Aim
This study aims to explore the challenges teachers face in cultivating self-compassion and to examine the strategies they use to enhance their well-being, ultimately contributing to quality teaching and equitable education.

Theoretical Framework

The study draws upon self-compassion theory and resilience frameworks, linking these concepts to teachers' well-being and their ability to cope with occupational stress. The research also addresses the novel concept of "compassion dissonance"—the gap between extending compassion to others versus oneself.

Methods

A qualitative-phenomenological methodology was used, involving semi-structured interviews with 34 Israeli teachers aged 25-63. Thematic content analysis uncovered key themes related to self-compassion, reflection, and resilience.

Findings

Three key themes were identified. First, Bridging the Compassion Gap: From Others to Self shows that teachers often prioritize others over themselves, struggling with self-compassion. Second, Challenging Complacency: Silent Reflection and Self-Prioritization describes how practices like mindfulness and self-reflection help teachers foster self-compassion. Lastly, Resilience Buffers: Positivity, Patience, and Acceptance highlights how self-compassion enhances resilience, enabling teachers to better manage stress and maintain a positive outlook.

Relevance

By addressing teachers' self-compassion, this study highlights an often-overlooked factor in promoting equitable education: teacher well-being. Teachers who practice self-compassion are better equipped to manage classroom demands, reduce burnout, and create inclusive environments that support diverse student needs, especially those from marginalized backgrounds. The findings offer concrete strategies for integrating self-compassion into teacher education and school systems as a tool for promoting equity. By linking personal well-being to professional practice, the research provides actionable insights into self-reflection, mindfulness, and resilience-building in teacher training. These practices improve retention and effectiveness while enhancing teachers' capacity to engage in equitable teaching.

Prioritizing teachers' holistic well-being can potentially help schools align more closely with the values of equity, inclusivity, and social justice, fostering an environment where both teachers and students can thrive.

I. Research Aim

This study aims to understand the complex inner landscape of Chinese teachers. Through the narrative study, it aims to provide a subtle picture of two Chinese high school teachers’ life. The study will focus on the emotional conflicts of the teachers on their professional identity and personal identity.

II. Theoretical Framework

This study takes John Dewey’s theory of emotion as theoretical perspective. In his early works, Dewey suggests that emotions “represent the tension of stimulus and response within the coordination which makes up the mode of behavior” (Dewey, 1894/1971, 174). In his later works, he further claims that “emotion is the conscious sign of a break, actual or impending” (Dewey, 1934/1987, 15). Dewey confirmed that emotion is cognitive and could be the object of intellectual inquiry.

III. Methods

This study takes the method of narrative inquiry. This method allows the researcher to understand the teachers’ life stories in the historical trajectory. Two high school teachers were invited and more than five rounds of narrative were conducted with the teachers.

IV. Findings

The study finds that teachers’ emotional conflicts could be positive for teachers’ development. It indicates the depth of teachers’ dedication to teaching. However, teachers also need to learn to critically reflect on their emotional conflicts and transform the emotional conflicts into love of teaching (Garrison, 1997). It suggests that teacher education program needs to provide more support on transforming teachers’ emotion into love of teaching.

V. Relevance to the conference theme

This study provides a close look on teacher’s inner landscape, focusing on their emotional conflicts of professional identity and self-identity. It provides a critical insight on how to understand teachers and evaluate teachers beyond the standards and academic performances. This is an important but often ignored perspective to seek equity and justice in teacher development.

This essay debates the changes produced by neoliberalism in education, with the use of technologies, such as Big Techs (Giants in Technology) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the ways in which such innovations resize education, work and subjectivity teacher. The main aim is to carry out a theoretical critique of these issues in order to identify strategies and procedures adopted in the production of this new rationality to be incorporated by the subjects, so that such identification is capable of pointing out possibilities for reaction. From a bibliographic review, an articulation was developed between classic and contemporary authors of neoliberalism, such as Karl Marx and Theodor Adorno, with those who address the technological invasion in the educational field, such as Safatle, Silva Junior and Neves, and those who analyze the impacts observed on the subject, such as Sagrado, Matta and Gill. The relevance of the discussion on neoliberalism, as a rationality that subjects the State and imposes its ways of being and acting on the individual, lies in the intention of rescuing the subject's autonomy, self-determination and non-acceptance. Since technological mechanisms applied to the educational field, via EDTECHs and AI, have transformed people into human capital through the use of technology and innovative approaches, it must be the subject of reflection with the aim of providing social justice in a world still marked by inequalities. This challenge affects teachers, as they have a central role to play and can be considered essential to achieving this promotion. To conclude, knowledge of the students’reality and the contexts in which they find themselves allows teachers to adopt measures capable of better promoting social justice and sustainable development in the multiple and diverse scenarios they find themselves in.

Research Aim

Students today are born into a world of technology, and grow up expecting information at their fingertips. Unfortunately, the internet is also full of fake news and social media is used by some to propagate false claims and rumours. In this paper I argue that nurturing curiosity will help students develop the skills needed to be discerning consumers of the internet. Peterson (2020) calls curiosity ‘…the desire to resolve a knowledge gap…’ (p. 7). Lamnina & Chase (2021) pointed out that curiosity ‘is an important construct to consider in classroom settings, because theory and research suggest that curiosity aids learning’ (p. 665). I use my own experiences growing up in a passive learning environment to interrogate how that affected me as a learner and educator.

Theoretical Framework

In this paper, I use autoethnography as my framework. As a student curiosity was never a part of my learning environment. Rather, I was expected to listen, accept, memorize, and reproduce the information in countless tests. Autoethnography provides a way to interrogate and recognize my personal experiences as part of my research process.

Method

I use storytelling to trace my journey as a learner who accepts into one who leans into curiosity to investigate and even disagree. Storytelling within an autoethnographic framework lets me accommodate subjectivity and acknowledge that emotions are part of my evolution as a learner and educator (Ellis, Adams & Bochner, 2011).

Findings and Relevance to Conference Theme

My findings will show the importance of nurturing curiosity. It aligns with the conference theme of quality teaching because a curious learner will seek to understand diverse viewpoints and recognize inequity. Racialized and marginalized students will learn to be confident in challenging these behaviours. My experiences underline the necessity for classroom practices that nurture perceptive and critical learners.