Fostering student mental well-being through supportive learning communities

At a time when a growing proportion of university students appear to be experiencing mental health problems, one form of collective response is to seek to develop supportive learning communities within academic courses and programs. Such communities have the potential to enhance student social connectedness, which can in turn help students to access peer support and to share strategies for coping with the demands of university. The development of supportive learning communities can be regarded as a preventative approach to student mental well-being, and complements the more individually focused work of mental health professionals. Here I discuss three relatively common pedagogical practices within the discipline of Geography which, in addition to their educational benefits, can be used to foster supportive learning communities. The practices are group work, residential fieldwork, and assignments that invite students to reflect on the aspects of the contemporary university that promote or undermine student mental well-being. I discuss some of the ways in which these pedagogical practices can help foster student mental well-being, as well as noting some institutional obstacles to their use.