Exploring the relationship between experiences of working in boarding and teacher development: A Tasmanian boarding school perspective

A teacher’s preparedness to deliver quality pastoral care presents an ongoing challenge for teacher education institutions. It also presents a similar challenge for those of us who work in boarding house contexts. The expectations and requirements of what pastoral care involves is ever shifting in response to the evolving challenges faced by students and staff alike. This can make it particularly difficult to ensure our future teachers and boarding house staff understand and are appropriately prepared to deliver quality pastoral care.

In this presentation, we explore the perceptions and experiences of boarding house staff in a Tasmanian co-ed boarding school, who are either teaching or working towards becoming teachers. In doing so, we unearth the implications they identify their experiences of working in boarding to have had upon their understanding of, and examine their perceived capacity to deliver quality pastoral care.