Compassion in the Bhutanese Gross National Happiness (GNH) Infused Classrooms

Abstract

There is a growing interest in research on the role of compassion in the fields of positive psychology and social psychology. Compassion in the educational setting is focused on well-being and relationship-based approaches to support students to flourish academically, emotionally and socially. This paper is a review of compassion in the literature and provides a foreground of future research on compassion in the Bhutanese classroom. It also presents a discussion on compassion in relation to benefits for self and others, compassion fatigue and self-compassion. More importantly, this paper provides a deeper understanding of the role of compassion in education in building the teaching-learning process and foregrounds the need for further investigation into compassionate teaching and learning for a range of school-based curriculum subjects.