Building Empathy
Overview
Developing empathy in educators and in learners is an iterative process that requires taking the time to understand and honor others' perspectives. Educators can cultivate empathy for all students through active listening, empathy interviews, or shadowing a student to understand their day-to-day experiences. These methods help educators reflect on their own implicit bias and build trusting relationships with their students. Modeling methods of perspective taking and valuing student feedback support the development of empathy between individual students and teachers, which can foster a Sense of Belonging and help mitigate Stereotype Threat.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
In this video, the educator models how to listen with empathy as he tries to understand the perspectives of students whose backgrounds and experiences are different from his own.
Design It into Your Product
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Culturally Responsive Strategies
Checking in with learners, or taking the time to talk with individual learners about their experiences or goals, is important for fostering a positive classroom environment.
Developing cultural awareness as an educator is an ongoing process that includes building empathy for the full diversity of students, intentionally recognizing how one's own identity intersects with students' identities, and creating an awareness of how the learning environment can impact students' Sense of Belonging.
Discussing race with students can range from celebrating the importance of diversity to understanding the impact of racism from the perspective of those who have been historically marginalized.
A first step to supporting learners is truly understanding who they are.
Equitable grading systems and practices reimagine how to assess and communicate student progress through various methods that reduce subjectivity and increase opportunities to learn.
Family engagement happens when educators and schools collaborate with families to collectively support their child's learning in meaningful ways, both at school and at home.
Learning about students' cultures and connecting them to instructional practices helps foster a Sense of Belonging and mitigate Stereotype Threat.
Selecting culturally responsive materials, including multicultural and diverse resources, is critical for supporting all students.
Shadowing a student involves an educator, administrator, or designated adult observing a learner across different parts of their day to deepen their understanding of that learner's experience beyond their classroom.
Student-led conferences are meetings between students, parents, and teachers where the student actively leads the conversation by reflecting on their progress toward goals and sharing examples of their work.
Translanguaging is a flexible classroom practice enabling students to listen, speak, read, and write across their multiple languages or dialects, even if the teacher does not have formal knowledge of these additional languages.
