Category: Belonging through compassion

Exploring belonging through compassion

Mandala of compassion, [Photography]. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Retrieved 12 Mar 2023, from
https://quest.eb.com/search/151_2516945/1/151_2516945/cite

I mentioned before in my blog that I would like to explore the meaning of compassion in education. My interest was piqued by reading bell hooks’ writing (reflection on it in my other post) on love and receiving feedback on my microteaching session that mentioned modelling a compassionate approach. 

When thinking about where to start, I turned to the UAL staff website to check what is available there. I came across Belonging through compassion page that provides lots of resources I can delve into and learn about compassionate pedagogies and how they are being implemented at UAL. 

I started with exploring the Belonging through compassion site by Liz Bunting and Vikki Hill that curates resources and ideas that support the design of compassionate teaching, assessment, leadership and policies. I clicked through Teaching section and found what I have been looking for.  

First thing that interested me was the work of Vikki Hill and Dr Theo Gilbert who recorded the a number of conversations exploring how compassionate pedagogy can be embedded within teaching. I watched Creating communities and Love & oppression parts. I really loved the definition of compassion provided by Dr Gilbert. It is noticing distress in others (our ourselves!) and doing something about it. It is to not normalise the stress.  

 I think we are often aware of money and other struggles our students may go through, however, calling their time at university as time of oppression has strongly resonated with me.  

Both videos made me think about many students in the library when they clearly feel overwhelmed. It is almost every day that I come across a student who is afraid to ask us questions, so they do not expose their lack of knowledge. How can I encourage them? I am very interested in verbal and non-verbal micro skills of compassion that Dr Gilbert talks about.

Next, I will investigate micro skills section on the blog I started to explore. I feel hooked!

bell hooks “all about love”(preface and introduction)

Reading for Values and Ethics in Teaching seminar

Background photo by Michael Heinrich: https://www.pexels.com/photo/green-leaf-tree-72509/

I chose to read the bell hooks’ text recommended for Values and Ethics in Teaching seminar, as her book has been on my reading list for some time now. I read, re-read, and re-read this text again. I found it absolutely captivating. I find it difficult to think about this text in the same category as the other books and articles I read for the course so far. It defies the standard responses I would usually have when reading for my studies. bell hooks writing cannot be easily reflected upon in terms of agreeing with the author or thinking how it relates to my academic practice. It relates to all aspects of life – probably not that surprising as the author talks about love, the subjects that we all are emotionally invested in. What was great about this text is how love is also looked at as a research subject. It was fascinating and very informative to learn how differently men’s and women’s writings on love can be perceived (or are they different altogether?).  

I was especially captivated by the author talking about love in connection to social justice movements and how the most important of them “have strongly emphasized a love ethics” (hooks, 2000, p.XiX). This, and the fact that love is so intricately connected to belonging (“…where I felt loved, where I felt a sense of belonging.” p. X) brought the compassionate pedagogies into my mind. My interest in them has already been peeked when I received my feedback on the microteaching and I want to explore meaning and place of compassion in education further.