Chrissina Burke, Senior Lecturer, Anthropology
Dawn Hawley, Professor, Geography, Planning, and Recreation
We know that life is stressful, especially given the number of how-to articles to help us “destress” or “meditate mindfully” or “build work-life balance” in a basic Google search. Even considering our increasingly stressful and overbooked lives, why do we continue to give assignments our students call “busy work?” Why are we expecting our colleagues to respond to emails quickly? What aspects of our lives are causing us to continue to raise the expectations of everyone around us, knowing it is not sustainable? We need to reframe THIS conversation. Essentially, what we need to know is: do we need a compassionate space for our students and colleagues to thrive?
We all have a story about a student in our office hours who has been overwhelmed with family, friends, employment and classwork obligations. What we often forget as faculty is how intense the actual transition to college can be for students. Exposure to new experiences and circumstances, the culture-shock of new teachers and peers, and a different type of peer-pressure await our students every semester. They are potentially living with people they do not know or like, a recipe for anxiety and possible disaster. We have first-hand experience with homeless NAU students living in the forest, those who could only afford the least expensive dining plan and have run out of funds on their meal card or live off-campus and are food insecure. Some students are at risk of losing a scholarship which would mean dropping out. We have personally taken students in distress to the HLC for counseling. Research in teaching and learning indicates (Berg and Seeber 2016; Cavanagh 2016; Darby 2018; McGuire 2015) that students with compassionate faculty are more academically and emotionally successful. So, how can we help our students from a compassionate framework?
While the university informs us of the anxiety carried by our graduate and undergraduate populations, we should openly recognize stress is not limited to our students. Faculty, staff, and administrators are dealing with rapidly changing situations, suggesting crisis as the norm, too. Expectations are high for research, student engagement and retention, and creating programmatic efficiencies; service work seems never ending. And underneath the work and learning stress is a personal life…somewhere…that comes with its own challenges. So how do we support each other? How do we meet each other where we are, instead of expecting more? When is the last time you said or heard or thought something to this effect:
Those students don’t want to learn! They are so unprepared. I’m wasting my time.
That policy is ____. Administrators have no idea what we do.
I can’t handle it anymore. I feel unappreciated and overwhelmed.
Unfortunately, many of us feel personally disconnected and even disrespected. Worse yet, when has this frustration been let loose in your classrooms, in your office, or in a meeting, for example in the form of lashing out at an innocent colleague? As humans we will struggle. If we nurture a view of emotional despair and frustration concerning our students and each other how can we create an emotionally healthy working and learning environment? We need to cultivate respect versus negativity and interpersonal competition. We need to be more mindful of ourselves and the humanity around us. The phrase “walk a mile in their shoes” ought to be in our heads, because none of us is omniscient but each of us can imagine another person’s struggles. We each contribute, are interconnected and everyone should have their positive contributions recognized and respected. That is a lot to handle. Re-read this paragraph, what does this mean? How can we admit our personal or professional failures in a system that prioritizes success with awards that often fail to recognize compassionate practice?
How can we support each other and build a more compassionate university, not just a classroom?
What is Compassion?
Compassion is being consciously sympathetic to another’s distress and wanting to alleviate or, at the very least, understand it (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/feeling-it/201306/compassion-our-first-instinct Accessed 11-18-19). From the Latin, it means to suffer together, com = with, pati= to suffer (https://www.etymonline.com/word/compassion Accessed 11-7-19).
As instructors, we are experts in our topics and fields. We may not be experts in humanity, however (Humanities, excluded). It often takes us a long time to learn this. As higher education is commodified, efficiency can take precedent over uniqueness further dehumanizing us. Each of us matters. Compassion exists within relationships including those you cultivate with yourself; students and colleagues is a demonstration of compassion in action. A recent article in the Lumberjack had interviews with students regarding the communication and availability of certain services on campus. What strikes us is the student comment “By not reaching out, it’s showing that they don’t care” (Brown 2019). In the most basic sense, compassion is simply showing we care.
What compassion is not: Misconceptions
One of the biggest misunderstandings we hear as faculty is that being compassionate in the classroom or with your colleagues implies accepting failure or substandard performance. We would argue that is not an accurate description. Instead, we believe that we can be compassionate by simply accepting differences and supporting each other in our pursuits. It’s not making your class a cakewalk, nor is it relaxing the standards of expectations for the performance of your colleagues.
If we are to truly behave compassionately, we must honor a few important pedagogical principles. First, we need to scaffold the system to learn and progress, in our classes, in our departments, and in careers. Scaffolding can be a process constructed to allow individuals time to develop skills in a stepwise fashion and envisioned as a process of compassion as well with support feedback and follow through, intervening compassionately instead of noting failure after the fact. We ask our students to support each other. We should ask no less of ourselves. We can acknowledge and value the work individuals do toward their assignments, coursework, or career-wise outside of awards.
Second, how do we support and educate individuals through failure in a compassionate way? Everyone fails, and the support we have during that experience can change the way we engage with our failures and successes. To really develop an understanding of failure, one doesn’t need to be protected from experiencing the emotions of failure. Instead, introducing failure in a compassionate environment and learning through the process of failing, identifying what did not work, or what could have been reflected on earlier or even reviewing instructions carefully can benefit the individual going through this process and create resiliency. For example, many faculty allow students to redo exams, but instead of just turning in the correct answers students need to identify where they either found the correct information in the textbook, or explain why they received low marks on the answer and explore options to improve studying. This pedagogical strategy provides the scaffolding needed to understand failure, which in the end is compassionate instead of negative.
Finally, we need to change the notion that behaving compassionately with each other is a time suck. Becoming more compassionate is more about a change in attitude instead of “dumbing down” your workload or rigor. A misconception is that rigor means more work – instead rigor is about making something challenging, not impossible to complete. This also means we must consider what students are doing in other classes and lives. Some of our students have admitted that some of their instructors assign work as if they are only in that one class. We often forget that a 3-unit classes requires 9 hours of work weekly, which includes the time in class. And many of our students are working one or more jobs for the opportunity of attending NAU.
How to show compassion? Practical Ideas
How do you behave compassionately? If you are in the classroom, online or in person, you have an opportunity to be compassionate every class day. Students who are inattentive in your class may have undisclosed learning disabilities, be food insecure, or are tired because they got off work late, not just bored with your teaching. Students who disappear might be dealing with depression, family issues or be so overwhelmed that they freeze and are unable to attend class. Redirect the anger, or rejection of self, and refocus attitude on the issues at hand. Try quick check-ins with your classes. Maybe a twenty-second-deep breathe, or ask your freshmen class if everyone is ready for the winter weather, “Do you have gloves?” What about adding a brief 30 second, “I want everyone to close their eyes and breath in, really deep, now breath out,” in the middle of your class period. Reduce or explain jargon in your syllabi so that varying socioeconomic groups or international students will have a better understanding of what you are trying to accomplish.
Compassion doesn’t mean you have to do the student’s work for them. If a student has a question that (you think) was easily answered in the syllabus, you can direct them (voice and gestures or email writing in check) where to locate the information, or maybe use this opportunity to reiterate the information for others in the class who either don’t understand or need the direction as well but won’t ask. Try again to engage the unengaged. Changing discussions to better serve the diversity in your classrooms might mean providing options for different levels of participation. For example, a neurodiverse, introverted, or culturally isolated student might have variable needs that can be addressed by rethinking assignments in your class.
How do you help students with self-compassion? Share the experience of failure or imperfection with them. Let them know it’s ok, then help them learn through the failure. A marked-up peer-reviewed article of yours provides an opportunity to share your experience with constructive criticism and growing through the process. Destigmatize services that are available to students. Learn about the current issues and statistics affecting students here at NAU so you have perspective. Help them understand that taking care of oneself is important to the learning process (and their overall wellness). If you have a Bb Learn shell, an item on NAU Services placed on the home page is something you can go over in class, then is available 24-7 to all the students accessing that shell. This shows your students that this information is as important as other information in your course. A self-reflective sentence on a personal inspiration or positive memory exercise (repeated) is a quick way of moving students away from an overriding negativity.
How do you help students treat each other compassionately? Work on respect. Provide guidance for how to frame discussions, inform your students about what the differences in the populations here at NAU face. Try productive silence and written reflections. Share something from your own experience that relates and opens the door. Try compassionate listening. Create safe spaces in your classrooms and offices. And be mindful of your own actions. Students can see through hypocrisy.
How do you maintain compassion within the university? Understand the university is one organism. Different talents, expertise and employees are needed to make the organism live and excel. We share a goal and that is educating, in our myriad ways, students. Think about the time you felt overwhelmed, disrespected, misunderstood. Others are feeling that right now.
A Charge to Us All
Choose to err on the side of compassion and engage with your students in a way that shows compassion, even if you start out with just one instance of this behavior a week. Participate in a professional development session about the NAU student, whether it’s veterans, mental wellness and LGBTQIA support through Safe Jacks or Safe Zone training, gaining more information about the students we teach and interact with is an act of compassion. Look at 5 faces a class period in that sea of 300 students and wonder about them as individuals, ask them about their day. Remember to treat your colleagues compassionately too. We know things are difficult right now, the academic world feels under attack. Our lives are busier than ever and the pressure to excel is ever present. Believe that others are trying as hard as they are able. Ask each other “how is your day going?” and respond honestly. Let a new faculty or staff member know about something it took you a long time to become aware of.
Don’t forget to treat yourself with compassion as well. The Employee Assistance and Wellness Program offers amazing workshops and services to support you, your relationships, and your well-being. Finally, validate and support your colleagues’, students’ and your own emotional needs – help everyone through the struggles of human life. We are, after all, human.
References:
Berg, Maggie and Seeber, Barbara. 2016. The Slow Professor. University of Toronto Press, Toronto.
Brown, Molly. 2019. Counseling Services Continue to Struggle with Student Demands. http://www.jackcentral.org/news/counseling-services-continues-to-struggle-with-student-demand/article_26e0fc10-4000-5421-997a-c8fba0bb517c.html . NAU Lumberjack 11-7-19. Accessed 11-8-19.
Cavanagh, Sarah Rose. 2016. The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion. West Virginia University Press, Morgantown.
Darby, Flower. 2018. Walking a Mile in Our Students’ Shoes. https://community.acue.org/blog/walking-a-mile-in-our-students-shoes/ .Accessed 11-15-19.
McGuire, Saundra. 2015. Teach Students How to Learn. Stylus Publishing, Sterling, VA.
Seppala, Emma. 2013. Compassion: Our First Instinct. Psychology Today Blog . https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/feeling-it/201306/compassion-our-first-instinct Accessed 11-18-19.
Recommended Reading:
Berg, Maggie and Seeber, Barbara. 2016. The Slow Professor. University of Toronto Press, Toronto.
Kaufman, Peter and Schipper, Janine. 2018. Teaching with Compassion: An Educator’s Oath to Teach from the Heart. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.