Empathy, Dispositions, and the Preparation to Enact Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

• In Event: 30.080 - Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: 30.080-14 - Researching Empathy and Relations in an Era of Neoliberalism

Abstract

This paper puts forward empathy as a frame for how teacher education might better cultivate dispositions that enable teacher candidates to become effective educators of students who are culturally different from them. Dispositions are viewed in the paper as the confluence of beliefs, attitudes, and values as demonstrated through trends or patterns in teachers’ observable behaviors. The act and process of perspective taking is discussed as the anchoring concept of empathy’s application intended to help teachers shift problematic beliefs about cultural difference, acquire pertinent sociocultural knowledge, and develop skills that improve their ability to translate theories of culturally responsive pedagogy into practice. Specific recommendations for learning experiences that build on perspective taking in teacher education are discussed.

Author

• Chezare A. Warren, Michigan State University