What matters to us and what do we value? These are two key questions posed by Karen Gravett as she explores ideas around relational pedagogies and mattering and how they can contribute to creating a more caring university. In a neoliberal HE context laden with metrics-driven performativity, the call to care can feel like another layer of emotional labour, one disproportionately carried by women. Indeed, when the notion of care generally is seen as ‘women’s work’, how can it become part of a system that is overwhelmingly structured and gendered in ways that make it seem impossible? The first step is to critique ideas of care itself, in this context: it is not about happiness or pleasing or affection, but rather more nuanced, complex, ambivalent, and relational. Then we can aim to respond positively to the material challenges: to look beyond broad brush solutions and instead focus at the microlevel, on small changes and ways of relating and engaging that make a difference. The resources we mentionedGravett, K. (2023) Relational pedagogies: Connections and mattering in higher education. Bloomsbury.Gravett, K. (2025) Critical practice in higher education. Bloomsbury.Heron, M., Gravett, K., and Yakovchuk, N. (2020). Publishing and flourishing: writing for desire in higher education. Higher Education Research & Development, 40(3), 538–551. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2020.1773770 Elizabeth Adams St. Pierre professional profileWoolf, V. (1929/2002) A room of one’s own. Penguin.And the article we talked aboutGravett, K., Taylor, C.A. and Fairchild, N. (2024) Pedagogies of mattering: re-conceptualising relational pedagogies in higher education, Teaching in Higher Education, 29:2, 388-403, DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2021.1989580

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