Ongoing

Principal Investigators: Sona Dimidjian, PhD; Bill Penuel, PhD; Ashley Potvin, PhD

Research Team Members: Marisa Mendoza-Maurer, PhD; Michelle Shedro, MA; Michele D. Simpson, JD

Community Partners: Compassion Institute; Boulder Valley School District; Northeast Colorado BOCES; Roaring Fork School District

All educators and students teach, learn, lead, and grow in schools and classrooms characterized by compassion and dignity.

The Compassion & Dignity for Educators Project brings together Crown Institute researchers and practitioners, PK-12 educators, and Compassion Institute contemplative experts. From these many sources of expertise, we are designing and studying programs and practices to support educators in developing greater capacities for compassion for self and others, in bringing these skills into their daily interactions, in leading compassionate change in their school communities, and in flourishing and finding joy in their work. How can we help educators cultivate inner resources and address suffering in schools in ways that recognize the dignity of youth, their families and communities, and educators?

With a team of educators from Boulder Valley School District and the Northeast Colorado BOCES, and contemplative experts, we co-designed an online certificate that includes four courses that aim to support educators in cultivating compassion for self and others and bringing such knowledge and skill into their schools as leaders. The Cultivating Compassion & Dignity in Ourselves and Our Schools graduate certificate is available through the University of Colorado Boulder’s Teacher Leadership Program. We researched the co-design process for creating the four-course certificate with educators, examining how participating in the co-design process fostered an understanding of compassion and promoted new ideas about how to respond skillfully to suffering in schools. In addition, we have conducted research and evaluation on educators’ participation in the digital certificate to examine their overall satisfaction with the program, to understand the extent to which engaging in the certificate impacts educator wellness and leadership, and to use the knowledge gained to make refinements to the content and structure of the certificate.

We have developed evidence related both to the benefits of participating in the design of the program and being part of the program itself. While developing the program, we collected and published evidence demonstrating the promising approach of collaborative design (co-design) with educators to develop humanizing learning and research environments. We collected transcripts and artifacts from co-design meetings, conducted interviews with participants, and analyzed their responses to questions about the experience of co-design. The co-design process supported educators in developing skillful means of care through attending to how to show compassion in concrete interactions—with self, others, and with organizational practices (Potvin et al., 2023).  Teachers reported making significant changes not only to how they interacted with other adults and with students in schools but also to how they interacted with family members and friends. They reported more patience and calm in difficult situations and being able to hold onto intentions to interact with others in caring and compassionate ways. They attributed these shifts both to the practices they learned in the co-design and to being part of the co-design itself (Potvin et al., 2024). Teachers also reported ideas about how to go about creating more compassionate school environments as part of the co-design process (Potvin et al., 2023).

We found similar outcomes from teachers’ participation in the program itself, as well as additional ones we documented through surveys and interviews regarding changes in educator wellness and leadership. Among educators, 82% reported that they were extremely satisfied with their experience in the digital certificate. Educators reported that the courses met their needs, the content was relevant to them, and their perspectives were valued. Educators shared that course content and practices helped them to approach their interactions, especially school-based interactions with care and compassion. Importantly, they often reported that self-compassion was critical to supporting their well-being and development as leaders (Penuel et al, 2024; Potvin, 2023).

We conducted a mixed-methods single-group study to examine educators’ overall satisfaction with the digital compassion certificate and changes in educator wellness and leadership. We conducted a multilevel model analysis to examine changes in educator wellness from pre to post certificate using a series of validated self-report measures. Educators reported benefits on multiple dimensions that were large and significant over time. We saw the largest gains from pre-certificate to post-certificate in self-compassion, sense of personal accomplishment (a sub-scale of burnout), and emotional regulation; these gains were all statistically significant. We also saw significant decreases in stress and emotional exhaustion (a sub-scale of burnout). Other statistically significant improvements were observed for compassion and mindfulness in teaching (Potvin & Penuel, 2025).

After completing the certificate program, educators’ understanding of the concept of dignity and how it is essential in schools expanded. Educators embraced the notion that compassion did not need to be earned, but rather students deserved to be respected and treated with kindness because of their inherent worth. For educators, recognizing one’s own dignity was about feeling seen and heard. They noted that they could create conditions that allowed for dignity-affirming learning environments to emerge through honoring and validating students’ diverse identities and experiences, developing systems to address interpersonal conflict, create community, and encourage healing, designing curriculum that included students’ identities and lived experiences, and elevating student voice (Potvin & Penuel, 2023).

The program’s impact extended beyond individual transformation. Educators led compassionate action projects to address social suffering in their schools, such as creating inclusive grading systems, fostering staff connection, and creating a school environment where immigrant and newcomer students and families felt a true sense of belonging. These efforts exemplify how compassion can be a courageous force for equity and change. For these teachers, the “inside-out” approach to school change rooted in compassion and dignity helped embody the idea of flourishing in school communities as something necessary and critical, co-created, and worth striving towards (Potvin et al., 2025; Penuel, 2025).

With strong evidence of improved educator wellness, leadership, and school climate, the Compassion & Dignity for Educators Program has been spotlighted by the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute and featured in national conferences and publications.

Penuel, W. R. (2025). Education for flourishing: Building initiatives and partnerships for more just and sustainable futures. Educational Researcher.https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X251386404

Penuel, W. R., Potvin, A. S., Dimidjian, S., Jinpa, T. (2024). Leaders cultivate compassion and dignity within themselves and their schools. In K. Lasater and K. N. LaVenia (Eds.), Compassionate leadership for school improvement and renewal (pp. 3-26). Information Age Publishing.

Potvin, A. S. & Penuel, W. R. (2025, November). Supporting educator wellness and leadership through the Cultivating Compassion & Dignity for Educators Program. Poster presentation at the International Society for Contemplative Research Annual Conference, Chapel Hill, NC.

Potvin, A. S., & Penuel, W. R. (2023). Educators’ ideas about dignity and how to support it in schools. In P. Blikstein, J. Van Aalst, R. Kizito, & K. Brennan (Eds.), Proceedings of the 17^th International Conference of the Learning Sciences – ICLS 2023 (pp. 2020-2021). Montreal, Canada: International Society of the Learning Sciences.

Potvin, A. S., Penuel, W. R., Dimidjian, S., Jinpa, T. (2025). Creating compassionate change in school communities: Leading together to address everyday suffering in schools. Jossey-Bass.

Potvin, A. S., Penuel, W. R., Dimidjian, S., Jinpa, T. (2023). Cultivating skillful means of care in schools through compassion practice and individual and joint inquiry. Mindfulness, 14, 2499-2515. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-022-01867-x

Potvin, A.S., Teeters, L.P., Penuel, W.R. & Dimidjian, S. (2024). Humanizing co-design through attention to educators’ affective and relational experiences. Journal of the Learning Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2024.2318557

Potvin, A.S. (2023). An invitation to practice self-compassion. The Physics Teacher, 61(1), 88-89. https://doi.org/10.1119/10.0016764

EdWeek Research Center. (2024). The teachers are not all right: Improving mental well-being of teachers and their students. Third Annual Merrimack College Teacher Survey 2024 Results. https://www.edweek.org/products/whitepaper/the-teachers-are-not-all-right-improving-the-well-being-of-teachers

Kraft, M. A., & Lyon, M. A. (2024). The rise and fall of the teaching profession: Prestige, interest, preparation, and satisfaction over the last half century. American Educational Research Journal, 61(6), 1192–1236. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312241276856

Learning Policy Institute. (2024). 2024 update: What's the cost of teacher turnover? https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/2024-whats-cost-teacher-turnover

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Pew Research Center. (2024, April). What’s It Like To Be a Teacher in America Today? https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/04/ST_24.04.04_teacher-survey_report.pdf