Who Supports the Educators? Why Human-Centred Capability Development Matters in Higher Education
- Louise Sommer Harvey
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
In Danish (Scandinavian) pedagogy, there is a simple but powerful question: Who cares for the carers?
Traditionally, the phrase refers to professionals whose work centres on supporting others. Teachers, social workers, nurses, psychologists, and community workers all occupy roles that require them to carry responsibility, provide guidance, and create environments where others can grow and thrive.
Today, I believe the same question deserves to be asked of university lecturers. Who supports the educators? Who creates space for them to be uncertain, reflective, vulnerable, and human? Behind every successful learning experience stands a lecturer navigating extraordinary complexity.
The Changing Role of the University Lecturer
Many academics enter higher education because they are passionate about knowledge and research. They are researchers, scholars, scientists, and disciplinary experts who have devoted years, and often much of their professional lives, to developing deep expertise and contributing to their field.
Yet the modern university asks them to be much more than experts.
Today's lecturers are expected to:
teach increasingly diverse student cohorts
foster critical thinking and engagement
support student wellbeing
navigate cultural differences
adapt to emerging technologies
maintain research outputs
manage administrative responsibilities
respond to changing institutional priorities
guide students through uncertainty and complexity
Increasingly, they are also expected to help students navigate a world shaped by artificial intelligence, misinformation, rapid technological change, and growing social uncertainty. These are not small responsibilities. And they cannot be addressed through technical expertise alone.
The Shift From Expert to Knowledge Mentor
For generations, universities have been built around the transmission of knowledge. Today, information is abundant. Students can access facts, explanations, summaries, and AI-generated responses within seconds.
This changes the role of the lecturer. The future of higher education is not simply about delivering knowledge. It is about helping students develop the wisdom to use knowledge well. This requires lecturers to become something more than content experts.
It requires them to become knowledge mentors.
Knowledge mentors help students:
ask better questions
evaluate information critically
engage with complexity
understand different perspectives
develop sound judgement
connect knowledge to lived experience
reflect on their assumptions and beliefs
Most importantly, they help students learn how to think rather than simply what to think.
Knowledge Is a Human Responsibility
Knowledge is not merely the accumulation of facts or research findings because knowledge carries responsibility. The responsible use of knowledge requires humility, self-awareness, ethical judgement, and an understanding of how our own experiences, values, and cultural frameworks shape what we see and how we act. This requires an appreciation that expertise alone is not enough.
Research knowledge matters, but so do lived experience, communication, cultural understanding, and the ability to engage with uncertainty. These are deeply human capabilities, and they sit at the heart of meaningful education.
Psychological Safety Is Not Only for Students
Universities increasingly recognise the importance of psychological safety for learners. Students learn best when they feel safe to ask questions, explore ideas, make mistakes, and engage with challenge. However, there is another question we rarely ask:
How can lecturers create psychologically safe learning environments for students if they themselves have nowhere to be uncertain, reflective, and supported?
Many educators are carrying significant emotional and professional demands. They are responding to student anxiety, changing expectations, technological disruption, increasing workloads, and complex social dynamics. Yet the people guiding others through uncertainty are often given very little space to explore their own.
If we want educators to create healthy learning environments, we must also consider the conditions that allow educators themselves to thrive. Psychological safety is not simply a student issue. It is a learning issue. And learning environments are only as healthy as the people who lead them.
Beyond Training
Universities invest significant resources in professional development such as new technologies, policies, frameworks, and new compliance requirements.
While these initiatives are important, information alone rarely creates transformation. Human development requires more than training. It requires: reflection, conversation, support, confidence, adaptability. The opportunity to integrate new knowledge into one's professional identity and practice.
However, the challenge facing higher education is not simply helping educators learn new skills. The challenge is helping educators navigate complexity while remaining connected to the values that brought them into education in the first place.
Supporting the Humans Who Teach
My work as an Educational Psychologist and Learning Specialist is grounded in a simple belief:
If we want better and stronger learning environments, we must invest in the people creating them.
Universities need educators who are confident and thriving teachers, reflective practitioners, effective knowledge mentors, and adaptable guides for learning. It's a lot, but those capabilities do not emerge through information alone. They emerge through human-centred development: A development that recognises educators not simply as employees or content experts, but as people navigating a rapidly changing educational landscape.
Before educators can guide others through uncertainty, growth, and transformation, they too need spaces where they can learn, reflect, and be supported.
And perhaps that brings us back to the original question:
Who cares for the carers?
In higher education, the answer may be one of the most important questions we can ask.
I would love to hear your reflections on this topic. Join the conversation on LinkedIn
Was this article inspiring and helpful?
Share it on social media
Pin it!
Send it to a creative friend who needs to read this
