Empathising with the Other: Unsettling Notions of Sameness and Difference through a Deconstruction of "Empathy" in UK Development Education

• In Event: Evidence-based decision making in education
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Self and other, here and there: challenging notions of space, culture, and belonging

Proposal

From a post-foundational international and comparative educational lens, this paper seeks to provoke taken-for-granted assumptions about a form of human connection: empathy. It critically examines how the concept of empathy is mobilised in the rhetoric and discourses of development education, a field that routinely makes, implies or normalises comparative judgements about peoples and cultures all over the world. Using the example of narratives about ‘African poverty’ in UK development education, the paper engages with theories of postcolonialism, empathy, critical pedagogy and global citizenship within the context of paradigm shifts in development. It unsettles normative assumptions about empathy being simple or inevitable within development education. It seeks to open up new possibilities for conceptualising empathy, prioritising nuance, respect for the agency and multidimensionality of the Other and self-reflexivity in the face of long-standing historical, geopolitical and sociocultural inequalities. The paper thus hopes to contribute to post-foundational international and comparative education by arguing that the concept of empathy is under-researched and deserves more critical analysis, and by suggesting ways forward for more respectful and self-reflexive cross-cultural engagement.

This paper might fit the aims of this round-table session because ‘empathy’ is commonly considered to be a universal concept and creative and critical scrutiny of it seems necessary. It is deployed so ubiquitously in the rhetoric of development that a critical analysis of its place in development education seems relevant to the international audience of the conference, and its wide range of readers - from policymakers to academics to practitioners. By synthesising examples of everyday pedagogy, student responses, policy discourses and wider geopolitical patterns, the paper hopes to connect to this session’s aims. Since empathy has not yet become a widespread subject of analysis within development education or international and comparative education as a whole, the paper might interest an audience who wants to challenge taken-for-granted assumptions about social justice, sameness, difference or the complexities of human connection.

Author

• Nomisha Kurian, Faculty of Education, Cambridge University & Global Affairs, Yale University