Balancing accountability with compassion in the classroom: Editorial

“Faculty members have become one part caretaker and one part educator,” writes Betty-Shannon Prevatt in an article for Inside Higher Ed. To manage the line between compassion and maintaining accountability and rigour in the classroom, Prevatt outlines four approaches that faculty members can explore. In particular, she encourages faculty to approach self-care and intellectual challenge as activities that can occur together rather than being mutually exclusive, reinforce communication as a tool for accountability with students, set boundaries with rather than for students, and take the time to ensure that students understand how and when to contact campus counselling and wellness services. In addition to these approaches, the author explains that faculty must take care of themselves in order to model resilience and appropriate coping strategies.