Abstract
In the beginning of her book, Bridgette Cooper (2011), a professor of education at the University of Sunderland, United Kingdom, thanks her parents for teaching her and her siblings how to love. I selected Empathy in Education: Engagement, Values and Achievement because of the author’s in-depth study of empathy and its application in the educational setting. Based on qualitative research, the author delves into various characteristics of empathy as well as its limits. Have you met an educator who did not express compassion or empathy toward his or her students? Have you met an educator who was able to teach a subject with compassion in different ways rather than one set way? If so, you will likely be drawn to this book.
Cooper (2011) gains her perspective on empathy in education by interviewing educators and students from various educational institutions. She includes insights from psychologists, philosophers, and the field of neuroscience and reviews aspects of human nature and the caring relationship among educators. Grounded in the aforementioned research, along with relevant insights into the educational process, the book is compelling and serves educators and those wishing to better understand the importance of empathy in diverse relationships.
The book comprises three sections. In the first section, “Empathy, Morality and Learning: A Historical Background,” Cooper (2011) explores empathy’s meaning and significance. Using early philosophers’ theories on the learning process, she researched empathy, how it is used in counseling and empathy training and its role in male/female relationships, brain trauma, and nonverbal communication. She further discusses historical matters of education and emotional intelligence. The author concludes having a definition of empathy and to which arena such definition is applied will determine its value in that setting. Cooper poses the question, “What is the relationship between empathy and morality?” (p. 41), conveying the idea of teaching ethically and doing so with empathy.
The second section, “New Understanding of Empathy in Learning Relationships and the Significance of Context,” focuses on the nature of empathy. Supported by interview data collected from experienced and student teachers, Cooper (2011) examines the relationship between teaching and learning and empathy’s effects on this relationship. The findings indicate high complexity in the basic teacher–student relationship. Although there is empathy, there is also a modeling of morality. The more a teacher accepts the student for his or her real self, the more the educator can understand how to guide the student. The author asserts the quality of this relationship matters most.
In the final section, “Wider Implications: Empathy Beyond the School,” Cooper (2011) discusses personal and social values and espouses going beyond the classroom to include society. Emotional engagement is crucial to empathy development to further support the teacher–student relationship, and building and nurturing these relationships requires social, personal, spiritual, and aesthetic values. She notes, “Building high-quality relationships created by high levels of empathy allow teachers to be more demanding, more adventurous and creative without fear of failure on their own pupils’ part” (p. 236). This passage incorporates the fundamentals of teaching and engaging which aid in developing strong quality relationships with caring at the core.
This book includes researched strategies and tools to prepare educators and leaders to incorporate empathy in education. Cooper (2011) writes from a place of compassion, care, and, simply put, love. Commendably, she informs readers about various ways educators and others can build strong quality relationships through empathy.