compassionate: (adjective) feeling or showing concern for others

Latin root: pati = to suffer

prefix: com = with 

suffix: tion = expressing action

suffix: ate = possessing

leadership: (noun) the action of leading a group of people or an organization

compassionate leadership: (stance) purposeful actions to care for a community

There is a great deal written about leadership styles and orientations. We know that leaders must be flexible in their approaches depending on the context both within and outside educational institutions. The following case study reflects on the journey of two leaders during times of crisis and transformation.

Below you can click on a presentation for the 2023 HETL Conference at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

This dialogical case study describes our inclusive and compassionate leadership efforts to reset, heal, and reconnect as a community of scholars. In March 2020 our campus, like campuses across the globe, closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In our US context, racial violence, divisive politics, and intolerance erupted on the streets, on social media, and in our classrooms.  Graduate students, faculty, and staff reported feelings of isolation, anxiety, and lack of motivation during these dual pandemics.

Collectively, we decided to create a series of teach-ins borrowing from the social change movements of the 1960s. Students, faculty, and staff engaged in collective study, experiential and arts-based exploration, and opportunities for self and community growth. Together we co-constructed a series of teach-ins to increase inclusion and to create spaces to highlight diverse perspectives, voices, and ways of knowing. We intentionally moved from a collective study to the embodiment of compassionate practice, to shifting consciousness and deliberate change initiatives. We found with enough environmental safety we could speak back to racism, decenter whiteness, and to decolonize the curriculum for our graduate school and the communities we in turn serve.

Together, through our relational learning process, each leaving our various positional roles aside, we were able to harness our collective wisdom to lead to shared understanding and action.  The outcomes of the collaborative culture change initiative were seen in the use of more welcoming and inclusive language, increased opportunities to connect across groups, in the deliberate use of community meetings to engage in brave dialogues, and in the construction of generative supports, community art installations, and the establishment of shared community norms and values. The teach-ins increased the sense of connection, compassion, and community belonging. They created supportive spaces to challenge our academic structure to examine our instructional practices and begin the critical community work required to decolonize our graduate curriculum and the social norms and practices within our learning community.

Our case study describes the collaborative designs, approaches, and outcomes of the change process as we moved from a culture of fear and isolation to a culture of connection, compassion, and advocacy. Inclusive and compassionate leadership is defined as we navigate change with both disruption and healing. We detail the generative community-wide planning process, theory of action and change frameworks, development of collaborative community norms, guiding principles, and challenges faced throughout the year of our community’s focus on inclusion, belonging, healing, and care. 

References for the presentation can be found here. The paper can also be viewed in its draft form below.