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Abstract
Teacher education for inclusive education is a key priority in the UK and internationally, with much research exploring how pre-service teachers can be prepared to educate pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN). However, this has resulted in less consideration of how pre-service teachers can be prepared to work with the parents of these pupils. One specific aspect of the home–school relationship that has elicited little attention is empathy. This article details a study that explored parental perceptions of teacher empathy and consequently identifies how empathy and understanding were developed in pre-service teachers. Parental perceptions of teacher empathy were elicited, where most parents identified that teachers could not empathies with them unless they had children with SEN themselves. As it is clearly impossible for all teachers to have children with SEN, the second part of the study explored how empathy could be developed during pre-service teacher education. This involved a mother of two children with SEN sharing her ‘story’ with 344 pre-service teachers at two universities in north west England, and the success of this approach is considered. The research findings have evident implications for the development of teacher education, regarding how pre-service teachers can be encouraged to empathise with parents from the very beginning of their careers.
