5.2 Unpacking my higher education (university) supportive teacher-learner relationships
5.2.2 From failure to success: Learning from supportive teacher-learner relationships in
The memory drawing presented in Figure 5.2 represents one of the learning curves I experienced in higher education as I learnt from a failure that later resulted in success. It reminds me how I learnt from a collective group failure to become an independent, hardworking and dedicated student that excelled at an HEI.
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Figure 5.2: My memory drawing on learning from supportive teacher-learner relationships in higher education.
It was 2016, during my second year of my undergraduate B.Ed. in Science degree at the School of Education. There was one module called Education Studies 210 (History of Education), an introductory module to the study of education. After we had been given a group assignment by our lecturer, as part of the module assessment, it turned out that my other nine group members and I had failed it. This failure resulted from the reluctance of some members of the group to participate and give their all to completing the task. As illustrated in Figure 5.2, we only got a score of 8/30, a dismal failure from 10 collective working minds. As the days passed after this incident, I became worried about the mark I had scored that had resulted from our carelessness as a group. We worked as a collective, so everyone would get the same mark of 8/30. I had never scored a mark of that sort before. I then told myself that since the other tasks that were left to make up the total marks of the module were for individual work, I was going to give it my all and work hard. This was not only to pass the module, but also to get the necessary skills and knowledge offered by the module.
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After a week had passed, I decided to approach my lecturer to ascertain how I could do my best next time on the other tasks that I had left to achieve the best results. She welcomed me with open arms and advised me of many things I could practice to be at my best in academia. Among other things, she motivated me and mentioned that, firstly, I should use the lecturers’
consultation times to ask and get a sense of things I did not understand or wanted to get some more clarity on. This included the issue of writing and communicating with my lecturers and all other relevant stakeholders within the School of Education through emails. Secondly, she mentioned that I should use the school library and computer laboratories to search for knowledge and equip myself with the relevant skills and know-how needed for those modules.
Finally, she mentioned the issue of peer learning, providing the advantages and disadvantages of its use. I took all her advice on board and further explored how it would help me and how I could apply it to how I worked and operated. Weeks and weeks passed, and I finally found my place in the university setting and engaged with all of my modules, passed them very well, and competed to be one of the best students in the School of Education. That initial failure resulted in me doing self-reflection to improve my old practices. Through that failure, I learnt how success is approached with various skills and how it is not an easy process to master. Therefore, through learning from that failure, I was then able to achieve success.
From this one episode of my life, I learnt that if students can take the initiative themselves to self-reflect to identify who they are, what they want, and how they want to achieve it, success can be reached at HEIs. Furthermore, such a move and initiative can make their teachers in HEIs give them a warm welcome and respond positively to their concerns. Moreover, such an initiative can bring students closer to their teachers. Suppose higher education teachers can create room for engagement with their learners. This can make their learners take the opportunity to engage with them on many issues that could be troubling them, hence constructing supportive teacher-learner relationships in higher education (see, among others, Xerri et al., 2017).
5.2.3 Integrating the personal and professional selves: Promoting supportive teacher- learner relationships
The memory drawing presented in Figure 5.3 below represents how I was introduced to and got the opportunity to learn about integrating the personal-professional selves. It reminds me of the importance of getting to know and understand the personal self and integrating it with
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the professional self. It reminds me how, in a module called Teacher Identities and Teacher Change in the year 2020, I got the opportunity to sit down with myself and think about who I am as a person, before I came to think about who I am as a teacher in the present and will be in the future. It also reminds me of coming to terms with how everyone has their own identities, which may be similar or different from those of other people in one way or another. Further, I recall how beneficial it was to explore and integrate the personal-professional selves and the feelings, thoughts, ideas, and emotions evoked in the process.
Figure 5.3: My memory drawing on integrating the personal and professional selves: Promoting supportive teacher-learner relationships.
This memory drawing reminds me deeply of my two female Professors in the discipline of Teacher Development Studies (TDS) in the School of Education, both of whom happen to be my current mentors. It reminds me of how they have supported and continue to support me in my academic journey and outside of it. These women also happen to be my former B.Ed.
Honours degree (independent research project) and current Master of Education research
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supervisor, respectively. It reminds me how these wonderful women accommodated me in their busy academic schedules by helping me when I needed it in my educational journey or my personal life.
For example, I remember how in 2019, when I had taken a huge life decision to resign from my primary school teaching position to return to further my studies, one of my professors supported me all the way, playing a critical role from the very first step of the process up to the very last step. I will never forget that journey, as it was such a big journey filled with mixed feelings and emotions. After qualifying as a teacher, I never thought that one day – or perhaps not so early – I would ever resign from work to pursue my postgraduate studies and academic career. Yes, by that time, I was so in love with the academy, and at the end of the day, I was going to take that big decision, but I never thought it was going to be so early on. My professor supported me through thick and thin until the whole process was completed – and for that, I will never forget her. She will always be in my heart, and I will always and forever be grateful to her, for she has played a critical and crucial role in my life.
I learnt from this students can believe in themselves more if they are shown more support by their teachers in higher education spaces. Furthermore, students can gain more confidence in taking big decisions and applying their problem-solving skills to issues they encounter if they are fully supported by their teachers (see, among others, Karpouza & Emvalotis, 2019). This is evident in my case, as I gained a great deal of confidence in sticking with the initial decision I had made to resign from work to pursue my postgraduate studies and academic career, despite all of the difficulties and obstacles that had arisen along the way. Moreover, teachers in higher education spaces can encourage their learners to believe in themselves more by showing them support for their dreams and visions (see, among others, Karpouza & Emvalotis, 2019). In that way, supportive teacher-learner relationships in higher education spaces can be enriched, leading to more significant academic outcomes.
5.3 One event of an unsupportive teacher-learner relationship I experienced in