Krieger, ‘Understanding the Negative Effects of Legal Education on Law Students: A Longitudinal Test of Self-Determination Theory’ (2007) 33 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 883
Norm Kelk and others, Courting the Blues: Attitudes towards Depression in Australian Law Students and Lawyers (Brain & Mind Research Institute 2009)
Rachael O’Connor ‘Supporting Students to Better Support Themselves through Reverse Mentoring: The Power of Positive Staff/Student Relationships and Authentic Conversations in the Law School’ (2023) 57(3) The Law Teacher 253
Caroline Strevens and Clare Wilson, ‘Law Student Wellbeing in the UK: A Call for Curriculum Intervention’ (2016) 11(1) Journal of Commonwealth Law and Legal Education 44
Emma Jones, Rajvinder Samra and Mathijs Lucassen, ‘The World at Their Fingertips? The Mental Wellbeing of Online, Distance-Based Law Students’ (2019) 53 The Law Teacher 49
