The Reflective Paradigm in Higher Education and Research: Compassion in Communities of Learning

Abstract

In this article, compassion in university education is regarded as a meta-modern approach that alleviates students and institutions from the side effects of modernity and postmodernity and gives rise to one’s obligations to self as well as to the institutions’ obligations to learners as moral citizens. In this context, compassion in research lies on non-positivistic paradigms and methods, allowing the reflective participation of researchers in incidents of change and development through action research, as an antidote to instrumentality and measurement.

Compassion in education should be redefined in order to conform to its reflective and responding character. It should include a feeling of concern associated with a motivation to help (Keltner D, Goetz JL, Compassion. In: Baumeister RF, Vohs VD (eds) Encyclopedia of social psychology. Sage, Thousand Oaks. pp 159–161, 2007). Moreover, independently of the chosen modules and the content of compassion in higher education, we argue that the methodology of teaching and learning should be considered equally important for the establishment of the contentment pedagogy.

In this chapter, we present and discuss an action research in the university’s classroom during a postgraduate course that resulted in a gradual shift from instrumental knowledge and practising skills to a real renovating laboratory that associated teachers’ role to their pupils’ understanding and well-being.