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“Tutorial accompaniment facilitates the integration, development, and maintenance of positive relationships among social group members.”
Earlier this year, I wrote an article about psychological abuse and bullying in the classroom, relating a personal experience during my Ph.D. On this occasion, I would like to share relevant aspects of the events following that publication.
First, I would like to express appreciation for the trust that people in Mexico and abroad placed in me to share their experiences and testimonies. Above all, I am aware of how difficult it is to recognize that anyone can be affected by a situation of harassment and psychological abuse. Following the first publication, I had the opportunity to learn more about specialists studying this topic. My testimony has been relevant as a case study that facilitates identifying organizational environments characterized by academic violence modalities. These experiences strengthened my conviction about the importance of developing the mechanisms to eradicate all forms of psychological violence in a school or work context.
“We face a new type of coexistence as a global society, characterized by the importance of the quality of interactions between human beings to maintain an adequate level of well-being in people.”
I would also like to highlight the support and feedback I have been given at the university where I am currently doing my doctoral studies; their support has been exemplary. I would especially like to thank my teachers, thesis adviser, assigned tutor, and some of my fellow students for giving me enough confidence to express myself freely on this subject. I am deeply grateful to the institution and those in my postgraduate program who have shown solidarity with me. From this experience, I consider it necessary to analyze and share tutoring’s relevance as a key tool to promote spaces free of psychological harassment in academic institutions.
Psychological harassment is a form of emotional abuse in which a person who harasses shows intentional and hostile behavior over a frequent and prolonged time to harm, in some sense, another person or group of persons (Aquino and Lamertz, 2004; Doyle, 2001; Hirigoyen, 2001; Lewis and Orford, 2005; Leymann, 1996; Quine, 1999; Salin, 2003; Soares, 2002) cited in (Justicia et al., 2006).
What is academic tutoring?
Academic tutoring can be defined as an intentional teaching intervention in the educational process. It consists of close and systematic accompaniment to students that positively impacts their formative process. It aims to facilitate learning in several dimensions: cognitive, affective, socio-cultural, and even existential (Narro and Martiniano, 2013; cited by Adolfo Obaya and Yolanda Marina Vargas, 2014).
A historical reference in Mexico is the so-called “Institutional Tutoring Programs” begun in higher education institutions in the early 21st century. They derived from the National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education (ANUIES) proposal, which considered the need for changes in teaching practices to elevate the quality of the country’s higher education. This tutorial action’s main objective was directly linked to terminal efficiency (Velázquez-Sagahón and Rodríguez de la Rosa, 2014).
Currently, academic tutoring in our country’s educational system functions as an intervention with widespread institutional approval. It is considered an essential accompaniment process during student training. Whether for a student or a small group, this type of personalized attention calls for a tutor who guides, advises, and accompanies the student during his stay at the school (Montes et al., 2015).
Due to its importance in training researchers in many institutions of higher education, “tutorial action (tutoring)” has become a crucial element of accompaniment in the education of each graduate student. Its relevance in an academic program’s organization and operation is determinant (Narro Robles and Galván, 2013).
To utilize tutoring as a key tool to keep academic spaces free of psychological harassment, one must understand the factors that lead to academic violence such as psychological abuse and harassment. Then, through tutoring, it is possible to identify the characteristics of the environment in which these actions flourish.
Below, I present a proposal for a descriptive process whose goal is reconciliation among the involved parties to recover healthy interactions in the organization or social group, diminishing conflict and potential resentment among its members. To effectively identify, monitor, and disable a social environment where psychological violence such as harassment or psychological abuse plays out in its group dynamics, there must be a classification of the factors that identify its manifestations.
The following phases show different levels of psychological abuse and harassment, where one can observe that this type of academic violence is in progress.
Phases of psychological abuse
I. First phase: Risk factors
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Presence of microaggressions. Frequent and incremental comments over a determined (prolonged) period may be presented as ridicule, jokes, derogatory comments, and the use of digital media and social media to continue the harassment.
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Presence of micro sabotage. Attitudes and behaviors whose objective is to affect the victim’s message’s clarity and quality to discredit or affect their participation.
II. Second phase: Presence factors
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Signs of intimidation. The affected person shows some degree of intimidation in expressing ideas in class or actively participating in group activities.
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Signs of isolation. The person concerned isolates himself from the social group, where little or no interaction with other members is perceived.
III. Third phase: Consequences
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Academic gaslighting. A type of behavior in which the affected person’s judgment is systematically and consistently deflected, making him or her doubt their perception, judgment, or memory. It is a way to present the victim as lacking mastery or knowledge of a particular subject.
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Negative Pygmalion effect. It refers to the potential influence exerted by the belief of a person who harasses the victim’s performance or abilities.
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Impact on professional or social status. A person affected by harassment has to deal with a lack of credibility at a
professional or social level and smear within the organization.
This proposed model offers a basis for identifying and evaluating situations characteristic of possible harassment to design effective strategies to improve the quality of life in educational organizations and other institutions and reduce or eliminate those psychosocial risk factors that directly affect people’s quality of life. Through tutoring activities, it is possible to promote healthy coexistence and professional development at both the individual and group levels, considering that a person’s mental health affects their environment and how the dynamics of relationships among work and study colleagues become established.
To conclude, we find ourselves faced with a new kind of coexistence as a global society, characterized by the quality of interactions among human beings striving to maintain well-being. In this context, tutorial accompaniment facilitates the integration, development, and maintenance of positive relationships among social group members, improving people’s happiness, strengthening their sense of identity, and even leading to a consequent increase in academic or work productivity.
About the author
Saúl Esparza (saul.aer@gmail.com) is a Ph.D. student, writer, and researcher in Social Sciences and Economics.
References
Adolfo Obaya, V. y Yolanda Marina Vargas, R. (2014) ‘La tutoría en la educación superior’, Educación Química. Elsevier, 25(4), pp. 478–487. doi: 10.1016/S0187-893X(14)70070-9.
Montes, J. F. C. et al. (2015) ‘Actitudes de los estudiantes universitarios ante la tutoría. Diseño de una escala de medición’, Revista de la Educacion Superior. Asociación Nacional de Universidades e Instituciones de Educación Superior de la República Mexicana A.C., 44(173), pp. 103–124. doi: 10.1016/j.resu.2015.04.004.
Narro Robles, J. y Galván, M. A. (2013) ‘Mentoring: A fundamental process in the formation of college students,’ Perfiles Educativos. Elsevier, 35(141), pp. 132–151. doi: 10.1016/S0185-2698(13)71839-7.
Torres Frías, J. de la C. (2013) ‘Relación de tutoría y promoción del desarrollo de habitus científicos en estudiantes de doctorado en educación: Acercamiento a un caso’, Perfiles Educativos. Elsevier, 35(140), pp. 8–27. doi: 10.1016/s0185-2698(13)71819-1.
Velázquez-Sagahón, F.-J. y Rodríguez de la Rosa, H.-E. (2014) ‘Diseño e instrumentación de una tutoría de asignatura en el programa de licenciatura en Sistemas de Información Administrativa de la Universidad de Guanajuato’, Revista Iberoamericana de Educación Superior. Elsevier, 5(14), pp. 41–54. doi: 10.1016/s2007-2872(14)70299-9.
Editing by Rubí Román (rubi.roman@tec.mx) – Observatory of Educational Innovation.
Translation by Daniel Wetta.
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This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
