Teaching and the Compassion Continuum
A recording of this article is available for those wishing to listen to this piece. Listen to Teaching and the Compassion Continuum.
1. A compassionate restart to what we do
The pandemic, the challenges in our society and communities, and the emergency changes to how we learn, teach, work and manage our personal lives have no doubt left us all stressed beyond our imagination. As educators, we work with many people on a daily basis and due to all of these additional stressors, there’s a heightened need to be considerate in our interactions. I write this as educators and everyone around the world are questioning the effectiveness of online teaching and learning. To be clear, I believe that both the last part of the Winter 2020, the entirety of the Spring/Summer 2020 and to some extent the Fall 2020 academic terms are cases of emergency remote teaching in the middle of a pandemic and not online teaching according to best practices.
Everyone—teachers, learners and parents/guardians—in this situation has had to work and learn while navigating many challenges, all of which have increased the need for mental and emotional health support. While all teachers may not be in a position to provide mental and emotional health support or care, we can all be a bit more considerate. Being considerate requires us to operate from a place of compassion—both for ourselves (self-compassion) and for everyone around us.
2. The empathy continuum
“Wait a minute, you began this blog with compassion and now you’re talking about empathy? What’s up with that?” I’ll get to compassion in a bit, I promise!
The empathy continuum [1] is simply a range of our reactions when someone shares their experience with us. If you do not care about what someone else may have experienced, it could mean that you may be choosing an indifferent reaction or that you do not know how to respond to the experience. If you are able to feel for them, i.e. you may feel sorry for them/their experience, it could mean that you are taking a sympathetic approach. Empathy, on the other hand, is the ability to feel with the person, i.e. when the person shares their experience with you, you are able to connect to the same or similar emotion that you may have experienced in the past and share that emotional experience with them. This is beyond sympathy, but it is on the same continuum or range of our emotions/reactions. (These definitions of sympathy and empathy are as defined by Dr. Brené Brown, who is an amazing researcher and storyteller. [2] I highly recommend that you read her books and watch the videos on her website.)
Empathy or any other action in this “empathy continuum” are not all-or-nothing behaviours, i.e. it is not as if you either have it or you don’t. You can learn and train yourself to be more empathic, and training programs and courses that teach people empathy exist.
Empathy is essential, especially in our roles as educators, advisors and mentors to students, for we do not know how their unique individual experiences may impact their learning or their ability to perform what many others may believe to be “normal” social actions and expectations. What may be normal or obvious to one person may not be to another. What may seem rational to some, may not be to another. Now in this pandemic reality and beyond, in whatever will be our new normal, I can only hope that we are able to better connect and feel with people in our communities and care for them, because in the name of regulations, procedures and processes, we have all but discounted empathy.
3. Compassion: Empathy + Action + Boundaries
“Why was that blurb about empathy and empathy continuum necessary? It made me feel guilty and uncomfortable about what I may have done or may do in the future.”
You’re correct. Sometimes, thinking about our actions can be challenging. It feels like we’re being called out. It feels uncomfortable. In part, it’s because we’re often socially conditioned to avoid talking about such topics. But this is an opportunity to consider what the other person may have felt when we may have dismissed their experience. Think about what someone may have felt when we cut them off when they were sharing their experiences or thoughts. We all do this in different ways—I have done this too, many times. I can become super competitive and when I’m this way, when I’m high functioning and in a “zone.” I have found that I don’t often listen intently when I’m in this “zone.” It is not about feeling guilty or ashamed of the behaviour when we recognize it or someone points it out to us, but about learning from it and growing from this lesson. Easier said than done, yes. This is where courage comes in. As Dr. Brown says in her book Braving the Wilderness, if we “lean in” to the emotions we feel when we come across this moment of uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure (which she defines as vulnerability [3]) we can recognize the opportunity and reframe our thinking. It has certainly helped me take a step back and fully understand the context before responding. I’m still a work in progress in this and am therefore compassionate towards myself as I learn.
Empathy is a great place to start because we can feel with another person. But it is very easy to orient too much towards the other person and to lose our own sense of identity. This is why it is important to understand our boundaries. Does it feel like a fancy word? Think walls and fences, except not at the borders of nations or your property line, but in your mind. Boundaries are simply identifying “what is okay and what is not (and why).” [4] Let me give you an example, if something you experience makes you angry, think about the trigger; about why you felt angry. When you understand it, you know that something is not okay, and you have identified one of your boundaries. If you are new to this, as I am, keep a journal and write down what is not okay. Let me share with you one of my boundaries: dismissing concerns about mental health is not okay. You may have different priorities and boundaries. Identifying them takes a lot of courage and requires you to lean in to your vulnerabilities. I respect you for doing the work. (Tip: I was able to better trust myself and better identify my boundaries after I started to read Braving the Wilderness by Dr. Brené Brown.[5] I highly recommend this book and her TED talks as a starting point if you are unsure where to begin.)
Compassion is a step further along the continuum from empathy. While empathy allows us to feel with someone, compassion is feeling with and then trying to support someone in their experience.[6] I feel that we have to explicitly include our boundaries in this definition as well, because when we have identified our boundaries, we are able to be empathic and take action without feeling overwhelmed. It takes time and practice for this to become easier. When you can feel with people and have identified your personal boundaries, you’re able to take action from this foundation, which makes you take a compassionate route towards teaching, learning and other life activities.
4. Teaching grounded in empathy & compassion
I have to admit, writing this section was hard. It was hard to anticipate situations that require our compassion, when we’re all going through so many different experiences. It reminded me of something I heard recently as a reframe for the expression “we are all in this together” — we’re not and here’s the reframe — “we may all be in the same storm, but we are all not in the same boat.” I thought I’d begin there. Be compassionate with yourself, don’t feel guilty for having said “we are all in this together” in the past. I’m one of the people who said this constantly until it didn’t feel okay and then I sought to learn from the feeling of discomfort to learn about the reframe. We are all in different situations and our past experiences will influence how stressed and anxious we feel in a given scenario. So why not begin with this assumption? That we’re all at different points on experience (stress, anxiety, happiness, etc.) continuums.
So, what does this mean for teaching and learning? It gives us a point to begin — being self-aware in such moments helps us empathize with our students. Think of it this way — if we’re experiencing certain emotions because of an emergency switch to remote teaching, how would a student feel? I can tell you as someone who has by now completed four online courses since April (on online teaching, well-being, psychological first aid, and leadership) and still enrolled in one ongoing certificate (with multiple small course modules that goes until December), the student perspective can be overwhelming. Quite overwhelming. Gone are the days when you could casually chat with fellow learners while sipping a cup of coffee on campus, in person, while working on projects. In a COVID-19 reality, these informal chats have to be scheduled based on availability, while managing evolving workloads and the stresses of balancing work, life and well-being. This has been my experience with managing one or two courses at a time. Think of our students who now have to balance their own realities with 4-5 (and sometimes 6) courses at a time.
A compassionate foundation in our teaching simply means that we acknowledge these challenges in our new realities (or the common humanity [7] aspect of self-compassion), understand student needs, and explore how to best support students in their learning.
Now that we have chatted about all these pre-requisite bits of information, let’s see how compassion could look in our daily work life as teachers, advisors, and administrators. As I present these scenarios, remember that they’re only a subset of examples from our daily lives and are based on lessons I have learned. Feel free to adapt them based on your boundaries and your experiences and share your lessons with me on Twitter (@RaghavSampangi) so that I can learn from you too.
1. You may have heard people say, “use multiple modes of offering content in your courses to support universal design for learning.”
Let’s unpack the reality in this scenario: You are new to teaching online (like many of us) and are worried about the additional time that is required to offer content in multiple modes. What can you do?
First, be compassionate with yourself. It is okay if you cannot do everything in the first take (define your boundaries by thinking about what is not possible). Identify the modes that you can offer (e.g. lecture notes & video with subtitles). Focus on those.
Seek help. Our CLT team is actively working to support with such cases. Reach out and ask for help. Remember, it is a sign of courage to seek help.
2. You may be used to teaching live and in-person and prefer synchronous classes.
Many of us rely on visual cues and feedback when teaching and supporting our learners. This is very challenging in an online setting.
Be compassionate: Students may not have the infrastructure to join live and synchronous sessions.
Consider making lecture videos available online with lecture notes.
If possible, consider creating audio-only versions of your lectures too. Panopto (that is available integrated within Brightspace) allows us to offer an audio podcast version of lecture videos.
Consider having an optional synchronous touch point that is recorded and made available to students following the session.
We are all in the middle of a pandemic. It’s okay to feel stress about the amount of work involved. Again, define boundaries based on what’s possible. Communicate these expectations from yourself to your learners, and make sure to practice self-compassion.
3. Your course has always had an exam and you are stressed about online exams.
Reality check: Online courses are *not* the same as in-person classes and we cannot guarantee a controlled environment. We also cannot guarantee that students will have the infrastructure to support synchronous exams or exams in a window of a few hours. We will have to consider scaling down what we typically teach and identify elements that can be taught and assessed online.
Be compassionate: Remember, scheduled and unscheduled power outages are common in many parts of the world. Our students are joining our classes from all over the globe.
Practice self-compassion: You do not have to run an exam. Don’t pressure yourself to do it if you’ve always had an exam.
Try to find alternative ways to assess. It is easier said than done, yes, and the nature of many courses makes it challenging to offer alternative assessments. Again, reach out to our CLT team to brainstorm peer-reviewed and evidence-based methods of assessment.
Remember to practice self-kindness as you make this decision. You’ve got this!
4. Your students are asking for extensions or you are worried that they will ask for more extensions in an online course.
Be compassionate: It’s okay to be worried. You are right to feel helpless in a situation that is beyond your (and all of our) control.
Remember that this situation is overwhelming for everyone. The students may be worried about their ability to manage all that is being asked of them in this scenario, and you may be worried about setting precedent and about other students asking for extensions too. Neither is wrong. It is okay to feel this way.
Define your boundaries and identify what is okay and what is not when it comes to extension requests. Consider your workload and that of your TAs when evaluating assignments with extensions. Sometimes it may be valuable to consider alternative options for assessments.
Think about whether future assessments are assessing the learning outcomes that are covered under the assessment for which the student is asking for an extension. Would it make sense to have them learn and demonstrate their knowledge in the next assessment in such a case? If you are unsure, reach out to our CLT team to brainstorm.
5. You’re unsure of how to handle discussions around mental health and well-being, if students disclose them to you.
Following disasters, there is a significant increase in demand for mental health services.[8] With all of us experiencing the impact of this pandemic, it is natural for both the learners and ourselves to feel the need for mental and emotional support.
The Dalhousie Blue Folder is a great resource that points you to what to do when a student seems to be in mental health distress.
Be compassionate and gently support them as per the steps identified in the Blue Folder.
If you are interested, consider taking the course on Psychological First Aid on Coursera, offered by Johns Hopkins University. This course has helped me understand techniques such as reflective listening and being supportive during moments of distress. I have found that the lessons I learned from this course have helped me be a better advisor to students in my program.
Again, be compassionate: it is okay to not know everything about mental health and well-being. If you prefer, you can choose to explore this topic because we all have to work together to end the stigma around mental health.
6. You have plans to use many pieces of technology and are eager to employ the many new tools that are at your disposal.
Be compassionate: Think very carefully about infrastructure requirements.
Our learners may be living (and learning) in many different kinds of circumstances. As someone who has taken many of these online courses, I can tell you that it can be really overwhelming for a student to learn and use many different platforms (across different courses). It would be best to choose tools that are absolutely essential for learning in the course(s) you teach. The fewer and simpler, the better.
Be gentle with yourself as you think about infrastructure and other potentially limiting factors: because it can be demoralizing if you have thought of using something but cannot. Remember, we’re still in the middle of a pandemic. Nothing is normal about this situation. Be kind with yourself.
7. You are getting questions from students about an aspect of a program that you help administer, and you want to change the situation quickly so that students can be supported.
Understand the problem better: Use phrases like “say more” or “help me understand this better” so that you can have a conversation to understand the problem better, before reacting.
Resist the urge to react. This has been the hardest lesson for me to learn too. Take a few moments and practice box-breathing (inhale for 4 seconds through your nose, hold for 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds through your mouth and hold for 4 seconds).
Think, reflect, set it aside for a while. Return to the matter and consider it again, before reaching out to someone you trust to brainstorm potential solutions. It is natural to want to “fix” things, and if you slow down your reactivity in such situations, you can respond instead of reacting.
Responding, not reacting, is the key. Practice compassion and self-compassion. You got this!
5. So, what’s next?
My intention here was to give you some ideas and thoughts on being compassionate as we teach and in our daily lives. I truly believe that actively practicing compassion is the need of the hour and is an essential foundation for whatever new “normal” that we work towards. Leaning in to compassion in our daily lives is an act of courage. I am grateful that you took the time to read this piece. I wish you well in your compassionate and courageous teaching endeavours!
You may contact Raghav Sampangi at raghav@cs.dal.ca.
Footnotes
[1] https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/rsa-blogs/2015/12/the-empathy-continuum
[2] https://www.thersa.org/discover/videos/rsa-shorts/2013/12/Brene-Brown-on-Empathy and https://brenebrown.com/
[3] This vulnerability is different from the vulnerability in the context of a flaw or weakness that we computer scientists or people in other fields may be used to. This vulnerability is inherent to all of us, and without this vulnerability, it is challenging to be courageous.
[4] Brown, B. (2018). Dare to Lead. New York: Random House.
[5] Brown, B. (2017). Braving the Wilderness. New York: Random House.
[6] https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/compassion/definition#what-is-compassion
[7] Neff, K. D. (2003). Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward oneself. Self and Identity, 2, 85–102.
[8] Neria, Y., Galea, S., and Norris, F. H (Ed.). (2010). Mental Health and Disasters. Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511730030
dr. raghav V. sampangi
Senior Instructor, Faculty of Computer Science