Exploring the Roots of Compassion in Education

How can compassion education create happier schools and promote individual flourishing? We will explore the evidence for how compassion, contemplative practices and ethics can be used in the classroom and practical solutions for inspiring children towards kindness and emotional wellbeing.

During this session, we will explore the roots of compassion education in developing social-emotional learning, values/ethics education and compassion training programmes. In this workshop, we will explore two projects: Compassion Matters and SEE Learning, looking at the two projects‘ content, framework and impact so far. We will discuss their experience of teaching compassion to children and educators, the impact they have experienced and offer advice on how to implement a project in your school or organisation. For the final part of the session, participants will be invited to participate in a short compassion practice.

About the speaker:

Jimi is Executive Director at The Dalai Lama Centre for Compassion and runs the organisations education project, Compassion Matters. We aim to create a kinder and happier society by inspiring children and adults to lead compassionate lives.

Jimi’s interest in how compassion, ethics and social-emotional education can contribute to young people’s wellbeing began when he worked as a teacher in rural Sri Lanka. Living in a Buddhist temple and working at local schools, he experienced how these areas could positively contribute to individuals, schools and communities education, wellbeing and happiness.

Before joining the DLCC, Jimi worked in international development education and was Head of Widening Participation at the University of Oxford. In the former role, he had the opportunity to work in several countries around the world in areas of literacy, primary and secondary education. In the latter, he was responsible for the University’s outreach work with young people. While working for Oxford, his work focused on mindfulness, primary education, mental health, digital learning and emotional intelligence.

Since then, he has explored these areas further by teaching mindfulness to children across the UK, implementing social-emotional learning projects and researching its impact on wellbeing. Jimi now focuses on supporting the teaching of compassion, ethics, and social-emotional Learning through free projects for schools, Compassion Matters and SEE Learning.