This interpretive research was at the intersection of language acquisition, literacy development, and social education. The multisite study of literacy instruction that addressed compassion as a conflict response involved qualitative analyses of data gathered from lesson artifacts, observations, interviews of the participating teachers, and survey of student's self-reported learning. The participants were multilingual teachers and students in three borderland schools of the USA. Their social construction of compassion evident in literacy lessons revealed their diverse notions of harm. Variable identification by the students of harm situations highlighted the need for increased conflict analysis that includes multiple perspectives. The findings underscore the validity of harm analysis as curriculum for all students, rather than as a response to conflict some students experience.