A growing body of work has begun to identify the benefits of self-compassion in promoting positive mental health and wellbeing for adolescents. Test anxiety is a form of anxiety elicited in response to examinations, which can negatively impact academic achievement and wellbeing. The current pilot study explored the effect of self-compassion on…

The Coronavirus pandemic has caused considerable challenges for the higher education sector, leaving many students and staff to experience a sense of liminality as they cope with these challenges. This article, written by three disabled academics based in the UK, reports how during the Coronavirus pandemic, compassion and compassionate spaces…

The COVID-19 global pandemic continues, and in Hong Kong numerous measures have been put in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus. One of the many facets of life that is being affected is education, with many face-to-face classes suspended and students having to go online for lessons. The virus continues to be active in the city, so our…

Our current social and political context is awash with pronouncements about the growing number of children and young people with mental health issues. This paper explores how school culture that is founded upon a compassion framework is well placed to support the promotion of pupils' mental health and well-being. Drawing upon experiences of being…

This paper is concerned with troubling emotions felt or aroused in all aspects of academic practice, including teaching, learning, research and relationships. It discusses the emergent processes of a research group whose multidisciplinary interests coalesce around discomfort, disturbance and difficulty in the processes of higher education. We talk…

How to create compassionate schools able to engage constructively with death, dying and bereavement in a rural Western educational context was the focus of this research. Grounded theory and a social constructionist lens were used to gain an in-depth exploration of people's experiences of bereavement, death and dying in the context of their school…

Death can be considered a social taboo, a common source of fear and public avoidance. School communities are not immune to this, as the topic of death is constantly avoided. It is vital to understand how we can socially and culturally cultivate a positive regard for death, dying and bereavement in our school communities. Community members need to…

This paper reviews a qualitative study of student and lecturer communication and engagement within a "safe", "structured" setting. Relationships between students and academics are part of an emotional as well as intellectual encounter. Our sense of self is profoundly affected by how we feel others think about us. Being heard…

This article explores the relationship between cross-age peer mentoring and positive life outcomes as defined by the Five Cs: competence, character, confidence, connection, and compassion. Qualified high school juniors and seniors were randomly assigned groups of 4-5 freshmen to mentor through the challenges of transitioning to secondary school.…

Based on a study of 1689 high school teachers across 132 high schools in 12 countries, this paper discusses their views on spirituality for high school adolescents. In general, they favoured spirituality for adolescents and its inclusion in the curriculum. Specifically teachers from European countries, US, Canada and Australia attested the…

Pastoral care in education may take many forms but increasing emphasis on education for sustainable development (ESD) and concern about children's disconnection from nature suggests that our understanding of care should perhaps encompass the more than human world. The study described in this article examines longer term perspectives on well-being…

In this article, the authors examine contemporary pluralistic, technologically-driven societies where human spirituality, in terms of human experiences of connectedness, is eroded and overwhelmed by high levels of cultural and religious diversity and hi-tech devices. Without connectedness, empathy and compassion become missing elements resulting…