2023

Harju-Luukkainen, Heidi; Kangas, Jonna; Smith, David; Beaton, Mhairi C.; Jannok Nutti, Ylva; Äärelä-Vihriälä, Rauni

The responses to COVID-19 have been different across the countries in the world, but nevertheless the pandemic has resulted in a state of emergency in all of them. It can be stated that COVID-19 has disrupted the “normal” routines of societies. In this chapter we present experiences of when we as academics tried to cultivate compassion amongst our students while teaching in higher education during a crisis. The textual and visual data of this study, our narratives, and images come from four different countries, from four different higher-educational contexts. These personal experiences and the differences in them are described and systematically analysed to understand them. According to our results, students were supported in multiple ways on three different levels in the academic context (administrational, operational, and individual). As a conclusion, we highlight four practical outcomes for future work with students during crisis.