Empathy Is the Zeitgeist

Abstract

By considering ways that pre-service teachers might engage with and understand the importance of explicitly teaching empathy, this book contemplates a move towards a pedagogy of empathy. The way this newly framed pedagogy can be taught through a participatory method during teacher training in order to transform learning is a key argument throughout the book. The challenges of learning to be a teacher in the twenty-first century mean that in addition to developing skills and competencies in various disciplines, teachers need to meet the multiple needs of learners and prepare them to be active citizens in an increasingly complex and chaotic world. Drawing on a human rights approach to practice and theatrical traditions, specifically ‘drama-rich pedagogies’ (Ewing, Drama-Rich Pedagogy and Becoming Deeply Literate: Drama Australia Monograph No. Twelve. Brisbane: Drama Australia, 2019), this chapter explores the significance and effectiveness of teaching empathy informed and shaped by theatrical traditions and community influences including Aboriginal and Indigenous perspectives, playwrights’ perspectives, disability advocates and theatre practitioners, situated within the teacher training context. Human rights education and social justice practices are an emerging and vital field of inquiry within initial teacher education programmes internationally and the traditions of the theatre have much to offer to this pedagogic approach (see Rae, Theatre & Human Rights. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). A coalescing of these approaches based on cutting-edge research activates a fresh perspective on the way we relate to each other in and subsequently outside of the classroom. I hope that this work will propel this conversation further into practice.