Seeing Compassion Through Students’ Eyes

This chapter questions the language of compassion with its use of terms like suffering and pity when used in a higher education context. Do students want to be seen as suffering? As victims? What does compassion mean to students? What does it look like? What should it look like? Are we confusing empathy with compassion? The latter requires action, but not necessarily the former. In trying to understand how students view compassion and how we can best ensure that teaching and interactions with students and colleagues are based on kindness, followed through by actions and practices that promote well-being, this chapter explores the language of compassion. It also addresses the commodification of students as mere consumers and explores the value of compassion to students who view higher education as purely providing a route to professional and managerial jobs, or as an insurance against low skilled employment or unemployment. This is then compared to those students who put more emphasis on higher education as a means to pursuing personal growth and development. The chapter also takes an intersectional analysis and considers the student gaze on compassion in relation to social and cultural norms.