Who are you, in a nutshell?

I am an individual who thinks kindness is essential as a life philosophy when dealing with people, be they patients, students, scholars, family members or friends. Being compassionate and empathetic towards patients and their needs in my professional capacity as a nurse can help them better recover from an illness. Understanding (students and junior nurses) in my role as a nurse educator and being empathetic toward their needs can help them achieve their goals and improve their academic outcomes.

Your latest book is about Pedagogy of Kindness. What is the message you want to convey to the readers? What is a caring pedagogy?

I want to convey that higher education should not be hierarchical. Instead, it should be a partnership and collaboration. A caring pedagogy is student-oriented, where the needs and goals of the students take priority. Exemplary educators partner with students to encourage them to meet their goals, and in doing so, they help students and themselves increase academic success. Being kind and caring towards students also makes them feel more worthy as human beings.

Who is this book for?

This book is for anyone who believes in kindness as a philosophy for life. Educators, students, scholars, and researchers can all benefit from reading about how being kind, caring, compassionate, and empathetic in education can achieve successful academic outcomes and make individuals feel worthwhile as humans.

What are your tips for teaching with kindness?

Teaching with kindness means listening to your students. Each student is an individual with different life experiences, different opinions, values, and beliefs. Each student is a human being with different needs and goals in life. Actively listening to students and understanding their individualities starts the process of being kind. Caring about students, respecting them as people, and being compassionate towards them are beneficial to both learners and teachers.
Building trusting and equal student-educator relationships with empathy help achieve successful outcomes.

Describe Generis Publishing in a few words.

Generis Publishing is a company that cares for its authors and treats them with kindness and respect. Generis Publishing and its editors involve their authors as partners in the publishing process and value their opinions. This philosophy makes for a trusting author-publisher relationship.

What would be your word of encouragement for a new author?

I would encourage new authors to go for their dreams. I would tell new authors not to let anyone discourage them from writing. Winston Churchill said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”