Education and empathy

Beyond Understanding: Intercultural Teacher Empathy in the Teaching of English as an Additional Language

“…It has been described as "a broad, somewhat slippery concept" (Eisenberg & Strayer, 1987, p.3) with "no stable meaning" (Verducci, 2000, p.64). To some, it is a disposition or trait (Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2004;Hogan, 1969;Kozeki & Berghammer, 1992;McAllister, 2002) while to others it is a capacity (Arnold, 2005;Decety & Jackson, 2004;Guiora et al, 1972;Richmond, 2004), an emotion (Sutherland, 1986), or a process (Rogers, 1957). This variety of conceptions means that there was no one definitive definition of empathy on which to base the current study.…”

“…However, some relevant studies of empathy in the field of education were located during the preliminary literature review and moral education was identified as the main area of empathy research in education (Hoffman, 2001). Studies of empathy in this area have been concerned mainly with exploring if and how empathy can be taught to students (see Meek, 1957;Sutherland, 1986;Hatcher, Nadeau, Walsh, & Reynols, 1994) although there are a few studies of teacher empathy. For example, educational psychologists Tettegah and Anderson (2007) conducted a study into pre-service teacher empathy.…”

Beyond “Feeling Blessed”: Using International Documentary Film to Foster Global Awareness in an Online College Course

“…Revisiting students' comments through this perspective, one could argue that their self-reports of empathy, sympathy, and compassion may support inequitable systems by masking their own privileges and the ways in which the United States may be implicated in global trauma. In declaring their empathy, students may also be performing in ways that are socially or culturally expected or, as Sutherland (1986) laments, that empathy has become such a buzzword in educational settings that "students will soon believe that no essay can pass without reference to it" (p. 142). Sutherland also asks if it is even possible to teach emotions such as empathy, what may qualify one to teach empathy, and how might one assess another's ability to express empathy (especially in instances when we cannot confer with the person receiving empathy).…”

The Fearful Ethical Subject: On the Fear for the Other, Moral Education, and Levinas in the Pandemic

“…Thus, Levinas allows us to explore, as Katz (2018) has underlined, how "our emotional lives assume an existential dimension that far exceeds our bare or minimal survival (p.75)." In addition, this fear for the other is distinct from empathy, a virtue that highlights one's ability to enter into and share the feelings and perspectives of others (Meier 1996;Sutherland 1986). Different from empathy, fear for the other as openness to the other strikes home prior to the recognition of oneself in the other, thus precedes empathetic awareness.…”