The Harvard EdCast

Empathy, Dignity, and Courageous Action in Schools


Listen Later

How we see the world and interact with each other, especially whether we create welcoming environments of acceptance, does not always come naturally. Tim Shriver, chair of the Special Olympics, and Stephanie Jones, a Harvard professor whose research focuses on social emotional development, say that it’s something we can teach, and fostering an inclusive and accepting mindset in schools and communities matters. 

“This is not stuff that we're necessarily born with. It all grows and emerges through experiences and all kinds of things that happen in the world. So, they are malleable skills -- they can be taught,” Jones says. “And I would go further and say that the decades of work in schools focused on things like social, emotional, and behavioral development have given us some ideas about the essentials of teaching and supporting these kinds of skills.”

As a longtime advocate of students with intellectual and physical disabilities, Shriver admits he was intrigued by better understanding why some people are more open to inclusion and accepting someone who may be different from them. “From any number of points of view, difference is sometimes scary. But who are the people that know how to turn that fear or that lack of familiarity into an opening, rather than using it as a closed door?” Shriver says. “So, I started to ask myself, what is an inclusive mindset? … And the more I thought about this, the more I realized, and the more I searched around issues around it, it struck me that we didn't know.”

Working together they began to identify key components of an inclusive mindset and how to foster this by acting on empathy, dignity, and courageous action. In this episode, we discuss using teachable moments where students can learn to become upstanders, and why it is important to nurture these skills in the classroom and community.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Harvard EdCastBy Harvard Graduate School of Education

  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3

4.3

84 ratings


More shows like The Harvard EdCast

View all
The HBR Channel by Harvard Business Review

The HBR Channel

181 Listeners

HBR IdeaCast by Harvard Business Review

HBR IdeaCast

249 Listeners

TED Radio Hour by NPR

TED Radio Hour

22,153 Listeners

PolicyCast by Harvard Kennedy School

PolicyCast

82 Listeners

Teaching in Higher Ed by Bonni Stachowiak

Teaching in Higher Ed

370 Listeners

The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast by Jennifer Gonzalez

The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast

2,388 Listeners

Shorenstein Center Media and Politics Podcast by Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy

Shorenstein Center Media and Politics Podcast

21 Listeners

Hidden Brain by Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam

Hidden Brain

43,262 Listeners

Outside/In by NHPR

Outside/In

1,435 Listeners

Modern Love by The New York Times

Modern Love

8,740 Listeners

Have You Heard by Have You Heard

Have You Heard

456 Listeners

The Davis Center at Harvard University by The Davis Center

The Davis Center at Harvard University

4 Listeners

Code Switch by NPR

Code Switch

14,497 Listeners

Harvard Center for International Development by Harvard Center for International Development

Harvard Center for International Development

20 Listeners

Harvard Art Museums by Harvard Art Museums

Harvard Art Museums

7 Listeners

Outsmarting Implicit Bias by Outsmarting Implicit Bias

Outsmarting Implicit Bias

14 Listeners

Worklife with Adam Grant by TED

Worklife with Adam Grant

9,238 Listeners

Veritalk by Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Veritalk

20 Listeners

City Arts & Lectures by City Arts & Lectures

City Arts & Lectures

385 Listeners

How To! by Slate Podcasts

How To!

1,942 Listeners

The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos by Pushkin Industries

The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos

14,544 Listeners

The Bright Morning Podcast with Elena Aguilar by Elena Aguilar

The Bright Morning Podcast with Elena Aguilar

553 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

15,325 Listeners

ReThinking by TED

ReThinking

615 Listeners