Compassion in Action in the World Language Curriculum: You Can Start Here

Compassion in Action in the World Language Curriculum: You Can Start Here off ers both the why and the how of teaching languages through and for compassion. Grounded in a robust conceptual framework, Rifkin and Wagner make the case for compassion as a powerful foundation for world language education. At its heart is a collection of classroom projects drawn from interviews with approximately forty world language educators teaching a wide range of languages from Pre-K through Graduate School. Their authentic classroom activities demonstrate how compassion can be meaningfully integrated into language learning. Organized by learners’ age and educational level, each chapter connects these examples to the book’ s conceptual framework and offers practical suggestions for adapting the activities to diverse teaching contexts. Whether you are new to compassion-centered language teaching or seeking fresh inspiration from fellow educators, Compassion in Action in the World Language Curriculum: You Can Start Here provides the research, the voices of experienced teachers, and the practical ideas to help you begin.

Benjamin (“ Ben” ) Rifkin earned his bachelor’ s degree and first master’ s degree at Yale University in Russian and East European Studies. He earned his second master’ s degree and doctoral degree in Slavic Languages and Literature at the University of Michigan and was recognized with an honorary doctorate by Middlebury College for his advocacy of the study of language and intercultural understanding. Manuela Wagner is Associate Dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Professor of Applied Linguistics and German at the University of Connecticut. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in English Studies (Linguistics) from the University of Graz, Austria, was a visiting scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and conducted her doctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany.