Democracy, empathy, literature: encountering, discovering, listening to the other in formal educational contexts

:speech_balloon: Speaker: Nicoletta, Chieregato

:classical_building: Affiliation: University of Bologna, Department of Education Sciences

Title: Democracy, empathy, literature: encountering, discovering, listening to the other in formal educational contexts

Abstract (long version below): It is claimed that democracy requires empathy, and that empathy is fostered by literary reading. Starting from a critical analysis of these statements, the present study aims to understand if and how literary education can become an ā€œempathy laboratoryā€ and hence support democracy. A qualitative study carried out in schools explores how empathy occurs in reading experiences of 12-14 year-old students, and which factors facilitate or hinder such responses. Preliminary results reveal that empathy is a complex and dynamic process, requiring time, open discussions, teachersā€™ support, and sustained by specific texts features. Possible implications for designing literary education are proposed.


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:newspaper: Long abstract

In recent years, political guidelines at international level have shown an increasing attention to global and democratic citizenship (Unesco, 2015; Council of Europe, 2018) and competences considered key for a democratic culture have been identified: among these, empathy.

Within the wide spectrum of empathy definitions, the one closest to the democratic need to ensure legitimate collective deliberative processes ā€“ including the listening and legitimation of different and adverse points of view (Morrell, 2010) ā€“ is the phenomenological one (Boella, 2006, 2018; Stein, 2014; Zahavi, 2011, 2014). Phenomenology envisions empathy as the process of attunement with the other, to gain a better understanding of the interpretative emotional and cognitive categories informing his/her thoughts and behaviors, while keeping ā€œthe right distanceā€.
By creating opportunities for encountering, discovering and listening to the other, education is envisioned as an opportunity to enhance the empathic process (Council of Europe, 2018), possibly having literature as a powerful ally. In fact, literature is assumed to foster empathy and to represent a ā€œform of cognitive-emotional apprenticeshipā€ (Contini, 2011). Within the theoretical framework of a transactional approach to reading (Rosenblatt, 1978), literary narrative indeed offers the opportunity to de-familiarize perceptive, cognitive and emotional processes (Shklovsky, 1965), to ā€œfeel the otherā€ (Boella, 2006) by ā€“ at least temporarily ā€“ taking his perspective (Cohen, 2001; Cohen & Klimmt, 2021), and to prompt readerā€™s reflection.
The purpose of the present paper is to share preliminary results of an empirical study carried out to explore how the relationship between empathy and literary reading might be exploited in schools.
The study aims to understand how young people between 12 and 14 years ā€“ at an important stage of their identity and psychosocial development process (Crone, 2016; Erikson, 1997) ā€“ experience literary narrative texts and interact with characters in their school contexts. Through documentation analysis, direct observation of reading classes (6 classes, 6 teachers, diversified by method and approach) and semi-structured interviews with teachers and with a sample of students (N=12), the research also investigates which elements appear to be significant so that the reading experience shapes (or doesnā€™t shape) up as an ā€œempathy laboratoryā€.
In a preliminary study (7 classes, 137 students) carried out to fine-tune the observation grid and the structure of the interviews, verbal data were collected through questionnaires and short written texts. Based on their thematic analysis, empathy seems to emerge as complex and dynamic process, characterized by the interaction of three constituents:

  •    Acquiring awareness of oneā€™s own perspective (ā€œI was surprised by the different way of living [ā€¦] and I thought how Iā€™d have behaved in such a situation: it helped me better understand othersā€™ points of view, but - above all - mineā€),
    
  •    Entering the otherā€™s experience and suspending judgment (ā€œI identified with M. and I could feel his emotions [ā€¦] If you look at the story from the outside, you might criticize his behavior, but if you step into his shoes, then his choices make senseā€),
    
  •    Personal reflection (ā€œof course, I donā€™t justify all behaviors, but [ā€¦] I reflected on his way of thinking and mine, coming to a kind of conclusion ... also on different topics ... a new spark for my lifeā€)
    

The recurrence of terms such as ā€œat the beginning, [ā€¦] then, when I startedā€¦ā€, ā€œbefore, [ā€¦] afterā€, ā€œnot immediately, [ā€¦] but going on with the storyā€ also suggests empathy is indeed a process that might require time. In addition to time, other supporting factors emerging from the youngstersā€™ words are: a) the presence of not-stereotypical and unpredictable characters (ā€œa character who plays the though, then suddenly feels lonely, sad; thatā€™s surprisingā€); b) the engaging and introspective language (ā€œthe story is compelling and itā€™s told in a way that made it easy to experience it ā€˜from withinā€™ā€); c) the ability to imagine oneself as part of the story, thanks to a sensory approach to the text (ā€œlike a movie in my headā€); d) reading aloud in class; e) writing tasks; f) group discussions; g) teachersā€™ counseling.
Possible obstacles could be instead:

  •    Reading approaches focusing on discovering the ā€œcorrect messageā€ presumed to reside in the text, rather than on readerā€™s individual response to the story;
    
  •    Reading experiences designed to steer the reader towards directions that are defined correct a priori (normative moral education), instead of actually promoting a personal and responsible growth.
    

Preliminary evidences will be further investigated during the main study.
The study results appear promising and could effectively support the design of reading classes ā€“ aiming to train the empathic, hence the democratic, process ā€“ at school. Also, it is crucial to strive to ensure that reading experiences are real opportunities for all type of readers, not only for the ā€œexpert onesā€.

Hi Nicoletta. This is a very interesting and impressive study. I also really appreciate the age group you worked with, as most of the research on reading and empathy focuses on either toddlers or adults. The only question I have is related to the distinction between narrative empathy and empathy ā€œin practiceā€. To what degree do you think these studentsā€™ experiences of empathy for fictional others, will translate to empathy for real others, or even empathic/pro-social behavior? This question struck me as Jan Lenhartā€™s study (who is also in our discussion session) showed that narrative empathy for fictional characters does not necessarily predict self-reported empathic tendencies for others in daily life. On the other hand, my own work shows that ā€œreal-lifeā€ empathic tendencies do positively affect narrative empathy. So my question is, what do you think is the link between narrative empathy and ā€œreal-lifeā€ empathy?

Beautiful data Nicoletta, an important study! Was great to get this update of your research.

Hi Lynn, thanks so much for your feedback! I viewed your presentation as well and I found many connections with my study. Hopefully, weā€™ll able to chat later, during the session. As per your question, it is almost impossible ā€œto predictā€ real-life empathy starting from my research results. The idea behind is that empathy is not ā€œgiven once for allā€ and that it is not ā€œonce you ā€˜learnā€™ it, then you can put into practiceā€. When referring the phenomenological philosopher Boella, who adopts the term ā€œempathiesā€, I was trying to stress the point that the same subject (having the so called ā€œempathic abilitiesā€) could act/react differently based on the circumstances and context conditions. Thatā€™s why I suggest the term ā€œtraining empathyā€: you get the chance to develop/improve the empathic process, but then it doesnā€™t necessarely translate into being empathic always, with everyone ā€¦ I think that just as thereā€™s no direct (proofed and certain) correlation between narrative empathy and real-life empathy, thereā€™s no clear and sure correlation between empathy and pro-social behaviour. For sure the one can help/support the other, but itā€™s not for sure. Having this said, there are some interesting comments by the students that I didnā€™t mention in my presentation, but that Iā€™m currently coding and analysing, and they refer to how they think/feel reading has changed their way of looking at things and people, how reading has in someway ā€œtransformedā€ that. Again, I donā€™t think this would be a sure predictor of real-life empathy and of pro-social behaviour, but still these comments show how reading has provided them with some ā€œfood for thoughtā€ in the real life. I hope my answere correctly addresses your question and looking forward to meeting you later! Nicoletta

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Thank you, Frank! Hope to get feedback to further improve it :slight_smile: