Handholding, Walking With Students. Compassionate—Not Customer—Care in Post-Secondary Education

Values of independence and self-determination predominate over relations of care and compassion in fast-paced academia and post-secondary institutions, a “malaise” that faculty and students alike experience. Large-scale production rewards the “Invictus” (undefeatable, unconquered), leaving others mostly to their own and allowing little or no space for individual care, for handholding. As a graduate cohort advisor in early childhood education (ECE), I have resisted giving in to such values. Inspired by principles of a feminist ethics of care and pedagogy of listening, in this paper I reflect on a decade of handholding and walking with ECE post-secondary students as an act of resistance.