To be kind is a basic maxim for how we conduct our personal lives. It may seem unusual to use the lens of kindness on institutions, such as in higher education. My research with my colleague Olalekan Adekola has done exactly that. We have argued for a ‘kindness’ approach to improve the learning and social experiences of Chinese international students in the UK in our two articles: Promoting acts of kindness on campus: views of Chinese international students in the UK and It’s not all rosy for Chinese students: Kindness can help. In this blog, I explain why kindness is vital in higher education. I talk about how we can promote a culture of kindness to benefit everyone, but with particular attention to supporting our international students. But first, let me explain what we mean by ‘kindness’.
Understanding kindness: psychological perspectives
“Be kind to others” is something we often hear from our parents and teachers when we are young and then go on to tell our own children. Schools, especially at primary stage, encourage acts of kindness. Kindness may be enshrined in the school’s values, and there is praise for pupils who show kindness to others. Plainly, kindness is recognised as a powerful tool in education for nurturing well-being and cohesion, but it is unclear what is meant by kindness and how we might promote it in the higher education sector. Most definitions of kindness emphasise positive interpersonal interactions which involve helpfulness, empathy and compassion. For example, Kerr et al. (2015) explain that kindness has emotional, behavioural and motivational components, and is manifested as acts that benefit other people or make them happy. Similarly, Curry et al. (2018) describe kindness as action intended for others’ betterment. It’s clear from these definitions that kindness is a quality that we cultivate in our actions and also in the spirit and motivations driving our actions: helpfulness, generosity, care and consideration for others, without the expectation of anything in return.
Studies suggest that acts of kindness by teaching staff can have positive impacts on student learning and well-being (Krane et al., 2017; Markle, 2019). Students often link their own engagement to the enthusiasm and approachability of teaching staff. The perceived acts of kindness include staff responding helpfully to questions about coursework, recommending sources, and signposting other support (Cheng & Adekola, 2022). Acts of kindness can also generate positive emotions, making students feel more relaxed, safe and calm (Layous et al., 2017) and supporting favourable views of staff (Jasielska, 2020). This picture reflects the wider view from the school of positive psychology which argue that experiences of kindness have real benefits for well-being – we flourish and thrive on these positive interactions.
Culturally embedded kindness
Ideas of kindness are also culturally constructed. In China, for example, the notion of kindness has been developed and embedded since ancient times by various philosophical schools. Confucianism frames kindness as benevolence while Mohism relates it to unconditional and undiscriminating love. Taoism describes kindness as the highest good, benefiting all creatures, and that we will enhance our own well-being and abundance by giving it selflessly to others. Due to its cultural embeddedness, kindness is of fundamental importance to international students from Asia, especially those from China (Hui, 2005). In the Chinese education system, kind-heartedness in teachers is a core value which is demonstrated by knowing students’ names, treating them as equals, being interested in their work and caring about their well-being (Lee, 2001). Being aware of these cultural norms helps us appreciate why Chinese students in the UK may perceive certain staff actions and organisational arrangements as kind or unkind. With staff workload pressures greater than ever, the relationship between student expectation and staff capacity can be fragile.
Moving forward with kindness in a challenging HE climate
So, what role for kindness as we work with all our students and together face an increasingly uncertain and complex future? That complexity has many factors: decreased government funding, university financial crises, the shift to a culture of students as customers, and the growing precarity of academic labour. But consider in the equation the position and perspective of our international students – they make up more than half the UK’s full-time postgrad students, yet they face substantial barriers to their well-being and learning. Our research tells us that acts of kindness, no matter how small, can really make a difference.
Showing kindness can be simple and contagious. We could start with being kind to ourselves. Then practise empathy and put ourselves in a student’s or colleague’s shoes and try doing small things to improve their day. Send an encouraging text to a colleague; forward an interesting article to a student you supervise; tell a student how much you like the ideas they shared in class discussion. Maybe we could trial new ways to be kind. Keep a list of ideas for random acts of kindness and implement one each day to see how it gradually boosts our mood, self-esteem and compassion, and improves how we feel about our workplace. Kindness is infectious. We could encourage our students to join in and share their own stories of how acting with kindness increases their sense of connectivity with peers, staff and the local community.
I conclude here with a brief quote from Mencius (372-289 B.C.): “The heart of compassion is the sprout of benevolence.” Let’s nurture and develop kindness in our thoughts and actions to make the higher education sector a better place to work and study for all.
Dr Ming Cheng is Professor of Higher Education at the Sheffield Institute of Education, Sheffield Hallam University
References
Cheng, M., & Adekola, O. (2022). Promoting Acts of Kindness on Campus: Views of Chinese International Students in the UK. Intercultural Communication Education, 5(1), 17-32.
Cheng, M. & Olalekan Adekola (27 Nov 2022). It’s not all rosy for Chinese students: Kindness can help. University World News. Retrieved from: https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20221125092310439
Curry, O. S., Rowland, L.A., Van Lissa. C.J., Zlotowitz, S., McAlaney, J., & Whitehouse, H. (2018). Happy to help? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of performing acts of kindness on the well-being of the actor. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 76, 320-329.
HESA. (2023). Higher Education Student Statistics: UK, 2021/22 – Where students
come from and go to study. Retrieved from:
https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/19-01-2023/sb265-higher-education-student-statistics/location
Hui, L. (2005). Chinese cultural schema of education: implications for communication between Chinese students and Australian educators. Issues in Educational Research, 15, 17.
Jasielska, D. (2020). The moderating role of kindness on the relation between trust and happiness. Current Psychology, 39, 2065–2073.
Kerr, S.L., O’Donovan, A. & Pepping, C.A. (2015). Can gratitude and kindness interventions enhance well-being in a clinical sample? Journal of Happiness Studies, 16, 17–36.
Krane, V., Ness, O., Holter-Sorensen, N., Karlsson, B., & Binder, P.E. (2017). “You notice that there is something positive about going to school”: How teachers’ kindness can promote positive teacher–student relationships in upper secondary school. InternatIonal Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 22, 377–389.
Layous, K., Nelson, S.K., Kurtz, J.L., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2017). What triggers prosocial effort? A positive feedback loop between positive activities, kindness, and well-being. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12(4), 385–398.
Lee, J.K. (2001). Confucian thought affecting leadership and organizational culture of Korean higher education. Retrieved from http://radicalpedagogy.icaap.org/content/issue3_3/5-lee.html
Markle, J. (2019). Loving kindness and capability in the mathematics classroom. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 17, 16-27.
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