Abstract
Given the increasing numbers of adult learners on university campuses, both as undergraduates and graduates, an understanding of adult learning processes is relevant—indeed essential—to the university's response to this student group. While educators have attempted to understand learners in terms of developmental stages, learning styles, and contextual factors, less attention has focused on the dynamics of helping relationships that attend learning or the importance of caring in the learning process. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and explicate the experience of caring as it relates to graduate education from the perspective of the graduate student. The connection between caring relationships and learning was confirmed. Seven components of the caring were identified. Implications for the university center on attention to relationship skills and the creation of a campus community in which caring relationships are encouraged and nurtured.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Appleton, C. (1990). The meaning of human care and the experience of caring in a university school of nursing. In M. Leininger & J. Watson (Eds.), The caring imperative in education (pp. 77-94). New York: National League for Nursing.
Barritt, L., et al. (1984). Analyzing phenomenological descriptions. Phenomenology + Pedagogy, 2,1-17.
Beck, C. T. (1991). How students perceive faculty caring: A phenomenological study. Nurse Educator, 16, 18-22.
Becker, C. S. (1992). Living and relating; An introduction to phenomenology. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Belenky, M., Clinchy, B., Goldberger, N., & Tarule, J. (1986). Women's ways of knowing. New York: Basic Books.
Bonham, L. A. (1989). Using learning style information, too. In E. Hayes (Ed.), Effective teaching styles (pp. 29-40). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Brookfield, S. D. (1991). The skillful teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Buber, M. (1970). I and Thou. New York: Scribner's.
Buber, M. (1965a). Between man and man. New York: Macmillan.
Buber, M. (1965b). The knowledge of man. New York: Harper and Row.
Claxton, C. S., & Murrell, P. H. (1987). Learning styles: Implications for improving educational practices. Washington, DC: Association for the Study of Higher Education.
Craig, D. B. (1996). Nursing faculty connecting with students: A Heideggerian hermeneutical study. Dissertation Abstracts Online, 57(4B), 2475.
Cross, P. K. (1981). Adults as learners: Increasing participation and facilitating learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Daloz, L. (1986). Effective teaching and mentoring. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Dillon, R. S., & Stines, P. W. (1996). A phenomenological study of faculty-stuent caring interactions. Journal of Nursing Education, 35, 113-118.
Dirkx, J. M., & Deems, T. A. (1994). The influence of self-other relationships in constructivist approaches to adult learning. In L. Martin (Ed.), Proceedings of the thirteenth annual midwest research to practice conference (pp. 48-53). Milwaukee, WI: University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.
Giorgi, A. (1975). An application of the phenomenological method in psychology. In A. Giorgi, C. T. Fischer, & E. L. Murray (Eds.), Duquesne studies in phenomenological psychology, Vol. II (pp. 82-103). Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University press.
Giorgi, A. (1985). Sketch of a psychological phenomenological method. In A. Giorgi (Ed.), Phenomenology and psychological research (pp. 8-22). Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.
Halldorsdottir, S. (1990). The essential structure of a caring and uncaring encounter with a teacher: The perspective of the nursing student. In M. Leininger & J. Watson (Eds.), The caring imperative in education (pp. 95-123). New York: National League for Nursing.
Hanson, L. E., & Smith, M. J. (1996). Nursing students' perspectives: Experiences of caring and not-so-caring interactions with faculty. Journal of Nursing Education, 35, 105-112.
Hayes, E. (1989). Insights from women's experiences for teaching and learning. In E. Hayes (Ed.), Effective teaching styles (pp. 55-66). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Knox, A. B. (1977). Adult development and learning: A handbook on individual growth and competence in the adult years. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Kohn, A. (1990). The brighter side of human nature; Altruism and empathy in everyday life. New York: Basic Books.
Lenz, K. S. (1994). A multiple case study examining factors affecting the completion of the doctoral dissertation by academically able women. Dissertation Abstracts International, 55,(12A), 3714.
Merriam, S. B., & Caffarella, R. S. (1991). Learning in adulthood. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Miller, B. K., Haber, J., & Byrne, M. W. (1990). The experience of caring in the teaching-learning process of nursing education: Student and teacher perspectives. In M. Leininger & J. Watson (Eds.), The caring imperative in education (pp. 125-135). New York: National League for Nursing.
Moustakas, C. (1994). Phenomenological research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Noddings, N. (1984). Caring: A feminine approach to ethics and moral education. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Noddings, N. (1992). The challenge to care in schools; An alternative approach to education. New York: Teachers College Press.
Palmer, P. (1998). The courage to teach. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Robertson, D. L. (1996). Facilitating transformative learning: Attending to the dynamics of the educational helping relationship. Adult Education Quarterly, 47, 41-53.
Sinnott, J., & Johnson, L. (1996). Reinventing the university: A radical proposal for a problem-focused university. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Tennant, M., & Pogson, P. (1995). Learning and change in the adult years. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
van Manen, M. (1990). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. Albany, NY: State University of New York.
von Eckartsberg, R. (1986). Life-world experience: Existential phenomenological research approaches in psychology. Washington, DC: Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology and University Press of America.
Wertz, F. J. (1984). Procedures in phenomenological research. In C. M. Aanstoos (Ed.), Exploring the lived world: Readings in phenomenological psychology, Vol. 23 (pp. 29-48). Carrollton, GA: West Georgia College Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rossiter, M. Caring and the Graduate Student: A Phenomenological Study. Journal of Adult Development 6, 205–216 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021484326869
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021484326869