Crisis of Meaning: Compassion and Community Engaged Learning

This research paper explores the relationship between compassion, meaning-making, and curricular community engaged learning (CEL) in a university setting. We contend that CEL, as a key form of community-focused experiential learning (EL), can play an important role in helping address the well-being of students, faculty, and staff by providing opportunities to engage in what they consider to be meaningful activities. Our critical examination of this relationship draws on primary research conducted in Winter and Spring 2022 with members of a large Canadian university and its affiliated colleges. This mixed-methods research includes a Qualtrics-based survey with over 2,500 respondents, combined with a series of interdisciplinary, online focus group discussions with faculty, staff, and students. Our findings reveal that many participants have experienced a “crisis of meaning” in their academic and work lives. They thus seek avenues to engage in meaningful, creative, compassionate, and community-focused activities that provide them with opportunities to foster their overall well-being. Participants emphasized the heightened importance of such endeavours after the COVID-19 pandemic as they pursue deeper connections with others and a stronger sense of purpose beyond utilitarian academic or employment performance.