Crises of Care and Critique: School Leaders and Narratives of Compassion Fatigue

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Group Affiliation: 
Center for Educational and Instructional Technology Research

This study will examine school administrators and their experiences with compassion fatigue. Prinz (2011) describes empathy as “a vicarious emotion one experiences when reflecting on the emotion of another” (p. 1). Compassion fatigue has been defined as “the cost of caring” (Hamilton, 2008, p. 10) and used to describe the emotional reaction of a helper to another person’s trauma. This study examines the negative effects that are a result of empathy and compassion may have on school leaders. Results of this study can be used to provide insight into the ways that school leaders experience compassion fatigue as they navigate through ethically and emotionally challenging events.

2019 AERA ANNUAL MEETING
James Lane, Ed.D., Sally Everts, Ed.D., Yvonne Hefner, Ed.D., Ramona Phillips, Ed.D. and Karen Scott, Ed.D.
Presentation External Link(s): 
Crises of Care and Critique: School Leaders and Narratives of Compassion Fatigue
Presentation Date: 
Thursday, April 9, 2020
Event or Conference: 
Leveraging Education Research In A "Post-Truth" Era: Multimodal Narratives To Democratize Evidence
Presentation Type: 
Paper Presentation
Boyer's Domain: 
Teaching & Learning
School Leadership
Presentation Location: 
255 Front Street West
Toronto, ON M5V 2W6
Canada
Associated Awards: 
2019 Research Presentation Scholarship Award Recipient.
Abstract: 
This study will examine school administrators and their experiences with compassion fatigue. Prinz (2011) describes empathy as “a vicarious emotion one experiences when reflecting on the emotion of another” (p. 1). Compassion fatigue has been defined as “the cost of caring” (Hamilton, 2008, p. 10) and used to describe the emotional reaction of a helper to another person’s trauma. This study examines the negative effects that are a result of empathy and compassion may have on school leaders. Results of this study can be used to provide insight into the ways that school leaders experience compassion fatigue as they navigate through ethically and emotionally challenging events.