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Unit 2: Learning sustainably through care and compassion
Introduction
Welcome to Unit 2 of Sustainable pedagogies.
This unit will invite you to consider compassion as a pedagogy to position learners to understand their role in sustainability. Scholars such as Stephen Sterling (2012) in the United Kingdom and David Orr (2011) in the USA have called for education to pursue a new and sustainable paradigm; one which blends concerns for social justice with those of wise environmental stewardship. Sterling’s (2012) The Future Fit Framework will be discussed as it allows institutions to assess their current status and to consider how to work towards using more sustainable pedagogies.
Education for sustainable development is defined by the Quality Assurance Authority (QAA) in Higher Education as:
The process of equipping students with the knowledge and understanding, skills and attributes needed to work and live in a way that safeguards environmental, social and economic wellbeing, both in the present and for future generations.
Students of all ages can understand and work towards developing the skills needed to act and live in ways that safeguard the environment and their own and others’ wellbeing. It is this active concern for the wellbeing of themselves, others both locally and globally and the environment, that Paul Warwick (2016) sees as at the heart of energising and enthusing learners to actively take part in education for sustainability. He sees pedagogies of compassion for all – human and non-human – as where learners can begin to understand their place and responsibility in acting to ensure the future of our planet.
Remember that, to obtain your digital badge, you must have posted a contribution to at least one forum discussion in Units 1–7 and one in Unit 8. You must have also completed the quiz at the end of Unit 5 and scored at least 80%.
The items labelled ‘Explore’, which have the binoculars 
icon beside them, are optional and are offered for those who want to explore the ideas being discussed further.
Next go to Unit 2 learning outcomes.
Unit 2 learning outcomes
By the end of this unit you will have:
- Understood more about pedagogies of compassion and reflected on its three main learning spaces.
- Considered and written about how pedagogies of compassion can be used in your context.
- Worked collaboratively to plan how professional development sessions could work with your colleagues.
Activity planner
| Activity | Task | Timing (minutes) |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | Reflect on the three learning spaces in pedagogies of compassion.
| 45 |
| 2.2 | Consider your practice in light of learning about compassionate pedagogies:
| 60 |
| 2.3 | Make a plan for evaluating current practices for sustainability and introducing new practices.
| 45 |
1 Why compassion?
Compassionate pedagogies are those where teaching and interactions with students and colleagues are based on consideration, respect and kindness and are followed through by actions and practices that alleviate suffering and promote wellbeing. UNESCO (2014) calls for a re-orientation of education towards sustainable development for all and states that the education for sustainable development (ESD) envisioned by UNESCO can be characterised as being underpinned by an ethic of compassionate concern for wellbeing and the common good (UNESCO, 2014). ESD is holistic in nature, seeking to draw out a range of compassionate competencies and qualities that encompass knowledge and understanding, skills and values from all students.
Reflection
Reflect on what you think about when you think about compassion.
Why do you think compassion is a useful idea in thinking about sustainability? What drawbacks do you see in using the term?
Make a note of your thoughts in a way that invites you to extend these as you work in this course.
1.1 Compassion as a pedagogy
Paul Warwick introduced the idea of using pedagogies of compassion to learn sustainable development competencies in his 2016 article. The pedagogies he describes aim to engage learners in primary and secondary schools and in higher education institutions (HEIs) in their own sustainability projects based on civic or community compassion. He invited learners to lead their own locally-based projects and studied their learning through the process of exercising their sense of agency and acting collaboratively. Each project was linked to sustainable development agendas and to the formal curriculum. The design of the projects exemplifies participatory models of how learners can actively shape their own learning which will be discussed in the next unit. In this research Warwick (2016) sees three main types of space where learning occurs:
- Compassionate conversations – teachers and students enter into dialogic conversations about the sustainability issues which matter most to them and that they feel compassion towards. Within this space learners are joint authors or co-researchers, making decisions collectively with leaders.
- Compassionate enquiry – learners are supported to deepen their understanding of their chosen sustainability issues. Learners act as researchers and are encouraged to seek out different perspectives and to act as change agents in their communities.
- Compassionate action – learners participate as knowledge creators and learn through collaboratively leading their own sustainability action projects. Learning is encouraged through trial and improvement, and taking risks and being innovative, as learners discover new ways they can collectively change their world through action within their community.
These relational dimensions bring an acknowledgement of our interconnectivity and interdependence across species, place and time to the space where people learn and engage learners with an extended notion of compassion expressed in concern for the common good.
Explore
Read Paul Warwick’s full 2016 paper:
‘Education for Sustainable Development: a movement towards pedagogies of civic compassion’, FORUM, 58(3), pp. 407–414.
Activity 2.1 Learning through compassionate pedagogies
Reflect on the three learning spaces as set out by Paul Warwick.
2a. When you’ve thought about these three spaces, pick one and write a post of around 200 words under the Activity 2.1 forum discussion, where you outline your ideas for introducing your chosen space for learning into a context you know well.
You may choose to let your imagination fly and be innovative and creative, or keep your feet on the ground and design a way that would work with some adaptations to your current ways of working in your context.
2b. 
After posting read what others have posted and comment on the good ideas you read there.
2 Using pedagogies of compassion
Education for sustainable development (ESD) was founded on a vision of a ‘kinder and more caring world’ (Warwick, 2016, p. 412). ESD asks educators to engage in pedagogies of civic compassion even when there seem to be multiple barriers to overcome because such pedagogies empower learners.
2.1 Pedagogies of compassion or compassionate pedagogies?
The two terms have similarities but are used in somewhat different contexts. It may be that when leaders of learning use compassionate pedagogies they model the kinds of thinking and ways of reasoning that underpin the use of pedagogies of compassion in working towards sustainability.
Using compassionate pedagogies requires consciously facilitating learning in a way that seeks to include and interact caringly with all people. It is more than ‘being kind’; it is about applying what we know about wellbeing and the impact of mental wellbeing on study and work, to ensure that the learning experience of all – both learners and leaders of learning – is a positive one. Compassionate pedagogies signal clearly that all are valued so that all may succeed. This is especially important for those who have historically been excluded or felt silenced by conventional approaches to learning. Embedding compassionate pedagogies into the curriculum across courses and modules sustains interest and engagement, as well as supporting all who study and work in a learning context to enjoy success. Compassionate pedagogies seek to create space for empathetic interactions between learners and those leading learning throughout the learning and teaching experience, recognising and respecting all forms of otherness and nurturing all.
Compassionate pedagogy requires rethinking inherited signature pedagogies and offering alternative, more truly inclusive and interactive approaches alongside them.
Reflection
How do people learn kindness and compassion?
What do you think needs to change in terms of kindness and caring in society? Do you think the use of compassionate pedagogies has a place in making a kinder and more caring world? If so, in what ways?
2.2 Examples of compassionate pedagogies
This section offers you three examples of pedagogies that are based in the relational, interconnecting and caring space of compassionate pedagogies. As you read ask yourself how these pedagogies may be introduced in your context.
Dialogic teaching (Alexander, 2020) aims to improve learner engagement and attainment through improving the quality of discussions in the learning context. Leaders of learning use approaches that ask learners to reason, discuss, argue and explain rather than merely respond. Learners are taught to listen and respond to one another as well as the teacher, in order to develop higher-order thinking and criticality. Learners of any age can engage in learning through dialogic teaching and there is evidence that cognitively challenging, but supportive classroom talk can lead to accelerated progress in learning (EEF, 2017).
The learning tasks that are undertaken need to change from questions that are quick to answer to questions that require collaborative input and discussion. Contributions from everyone are encouraged and valued as all will have ideas that may help the group progress towards a solution. Because of this, it may take a long time for teachers to get used to using dialogic teaching and learners may have to unlearn ways of being in a learning environment before they can make good use of a dialogic learning environment.
Teaching for mathematical resilience (Johnston-Wilder et al., 2021) asks teachers to recognise that many traditional ways of teaching mathematics, such as an over-regard for speed in answering questions and memorising poorly understood procedures, cause mathematics anxiety, which harms learners’ overall wellbeing.
Mathematics can be a struggle to learn partly because of its abstract nature. Prevalent myths about people being either naturally able to do mathematics, or not, have made many learners consider that trying will result in failure and humiliation. When teachers help learners understand that learning mathematics usually requires struggle but that learners should not struggle alone, they are helping learners develop mathematical resilience.
Mathematically resilient teaching requires teachers to pay attention to the wellbeing of their learners. Teachers should help those learners know how to work at mathematics and know that making mistakes is inevitable but rather than mistakes showing they ‘can’t do maths’ they show where, with support, learning can begin. Teaching for mathematical resilience helps learners understand that mathematics will be of value to them in their lives and understand where they can get the support they need to learn throughout their careers.
Learning with your hands (Lambert, 2010) – Recent research in neuroscience suggests that working or learning online may not give our brains what they need to feel happy. Humans throughout history have made everything they owned and used themselves. These objects were touched and used, and our brains may have developed to derive self-esteem, purpose and a sense of personal power from making and using them.
Lambert (2010) believes that one of the reasons levels of depression and anxiety keep rising every year around the world is that fewer and fewer people make things for themselves. She explains that 80% of the neurones in the brain are used to control movement – not thought – and that a large proportion of those neurones are linked to controlling the hands. This means that, when you use your hands to perform a complex task, you give your brain a ‘workout’. Learning a new skill increases the neuroplasticity of the brain, which means your brain gets better at learning, planning and making decisions – all very useful attributes.
Activity 2.2 Compassionate pedagogies in practice
1. Consider one session of your teaching or interaction with learners.
In Table 1 below, make a list of each aspect of that session, from how you welcomed the learners and introduced what they were going to learn, to how you assessed how well they were learning.
Table 1 Reviewing compassionate pedagogies in practice
| Aspect of the session | Would the learners say this demonstrated compassion? Why? | Would the learners say this did not demonstrate compassion? Why? | How could this aspect be made more overtly compassionate? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Welcoming learners | |||
| Introducing learners to what they will learn | |||
Note: If you need more space, copy and paste the information into the table in your learning journal and add extra rows. | |||
3a. What do you as an educator think about the statement:
Compassion is only needed when a learner is already anxious or has experienced some kind of trauma?
3b. Do compassionate pedagogies have a place in increasing wellbeing and realising your vision of contributing to a kinder and more caring world?
3c. Write around 100 words in the Activity 2.2 forum discussion explaining your response to this question.
Explore
If you want to know more about compassion as a pedagogy in relation to higher education contexts, then read:
Wright-Mair, R. (2020) ‘A Work of Heart: Practicing Critical Compassionate Pedagogy in the Face of Adversity’, Diverse: Issues In Higher Education (17 June). (Accessed 24 October 2023).
3 Making changes with sustainability in mind
This section discusses how changes towards teaching using sustainable pedagogies can be made. So far, Unit 2 has covered compassionate pedagogies but the ideas here can help your teaching move towards more sustainability-focused practices for your students.
The work of Stephen Stirling (2012) is covered, who produced the report The Future Fit Framework – An introductory guide to teaching and learning for sustainability in HE. The ideas discussed here are from Chapter 10 ‘Simple change tools’ (p. 50 onwards). Although the ideas in The Future Fit Framework are designed for further education, these have been rephrased for making changes towards sustainability in teaching for any age of learner.
3.1 Using the ‘4 Rs model’
Take any document at any level from your institution’s (or setting’s) overall statement of their mission or corporate plan and think about it in terms of sustainability. The document could be related to:
- a faculty policy
- programme or module outline
- scheme of work for a year group
- an individual session plan.
Use the model outlined below to assess, evaluate and discuss possible changes with necessary colleagues. This process is best done collaboratively, partly because collaboration is one of the cornerstones of sustainable pedagogies and partly because making changes usually has to be a collaborative process. This is not to say it cannot be completed individually if needed, as everyone has the agency to make changes. Ask yourself the following questions:
Regarding what we do now identify:
- What practices, ways of working, resources do value that we need to keep?
- Of those practices you have identified, are these useful, valid, up to date and relevant?
- Retain
- What practices might need modification?
- Are they partly up-to-date and relevant but needs some updating or revision to make sustainable pedagogies more overt?
- Revise
- What practices ways of working or resources, if any, might need to be abandoned?
- Of those practices you have identified, are they outdated or no longer relevant or valid?
- Reject
- What new ideas, concepts, principles, methodologies, working methods, pedagogies, etc. are needed to help fit the learners for a sustainable future?
- What innovation is needed? Where must new ideas and materials be brought in?
- Renew
3.2 Discussing making changes – four key questions
In order to get discussion within those on the course going and keep the discussion focused on sustainability issues you could use the following key questions. The questions are framed to allow for an inclusive discussion, where everyone’s voice is respected and valued and could be lightly modified to use learners in your setting as well as those who work within it. Modelling sustainable pedagogies as you undertake this work will be important in assuring successful changes are made.
These questions can be used as a basis for discussion and reflection on an individual, group or institutional level.
- In what ways do you currently include or promote sustainability concepts, values and skills in your curriculum area?
- What is the student view?
- What are your main achievements or successes to date?
- What more could you/would you like to do?
- In what way(s) could you contribute more effectively and directly to student learning in relation to sustainability?
- What opportunities and barriers are there currently?
- What factors are assisting you in this, and which are hindering progress?
- What kinds of support might you need to take this work further? – What needs to change to help you go further, and/or what support might you need?
Activity 2.3 Developing sustainability literacy
1a. 
Download The Future Fit Framework and read Chapter 2 ‘Why bother?’, p. 12–18.
1b. Now turn to page 54 and read the CPD activity ‘Developing sustainability literacy: eight dimensions, eight questions’.
2a. To introduce the ideas of compassion into your practice in your setting, devise a professional development activity using the ideas in either of the:
- 4 Rs model
- four key questions
- eight dimensions, eight questions.
You can choose to collaboratively plan a way for your learners to learn through pedagogies of community compassion, or to introduce a way that they can learn through using their hands creatively, or one of the other ideas discussed.
3a. Post a brief summary of your thinking under the Activity 2.3 forum discussion. It is suggested this is no more than one or two paragraphs.
3b. Read and comment on at least two posts from other people, expressing on how their ideas have added to your thinking.
3c. Remember to add to your plan as you learn more sustainable pedagogies.
4 Summary of Unit 2
This unit has discussed the need for compassion to be part of the educational approaches that are used in all institutions and settings. The need for all learners to understand that compassion for their fellow human beings, for wider society and all the non-human world is vital for a sustainable future has been stressed in the UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals. Compassion for all that makes up the world around us must also be part of an Education for Sustainable Development.
You have explored pedagogies of compassion where learners are invited to learn through discussion of local sustainability issues, to research and explore those issues and to plan to take actions to make changes that will result in our world becoming more sustainable.
You have also explored compassionate pedagogies that take account of the wellbeing of both learners and the world. These pedagogies can open the eyes of learners to the thinking, reasoning and criticality that will better prepare them to act to the benefit of themselves and future generations.
The unit ended by asking you to explore how you might evaluate your current practice and collaborate with others to consider where changes must be made and how to make those changes.
Unit 2 cards
Click/tap each card to reveal the text.
Continue to Unit 3: Participation in sustainable pedagogies.
Further reading
Warwick, P. (2016) ‘Education for Sustainable Development: a movement towards pedagogies of civic compassion’, Forum for comprehensive education, 58(3), pp. 407–414.
Wright-Mair, R. (2020) ‘A Work of Heart: Practicing Critical Compassionate Pedagogy in the Face of Adversity’, Diverse: Issues In Higher Education (17 June). Available at: https://www.diverseeducation.com/ covid-19/ article/ 15107342/ a-work-of-heart-practicing-critical-compassionate-pedagogy-in-the-face-of-adversity (Accessed 24 October 2023).
References
Alexander, R. (2020) A Dialogic Teaching Companion. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge.
EEF (2017) ‘Improving children’s learning by improving the quality of classroom talk’. Available at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/ projects-and-evaluation/ projects/ dialogic-teaching#:~:text=Dialogic%20Teaching%20aims%20to%20improve,higher%20order%20thinking%20and%20articulacy. (Accessed: 29 February 2024).
Johnston-Wilder, S., Lee, C. and Mackrell, K. (2021) ‘Addressing Mathematics Anxiety through developing resilience: building on Self Determination Theory’, Creative Education, 12(9), pp. 2098–2115. Available at: https://doi.org/ 10.4236/ ce.2021.129161 (Accessed: 29 February 2024).
Lambert, K. (2010) Lifting Depression: A Neuroscientist's Hands-On Approach to Activating Your Brain's Healing Power. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Orr, D. (2011) Hope Is an Imperative: The Essential David Orr. Washington D.C.: Island Press.
Sterling, S. (2012) The Future Fit Framework – An introductory guide to teaching and learning for sustainability in HE, The Higher Education Academy, York [Online]. Available at: https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/ assets.creode.advancehe-document-manager/ documents/ hea/ private/ future_fit_270412_1435_1568036756.pdf’ (Accessed: 29 February 2024).
UNESCO (2023) ‘Renewing the Social Contract for Education’ [Online]. Available at: https://www.unesco.org/ en/ futures-education/ new-social-contract?hub=81942 (Accessed: 29 Februrary 2024).
Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) (2014) Education for sustainable development: Guidance for UK higher education providers, The Quality Assurance Agency, Gloucester. Available at: https://www.qaa.ac.uk/ the-quality-code/ education-for-sustainable-development (Accessed: 29 Februrary 2024).
UNESCO (2014) Shaping the future we want, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation [Online]. Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ ark:/ 48223/ pf0000230171 (Accessed: 29 Februrary 2024).
Warwick, P. (2016) ‘Education for Sustainable Development: a movement towards pedagogies of civic compassion’, Forum for comprehensive education, 58(3), pp. 407–414. Available at: https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/ forum/ vol-58-issue-3/ abstract-6310/ (Accessed: 29 Februrary 2024).