RAPPORT ISSUE 5 | Page 59

RAPPORT Issue 5 (August 2020) not set a learning goal. At this point, I helped her see what her options were and she realised that it was too early in the year to start panicking about not being able to reach these academic goals. However, I shortly realised that there was an emerging issue as what she was feeling more distressed and sad about was about not having her family or close friends around, which is why she had been thinking about not completing her study placement and going back to [her country] … Subsequently the student continued at the host university and worked to achieve goals set with the Tutor set in order to improve her situation both in terms of performance and in respect of her wider social environment. Reflections on case studies and implications for practice. From the analysis and case study material presented above it seems clear that the implementation of approaches characterised by elements of coaching and mentoring practice within the work of personal tutors and academic advisors in higher education is able to be identified. As anticipated, practice suggests the terms - and the practice - do meld into one another. However, such practice – as illuminated through the Case Studies, is limited and seems likely to prove challenging and perhaps problematic to implement more widely, particularly in the context of staff-student working, as opposed to peer (student-student) mentoring schemes for example. This is not to suggest that colleagues do not have aspirations to engage in more ongoing and developmental practices. Writing about departmental policies, for example, one Senior Tutor indicated that: my main aim since I have taken the post is to make tutoring a mainly proactive rather than a purely reactive activity, in line with acknowledged best practice …This means encouraging regular scheduled meetings to discuss progress and development, supported by guiding documentation rather than only ad hoc, undocumented meetings in response to crises. (Portfolio 30) More generally however a lack of such practice is evident in this area with policies and procedures identified relating exclusively to mentoring and coaching for staff in the context of workforce and professional development. This may be a consequence of several factors: • the limited time availability/allocation for tutorial work with students, particularly for the sorts of developmental relationships highlighted by the mentoring definitions cited above and to the value placed upon such activity suggested by this; • possible tensions within what might be termed solutions-focussed’ and ‘relationship-focussed’ approaches, and between taking a less-directive approach as suggested by some of the literature and within some illustrations, and such institutional/departmental agenda as student retention and student anxieties related to academic performance and achievement, or to the necessity to demonstrate competency on programmes which require ‘fitness to practice’ and lead to professional recognition. In the latter contexts in particular mentoring and supervision 58