Jakob Tandrup Esbensen

Teacher
Maglegårdsskolen School
Denmark Hub | EUROPE

 

Jakob Tandrup Esbensen is a teacher at Maglegårdsskolen, a primary public school in Gentofte, Denmark. He teaches Danish and music primarily in grade 3. Beside teaching language and music, his role is to develop ways to integrate compassionate systemic awareness into his teaching and inspire colleagues to do the same. His work focuses on the everyday life of the children, how they begin to understand complex problems (e.g. conflict in the schoolyard), and their part of being in different systems. He is one of several teachers of a Compassionate Systems Ambassador Group at Maglegårdsskolen.

For over 10 years, Jakob has been working with children with special needs. Working closely with children who are constantly challenging or being challenged by their surroundings – whether it is family, institutions or local societies, because they do “not fit in the box”—has generated a number of different insights that have helped him further his own personal interests. For example, the need for self-understanding and self-awareness in order to act mindfully and cleverly in problematic situations, as well as an understanding of how surroundings and actions respond dynamically. In other words, he finds it highly interesting how interacting mindfully and compassionately affects relations, situations and systems.

His aspirations for participating in the Certification Program were to learn and develop skills and mindset in order to continue supporting the learning of the ambassador group at Maglegårdsskolen, and to spread the Compassionate Systems Framework practice to other students at his school and to interested stakeholders outside the organization.  This program has helped him develop a broad network of co-practitioners with whom he has been able to develop best practices.