Compassionate Pedagogy Has Rules, Right?

You're semester or school year is off and running - am I right? 

In my last post I encouraged you to take care of yourself over the summer.  To show yourself some compassion as you prepared for this fall.  I hope you did that. If you didn't now you have another chance. In the world of helpers, September is Self Care Month. Consider this my gentle nudge to remind you to take care of yourself as you work online with your students this semester. Self care is another blog post, but it is a form of self compassion and if you don't show this to yourself, you will struggle to offer it to your students. Find someone you can pair up with who would be fortunate enough to have a self care partner in you. 

Speaking of fortunes, I was fortunate enough to attend several professional development sessions this summer.  As we work together to grow our knowledge and skills using a compassionate pedagogy framework, let me share some compassion with you.  This was shared with me when I attended a professional development event hosted by Columbia's School of Social Work: 

Don't expect yourself to be perfect.  And remember your students are balancing a lot and trying hard too - even if you don't know it. 

We Must Have Rules to Have Rigor!

You have rules for your face to face class so of course you have rules for your online courses, right? I've read a lot about rules and expectations for online learning communities in various social media groups I belong to. Discussions surrounding rules for student appearance in a synchronous class, whether or not students should have their cameras on during a class session, or even if students should be out of their bedrooms and sitting in an office or at a table to learn have come up. Some higher education faculty members have asked their students to have professional looking Zoom backgrounds, wear appropriate attire and have appropriate surroundings.  Really. 

As a social worker I'd love to go on and on about how classist and elitist these requests are, how they don't consider inequitable access to space and tools to learning and how they can intimidate students and prevent them from learning. This blog, however, is not about social work. It's about digital learning and this entry is specifically about compassionate pedagogy.  But do know in social work we are trained to meet the "student" where they are at and to acknowledge any power differentials that could be at play in our relationships with those we work with.  As teachers, I encourage you to process the power and access differences between you and each of your students. 

Compassionate Community Agreements

As I was processing my shock around how many rules educators were developing for online learning, especially synchronous online learning, I found myself considering how I would develop a list of  on compassionate rules. For example: 

• Students get to choose what it means to be in appropriate surroundings. They may have to learn in a closet or pantry because so many people are in their home working and learning. 
• Student can attends class while walking their dog. I don't determine their best learning style or environment - they do.
• If a student is in their bed attending a class - they are in class and they are attending. Clothes are required, however. 
• Students have children learning from home.  I am happy to see your children pop in and out of our online class. 
• Dogs may bark, doorbells may ring and a student's power may go out. No worries. We are doing the best we can. This is learning in real life. 

I appreciated this post on Twitter from @sjsworks: 

"My students can sign in however they want, if they need to watch their kids, hello kiddos, if they need to be in the car(passenger), I’m your host for this non music playlist. You do what you need to be present and I’ll do my best to teach you what you need to be successful"

Our compassionate agreement with students: I'll meet you where you are at. Come as you are.  

Build Learning Community Agreements

Online learning asks a lot of students. For some coming into an online course for the first time can feel like they have landed in another culture without a guidebook.  Community agreements allow all members of a learning community to develop the working guidelines they will follow for their class. The development of these are collaborative - meaning that in each learning community you lead, you work with the community to develop their unique learning agreements

Here are some examples of community agreements from past courses I have taught: 

• Listen and be open to others ideas
• Be vulnerable - take risks 
• What is shared in the learning community stays in the learning community
• Critique ideas not people
• Share the floor
• Be curious - ask questions, don't assume
• Recognize our strengths as a learning community
• Take a break if you need it - we value self care 
• Mute your mic unless you are speaking

For those of you teaching a course online with no synchronous meetings, you can create your Community Agreements through a discussion post. 

Compassionate Pedagogy Pandemic Style 

However we are teaching, we have to face the reality that this pandemic is not going away any time soon.  We are going to be required to be "flexible and nimble" for some time.  Our resilience - and that of our students - is being tested daily. I was supposed to attend a meeting yesterday and my WIFI went out. Instead of being distressed, I choose to be grateful for all the times the WIFI has worked so far. I sent my apologies to my colleagues via text and eventually the WIFI came back on.  My colleagues were supportive of me and shared meeting notes. Will you show this level of compassion for your students if their WIFI isn't available to them or will you take points off of their participation grade? Do you want to accompany them compassionately or have them work through your very rigid course rules and expectations? 

Raquel Wright-Mair reminds us of the incredible importance of compassionate pedagogy at this time: 

"Critical compassionate pedagogy seeks to listen, understand, empathize, and take action towards creating more equitable structures in education." 

We have to become comfortable with the uncomfortable, and truly meet our students where they are at. We are being called to infuse our educational spaces with more kindness, humanity and compassion. Welcome to the new school year.  The Year of The Compassionate Adventure .