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The notion of accountability carries with it an implicit sense of objectification, in which schools, teachers, and students represent the objects of measure by which policy makers judge schools. Reframing the notions of accountability requires a critical interpretation of the accountability system that challenges competitive notions of achievement while cultivating compassionate views of student performance. Drawing from the principles of critically compassionate financial literacy, this chapter discusses how discipline-based art education may provide an instructional vehicle for facilitating dialogues that reframe notions of accountability in education.

Black faculty members navigating the tenure process in higher educational settings, especially historically Black colleges or universities (HBCU), quickly learn within their careers that the job at hand requires a lot of time, energy, and persistence. Extant literature highlights the difficulties Black scholars face in such settings; however, it is vital to shedding light on the positive aspects that occur daily. This chapter highlights a component of collaboration that is often under shadowed in the educational setting, the faculty–graduate student partnership. Given the lack of resources and infrastructural elements that often plague HBCUs, in comparison to other institutions, faculty members inadvertently and unconsciously establish partnerships with advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Without the assistance of young, emerging scholars, tenure-earning faculty may struggle with maintaining a healthy work–life balance. Moreover, forging strong partnerships with mentees aids in faculty and student development alike. This narrative encompasses the views, experiences, and perceptions of a young, tenure-earning faculty member. Additionally, past and present graduate students provide insight on perceptions of faculty–student interactions and their subsequent development as scholars, researchers, and clinicians.

The purpose of this paper is to make the case for bringing compassion to students in educational settings, preschool through graduate school (PK-20).

First, the author defines what is meant by “compassion” and differentiates it from the related constructs. Next, the author discusses the importance of bringing compassion into education, thinking specifically about preschool, K-12 (elementary and middle school/junior high/high school), college students, and graduate students (e.g. law, medical, nurses, counselors and therapists-in-training). The author then reviews the scant empirical literature on compassion in education and makes recommendations for future research. In the final section, the author makes specific and practical recommendations for the classroom (e.g. how to teach and evaluate compassion in PK-20).

While there is a fair amount of research on compassion with college students, and specifically regarding compassion for oneself, as the author reviews in this paper, the field is wide open in terms of empirical research with other students and examining other forms of compassion.

This is not a formal review or meta-analysis.

This paper will be a useful resource for teachers and those interested in PK-20 education.

This paper highlights the problems and opportunities for bringing compassion into education settings.

To date, no review of compassion in PK-20 exists.

The purpose of this case study is to explore the unique perspectives of a teacher candidate who did not have the life experiences typical of most individuals who choose to become teachers. Specifically, the author was interested in exploring information that future teachers, practicing teachers, and teacher educators can learn from this atypical perspective to improve their practices.

This is a case study of one teacher candidate. Specifically, it can be considered an instrumental case study because it can help the researcher better understand a theoretical question such as how to prepare new teachers for diverse classrooms. Data sources included five interviews and one written response. Member checks were conducted at each stage of the study.

Findings and recommendations include information on how and why someone who dropped out of school after ninth grade became a teacher, important perspectives on educating Hispanic females, teaching students coping skills, understanding the realities that many students face in their personal lives, allowing teacher candidates to be completely honest in their reflections and using that as a springboard for dialogue, approaching teaching with eyes wide open, being honest with students, going beyond a concern about test scores to address the grittier needs of students, and recruiting teacher candidates from the Job Corps.

Limitations of the study include a fairly short‐time frame of two months. However, the study will continue over another ten months. Preliminary results are presented here. Data gathered after the participant has completed her first year of teaching, and perhaps later, will illustrate her changing perspectives as she gains teaching experience and the results of testing her approaches to teaching.

The information in this study is a wake‐up call to educators, reminding us that individuals with troubled youths can become enlightened, compassionate, and wise teachers. Implications include valuable perspectives about teaching students whose lives differ greatly from those of most teacher candidates, informing future teachers, practicing teachers, and teacher educators as we prepare for a future in which student demographics will shift dramatically and teachers will be increasingly challenged to step out of their comfort zones for the sake of diverse children.

It is predicted that after 2050, Whites will be the new demographic minority. Yet, over 90 percent of teacher candidates are White, middle‐class, and monolingual individuals. We must turn our attention to preparing them for diverse classrooms, but also to recognizing the unique strengths of and the recruitment of diverse teachers, even those who have experienced difficulties in life such as drugs, abuse, and dropping out, if they possess the intelligence, maturity, wisdom, and insight to make schooling “work” for students like they were. It can reshape the futures of these children, giving them hope, inspiration, and the tools to succeed.

This study is unique in its focus on the motivation and capabilities of someone who does not fit the mold of a typical teacher candidate. She did not “play school” with dolls, make straight A's, or have a good time at school. Instead she grew up with drug addicted parents, quit school after ninth grade, and ran away […] for good. After living on the streets for a while, she joined the Job Corps and earned a General Educational Development. Now, having finished college and becoming certified to teach, her goal is to make a difference in the lives of kids like she was.

In this opening chapter the authors analyse current scholarship on teacher emotion and leader emotion produced almost entirely in western countries, and call for contextualising this research by juxtaposing emotion with basic characteristics of traditional and transitional societies. Some attention is given to the meaning of emotion across national culture, including those of developing countries.

It's a secret hidden in plain sight, we teach who we are. Palmer (2017)

In an effort to reinvigorate the art of teaching, educational theorists have called for teachers to learn how to teach with their “whole self” – to be with and teach their students from a position of mindful awareness, authenticity, truthfulness, compassion, and courage (Palmer, 2017; Ramsey & Fitzgibbons, 2005). The skills that support one in mindfully knowing oneself well and being able to creatively and consciously bring aspects of one's knowledge expertise and identity into acts of teaching and learning in the classroom in an authentic way has been labeled the “unnamed domain” in teacher knowledge (e.g., Taylor, 2016). In this chapter, we extend work on a conceptual, evidence-based framework for this unnamed domain. We propose that the formation of teachers who are calm in body in challenging situations, clear in mind when making decisions in complex classroom environments, and kind in approach to interactions with others is one way of describing development in this domain of teacher identity/expertise. Furthermore, we posit that mindfulness, compassion, and other contemplative practices can be useful for developing expertise in it. We present conceptual and empirical findings from a series of studies we have done on the antecedents and consequences of teachers' calmness, clarity, and kindness in the classroom and discuss directions for future research.

The quality of students' relationships with their teachers plays a significant role in their success in school. Social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculums show great promise for supporting student development. However, quality implementation requires that teachers recognize and understand how their behavior and interactions with students impact the development of these skills. The Prosocial Classroom Model proposes that teacher social and emotional competencies (SECs) play a critical role in creating and maintaining a classroom where everyone feels safe, connected, and engaged in learning. In this chapter, we extend the understanding of SEC to include leadership styles as defined by evolutionary motivational systems theory. We argue that a critical dimension of effective SEL instruction and teacher SEC is effective leadership that skillfully applies an understanding of the social and emotional dimensions of classroom interactions that promote motivation, engagement, and learning. Implications for educational theory, policy and practice, and research are discussed.

This paper aims to understand how elementary school educators who teach subjects that traditionally require hands-on work in schools are rising to the challenge of losing brick-and-mortar facilities in the wake of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis.

The authors interviewed six elementary school educators and developed iterative grounded codes from the interviews to understand how the teachers are rising to the challenge of teaching online, what supports they need, and how they are viewing their roles and student learning in the present landscape.

In response to losing brick-and-mortar schools, teachers are rising to the challenge by creating creative assignments and communicating with students and parents via multiple platforms. They are learning to use technology to create meaningful, socially distant learning experiences and, in the process, blurring their own boundaries between work and life. They exercise compassion for their students while providing the best education they can in these circumstances.

This work provides administrators, educators, policymakers and technology developers insight into the challenges teachers are facing.

In addition to the timeliness of this study in light of the COVID 19 crisis, the focus on elementary school students, who often need support from parents or guardians to use Web technologies, and subjects traditionally requiring face-to-face interactions and hands-on work contribute to the originality of the study.

Bringing renewed attention to the anemic representation of Black women within the teaching profession, this chapter begins by chronicling the history of Black women in teacher education – from the Reconstruction Era to the 21st century – in an effort to highlight the causes of their conspicuous demographic decline. Next, it is argued that increasing the number of Black women in the teaching profession is a worthwhile endeavor although the rationales for such targeted efforts may not be obvious or appreciated by the casual observer. It is, therefore, important to illuminate the multiple justifications as to why it is essential to improve the underrepresentation of Black women in America’s classrooms. Lastly, it is asserted that serious attention is required to reverse the dramatic exodus of Black women from the teaching profession. In conveying this issue, the author shares special emphasis recruiting tactics, for the national, programmatic, and local school district levels, as promising proposals to enlist and retain more Black women in the teaching profession.

Recently, practitioner literature in English education has taken up the issue of writing-related shame in classrooms, calling for teachers to help students develop resilience. One possible approach for nurturing shame resilience around writing is dialogic collaging: students make and dialogically engage with collages and with colleagues to explore the self-as-writer and to connect with others around writing struggles and joys. The purpose of this paper is to share and critically reflect on this pedagogical approach.

To share, interpret and consider the limitations and implications of the dialogic collaging pedagogy in service of writing-related shame resilience, the authors offer a multi-voiced narrative about one classroom instantiation of college, from the perspective of a university writing teacher and a student of writing.

On the interpretation, this story unfolds three central themes as follows: dialogic collaging can help students to develop a more realistic and situated sense of self-as-writer. That is, students can come to appreciate how “becoming a writer” is a process they – and others around them – are already in, rather than an unreachable achievement at which they will inevitably fail. The stance of playfulness nurtured through the dialogic collage process can provide a helpful distance between self and writing. These processes may – under certain conditions – support shame resilience.

The conclusion reflects on whether more explicit attention to shame could be fruitful and on the dynamics of teacher vulnerability in writing classrooms.

The authors hope to inspire writing teachers – particularly in secondary, post-secondary and adult education – to engage with dialogic collaging as part of their pedagogical repertoires.

Dialogic collaging is a pedagogical approach not previously discussed in the literature on secondary and post-secondary writing instruction, offering one promising way to address writing-related shame. It can make visible and build solidarity around how others are also in the midst of a process of becoming – as writers and/or with writing. This appreciation can help nurture a more realistic, playful and shame-resilient stance toward self-as-writer.