Pastoral Care in Initial Teacher Education: A Surveyof Secondary Teacher Education Institutions

HAYLEY CLEAVE, PHILIP CAREY, PATRICIA NORRIS,PATRICIA SLOPER, DAVID WHILE and ANNE CHARLTON,

CRC Education and Child Studies Research Group, University of Manchester

The study reported in this paper wasundertaken to discover the extent ofpastoral care training carried out duringsecondary initial teacher education.Questionnaires were sent to heads of initialteacher education institutions in Englandand Wales. It was found that institutionswere likely to provide some form oftraining in pastoral care but the extent andmethod of training varied greatly betweeninstitutions. However, training in actualpractical skills such as basic counsellingskills was much less likely to be available.The authors conclude that there is still someconsiderable way to go before newlyqualified teachers are likely to feeladequately prepared for their pastoral roles.

Introduction

Throughout their school career young people face awide variety of problems. Carey (1993a) investigatedwhat sort of difficulties may arise. Short brainstorm-ing sessions with practising and student teachersidentified 77 potential life crises pupils may facewhilst at school (Carey, 1993a). The problems in-cluded issues relating to the individual pupil, suchas long-term illness and changes in family relation-ships such as parental separation. Also identifiedwere problems relating to peer groups, school andcommunity, as well as the influence of national andglobal concerns. The stress resulting from theseproblems can lead to behavioural difficulties andlower academic achievement (Southern and Smith,1980).

As teachers spend so much time with their pupils,their potential influence on them surpasses that of anyother professional worker (Blom, Cheny and Snoddy,1986). The teachers' role has expanded, they are not

just responsible for the academic development ofpupils (Chittenden, 1993), they are also expected toplay a wider role encompassing pupils' psychosocialneeds (London, 1987). The concept of a health-promoting school reinforces this view of the widerteacher role. A health-promoting school attends topupil and staff well-being, with caring having animportant function (SHEG, 1986).

Pastoral care systems have been designed in second-ary schools to attend to pupils' social and emotionalneeds. The term `pastoral care' can be interpreted in avariety of ways depending on the ethos of the school.Some schools see it as a responsibility of the wholestaff, whilst others restrict it to a group of pastoralspecialists.

Pastoral care may be generally concerned with theissue of discipline, or this could only be a smallelement of the pastoral programme (Watkins, 1992).The method of delivering a pastoral curriculum willalso differ between schools. Marland's guidelines forthe development of a pastoral curriculum suggest thatschools need to prepare for the expected needs ofpupils relating to their individual and personalgrowth and address these with groups of pupils(Marland, 1980). Suggestions have been made abouthow this may be worked out in practice (Hamblin,1978), and what sort of topics are usually covered(Calvert and Henderson, 1994). However, it is feltby some that the preplanned group sessions shouldnot be a substitute for individual attention whenrequired (Marland, 1980; Best, Jarvis and Ribbins,1980; Allder, 1992).

All teachers have a `demanding' and `caring' role aswell as a `teaching' and `tutoring' role that theyshould bring to every situation. It is thought thatdistinguishing between teaching and tutoring forpractical purposes could lead to a false divisionbetween pastoral and academic structures within aschool (Blackburn, 1980).

As all teachers come into contact with pupilsthroughout their working day, they will often have

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# NAPCE 1997. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden MA 02148, USA.

to deal with problems when they arise and not waitfor specialist help. It could therefore be said that everyteacher adopts a pastoral role, no matter how theirschool defines its pastoral care system.

Just as the traditional side of teaching requirestraining, teachers need to be trained in their pastoralrole (Blackburn, 1980). Bishop (1990) promotes theview that teachers' role counselling pupils is notsimply caring, listening and being sympathetic; itrequires knowledge and training. Although a needhas been recognized, very few pastoral staff have anytraining in counselling or guidance (Allder, 1992):`Essentially we have a profession untrained for itscentral daily tutoring task' (Marland, 1989).

Teachers themselves have identified a gap in theskills they possess in order to cope with their `caring'role (Carey, 1992). Practising teachers develop strat-egies to deal with certain situations based on theirown personal skills and many members of the pro-fession feel that this is not enough (Carey, 1992).Training in crisis management does improve teachers'confidence in recognizing and dealing with a crisis(Taylor, Hawkins and Brady, 1991). Not only is therea need for such training, demand is also high. Apostal questionnaire of 2110 various curriculum co-ordinators in England and Wales illustrated that85% of teachers felt that such training should bepart of an in-service programme (INSET) and over70% felt that all staff should be offered this training(Carey, 1993b).

In a study of how teachers react to pupils' life crises,a need was identified for some form of communi-cation and counselling skills training in order toprovide them with a model that they could workthrough when dealing with a child under stress(Carey, 1992). Strein and French (1984) found in areview of effective teaching skills that communicationskills were consistently rated as being most important.Bell and Maher (1986) argue that the most importantfactor in good communication is the skill of listening.Active listening involves communicating that thelistening is taking place with the use of verbal andnon-verbal cues (Rogers, 1975). Training teachers tolisten actively could make them feel more confidentwhen dealing with pupils under stress. Other usefulskills could also include empathy, expressing andrecognizing feelings as well as knowing when to refera pupil on for specialist help.

Taking into account the various interpretations ofpastoral care, the concerns of practising teachers intheir ability to cope effectively and the lack oftraining, it is hardly surprising that the HMI surveys`The New Teacher in School' revealed that pastoralcare was the area with which new teachers were leasthappy (HMI, 1982, 1988). These findings werereplicated in surveys by Maher and Best (1985) andNAPCE (1986). Evaluation of a PGCE training course

has indicated that the majority of newly qualifiedteachers did take on a pastoral role in the first year ofteaching and that they were not confident in this role(Calvert and Henderson, 1994). With the requirementsof Circular 9/92 even more time will be spent onsubject teaching during initial teacher education (DfE,1992). Where will this leave training in pastoral careand guidance?

This study was undertaken to discover the extent ofpastoral care training during college-based initialteacher education (ITE) at present. As basic com-munication and counselling skills were identifiedas a requirement for effective pastoral care, the pro-vision of this type of specific training was in-vestigated. Views of the heads of ITE institutionswere also explored in order to discover whether theyconsidered the amount of pastoral care training tobe sufficient for their students' forthcoming pastoralrole.

Sample and Method

The study sought to ascertain the views of the headsof all 83 ITE institutions in England and Wales using aquestionnaire-based postal survey. The questionnaireexplored whether or not the students received anypastoral care or specific counselling skills trainingand, if so, the amount and nature of the training.Additional information was sought as to whether ornot heads of department felt the amount of counsel-ling skills training was sufficient and reasons for theirviews. The questionnaire was sent to all 83 ITEinstitutions as listed in the NATFHE Handbook(NATFHE, 1995).

Questionnaires were mailed to all the institutions inMarch 1995, with reminders sent to non-respondentsin May 1995. All data received by July 1995 were usedin the analysis. The questionnaire included bothstructured and open-ended questions. Responses tothe open-ended questions were analysed using con-tent analysis and a random sample of 20 question-naires was coded by two independent researchers tocheck for intercoder reliability. The mean intercoderreliability for the open-ended questions was 90 percent. Responses were analysed using the StatisticalPackage for the Social Sciences (SPSS, 1990).

Results

The response rate for the survey was 83% (n = 69).A total of 113 teacher education courses were offeredby the 69 institutions that responded. The majority ofITE institutions ran PGCE courses for students (97%),the other courses offered were BEd (30%) and BA/BSc(36%). Forty-eight per cent of institutions ran only oneteacher education course, 41% offered two coursesand 12% offered all three courses.

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Pastoral Care Training

Specific pastoral care training was provided by themajority of the three possible courses (PGCE, 78%;BEd, 81%; BA/BSc, 88%). If it was not providedspecifically as pastoral care training, responses in-dicated that it could be provided elsewhere in thecourse under the headings of Personal and SocialEducation or while the students were on school-basedstudy. Eleven courses did not provide any form ofpastoral care training for their students. Seventy-ninecourses specified the amount of hours spent onpastoral care training; the range of hours was wide,between 2 and 80 hours' training. The majority ofcourses provided 20 hours, or less, of training inpastoral care (68% of PGCE, 53% of BEd coursesand 64% of BA/BSc courses). Thirteen of thecourses indicated that they could not specify thenumber of hours spent on pastoral care training and21 courses omitted the question; 11 of these hadalready indicated that no pastoral care training wasprovided.

Respondents who indicated that pastoral care wasprovided, indicated that it was provided by theinstitution, by the teaching practice school, by anoutside agency or by any combination of these. Therespondents were often able to indicate more than onesource for the provision of pastoral care, hence a baseof 146 responses. In 56% of ITE courses the institutionprovided some training in pastoral care themselves, in35% of the courses students received pastoral caretraining in their teaching practice schools, and in 9%of the courses students were trained by an outsideagency. Three per cent of the ITE courses had used acombination of all three sources. The most popularcombination used in pastoral care training wasbetween the institutions and the teaching practiceschools, where 31 (45%) of the 69 institutionsprovided a combination of these two.

Lectures were the most common method of trainingpastoral care for all three of the courses. The variousmethods of training are displayed in Table 1.

Counselling Skills Training

Specific training in counselling skills was less likely tobe provided by teacher education institutions thantraining in pastoral care (PGCE, 28%; BEd, 20%; BA/BSc, 28%). Only 30 courses in the country overall pro-vided specific college-based counselling skills train-ing. Nine of the respondents found it difficult tospecify exactly how many hours of counselling skillstraining takes place throughout their course. For the20 courses where hours were specified, the range wasbetween 1 and 75 hours. Eight of the 12 PGCE courseswhich provided counselling skills training (67%)provided five hours or less, only one BEd coursespecified the number of hours, which was ten and, outof the seven BA/BSc courses providing counsellingskills training, four provided 20 hours or less. Themajority of counselling skills training was given bythe institution itself (82%). It was also provided by theschool that the student was associated with (25%) orby an outside agency (18%). Skills workshops werethe most popular way of training students incounselling skills in PGCE and BA/BSc courses. Thefour BEd courses that provided counselling skillstraining did not specify the method of training.

Thirty-five courses provided some form of counsel-ling skills training in ITE, 45% of these offered it as anoption for PGCE students (17% as an option for BEdstudents; 44%, for BA/BSc). Not all students wereable to attend the option.

From the 113 ITE courses that were represented inthis survey, 72 of the course respondents believedthat more time should be made available for counsel-ling skills training (65%, details from two courseswere missing), as this quote illustrates: `I believethat counselling is a vital part of teaching and willendeavour to include more training/awarenessraising in our courses.'

The factors that prevented more time being madeavailable for the training were investigated with theuse of open-ended questions. Sixty-four per cent

Table 1. Method of pastoral care training

Method Type of course

PGCE BEd BSc/BA(n) (n) (n)

Lectures 61% (30) 50% (7) 69% (11)Skills workshop 18% (9) 0 6% (1)Reading 4% (2) 0 6% (1)Shadow tutor 39% (19) 36% (5) 44% (7)Tutorials 16% (8) 21% (3) 13% (2)Combination of the above 22% (11) 36% (5) 19% (3)

Total (n) 49 14 16

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(n = 46) of the respondents who felt more time shouldbe dedicated to such training gave their preventativereasons; the results from these are summarized inTable 2. The most common factors were the limitedamount of time students spend in college during theirITE courses and the introduction of the new DfErequirements (Circular 9/92). In many cases these twofactors can be combined, students spend less time incollege due to the new DfE requirements. Commentsfrom the questionnaire included, `We should providesome rudimentary skills in counselling. However,course structures imposed by 9/92 mean that it isimpossible in terms of the time to do it, and `Thegovernment is insisting upon a school-based ap-proach which leaves little time for adequate reflectionand training.'

Nineteen per cent of the course respondents (n = 21/111) felt that no more time should be spent oncounselling skills training. Twelve of these respon-dents gave their reasons which included the sugges-tion that training could be carried out later in thestudent teacher's career (Table 3).

Comments from the questionnaires included, `We dostress the importance of such professional develop-

ment (counselling) and encourage our students to seethis as an area for future development once they havequalified' and `Ideally, training in counselling skillswould be provided at ITE level with the follow up inthe first two years of NQT status.'

Fifteen respondents were undecided as to whethermore time should be spent training students incounselling skills. Reasons given in response to anopen-ended question are tabulated in Table 4.

Discussion

The high response rate to the survey suggests that itis reasonably representative of the views held byheads of initial teacher education institutions. Also,great time and care appears to have been taken inresponding to the questionnaire, which indicates thatinterest in issues related to pastoral care is high.Whilst recognizing this, it should also be noted that apostal questionnaire can only hope to provide data onquite a superficial level. The results are seen asindicators which could lead to further investigationwith the use of more substantial in-depth interviewsproducing a superior quality of data. Additionally,the survey has only targeted ITE institutions, which isonly half of the institution±school partnership out-lined in Circular 9/92 (and 35/92 in Wales). Toprovide a more accurate picture of the present state oftraining in pastoral care, partner schools should beaddressed independently. The survey does, however,provide some insight into the present state of thetraining of pastoral care in ITE.

Most teachers appear to be trained in the formalaspects of pastoral care during their ITE course. Themajority of ITE courses provide pastoral care trainingin the form of lectures. The lectures follow aprogramme of predetermined issues that the newlyqualified teacher may be required to teach in schools.This is in line with the view that we should preparefor the expected needs of pupils related to theirindividual and personal growth and address them in

Table 2. Reasons preventing more time being spenttraining counselling skills in ITE

Reasons Number ofrespondents

Limited time 26 (57%)DfE regulations 20 (44%)Staff time 6 (13%)Lack of money 5 (11%)Not ready for training 2 (4%)Overworked counselling service 2 (4%)Other demands of training 10 (22%)Learn post-qualification 4 (9%)Future 1 (2%)

Total 46

Table 3. Reasons why no more time should be spenton counselling skills training during ITE

Reason Number ofrespondents

Limited time 5 (42%)DfE regulations 1 (8%)Sufficient already 1 (8%)Later in career 9 (75%)Too superficial 2 (17%)

Total 12

Table 4. Reasons why respondents were undecidedabout whether more time should be spent oncounselling skills during ITE

Reason Number ofrespondents

Limited time 7 (64%)DfE regulations 2 (18%)Post-qualification 2 (18%)Lack of money 3 (27%)Need more information 1 (9%)

Total 11

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groups (Marland, 1980). However, if teachers are to beconcerned with individual as well as group issues, asMarland also suggests, then pastoral care trainingneeds to encompass communication and counsellingskills training. This type of training would providenewly qualified teachers with a set of skills that theycan use when dealing with pupils under stress.Lectures are probably sufficient for basic training inpastoral care but these need to be supplemented withspecific skills training in order to encompass thewhole range of pastoral responsibilities.

Specific training in counselling skills is not very likelyto be provided by ITE institutions. In the 30 coursesthat do provide some form of training, the hoursare mainly low and the spaces for the option few.The survey indicates that the training carried out ishumanistic in nature, in the form of skills workshops.This is a more appropriate method for training incounselling skills than lectures; however, it could playa part in restricting the number of students being ableto partake. Heads of ITE departments did recognizethe importance of counselling skills training and themajority felt that more training should be provided,although some respondents did feel that theirstudents were not ready for counselling skills trainingand felt that it could be detrimental. One head stated,`We think that semi-skilled NQT's in gumboots coulddo more harm than good.' However, the majority ofthose responsible for ITE courses have recognized theimportance of counselling skills training. So why is itso rarely provided?

Time appears to be the biggest limiting factor when itcomes to providing adequate training in counsellingskills. The new DfE regulations outlined in Circular9/92 (DfE, 1992) stated that ITE for the secondaryphase should be school based and that to achievethis schools should play a much larger part in ITEas partners with the ITE institutions. In the case ofPGCE courses, students should spend at least twothirds of their course in schools. This dramaticallyrestricts institutions' contact time with students. Thecriteria of the specific competencies to be followed byschools and colleges do not encourage training inbasic counselling skills. Criteria include subjectknowledge and application, assessment and record-ing plus classroom management. The detailed criteriaof requirements does not leave any time for trainingstudents in non-compulsory areas. One respondentstated that `Resources are extremely limited forsociology, philosophy, psychology or anything exceptNational Curriculum subjects and discipline, classmanagement and testing.'

The DfE does insist that ITE is only the first stage ofa process of professional development that can becontinued throughout their teaching careers. Severalheads of ITE institutions felt that training in basiccounselling skills could take place later on in thenewly qualified teacher's career in the form of INSET

sessions. Although theoretically appealing, this pro-posal does have difficulties. A 1986 survey showedthat nearly 40% of teachers with up to 10 years'experience had received no in-service training inpastoral care (Maher and Best, 1985). It could not beguaranteed that every newly qualified teacher wouldhave the opportunity to attend such an INSET and asall teachers take on a pastoral role, it is important thatthey all should have the opportunity to prepare for it.

The diversity of the provision of training betweendifferent institutions and courses is quite striking.Courses are more likely to provide training in pastoralcare than in counselling skills. However, the timespent training in both of these areas varies greatlybetween courses. Some respondents run courses thatprovide students with 2 hours of pastoral caretraining and others reported courses which provideover 60 hours' training. Perhaps surprisingly, thedifference is not necessarily between the three typesof courses (with, for example, the 4-year BEd or BA/BSC courses providing more training than the year-long PGCE course); hours varied greatly throughouteach type of course. It is possible that such adiscrepancy exists as some respondents have in-cluded probable hours spent training in pastoral care(or counselling skills) whilst their students are inschool on teaching practice, whilst others haverestricted their replies to pure college-based training.Further investigation would be required to clarify thediscrepancy.

It is not always clear to institutions exactly whattraining is being covered in teaching practice schools.This quote from the data illustrates the point: `It isdifficult to control or even to know precisely whattraining student teachers receive there [school].'

As a number of respondents indicated that theirstudents receive pastoral care training through acombination of college and school input and thatstudents spend so much of their time in school, it isessential that a strong partnership exists between thetwo to ensure thorough training and to ensure allstudents have the opportunity to gather similarexperiences whichever school they are in. Theinstitutions' lack of knowledge about training takingplace in school does not indicate a `strong partner-ship'. PGCE students felt that they were subject togreat variation in the quality of support they receivedfrom their teaching practice schools (Williams, 1994).Given the leading role schools play in trainingstudents, it is essential that the institution and theschool liaise to ensure that students receive certainminimum entitlements during their training. It wouldbe useful to study the relationship between collegesand their associated teaching practice schools toclarify this issue.

The research methodology used has provided us withan overall picture of the amount of pastoral care and

20 # NAPCE 1997. PASTORAL CARE ± JUNE 1997

counselling skills training taking place in ITE institu-tions. Further investigation is necessary in order todefine the specific content of such training. It wouldalso be beneficial to include details of school-basedtraining and collaboration with institutions, as schoolsare increasingly responsible for such a large part ofthe students' learning.

Conclusion

Initial teacher education courses do not seem toprepare students for the eventuality of dealing withpupils under stress. Although teachers are expected toattend to the social and emotional well-being of theirpupils and not purely their academic achievement,teacher education courses are ultimately academicallybased. Heads of ITE courses felt that more counsellingskills training should be provided at this level;however, DfE competencies allow very little time forareas such as this. If newly qualified teachers are tofeel as confident in their pastoral role as in theiracademic role, specific skills training needs to beprovided to help them cope with pupils experiencingproblems whilst at school.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Cancer ResearchCampaign and the respondents to the questionnaire,without whose help the research could not have beencarried out.

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CorrespondenceHayley CleaveCRC Education and Child Studies Research GroupSchool of Epidemiology and Health SciencesUniversity of ManchesterStopford BuildingOxford RoadManchester M13 9PT

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