Editorial December 2019

Welcome to the final issue of Pastoral Care in Education for 2019. As the newly appointed Deputy Editor, it is my pleasure to introduce another series of stimulating articles on a wide range of important pastoral themes.

I am writing this as the UK experiences continued and unprecedented political turmoil stimulated by the latest proposed Brexit Bill, the possibility of a general election, mass public demonstrations, and impassioned argument and counter-argument across the entire country and beyond: across the dinner table, in public spaces and even in the Supreme Court. Amid such preoccupation with EU relations and despite growing reports of Brexit-fatigue, it is inevitable that other issues of concern have slipped further down the agenda, and sometimes off it completely. It is perhaps timely, therefore, that I draw our attention back to the Aims and Scope of our journal which ‘is directed at all teachers, professionals, researchers and academics who are concerned with the personal, social development, education and care of all pupils across the curriculum’, for these remain critical issues in our education system and in our society at large. The remit of our journal is broad and inclusive and the contents of this issue are certainly testament to that diversity of focus and method. The Aims and Scope note further that we welcome contributions ‘which include analysis of existing practice, methods and programmes; critical discussions and accounts of new ideas and methods; developments and controversial issues; reports on research.’ In recent months, our media channels have provided a platform for detailed analysis, critical discussion, new ideas, endless controversy and, irrespective of our individual views on Brexit, we have without doubt experienced an intensity of public debate not witnessed before in my lifetime, with erudite discussion of complex issues such as prorogation, customs tariffs, border checks and backstops. What a shame there has not been the same level of public interest in the pastoral well-being of our children and young people in recent times. What a pity that we seem more interested in regulatory alignment than children’s mental well-being. What a tragedy that we can listen to hours of debate on constitutional minutiae, but struggle to find the time to engage in critical discussions on how we can better support our children and young people as they face daily challenges impacting on their emotional and physical health as well as their readiness and ability to learn. So, I would encourage us all to take time out from our deliberations about the potential outworking of Brexit or whatever other pressing political matters demand our attention, and instead, through reading this latest journal issue, let’s refocus our attention on the lived reality of children and young people, their education, their pastoral needs, and the tireless efforts of committed educators, teacher educators and researchers to make their lives more fulfilling, safer and happier.

As ever, there is something for everyone in this current issue. The first article by Jane Reeves and Tracy Crowther, provides teacher feedback on social media simulations used to enhance young people’s critical thinking skills in relation to two pressing issues facing them in their online experiences: radicalization and sexual exploitation. The article discusses two creative multidimensional simulations, one on each theme, featuring Zak and Lottie, and using a range of different social media platforms. The evaluation highlights the potential dangers faced by young people online, as well as their vulnerability, and provides evidence of the benefits of this innovative approach both for the young people themselves and for their teachers.

In the second article, Tim Roome and C.A. Soan consider retrospective pupil perceptions of the effects of GCSE exam stress on their wellbeing and performance, guided by Achievement Goal Theory which is used to help explore and explain individual differences between pupils. This is set against a context of increased accountability and the ‘audit culture’ of schools in the UK, where there is arguably more pressure on schools, teachers and pupils to achieve high grades in external examinations such as GCSEs. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis is then used to explore the results of the semi-structured interviews with the pupils and to categorise the pupils’ responses. Roome and Soan argue that such an approach may help schools to provide more targeted support to the pupils at a potentially very stressful time.

This article is followed by Burrows and O’Leary’s insightful examination of the factors influencing a secondary school PE teacher’s role as a pastoral head of year. The authors consider the nature of the role of head of year and its many challenges, and adopt a critical framework of occupational socialization (comprising acculturation, professional socialisation and organisational socialisation) to examine the range of influences on how one PE teacher, ‘Mark’, fulfils the particular demands of the role of head of year, acknowledging that often PE teachers are seen to be in a privileged pastoral position through close working relationships inside the traditional classroom and on the sports field. This in-depth study reveals the many administrative requirements of the role of head of year, and the resulting, perhaps inevitable, de-prioritisation of the curricular subject. Of particular interest are the prior influences on Mark’s approach to his pastoral role, an area which to date has received little if any research interest.

The fourth and final article in this issue is Churchman, Mansell and Tai’s school-based feasibility study of ‘methods of levels’: a novel form of client-led counselling which is used here for the first time among a small sample of young people from a secondary school in the North of England. The promising results of this pilot study, in terms of the effect on levels of distress among pupils, highlight the need for further investigation with a larger sample size.