Spare A Touch of Compassion for Ourselves And Others to Sustain Our Well-Being

Bao Nguyen, Waseda University, Japan

Introduction

While it is widely accepted that language teachers are the backbone of the educational system, their well-being has not yet been tended to sufficiently. In fact, scholars have lamented that institutions and policy makers do not pay enough attention to teacher mentality. Compassion is regarded as one helpful practice that can enhance language teacher well-being, help them cope with occupational stress, and more importantly continue pursuing the teaching profession. In my PhD project exploring the ecology of language teacher well-being, compassion also emerged as the core element helping teachers sustain their mental health independently and thrive in their profession. In this article, using the findings analyzed from one-on-one interviews with university language teachers, I want to stress the importance of compassion to teacher well-being. Additionally, I argue that to maintain and sustain a strong well-being, teachers should consider practicing compassion for themselves and for others. In particular, using accounts of the participants and reflecting on previous findings related to the topic, I discuss (1) self-compassion, (2) compassion for students, and (3) compassion for colleagues and how those three practices can enhance teacher well-being in detail.

Self-Compassion

For teachers to sustain their well-being, the first step perhaps would be to practice self-compassion towards themselves in both their personal and professional lives. Mercer (2024) describes self-compassion as an act of kindness and love towards oneself when we make mistakes. In particular, she maintains that in order to practice self-compassion, teachers should stop judging themselves too harshly and accept “imperfections and flaws because they are part of being human”(Chapter 5, What is self-compassion? Section). This was evident in the interview data with the participants in the PhD project. For instance, according to one interviewee in my PhD project, she was not kind to herself when she first started teaching. Whenever things went south, she would take all the responsibilities, which eventually took a toll on her mentality. However, the act of self-compassion has helped her navigate the profession better as it allowed her to have more conversations with herself whenever things went wrong. This, according to her narrative, was important to her well-being.

Self-compassion also means being mindful of our feelings and experiences without judging them (Neff, 2015). This was evident in the interview data of a Japanese interviewee who was able to make “lemonade” out of her troubles. Even though she perceived herself as a “workaholic”, she was also able to relax and take a break from work when her body did not feel well. In one instance, she mentioned that rather than seeing the flu as problematic, she saw it as a sign from the body telling her to rest. These findings again lend more support to how significant self-compassion is to language teacher well-being. Mercer and Gregersen (2020) suggest that we should treat ourselves with empathy and love first before we can extend that act of kindness to others. In other words, it is necessary that we take good care of our well-being from the very beginning, just like the old saying goes, “you cannot pour from an empty cup”.

Compassion for Students

Being able to empathize with students and understand their emotions may be the next step language teachers should consider for the sake of their well-being. According to findings from intensive interviews with Vietnamese teachers in the same PhD project, compassion towards students helped teachers sustain their well-being and resulted in a closer bond with students. One interviewee mentioned that as he spent more time with his students and practiced compassion towards his students, he realized that he was not the cause for their in-class misconduct and that he should not take things personally. He added that when he was able to create a safe and caring classroom environment, he could have a stronger bond with students and understand the roots of their problems, which brought more joy to his career. This is in line with previous studies (e.g., Gkonou & Miller, 2020) in which compassion for students was stressed as a determining factor to teacher well-being. Additionally, Gkonou and Miller (2020) suggest that to build good rapport with students, teachers are advised to practice empathy and put more effort to understand the roots of students’ problematic behaviors and emotions.

Compassion for Leaders

The final piece of the puzzle for teachers to sustain their well-being is to extend compassion for their leaders. Findings from both interviews and questionnaire surveys indicated that leaders played a key role in language teacher well-being. However, communicating with leaders was also found to be stressful at times and this created a mental burden on the participants. One Vietnamese participant mentioned that it was stressful to work with his previous department director, especially when she did not respect his private time after work. He mentioned that the director would call whenever she wanted to without any consideration for his welfare, resulting in his conflicts with her at the workplace. However, once he looked at the intrusion on privacy from a different angel, he felt more empathy towards her and gained more gratitude. For instance, he mentioned that rather than perceiving the director’s being harsh on him as difficult, he decided to see her personality as straightforwardness. This helped him to feel more grateful as according to his working experience, not so many people could complement and give him direct feedback as the director could. This could mean that once teachers practice compassion for their leaders, they may appreciate the good points rather than fixating on drawbacks, bringing the relationship to another stage in their teaching career. In Mairitsch et al. (2023)’s study exploring teacher wellbeing, compassion towards leaders was found to strengthen the teacher-leader relationship and contributed to teachers’ enhanced well-being.

Conclusion

Findings from both my study and previous research have shown that compassion played a key role in language teacher well-being. Therefore, it should be nurtured by teachers, class coordinators, and institutions alike. Nonetheless, rather than relying solely on external support, language teachers are encouraged to take the first step in tending to their well-being by practicing self-compassion. It is hope that, alongside self-compassion, expressing empathy towards others (i.e., students and class coordinators) can become positive practices which may enhance teachers’ mentality and help them thrive in the teaching profession. On a cautionary note, while compassion for others can strengthen teacher well-being, it should not involve forcing oneself to be emotionally engaged and available at all times, as this could lead to compassion fatigue.

References

Gkonou, C., & Miller, E. (2020). “Critical incidents” in language teachers’ narratives of emotional experience. In C. Gkonou, J. Dewaele & J. King (Eds.), The emotional rollercoaster of language teaching (pp. 131–149). Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781788928342-012

Mairitsch, A., Babic, S., Mercer, S., Sulis, G., & Shin, S. (2023). The role of compassion during the shift to online teaching for language teacher well-being. Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition, 9(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.31261/TAPSLA.13123

Mercer, S. (2024). Compassion-based language education. Oxford University Press.

Mercer, S., & Gregersen, T. (2020). Teacher well-being (Oxford handbooks for language teachers). Oxford University Press.

Neff, K. (2015). Self-compassion: The proven power of being kind to yourself. Harper Collins.

Bao holds a PhD degree in International Cultures and Communication Studies with a specialization in Teaching English as a Second Language. His research interests include teacher psychology, teacher well-being, teaching methodology, computer-assisted language learning (CALL), English writing education and English for academic purposes (EAP).