The Importance of Developing Empathy
I am a huge advocate for the benefits of being an engaged member of local, national and global communities. I make a concerted effort every semester to incorporate an experiential learning opportunity into the delivery of my curriculum content. After reading Teaching for Hope by Werner (2008), I was left reflecting upon my approach to experiential learning and weather or not it was in fact doing what I intended for it to do.
The article Teaching for Hope seeks to provide teachers with strategies for addressing the need to instill a sense of hope in our students. Werner (2008) argues that “schools are in the business of strengthening realistic hope in the future” and that it is the role of the education system to avoid becoming unwitting partners in the potential loss of that hope. Moreover, Werner (2008) reminds us that “ essential to hope is a knowledgeable and reflective confidence in the future and a willingness to engage it” (p.93). To be actively engaged, Werner (2008) suggests that we as educators participate in strengthening a youth’s sense of hope for the future through understanding the problems and complexities of the world by exploring them with emotion, information, vision and efficacy.
I was left with the following question:
Part of our curriculum calls for the completion of community service hours. While this targets your suggestion of introducing students to agencies, partnerships and networks engaged in problem solving, does it effectively work to build efficacy?
In a different course I am taking, I was asked to watch the following videos:
The perspectives taken by the individuals in each video shed some light on the potential disservice we may be doing if we do not properly engage in service learning. All too often we encourage students to participate in volunteer initiatives without first providing them with proper training. Daniela Papi (2012) points out that we need to prepare our students with the appropriate knowledge and tools needed before we can help. If we jump right in, we may be causing more harm than good (this outcome will certainly not help to develop a sense of efficacy). This is what Papi (2012) refers to as “sympathy tourism” when we should be teaching our students to be empathetic. In line with this philosophy, Sirolli (2012), argues that we can’t help others if we don’t take the time to listen first. Students will not build efficacy if engage in volunteer initiatives with their own agenda and consequently do not see any sustainable change. Teachers need to encourage students to listen first and then help those in need to find the knowledge they need to make a change.
Service learning will be my new approach to experiential learning opportunities.
References
Ernesto Sirolli: Want to help someone? Shut up and listen! (2012). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXsLtHqfdM
Werner, W. (2008). Teaching for hope. In R. Case & P. Clark (Eds.), The anthology of social studies, volume 2: Issues and strategies for secondary teachers (pp. 193–197). Vancouver: Pacific Educational Press.
What’s wrong with volunteer travel?: Daniela Papi at TEDxOxbridge. (2012). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYWl6Wz2NB8
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