Pedagogy of Compassion

Abstract

This paper considers the philosophical and political implications of convey- ing a moral education within a classroom setting. Here, a moral education is understood as a way in which a student learns to practice compassion. The paper aims to identify the relevance of a moral education in three di- mensions: within the philosophy of care community, public policymaking, and classroom textbooks. I argue that history lessons are a critical avenue by which students might understand and emulate compassion. At the same time, the paper points to the role of discourse in constructing a meaningful education. It identifies the ways in which classroom language communicat- ed by the teacher or in textbooks might influence a students' moral educa- tion. Consequently, the major project at the end of the paper is to analyze paragraphs of elementary school history textbooks. Through this analysis, I provide hypotheses about the textbook authors' choice in phrasing and its consequent effect on students' engaging in a moral education.