Teachers’ Perceptions of Kindness at School

Abstract

The aim of this research was to examine kindergarten to 12th grade teachers‟ (N = 257) perceptions of school kindness. Teachers were asked to define kindness, provide examples of kindness they had done and received, identify key agents of kindness, and rate the quality of kind acts within their schools. Findings indicate that teachers define and enact kindness in comparable ways, that most teachers believe they have a strong to moderate influence on shaping students‟ kindness, and that teachers‟ perceptions of school kindness varies as a function of the grade they taught.

Keywords

• teacher perceptions
• social and emotional learning
• kindness
• student-teacher relationships