Compassion-based Language Education

• Michèle le Roux ^[1]
  1. [1] Ulster University
• Localización: ELT journal: An international journal for teachers of English to speakers of other languages, ISSN 0951-0893, Vol. 80, Nº 2, 2026 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Special Issue: Teachers in Post-Conflict and Crisis-Affected ELT Contexts), págs. 305-308
• Idioma: inglés

• Es reseña de:

  • Compassion-based Language Education

    Sarah Mercer

    Oxford University Press, 2024

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• Resumen

  • The addition of Sarah Mercer’s book Compassion-based Language Education to the Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers series can only be welcomed. As our world is increasingly blighted by violence, by the dismantling of democratic institutions, by prejudice against minorities, migrants, and any who are seen as ‘other’, and by the pillage of the planet’s resources, it is all the more necessary to foster in young people the virtue of compassion and the motivation to work for the alleviation of distress, disadvantage, and injustice. Mercer’s commitment to a more compassion-based pedagogy is evident throughout the book and the author’s personal investment imbues the text with rhetorical drive and energy.

    The book is organised into three sections: two introductory chapters (whose discrete content and aims are not very clearly distinguished), followed by a section on Teaching with Compassion, which covers teacher–learner relationships (Chapter 3) and learner–learner relationships (Chapter 4), and then a section on Teaching for Compassion, which focuses on content: Chapters 5, 6, and 7 are entitled, respectively, ‘Teaching self-compassion’; ‘Teaching compassion for others’; and ‘Teaching compassion for the planet’. There is a helpful glossary of key terms at the end of the book and an extensive reference list. Numbered activities are interspersed though the text (though it would have been helpful if these had been categorised in some way, as some are reflection tasks for the reader/teacher and some are practical teaching ideas), and inspirational quotations from some of the key authors whose work has informed Mercer’s thinking are dotted across the margins. The book is written in a lucid and accessible style, with technical terms and acronyms clearly explained, and is therefore inclusive of a range of readers with varying levels of experience and knowledge