Campus caring from the lens of preservice teachers

ABSTRACT

Caring is an important disposition of effective teachers and studies on care at the primary level have been abundantly researched. However, studies from preservice teachers’ points of view relating to lecturers’ caring behaviour are limited. This mixed-method study aims to determine the level of care exhibited by the lecturers and to inquire how lecturers display care from the lens of the preservice teachers. In this sequential explanatory design, data were collected in two phases. In phase one, a survey instrument which was adopted from Garza and Van Overschelde’s Faculty Caring Survey was administered to 250 preservice teachers of an institution of teacher education. In phase two, a focus group discussion was carried out to discover the lecturers’ caring behaviour. The outcome of the survey displayed that the overall mean of care was high, with a Cronbach Alpha of 0.94. The study also revealed that ‘emotional caring’ and ‘academic caring’ emerged as central themes from the focus group discussion. Findings also suggested that caring should be one of the disposition traits of lecturers as it would make an impact on the professional development of preservice teachers as future educators.

KEYWORDS:

• Caring
• ethics of care
• academic caring
• emotional caring
• multicultural
• preservice teachers

Introduction

Caring teachers in schools play a pivotal role in instilling good values besides imparting knowledge and skills to students. Caring teachers emerge from good and effective teachings while maintaining relationships of care and trust (Noddings, 2012). Caring teaching-learning relationships are a prerequisite for cognitive growth and development (Klassen & Kim, 2019) and Noddings (2013) believed that one needs to educate a child holistically in a way that encompasses happiness to foster development. Besides, teachers play a momentous part in ensuring social-emotional functioning among students so that they progress well in a positive learning environment (Chernobilsky et al., 2015; Guess & Bowling, 2015), especially in multicultural settings.

Research on teachers’ caring behaviour and teacher-student relationships related to care is abundant (Chernobilsky et al., 2015; Sun et al., 2018). Good teacher-student relationships can motivate or induce students to excel academically (Becker et al., 2017). When teachers demonstrate a caring disposition, students accomplish the intended results whether personal or academic (Noddings, 2013; Zang et al., 2019).

Many studies have centered on the significance of caring in education (Schwab et al., 2018), and the favourable academic outcomes, especially on teacher-student relationships based on care in primary schools (Hamre & Pianta, 2006; Košir & Temen, 2014). Some studies have focused on students’ perceptions of caring teachers in secondary schools (Ilhavenil & Aravindan, 2023). However, studies on the perceptions of preservice teachers on their lecturers pertaining to care are limited (Eisenbach, 2016; Garza & Van Overschelde, 2018; Ng et al., 2012). The aim of this study is to investigate preservice teachers’ perceptions of lecturers’ caring behaviour. We contend that preservice teachers’ viewpoints are paramount to ensuring favourable outcomes in teaching and learning (Chernobilsky et al., 2015) and also to facilitating self-improvement on the part of lecturers to enhance positive interactions with students (Garza & Van Overschelde, 2018). Good interpersonal relationships will regulate preservice teachers’ notions of caring and eventually have a profound impact on their relationships with their pupils from diverse backgrounds in schools. Therefore, this study focuses on two essential questions that fit the design of the study:

1. What is the level of preservice teachers’ perceptions of lecturers’ caring behaviour?

2. How do the preservice teachers perceive lecturers caring behaviour?

Ethics of care framework

This study is underpinned by ethics of care theory in which caring is a two-way process, where one cares for the ‘cared-for’ and vice versa (Noddings, 2012, 2013). Ethics of care, mainly rooted in moral education, comprises four components: modeling, dialogue, practice and confirmation. Modeling should be demonstrated to young people on the connotation of care, such as educators showing genuine concern for the students by listening and offering appropriate responses to the problems of students (Noddings, 2013). Thus trusting relationships are established between the teacher and students which pave the way towards more effective learning opportunities.

Dialogue deals with meaningful teacher-student interactions where the style of conversation can be open-ended (Noddings, 2012, 2013) to foster understanding and empathy that encourages understanding. ‘Practice’ is usually encouraged through social services where students learn to cooperate with one another to care for and empathise with others. Schools and classroom settings are excellent platforms as they provide opportunities for students to hone social skills, moral competencies, and intellectual skills before embarking on real-world challenges (Wentzel, 2012). Confirmation, under care-ethics, relates to the teacher approving positive or caring acts by students. Hence, good relationships between teachers and students foster the validity of this fourth component (Noddings, 2013).

Some studies have shown that caring is a reciprocal act (Noddings, 2012), however, some other studies have also shown that actions have to be demonstrated to show care to others (Ng et al., 2012). In a higher learning institution such as a university, lecturers should show interest in preservice teachers’ or students’ welfare by, for example, motivating them, and being attentive to their needs and problems in their personal, social, or intellectual lives (Adams et al., 2023). They should also be able to provide advice and guidance and demonstrate competence in teaching (Abonyi et al., 2021). This clearly indicates that one should not expect anything in return when showing genuine care and concern for students.

Although much research on students and care has been well documented, research on preservice teachers’ perceptions of care needs further empirical work (Eisenbach, 2016; Garza & Van Overschelde, 2018). Therefore, this study focuses on preservice teachers’ perceptions of their caring educators.

Students’ perceptions of caring educators

The perceptions of students towards their educators are important as care cannot be seen from a single perspective or perceived by adults who are the caregivers in the education fraternity. Walker and Gleaves (2016) have demonstrated seven exemplary practices of a caring teacher such as listening to students, showing empathy, supporting students, actively supporting learning in the classroom, praising students, having high expectations, and showing concern about students’ welfare outside classrooms. Studies have found adolescents show interest in academic activities when teachers are concerned about students (Klassen & Kim, 2019; Wentzel, 1997). Caring teachers not only play significant roles in students’ academic performance but also in their attitudes and overall well-being. Research by Zhao and Li (2016) found middle school students show a higher degree of positive attitude and more effort in their studies when teachers demonstrate care to them.

From the lens of preservice teachers, Weinstein (1998) explored their perceptions of care which they perceived that managing an orderly classroom constitutes care compared to building meaningful rapport with students. However, this notion was contrasted by the views expressed by the primary teachers who stressed that interpersonal relationships with pupils are vital in demonstrating care.

Likewise, Eisenbach’s (2016) research on preservice teachers’ notions of care revealed interesting outcomes where interpersonal caring relationships between the students and teachers were deemed vital and where it was suggested that more research on care needed to be carried out at higher learning institutions. In Malaysia’s context, although there is research on students’ perceptions of caring teachers at the primary and secondary levels (Ilhavenil & Aravindan, 2023), studies are still less focused on potential teachers at higher learning.

Although the literature on students’ perceptions of caring teachers at the primary level is abundant and studies that feature students’ perceptions of caring teachers at the secondary level are quite well-documented (Smart, 2015; Walker & Gleaves, 2016; Wentzel, 1997; Zhao & Li, 2016), more studies are needed to investigate the perceptions of students of their educators at higher learning institutions (Zhao et al., 2023), such as an institution of teacher education, on care. Cultivating a caring climate among preservice teachers is important as appropriate mentorship is needed to mould these beginning teachers as exemplary educators (Rabin, 2020).

Additionally, in terms of culture, caring can also take on different perspectives. In Eastern cultures such as China, students have the notion of care as paternalistic of their university educators (Zhao et al., 2023). Chinese students regard their lecturers as fathers or parents whom they look up to and it goes beyond the formal teaching and learning in classrooms. The lecturers need to exhibit exemplary behaviour, which in turn promotes trusting teacher-student relationships, assisting students to develop holistically in terms of academic, skills and character development. Similarly, in Malaysia, care is culturally based. Students still prefer their teachers to show authority and justice in disciplining students as these constitute care based on their upbringing and cultural backgrounds (Ilhavenil, 2013).

Methodology

This research employed an explanatory sequential design framework; thus, firstly a survey design was carried out to obtain data in a cross-sectional manner from the respondents who were preservice teachers at one of the institutions of teacher education, situated in the Federal Territory, Malaysia. Secondly, a focus group discussion was carried out to gain a deeper understanding of care from selected preservice teachers who took part in the survey. The numerical data collected would explain the phenomena of interest (Creswell & Creswell, 2018, 2023; Mills & Gay, 2016). This design framework was chosen to help to explain the quantitative statistical results in more detail (Creswell, 2022). The focus group discussion provides detailed perspectives from the preservice teachers in addition to the data from the survey that was carried out.

Sample

The research conformed to a targeted population of preservice teachers from various ethnic groups, which comprised Malay, Chinese, Indians, and natives from Sabah and Sarawak such as Kenyah and Kadazan, in their second year of the Assessment in Education course. Ethical approval for this research was provided by the campus director , since all the respondents were from the campus. A total of 250 preservice teachers responded to the survey. Table 1 presents the number of respondents from each of the fourteen classes. Hence participation was voluntary and all the details provided were kept anonymous.

Table 1. No. of respondents according to classes.

Classes	Frequency (n)	Percentage (%)
PT2S2–1	24	9.6
PT2S2–2	14	5.6
PT2S2–3	15	6.0
PT2S2–4	14	5.6
PT2S2–5	19	7.6
PT2S2–6	14	5.6
PT2S2–7	15	6.0
PT2S2–8	15	6.0
PT2S2–9	22	8.8
PT2S2–10	17	6.8
PT2S2–11	17	6.8
PT2S2–12	17	6.8
PT2S2–13	24	9.6
PT2S2–14	23	9.2
Total	250	100

Instrumentation

The questionnaire was adopted based on the earlier instrument developed by Garza and Van Overschelde (2018) on a five-point Likert scale. The reliability reading of the instrument was 0.85 (Garza & Van Overschelde, 2018).

In order to validate the instrument, pre-testing was carried out. Three preservice teachers were chosen to identify whether the items had the clarity to rule out unambiguity and whether all instructions displayed in the instrument were comprehensible. In the demographic section of the questionnaire, only class ID and gender were required. Therefore, there was no disclosure of the identity of the preservice teachers. The instrument consisted of 18 items.

The instrument was administered via Google forms to all 250 second-year second semester students who were pursuing the Assessment in Education course. Students who had difficulty answering online were given a hard copy of the survey. The respondents took approximately seven minutes to complete the survey. After data screening (blank count and straight lining), a total of 195 respondents who had participated in the survey were accepted as the sample for this study. The data gathered were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 to obtain descriptive results and internal consistency.

Analysis

The data were firstly screened to ensure responses had been correctly inputted, and to check for blank count and straight lining (Hair et al., 2010). This resulted in 195 acceptable responses in the data (Table 1). A descriptive analysis is reported through the mean, minimum, maximum, and standard deviation. The mean interpretation is also reported. Table 2 presents the mean interpretation for this study. An internal reliability test using Cronbach Alpha was conducted to ensure consistent measurement across the various items in the instrument and the items hang together as a set (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016).

Table 2. Mean interpretation.

Mean Value	Interpretation
1.00–2.00	Low
2.01–3.00	Moderately Low
3.01–4.00	Moderately High
4.01–5.00	High

Source: Nunnally, J.C. (1978).

Results

Coefficient reliability showed an acceptable Cronbach alpha value of above 0.94 (Hair et al., 2017). All 18 items in this questionnaire were acceptable. Table 3 provides the minimum, maximum, mean and standard deviations of all variables in the care construct.

Table 3. Minimum, maximum, mean and standard deviations for ‘When I am in class, my lecturer...’

Items	Min.	Max.	Mean	SD	Mean Interpretation
respects my opinions	1	5	4.41	.707	High
provides positive reinforcement	2	5	4.40	.629	High
interacts personally with me in the classroom	1	5	3.92	.902	Moderately High
provides constructive feedback on assignments	1	5	4.17	.774	High
returns graded assignments in a timely manner	1	5	4.05	.924	High
listens to me in class	2	5	4.30	.729	High
is patient with me	1	5	4.50	.721	High
is enthusiastic about his/her teaching	1	5	4.39	.748	High
is prepared for class	1	5	4.56	.703	High
is willing to help me	1	5	4.53	.683	High
is available during office hours	2	5	4.25	.754	High
is available for extra help when needed	1	5	4.41	.736	High
is fair with me	1	5	4.34	.738	High
is flexible	2	5	4.35	.682	High
is approachable	2	5	4.45	.659	High
ensures that I understand material in class	1	5	4.34	.745	High
is open to questions in class	1	5	4.66	.609	High
is encouraging in class	1	5	4.53	.691	High

The above findings show that all items have a high mean interpretation except for item 3 (interacts personally with me in the classroom) which is only moderately high (mean 3.92).

Focus group discussion

We also conducted a focus group discussion (FGD) to further inquire about the preservice teachers’ perceptions of their lecturers who teach the Assessment in Education course. We chose FGD as it encourages open exchanges among the preservice teachers as they are not alien to one another (Creswell & Creswell, 2023). These preservice teachers often collaborate in projects and programmes organised by the campus. Furthermore, time efficiency strategies were used, which encouraged all participants to talk and take turns to speak (Creswell & Guetterman, 2021).

Methodology

Purposive sampling was employed for the FGD and we carefully selected six participants to represent various ethnic groups from the same course. Between four and six participants are sufficient for a FGD (Creswell & Guetterman, 2021). We identified the participants through the ID emails received from the Google form and clarified their identity by calling them in person. The response rate was one hundred percent: all six preservice teachers agreed to participate in this research and be audio recorded. Prior to this step, permission had been obtained from the campus director to carry out this research. We were required to adhere to ethical research standards especially dealing with human participants, and all six preservice teachers signed the informed consent form.

Setting

The six preservice teachers were brought into an empty classroom, away from noise and interruptions so that the interview session and the discussions could take place effectively. Initially, we arranged the chairs in a big circle so that all of us were able to look at everyone comfortably. The preservice teachers introduced themselves at the beginning of the session to build rapport before more questions were asked about their lecturers.

All preservice teachers were given pseudonyms. They were asked about the meaning of care and their perceptions of their lecturers who demonstrated care to them such as ‘What is your perception of care’?, ‘How would you want your lecturers to be caring? ‘Could you give examples?’, ‘How does your lecturer display caring in class?, ‘In what areas should your lecturer show more care?’ In addition, the preservice teachers’ facial expressions, their gestures and their intonations were also captured and recorded in our journal.

Data analysis of focus group discussion

The FGD took approximately one and a half hours. Table 4 displays the participants who took part in this study.

Table 4. Demographic details of the participants (pseudonyms).

No.	Participants	Ethnic group	Sex
1	Ella	Kadazan	Female
2	Sid	Kenyah	Male
3	Iman	Malay	Male
4	Didi	Indian	Female
5	Clarins	Chinese	Female
6	Luna	Chinese	Female

All six participants were aged twenty and were in their second year Bachelor’s Degree Teaching Programme. They were chosen by merit to be enrolled in the institution at the age of eighteen. Ella is a Kadazan female preservice student, specialising in Special Education for learning disabilities. Kadazan is one of the ethnic groups in the state of Sabah, situated in East Malaysia, however, Ella hails from Sarawak state, also situated in East Malaysia. Her primary hobby is reading. Sid, a male Kenyah, one of the indigenous groups in Sarawak state, loves playing guitar. He majors in Special Education for learning disabilities. Iman is a Malay male preservice teacher from Terengganu state, situated in the northeast of West Malaysia. His major is Islamic Education and he actively participates in sports and music. Didi is an Indian female, the most outspoken among the six of them, and undertakes Physical Education as her major. She grew up in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia, which is situated in West Malaysia. Her hobbies are painting and sewing. Clarins and Luna are both Chinese preservice teachers, originating from Sarawak state too. Their hobbies are singing and reading. Clarins undertakes Visual Arts as her major whereas Luna specialises in Special Education for learning disabilities.

The FGD, conducted through semi-structured interviews, was transcribed in an Excel sheet and later uploaded to NVivo 11 for further analysis. Transcriptions were reread numerous times and words as well as phrases such as ‘care’, ‘assignment’, ‘academic’, ‘motivation’, ‘empathy’, ‘showing concern’, ‘students’ emotions’, and ‘understand students’ were then coded. These codes depicted the verbal explanations by the students. The codes were also related to the literature on ethics of care and in practice. All codes were analysed further for similar patterns, resulting in initial categories such as ‘feelings’, ‘empathy’ and ‘academic care’, reflecting preservice teachers’ thoughts and feelings on how care should be displayed.

Later, further comparisons among the categories were analysed for pattern identification (Creswell & Guetterman, 2021). We found that ‘feelings’, ‘empathy’ and ‘emotions’ were suitable under a theme. As a result, we found that two themes, ‘Emotional Caring’ and ‘Academic Caring’, emerged from the analysis.

Findings

Emotional caring

The preservice teachers were asked about the meaning of care and how lecturers should care for them. We found that five out of six preservice teachers opined that lecturers should care for the emotional aspect of students. Here, the terms students and preservice teachers are used interchangeably. For instance, Ella explained that it is important to know students’ emotions as caring teachers. She said:

We should be caring teachers towards students by knowing how they feel. What is important is our students’ emotions. Care for our feelings and our problems.

Besides, Iman viewed that lecturers should empathise with their students to demonstrate that they care for their students. He strongly voiced:

Empathy is so important to us as future teachers. Everybody can sympathise but in empathy, we should ask, ‘Have you eaten?’ ‘How do you feel today?’ So teachers should have empathy to show they care. It’s how we act.

Moreover, in expressing how the lecturers should care, Didi was demonstrative. Her eyes were wide open, showing some hand gestures and her tone of voice went higher, indicating excitement. She emphasised:

We should know someone’s feelings. Actually understanding the person’s emotions, not only the looks but also what they are feeling inside.

Those words from the preservice teachers revealed that their feelings as students should be cared for by caring lecturers.

When asked about the lecturers who taught them the assessment course, it was found that all the lecturers cared for the preservice teachers, especially academically which is discussed in the next theme, but only a few cared emotionally for them. Ella recounted:

When it comes to our feelings, the lecturer always asks, ‘Are you okay today?’ That’s how she shows she cares. And I like it so much.

She is also very caring because she always notices why the back group doesn’t seem happy. She is able to notice it while I’m the classmate who spends hours with them and does not notice that they are sad. But she noticed their looks and asked why were they sad.

In view of that, Clarins added:

We were so tired after our previous many lectures and had no interest in listening to what he was teaching. Therefore, he joked with us and gave us time to freshen ourselves. For me, he noticed the students’ emotions and feelings during lectures and took action like that.

Additionally, in all their explanations, no suggestion of the racism or bias on the part of the lecturers were noted when executing care.

Academic caring

Taking into consideration all the verbal and non-verbal gestures of the preservice teachers, we found all the preservice teachers wanted their lecturers to care for them academically. This highlights the importance of courses that offer both coursework and examinations where grades are involved. A preservice teacher, Sid, explained that his lecturer was open to talk to any student who would like to discuss matters. He gave an example of how the lecturer waited for the students to ask any questions related to studies in a Google Meet where the meeting was not part of the timetable.

So he is open to accepting any student to come and ask questions so that he can help students like me. For example, during the review week of the last semester, he conducted a Google Meet and waited for students … so that anyone who had a problem can join the Google Meet and ask questions. That is the attitude that he cares about his students.

Likewise, Didi strongly felt that her lecturer cared for all her classmates as her lecturer took extra effort to make sure that everyone in the class understood the topic that was being taught on that day. She explained:

For every topic that she teaches, she will give us quizzes and she will go over each and every question that we get wrong on the spot, for tutorial. Other lecturers will tell you to go back and do it, but she doesn’t do it, she will tell us to sit there, finish it right now, show me, let me mark and then you can go back. Actually, she took the extra effort to sit down and look one by one.

Another preservice teacher, Iman, expressed that his lecturer gave personal coaching to him as he did not understand a topic well. He experienced a caring approach by the lecturer that comforted him. He said:

For example, in teaching us the table of test specifications, she would guide me personally as I did not understand. She cared so much that I needed help. When I found out that my course marks were not OK, she reassured me that I had potential… That’s proof of care that I really like.

Therefore, these preservice teachers have professed that their lecturers cared for them academically, wanting them to do well in coursework and examinations.

Discussion

The outcome of this study enriches the limited body of knowledge on preservice teachers’ perceptions of their caring lecturers, especially in an institution of teacher education. The results showed that all 17 items showed a high mean interpretation except for one item ‘interacts personally with me in the classroom’, which showed moderately high interpretation. The highest mean is ‘is open to question in class’, followed by ‘is prepared for class’. This showed that the lecturers were welcoming to students’ questions and prepared themselves well prior to instructions. The third highest mean is ‘is willing to help me’ and ‘is encouraging in class’, which is consistent with Garza and Van Overschelde’s (2018) study that showed more than 90% of their students considered these two items were important. Furthermore, this also shows that other items such as ‘respects my opinion’, ‘provides positive reinforcement, ‘listens to me in class’, and ‘is patient with me’ were also consistent in other studies (Garza & Van Overschelde, 2018; Ng et al., 2012; Zhao et al., 2023)

Also noteworthy is that, although items such as ‘returns graded assignments in a timely manner’ (mean = 4.05) and ‘provides constructive feedback on assignments’ (mean = 4.17) have a high mean interpretation, compared to other items these two items had a much lower mean, which requires attention. This indicates that more preservice teachers felt that their lecturers should return their graded assignments on time and provide constructive feedback on their assignments.

The FGD carried out is also consistent with the results of the survey where all the preservice teachers explained and agreed that their lecturers were patient with them, enthusiastic in their teachings, prepared well for class, willing to listen to them, respected their opinions, and were also fair, flexible and approachable. However, the item ‘interacts personally with me in the classroom’ did not attract much support from the preservice teachers. During the FGD, further elaboration was requested on the personal interactions between the students and lecturers; it was found that the preservice teachers were a little apprehensive on that matter as they were not interested in interacting personally with their lecturers. Upon further probing, an issue of trust surfaced. Apparently, the preservice teachers preferred not to share their personal issues with lecturers for fear it would be blown out of proportion. Observations revealed that the preservice teachers fell silent when this was brought up, their eyes lowered towards the floor and their smiles were erased from their faces. There was a clear indication that this matter was not comfortable for them. This finding calls for lecturers to consider working to buildtrust between them and the preservice teachers.

Thus, a caring lecturer is someone whom the preservice teachers perceive as a person that they look up to and who is always available to guide, nurture and empathise as well as to care for them academically and in terms of their well-being. Besides, it is also vital to be sensitive to preservice teachers or students from multicultural and multireligious backgrounds, as they benefit from lecturers who are knowledgeable and caring (Ilhavenil & Aravindan, 2023).

Limitations and future directions

Our research should be evaluated in light of a few limitations. Firstly, in terms of methodology, this research took into account only the views of the second-year preservice teachers, hence generalisability could not be attained. Purposive sampling is also adopted in the FGD. Additionally, this research is limited to only one institution of teacher education and does not cover all 27 institutions in the country.

Future research may include all the institutions of teacher education in the country and random sampling should be employed for generalisability to gain a more desirable outcome of the preservice teachers’ perceptions. Meanwhile, one may also resort to a purely qualitative study to gain an insightful understanding of the preservice teachers’ consciousness, awareness, feelings, and discernment of care. Only with that thorough understanding, a more updated set of criteria on disposition for the selection of lecturers in the institutions of teacher education can be proposed, as this trait will be impressionable to the preservice teachers.

Conclusion

Displaying care to students can be challenging in any system, be it at an institution of teacher education or at schools. Although time is a critical factor in displaying quality care, nevertheless, it is the responsibility of teachers or lecturers to demonstrate true care to students or preservice teachers, especially in engaging in emotional interactions to bring out the best in them. Educators’ role-modelling is necessary for the development of values and skills among learners (Kristjànsson, 2015).

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Sharon Lee Leh Hong who gave valuable advice on the statistical procedure of our paper and also to our students who willingly took part in our study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.