Students’ well-being in tertiary environments: insights into the (unrecognised) role of lecturers

Abstract

This qualitative study reports on the role of university lecturers in the wellbeing of undergraduate students. A sample of undergraduate student participants (n=335) at a large, urban residential university in the Gauteng Province of South Africa participated in rapid, face-to-face interviews. Interviews were conducted by student fieldworkers during multiple four-hour blocks on all weekdays. Data was analysed by means of thematic analysis. Findings indicate that university lecturers play a substantive role in the wellbeing of undergraduate students. These findings are significant in that they have emerged from open-ended questioning. Furthermore, the role of university lecturers is frequently unrecognised in terms of the psychological wellbeing of students and rather articulated in terms of the academic task. The findings present the role of lecturers in student wellbeing in a multi-faceted way. It is delineated as lecturer support, benevolence, lecturer competence, lecturer availability, interaction, and the lecturer's attitude towards their work.

Well‐being of higher education consumers: A review and research agenda

“…Qualitative methodologies were adopted by 8 percent of the studies. Critical incident technique (Bianchi, 2013), thematic analysis (Eloff et al, 2021), ladder map and hierarchical value maps (Voss et al, 2007) were some of the methods used here.…”

“…On a contextual level it has been found that received support has an important influence on well-being of students as consumers of higher education (Bianchi, 2013;Eloff et al, 2021;Gibbons et al, 2011).…”

“…On a contextual level it has been found that received support has an important influence on well‐being of students as consumers of higher education (Bianchi, 2013; Eloff et al., 2021; Gibbons et al., 2011). Particularly it has been found social support (Dvořáková et al., 2019; Yubero et al., 2018), relationship satisfaction (Hafen et al., 2013) autonomy support (Bonneville‐Roussy et al., 2020) improve SWB.…”

“…Particularly it has been found social support (Dvořáková et al., 2019; Yubero et al., 2018), relationship satisfaction (Hafen et al., 2013) autonomy support (Bonneville‐Roussy et al., 2020) improve SWB. Student–faculty interactions (Owens & Loomes, 2010; Trolian et al., 2020), mentorship (Charles et al., 2021), lecturer availability and competence (Eloff et al., 2021) also impact SWB. These consumers reportedly experience more well‐being if they can receive counsel from affable faculty members and find some time for relaxation (Voss et al., 2007).…”

Psychological Capital Relates With Teacher Enjoyment: The Mediating Role of Reappraisal

“…As the pandemic keeps coming back with different variants such as Delta and Omicron, it is still necessary under various circumstances for teachers worldwide, including those in China, to teach online. What is more important, as blended learning is becoming increasingly important in an extensive range of disciplines ( Holbeck and Hartman, 2018 ; Gonzalez and Knecht, 2020 ; Veerapen et al, 2020 ), it is necessary to switch our attention not only to learners ( Holbeck and Hartman, 2018 ; Gillis and Krull, 2020 ; Okada and Sheehy, 2020 ; Kohnke et al, 2021 ; Maheshwari, 2021 ; Wang and Jiang, 2022 ), but further to teachers, whose degree of enjoyment during online teaching has an impact on both their own well-being ( Anderson et al, 2021 ; Creely et al, 2021 ; Mahmood et al, 2021 ), and the emotion, well-being and learning enjoyment of students ( Badia et al, 2019 ; Eloff et al, 2021 ; Ergun and Dewaele, 2021 ; Goenner, 2021 ; Meishar-Tal and Levenberg, 2021 ; Naylor and Nyanjom, 2021 ).…”