Collaborative Professional Learning: An Exploration of Empathy in Early Childhood Teacher Education

ABSTRACT

Three early childhood teacher educators from different institutions engaged in a collaborative self-study to explore the role of empathy in preservice teacher professional development. The two-fold purpose of the study was to: 1) develop and refine their practices to build teacher candidates’ empathy in their interactions with children, families, and colleagues and 2) reclaim accountability in teacher education by examining their practices in complex ways. They postulate that high-stakes testing, technology, and neoliberal education reforms influence their teacher candidates’ abilities and willingness to apply empathy in the classroom. A deeper understanding of how teacher candidates understand and apply empathy provides avenues for teacher educators to navigate the tensions in school reform impacted contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood
• empathy
• teacher candidates
• teacher education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.