Kindness
in education
Image: CC BY-ND Indulge Media (Flickr)
Catherine Cronin ∙ SCoTENS event ∙ Queen’s University Belfast ∙ 16 June 2023
Context: a time of crisis
“after times”
interregnum
disruption and splintering of old ways
what was before and what is coming into view
Image: Kelly Sikkema (Unsplash)
Everyone you meet is fighting a battle
you know nothing about.
Be kind, always.
Remember… that ultimately we make things happen through our actions, way beyond our understanding or intention;
that our seemingly small ordinary human acts have untold consequences…
Our deeds, no matter how insignificant they may feel, are replete with meaning, and of vast consequence, and… they constantly impact upon the unfolding story of the world, whether we know it or not.
– Nick Cave (2022)
not knowing
Only by shifting our imagination, can we begin to think of a world that is more egalitarian, less extractive, and
more habitable for everyone, not just a small elite.
– Ruha Benjamin (2022)
a pedagogy of kindness
a pedagogy of kindness
asks us to apply compassion in every situation we can
To extend kindness means recognizing that our students possess innate humanity, which directly undermines the transactional educational model to which too many of our institutions lean, if not cleave.
To value and practice kindness is to resist such models… we as teachers have the ability to insist that individuals matter… to hold a line, to see the student without shelter — or food, or safety, or a laptop, or an internet connection, or health, or confidence, or a support network — as someone who matters exactly as they are and even because of the challenges they face.
We can prioritize kindness.
– Cate Denial (2019)
Kindness
&
Justice
Kindness alone rarely brings about change. Change requires a real understanding of what injustice looks like – and a plan to combat it…
If I shirk the inclusion of justice in favour of a facile definition of being kind, I – intentionally or not – pave the way for students to believe they “shouldn’t see colour” or find other ways to preserve their ignorance about marginalization, privilege, and the often-complex reality of the world we live in.
– Bret Turner (2019)
“It is in the many acts, small and large, acting in constellations
and collectivities, �over time and place that bear results.”
Farhana Sultana (2022)
Image: James Wainscoat (Unsplash)
Hope is invented every day.
James Baldwin
“
This presentation is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
unless otherwise noted
Image: Aaron Burden (Unsplash)