Enacting Care-Ful Engagement in the (Post)Pandemic Care-Less University

Abstract

There is a strong link between student engagement and successful educational outcomes which is driven by the actions of and interactions with educators. In the context of pandemic pedagogies, many educators have taken on additional responsibility for the wellbeing and engagement of their students. The performance of this emotion work is strongly connected to an educator's professional and philosophical stance about the role of caring in teaching and learning. Building on the principles of care ethics with autoethnographic reflection of emergency remote teaching, this chapter presents a model of student engagement which reflects the additional needs and demands of care-based education on both educators and students. This model outlines for the enactment of deliberate, sustainable, and care-ful engagement based on an assessment of learner needs as well as educator investment and contributes insights for shaping (post pandemic) pedagogical practices.