Pastoral care programs are regarded as crucial in Australian school settings for addressing and promoting health, wellbeing and welfare of students. Schools are identified as sites which play a vital role in providing pastoral care for children and young people yet there has been difficulty over the years in defining pastoral care due to its inherently wide ranging and complex nature. Nonetheless, teachers recognise the umbrella term of pastoral care which generally refers to the provision of care and concern for students within a learning environment, supporting their physical, social, emotional, spiritual and intellectual development. Post Covid-19, pastoral care work has played a key role in the social and emotional development of children, their mental health and wellbeing.
Understanding the complexities of pastoral care work in Northern Territory (NT) outer regional and remote schooling contexts is important, as research indicates that pastoral care work is not something which is separate from the daily work of teachers. A mixed methods study was conducted in the NT. Findings from the quantitative analysis of teachers and school administrators survey responses, revealed that teachers spend 6.81 hours each week in pastoral care roles, which they felt was very important to the health of students. When explored in greater depth through analysis of qualitative data, the findings indicated that this work was not pastoral care according to the above definition but welfare-orientated teaching. This work focussed on meeting students’ physiological and safety needs, aimed at preparing students for learning and this work was often prioritised over formal classroom teaching. While such work may build the economic and social capital of vulnerable students and enable them to focus on learning in the short term, this work can be seen as creating new dependencies for vulnerable students, parents and communities and supporting a cycle of disempowerment.