The imperative for care and caring within health and education remains a call echoed by global entities such as United Nation agencies (for example the World Health Organisation [WHO]), institutions, and actors involved in global health and education policy (including the private sector, civil society organisations and national governments). Care however does not take place in a vacuum. Care takes place in a context that has undergone dramatic changes and shifts. Health workers, educators and students are at the intersect of two dynamic forces of change namely the health sector and higher education. Relational professions such as nursing and education create corporeal responses (such as care/ing) within us. Health workers, educators and students are the interface, the filter, the absorber, the deflector, the interpreter, the optimist, realist, the mentor, role model and agent of care. These roles have a dramatic and lasting effect on us and influence how we care and practice caring. Much of the discussions around care focus on the consumer of health care or education whether it is the client, patient or student. Many discussions are also from a deficit mode. The focus of this lecture is dedicated to the very foundation of these systems, namely the individual as health educator and scholar within these mutually dynamic contexts. A number of critical questions are pondered on namely how we get to care [too much] and whether we should or shouldn’t care about our care/ing within these complex environments.

1. Public lecture
University of Johannesburg
24 May 2016
By Prof Jeanette Maritz
Care/ing in complex environments: How we get to care
[too much], whether we should or shouldn’t care about caring

2. *CARING
The imperative of care and caring within health and education
HEALTH
SECTOR
Health workers, health educators, scholars,
students
Dramatic Changes and Shifts
HIGHER
EDUCATION

3. “
*CARING
“The question wasn't whether or not I cared [about him]; the question was,
how much? I'm glad …[he] didn't ask that, because then I'd have to ask
myself; and I already knew the answer. I cared far more than was safe.” ―
Neal Shusterman, Bruiser
How we get to care [too much] ?
Should or shouldn’t we care about our care/ing ?

4. *The global shortage of health professionals was termed a “crisis”
*A potential deficit of 18 million health workers in low- and middle-income countries
*Sustainable Development Goals: the aim is to provide universal access to health workers.
• One of the principles underpinning this vision are to:
Uphold the personal, employment and professional rights of all health workers, including
safe and decent working environments and freedom from all kinds of discrimination,
coercion and violence
* Mapping the demands to/in universal health care

5. Mapping the demands in higher education:
*Current changes, though specific in nature, are caught up in an period of constant crisis,
much the same as health care (Hall 2015)
*Many debates in higher education include narratives of crisis, change and disruption
*“Funding now follows performance rather than precedes it”
*Education has increasingly become a ‘high stakes game’ for someone, at some point in time
and for some agenda.
*

6. *
The academic thus enters the university that is an anxiety producing
machine that leads to academics developing an anxiety infused identity
(Hall 2014)
*The notion of a ‘traditional’ university or student no longer exists
Mapping the changing environment of higher education

7. Mapping the changing environment of higher education
*We juggle multiple actions and interactions of caring through multiple avenues, all the while
trying to be courageous and honest
*We try to be caring by not upsetting, violating, accusing, shaming or patronising people
*Jobs that are rooted in caring, emotions and will can become fixed into congeries of
frustration, anger, resentment, fear (or at times absolute pleasure).
.
*

8. “
‘academics will need to be ready in this new environment, possibly by
breaking existing moulds, some of which we may have created for
ourselves as ‘useful tools’ - Susan Carter, Cally Guerin and Claire Aitchison
Mapping the changing environment of higher education

9. Beyond a deficit view:
Students
The overarching culture of university life for all students starts with the premise that “you
need us.” The counterbalance that “you also bring great value to the
institution”is assumed to be in place for those considered university ready.
*Students whose identities upon arrival are tied almost exclusively to their deficiencies start at
an extreme disadvantage (White, 2016).
.

10. Beyond a deficit view:
Students
*It is increasingly evident that minority, low-income and first-generation students possess
experiences and characteristics that make them prime candidates for what a 21st-century
university is or what our changing society needs.

11. “
“We both referred to the occurrence of context in our unfolding stories … we
both claimed a sense of agency in that, although the context shaped our
identity and careers, we still had agency over the decisions and choices
that we made” (Maritz & Prinsloo, 2016).
Beyond a deficit view:
Students

12. Beyond a deficit view:
Educators and scholars
*‘Midwifery of new researchers [scholars]’ (IDERN 2016)
*
Most commonly we think about a midwife as a person, usually a woman,
who is trained to assist other women in childbirth. A more formal definition
includes a ‘health profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the
postpartum period (including care of the newborn)

13. ?
The question is ‘how do we care [enough] and not end up being burnt out,
overburdened, dull and numbed by the consistent demands in providing
care and caring in these complex times and context?
Beyond a deficit view:
Educators and scholars

14. Beyond a deficit view:
Educators and scholars
*‘Asset based’ approach to viewing our students or future clients as opposed to a deficit
discourse
*Agency in making choices in how we deal with adversity
*

15. SLOW
Beyond a deficit view:
Educators and scholars

16. “
I suggest an approach to caring as a reflective practice where we take
inventory of our personal care, our passions and motivation in a mindful and
connected manner. Not when we burn out, but while we still care enough.
Beyond a deficit view:
Educators and scholars

17. “
It is a right
Beyond a deficit view:
Educators and scholars

18. THANK
YOU*reflect and define how we care firstly for ourselves and secondly for what and those we ‘midwife’

19. jeanettemaritz@gmail.com
Telephone: *27 82788 8703
E-mail: maritje@unisa.ac.za
Personal blog: http://maritzblog.wordpress.com
Twitter profile: JeanetteMaritz