Compassionate Change in Schools Book
New book arriving April 2025! Creating Compassionate Change in School Communities: Leading Together to Address Everyday Suffering in Schools by Ashley Seidel Potvin, William R. Penuel, Sona Dimidjian, and Thupten Jinpa.
Compassion and dignity provide an essential framework for building caring and inclusive schools. Many books focus on what teachers can do as individuals; Creating Compassionate Change in School Communities is different. This book focuses both on how educators can cultivate compassion within themselves and lead together to cultivate humanizing school environments. Teachers, librarians, counselors, resource specialists, mental health professionals, and social workers who are working to create conditions for compassion and dignity in schools are all leaders who can impact change. Offering concrete evidence and case studies that showcase the power of compassion to create flourishing school communities and rejuvenate education, the book will help all educators better serve K-12 students with school cultures that promote healing. Compassion can be cultivated and dignity can be affirmed, and leaders need skillful means to do so—tools and practices that can help them develop compassion for themselves and others and see their own dignity and that of others.
Releasing April 29, 2025 - Available Now for Pre-Order!
Receive access to guided compassion meditations.
Receive special access to guided meditations along with a recorded introduction to compassion practice.
- Receive special access to guided meditations
- A recorded introduction to compassion practice
- A 30-minute 1:1 compassionate leadership coaching session
- Pre-order from your preferred retailer above
- Copy and save the order number
Complete the survey with your pre-order information and you will receive an email from compassion-dignity@colorado.edu providing you access to guided compassion meditation practices.
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Join us to celebrate the launch of the book!
Creating Compassionate Change in Schools Book Study - June 2025
- You are invited to a 4-week virtual book study facilitated by Nikki Brown and Benjamin Inouye, educators featured in the book, and with a special author Q&A session.
- When: Mondays, June 9 -June 30, 2025, 7:00-8:00 pm ET / 6:00-7:00 pm CT / 5:00-6:00 pm MT / 4:00-5:00 pm PT
- Where: Zoom
- Register: 1. Order the book 2. Complete the form
Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) for Educators - July 2025
- You are invited to an 8-session training focused on developing the qualities of compassion, empathy, and kindness for oneself and for others, facilitated by authors and certified CCT instructors, Ashley Potvin & Bill Penuel. You can learn more about CCT here.
- When: Tuesdays and Thursdays, July 8-June 31, 2025, 4:00-6:00 pm ET / 3:00-5:00 pm CT / 2:00-4:00 pm MT / 1:00-3:00 pm PT
- Where: Zoom
- Register: 1. Order the book2. Complete the form
What They Are Saying
“What a timely gift of a book! Filled with gratitude and hands-on support for healing spaces of learning, Creating Compassionate Change in School Communities is a text that is poised to (gently) transform the lives of students and teachers.”
—Antero Garcia, Associate Professor, Stanford University
“Education has changed drastically in the past five years. This book humanizes the difficulty of the changes and provides tangible steps educators can take to support their students and the people many often overlook, themselves.”
—Autumn Rivera, 2022 Colorado Teacher of the Year and 2022 National Teacher of the Year Finalist
“This exceptionally written book reminds us to engage our work in education with our heads and our hearts. A much-needed text during these times of intensified stress, anxiety, self-doubt, and blame, these authors shepherd readers through strategies and tools to help us heal individually as we renew and reset our commitments to practices of listening, compassion, empathy, and understanding, in service with and to others. An accessibly written book, grounded in transformative and rigorous research, this book should be read by any of us determined to keep pressing and fighting for education for all.”
—H. Richard Milner IV, Professor, Vanderbilt University, and author of The Race Card
“This important book builds on a simple but radical premise: ‘Our schools today need to become spaces of healing’ for students, parents and families, and educators themselves. If we acted on that premise—as the authors of this book urge and equip us to do—American education would be transformed. We would no longer focus single-mindedly on conveying information and developing cognitive skills. Instead we would attend to the development of whole persons and to the well-being of their communities. That’s an uphill task to say the least, but this well-researched book gives us the motive and means to make that journey.”
—Parker J. Palmer, author of The Courage to Teach, A Hidden Wholeness, and Healing the Heart of Democracy
Book Activities and Resources
- Experiment and engage in meditation practices to strengthen personal capacity for mindfulness and compassion and the application to the classroom and school communities
- Engage in hands-on writing exercises and self-reflection questions educators can ask themselves and then apply their personal growth to influence school policies and climate
- Gain perspective on compassion in schools through a multidisciplinary lens drawing from contemplative practices, psychology, and organizational change theory
- Learn from stories and examples of K-12 educators who have exemplified compassion in action
Learn More
While we cannot fully address all the suffering that is happening in schools today, educators do have the power to work within themselves and together locally to create more compassionate responses to suffering and to affirm the dignity of all members of their school communities.Creating Compassionate Change in School Communities offers a valuable approach to integrating wellness into schools, as much for principals and superintendents as for teacher leaders, librarians, counselors, resource specialists, and others who work to create the conditions for compassion and dignity in their school.
Check Out Related Courses
- Cultivating Compassion & Dignity in Ourselves and Our Schools
- Creating Compassionate Change in School Communities -coming soon!
Compassion & Dignity for Educators
- Learn more about the Compassion & Dignity for Educators Project