The University's GTA policy explicitly states that:
"GTAs should not provide pastoral support or general academic guidance (eg on module choices) to students. Departments should ensure that GTAs understand the limits of their role and know what to do if a student raises a pastoral or general academic issue with them." (Section 38 of the University of York GTA Policy.)
However, GTAs frequently report that it can be challenging to maintain this boundary. This could be because you may be closer in age to your students, and so they may perceive you as being more approachable than academic staff, or it may be due to you having more contact with them through the course of your teaching.
The guidance below outlines the core things you need to be aware of if a student discloses a need for emotional support to you. The information focuses mainly on how you can signpost the student to appropriate support while maintaining your professional boundaries.
You may also wish to refer to the University's policy on personal relationships.
Be interested: students are learning the material, learning to learn, learning about themselves and still have life going on so it is expected and normal to have emotions and find difficulties to overcome and this will intersect with academic learning.
Centre the student, keep boundaries: students are competent adults with agency, responsible for their own lives and wellbeing. You can care but that doesn't mean taking on other people’s problems yourself. What can they do next to take care of themselves, learn and grow?
Actively listen: see how they see things, don't jump in with solutions. Sometimes people just need a listening ear and that is valuable
Signpost: if you feel there might be risk or if a student is distressed see the webpages In Crisis Now and Help and Support.
Find further links in the Signposting section below.
Consult: with your colleagues or with the Open Door team.
Always take care of yourself. “Put your own oxygen mask on first” and look after yourself after an emotionally difficult encounter. Open Door is also here to support PGRs, and GTAs on contract can also access the staff Employee Assist service or Occupational Health.
Appreciate how helpful it is to have you here!
Immediate danger
Call 999 for emergency services - or for the Campus Safety team call 01904 32 3333 or use the Safezone app.
If you feel there may be some risk, let Open Door know - the team will evaluate and reach out as needed. You can email opendoor@york.ac.uk or telephone 01904 322140.
It is fine to share information with the Open Door team as appropriate professionals within the same organisation if you feel there might be a risk: this is a reasonable and proportionate breaking of confidentiality.
For any issue, big or small, please consider:
Encourage students to look for whatever they need: just because they don't know of it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. You don't need to do this for them most of the time. The student health and wellbeing pages have suggestions for resources, as do the NHS.
Remind students to connect with support they already know about - this might be friends, family, someone in their college. Open Door and others can discuss with them how to create and nurture such networks.
You can signpost students to advice about lots of common issues in the Advice A-Z. We've covered some in detail below.
Some of these can be reframed by seeing the seminar as a place to learn and refine ideas so you’d expect to not know the material perfectly and be able to express it.
It can be easy when stressed to get into a spiral of only thinking of the worst case and taking a small and limited problem and extrapolating it to failure.
Sometimes self-calming and writing or speaking out the chain of thinking can allow more critical thinking and risk analysis - what might go well? what is likely? What would a positive coach say?
When more stressed it can be difficult to prioritise issues or schedule: it can feel like everything is equally big and needs to happen immediately. Time to calm and focus and plan can be a good use of time.
Many people here have been good at what they do and have gained praise and recognition for it, or have high hopes and expectations for themselves or pressure from family or others. It can sometimes therefore feel like any failure must be avoided or work must be perfect.
One way of reframing is about expecting and welcoming a learning process of improvement with useful feedback and being able to get an overview of what is "good enough" for each task to reach goals bigger than one task. It can be helpful to see that people who are further along in learning and career also make mistakes and learn.
"I can avoid feelings about this piece of work for now." Can be related to perfectionism and having an inner critic. Can sometimes be about getting started rather than work itself being hard. Sometimes looking ahead to one's future self can help, or being in a good working environment perhaps with others around.