Pedagogies of Care & Kindness

A ped­a­gogy of kind­ness is a teach­ing prac­tice that inten­tion­al­ly cul­ti­vates respect­ful, com­pas­sion­ate, and sup­port­ive relationships—between teach­ers, stu­dents, and learn­ing communities—in order to fos­ter trust, belong­ing, equi­ty, and deep­er learn­ing.

Kind­ness Con­ta­gion. Image cre­at­ed by Adam Niklewicz. Sub­mit­ted for Unit­ed Nations Glob­al Call Out To Cre­atives — help stop the spread of COVID-19.

It typ­i­cal­ly involves:

  • Care as a pro­fes­sion­al respon­si­bil­i­ty
    Edu­ca­tors attend to stu­dents as whole peo­ple, acknowl­edg­ing emo­tion­al, social, and cul­tur­al real­i­ties along­side aca­d­e­m­ic goals.
  • Rela­tion­al trust
    Learn­ing envi­ron­ments are built on mutu­al respect, clear expec­ta­tions, and gen­eros­i­ty of inter­pre­ta­tion rather than sus­pi­cion or con­trol.
  • Equi­ty and inclu­sion
    Kind­ness is not “being nice” or low­er­ing stan­dards; it active­ly chal­lenges exclu­sion, mar­gin­al­iza­tion, and deficit think­ing.
  • High expec­ta­tions with sup­port
    Stu­dents are held to mean­ing­ful aca­d­e­m­ic stan­dards while being pro­vid­ed with flex­i­bil­i­ty, feed­back, and scaf­fold­ing to meet them.
  • Atten­tive­ness and respon­sive­ness
    Teach­ing adapts to stu­dents’ con­texts (e.g., trau­ma, dis­abil­i­ty, cul­tur­al norms, life cir­cum­stances) rather than assum­ing neu­tral­i­ty.
  • Eth­i­cal pres­ence
    Instruc­tors mod­el empa­thy, humil­i­ty, patience, and account­abil­i­ty in how they com­mu­ni­cate, assess, and exer­cise author­i­ty.
  1. Prac­tice Facil­i­ta­tion with Pres­ence, Empa­thy, and Aware­ness
  • Pres­ence: cre­ate a short wel­come video; add week­ly announce­ments and ‘check-ins’ in Bright­space or via email; pro­vide audio / video feed­back; offer syn­chro­nous meet­ing options
  • Empa­thy: check in indi­vid­u­al­ly with stu­dents; offer sup­port (and direct stu­dents to oth­er sup­ports) to stu­dents who are strug­gling; be approach­able
  • Aware­ness: sur­vey stu­dents in first week (e.g., to find out what tech they have or what chal­lenges they might be fac­ing in online learn­ing) use low-risk ice break­er activ­i­ties to cre­ate com­mu­ni­ty; build in reg­u­lar for­ma­tive feed­back options to ‘check-in’ on how stu­dents are doing
  1. Cre­ate Choice, Chal­lenge and Col­lab­o­ra­tion through Course Design
  • Choice: pro­vide dif­fer­ent options for engag­ing in course con­tent and for assess­ment
  • Chal­lenge: encour­age stu­dents to try new things and to stretch them­selves; show you believe in them; assess learn­ing through con­tent cre­atio
  • Con­trol: allow stu­dents to cre­ate a por­tion of the class con­tent, sug­gest ideas for assess­ment, and co-cre­ate grad­ing rubrics
  • Col­lab­o­ra­tion: give stu­dents oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn from each oth­er
  • Con­struct­ing mean­ing: use video as a start­ing point for dis­cus­sion; invite stu­dents to add videos, images and oth­er con­tent they can find to demon­strate con­cepts
  • Con­se­quences: have stu­dents share their work; use peer assess­ment
  1. Cre­ate Learn­ing Activ­i­ties for Diverse Learn­ing Domains
  • Affec­tive Domain: activ­i­ties that require stu­dents to receiv­ing, respond­ing, valu­ing, orga­niz­ing, and inter­nal­ize ideas, e.g., reflec­tive jour­nals, explor­ing opin­ion pieces
  • Cog­ni­tive Domain: activ­i­ties that require stu­dents to remem­ber, under­stand, apply, ana­lyze, eval­u­ate, and cre­ate, e.g., case stud­ies, research projects, pre­sen­ta­tions
Gar­ri­son, Ander­son & Archer, 2000
  1. Apply the Com­mu­ni­ty of Inquiry (CoI) Frame­work
  • Social pres­ence: enables stu­dents to project them­selves as real peo­ple, fos­ter­ing open com­mu­ni­ca­tion, trust, and col­lab­o­ra­tion
  • Cog­ni­tive pres­ence: encour­ages learn­ers to con­struct and con­firm mean­ing through sus­tained reflec­tion and dis­course, pro­mot­ing deep learn­ing and intel­lec­tu­al engage­ment
  • Teach­ing pres­ence: involves the design, facil­i­ta­tion, and direc­tion of cog­ni­tive and social process­es, ensur­ing a struc­tured and sup­port­ive learn­ing envi­ron­ment

By inter­twin­ing these ele­ments, CoI cre­ates a rich, inter­ac­tive online com­mu­ni­ty where learn­ers feel con­nect­ed, moti­vat­ed, and engaged. This holis­tic approach not only enhances the learn­ing expe­ri­ence but also con­tributes to high­er sat­is­fac­tion, reten­tion, and suc­cess rates in online cours­es.

  1. Ped­a­go­gies of Care: Open Resources for Stu­dent-Cen­tred and Adap­tive Strate­gies in the New High­er-Ed Land­scape | Web­site by Con­tribut­ing Authors of the West Vir­ginia Uni­ver­si­ty Press (2020)
  2. A Ped­a­gogy of Kind­ness | Blog post by Cate Denial (August 2019) — this is an excel­lent arti­cle to start with around ped­a­go­gies of care and kind­ness. Cate writes about her expe­ri­ences as an edu­ca­tor chang­ing her prac­tices and see­ing the out­comes of such changes.
  3. Design­ing for Care: Inclu­sive Ped­a­go­gies for Online Learn­ing | Pre­sen­ta­tion Text and Slideck by Jesse Stom­mel (June 2020)
  4. Ped­a­go­gies of Care | Video (3 min) by Dave Cormi­er, Uni­ver­si­ty of Wind­sor (May 2020)
  • An Online Ped­a­gogy of Kind­ness with Cate Denial | Pod­cast for Think UDL (Sum­mer 2020)
  • Ped­a­go­gies of Care — Uni­ver­sal Design for Learn­ing | Pod­cast by tea for teach­ing — Rebec­ca Mushtare and John KaneS­tate Uni­ver­si­ty of New York with Thomas J. Tobin (June 2020)
  • Ped­a­go­gies of Care — Equi­ty and Inclu­sion | Pod­cast by tea for teach­ing — Rebec­ca Mushtare and John Kane State Uni­ver­si­ty of New York­with Dr. Cyn­di Ker­na­han and Dr. Kevin Gan­non (July 2020)
  1. The Com­mu­ni­ty of Inquiry Mod­el (CoI Frame­work) Dr. Ser­hat Kurt, Novem­ber, 2024

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