ERIC Number: EJ1469316
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0264-3944
EISSN: EISSN-1468-0122
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Whanaungatanga: Tutors' Experiences of Caring for Students in an Aotearoa New Zealand University
Pastoral Care in Education, v43 n1 p132-151 2025
Who is caring for and supporting our students at university and how is the care and support demonstrated? Students come to university with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and needs and many will require pastoral care at some time during their study. Tutors often find themselves caring for students and this paper focuses on the experiences of care-giving of eight tutors, aged 22 to 34 years. We use a reflexive thematic analytic approach to describe how tutors conceptualised caring as whanaungatanga, a Maori concept that encompasses kinship and caring relationships, community, rights and responsibilities, and inclusion. Tutors describe whanaungatanga in terms of five themes: care for students as people and learners, creating a safe and respectful space for all students, barriers, feelings of obligation, and tutors' self-care and needs. Our research highlights the complexities of tutors' care for students. They felt undervalued by the university but nevertheless strove to build and embed whanaungatanga, often at their own cost. Implications for practice include properly acknowledging, remunerating, and training tutors. Future research should focus on who is caring-about and caring-for students at university, and how that caring occurs.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Caring, College Students, Interpersonal Relationship, Tutors, Attitudes, Barriers, Tutoring
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New Zealand
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Faculty of Health, Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand; 2Faculty of Education, Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand; 3Centre for Academic Development, Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand