Open access peer-reviewed chapter - ONLINE FIRST
Abstract
This chapter aims to deepen the understanding of empathy development during the education of welfare professionals. Empathy, defined as the ability to share and understand another person’s state of mind, is a crucial skill for professionals in the welfare sector. The discussion outlines empathy in professional education and practice, drawing on various perspectives, including Lipsky, Antonovsky and Biesta. Through focus group interviews with students, the research examines their perceptions of how their education has altered their empathic responses. The findings reveal that new knowledge acquired during education significantly enhances students’ empathic capacity, impacting both their cognitive and affective responses and significantly influencing their client interactions. Education broadens students’ understanding of clients’ situations, enhances their awareness of diverse needs and shapes their empathic responses. This transformation is crucial for effective professional practice, benefiting both clients and professionals by fostering resilience and job satisfaction.
Keywords
- Biesta
- compassion satisfaction
- compassion fatigue
- higher education
- professions
- purpose of education
- sense of coherence
1. Introduction
Emotional intelligence concerns the ability to perceive, understand, utilize and manage both one’s own and others’ emotions [1]. Empathy, concerning the ability to share and understand another person’s state of mind [2, 3], is part of this process [4]. It is an ‘other-centred’ reaction often described as the capacity to ‘put oneself in another’s shoes’ [5], an important capacity of professionals working in the welfare sector, as it facilitates the understanding of clients and their circumstances, especially when determining whether help can meet needs [6].
In professional education programmes preparing for jobs in the welfare sector, such as teacher training and social work education, it is therefore important to ensure and develop the students’ empathic capacity throughout their education. It is, for instance, found to be a central factor in being present and interested in the relationship between the social worker and the client [7], and in teachers’ understanding of children’s school adjustments [8].
Being dependent upon both genetic and environmental influences, empathy is unevenly distributed among us [9]. There is a strong and consistent relationship between gender and empathy [10]. Age and education are important factors in explaining empathy profiles [11], and Pastor [12] found empathy to increase throughout adolescence.
Research has found that empathy can be taught [13, 14, 15]. Still, little is known about how the empathy of professionals should be developed through education. Based upon an investigation of the empathic profile of social work students, Stokken et al. [16] point to the need for new knowledge of how education develops empathy.
To contribute to the body of knowledge on how educational programmes can better prepare students for their transition into professionals, this chapter investigates students’ own perception of how their education has altered their empathic responses. We draw on focus group interviews among students studying to be social workers and teachers. We use the term ‘clients’ to encompass all sorts of individuals, families and groups that these welfare professionals serve and support. In the analysis, we pay special attention to how they discuss, predict and understand situations where an empathic response will be relevant in their upcoming profession.
2. Empathy
Research0 literature provides multiple and multifaceted definitions of empathy. For instance, Watson et al. [17] found four different schools of thought on empathy in their literature review: the philosophic/psychological, the therapeutic, the social and cultural and the neuroscientific. In another literature review, Hall and Schwartz [18] found that empathy reflects cognitive and affective processes, but the concept is also used for instilling internal states. The many and inconsistent definitions of empathy make Stueber [19] claim that the use of ‘empathy’ has been ‘characterized by a rather shameful disregard for conceptual clarity’, while Hall and Schwartz [18] label the use of the term as ‘promiscuous’. Despite variations found when reviewing the evolution of the concept throughout the literature, Alexander and Alessi [20] found the significance of empathy as a fundamental element in clinical practice to stay the same.
Despite the conceptual ambiguity of empathy, widely used empathy measures have been developed [21]. In research, one widely used measure [18] is the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), developed by Davis [2, 3]. It measures two dimensions of cognitive empathic response by means of the perspective-taking scale and the fantasy scale, and two dimensions of affective responses through the empathic concern and personal distress scales. These four dimensions are separate constructs [3] that, to varying degrees, are needed in professional practice [16]. We utilize this understanding as the cornerstone of our investigation.
3. Empathy in professional education
Education influences the empathy of students. In a review, Andersen et al. [22] concluded that empathy declines over the course of medical studies. In contrast, Stanley and Mettlida [6] found that social workers had a significantly higher empathy score than the control group at the end of their education. Greeno et al. [23] found that bachelor’s students in social work scored significantly lower on empathy than nursing students and master’s students in social work. They discussed whether this was a result of less clinical experience among bachelor’s students. Vorkapić and Ružić [24] found higher empathy levels among future preschool teachers in comparison to other students. Stokken et al. [16] found that personal distress is significantly lower among social work practitioners than social work students and that social work students have an empathy profile that differs from teacher education students.
Through this chapter, we aim to gain insights into how educational programmes can better prepare students for their professional roles by fostering well-developed empathy profiles. Our investigation is based on focus group interviews with teachers and social work students. Although neither empathy nor emotional intelligence is addressed as separate topics in these professional education programmes, empathy is cultivated through various methods. These methods encompass interactive dialog exercises and hands-on learning experiences, alongside theoretical teachings on subjects such as recognition, mentalization and ethical viewpoints. Additionally, students are frequently given assignments that necessitate a profound comprehension of the client’s circumstances, which, in turn, bolsters their empathic abilities.
When discussing the development of educational programmes, it is important to acknowledge that they serve a threefold purpose [25, 26, 27]. They should foster qualification, socialization and subjectification. According to Biesta [27], these three purposes may reinforce each other, may become contradictory, or even self-contradictory.
The qualification process involves becoming educated and certified as professionals. This process is characterized by formal elements such as learning outcomes and curriculum, which are designed to ensure that students acquire the necessary competencies for their professional roles. The goal is to prepare them to effectively manage the complexities of their professional responsibilities. The learning process not only aims for students to become proficient in their field but also to internalize the values and norms associated with their profession.
The socialization process involves integrating into the professional community. Biesta [27] describes it as the ‘(re)presentation of cultures, traditions, and practices, either explicitly but often also implicitly’. By employing the term ‘(re)presentation’, he underscores the practical nature of socialization. It extends beyond mere understanding to include the enactment of these cultures. This process aids students in contributing to the formation of a collective identity among professionals, embodying shared values, norms and practices that define the profession, such as professional standards and codes of conduct.
The subjectification process involves taking on the role and tasks of the profession in one’s own unique way. This process focuses on the development of individuality and independence, encouraging students to become autonomous and critical thinkers. At the same time, each professional’s unique way of thinking and working impacts the community of professionals. As such, it is the opposite of socialization, as it can challenge the common ways of acting [25].
To effectively discuss the development of empathy as a result of an educational process, empathy must be understood within the context of the overarching purpose of education: professional practice.
4. Empathy in professional practice
Social workers and teachers are what Lipsky [28] labels street-level bureaucrats. They are public service workers who interact directly with the citizens, have substantial room for discretion and possess the power to exert force. In their work, they often face situations where they ought to assist persons with problems. Zacka [29] claimed that their engagement varies between high and low, where high engagement can involve either caring for the user or enforcing rules. The approach the professional employs is highly dependent on their understanding of the client’s situation, in which empathy is a cornerstone.
Dialog between the helper and the client serves as the primary means of understanding the client’s situation and providing effective assistance. Empathy is crucial in establishing and maintaining a sound relationship, which is essential for delivering meaningful support. In social work, the interdependence between the two parties is often referred to as the ‘working alliance’ [30, 31]. This interdependence enables the helper to experience the impact of their work on a human level, whether the effect is positive or negative. To conceptualize the positive effects, the term
Research has revealed that employees who gain pleasure from helping score higher when compassion satisfaction is measured [33, 34]. Positive experiences, for instance, occur when seeing a ‘change for the better’ in patients and families [35]. Such positive experiences may counterbalance the risks of compassion fatigue and thus may account for resilience [36]. Positive experiences when helping thereby influence the relationship with the service users and the help provided, as well as worker satisfaction and even retention in the profession [37].
The negative effects of compassion fatigue can be divided into three main components: burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and moral distress [38]. Burnout manifests as emotional exhaustion and depletion, often resulting from prolonged work-related stress. It encompasses three key aspects that individuals may experience to varying degrees. Secondary traumatic stress refers to the emotional disturbance and distress that arise from exposure to individuals who have directly experienced trauma. Moral distress occurs when welfare professionals recognize the appropriate course of action but are unable to act accordingly. It also arises when health workers are compelled to act in ways that conflict with their personal and professional values, thereby compromising their sense of integrity and authenticity. The costs of compassion fatigue are not only on the part of the social workers. Such fatigue can also prevent the social worker from truly relating and thereby impair helping [39, 40].
Henriksen [41] identified Antonovsky’s [42] concept of a sense of coherence as essential for understanding the burdens associated with professional practice. A sense of coherence occurs when comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness are experienced. A robust sense of coherence is strongly correlated with perceived health, particularly mental health, and is effective in reducing levels of distress [43].
The concept of
5. Methods
To explore the development of empathy within professional education, we utilized focus groups and inductive collective analysis. In the focus groups, cases were presented to frame the discussions. This allowed us to gather insights suitable for an inductive analysis inspired by grounded theory [44] and phenomenology [45].
5.1 Recruitment, interviews and material
Participants were recruited from students enrolled in professional education programmes at two institutions in Norway. Recruitment was carried out through direct face-to-face or email contact, and participation was entirely voluntary. The dataset comprises nine interviews, totalling approximately 11 hours of discussion. Six interviews were conducted in person, with three or four informants meeting two researchers. The remaining three interviews were conducted digitally, with two informants meeting two researchers. In all interviews, the informants were familiar with at least one of the interviewers.
During the interviews, one researcher moderated the discussion while the other took notes and managed the recording. Creating a comfortable and open environment where participants felt safe to share their thoughts and experiences was of utmost importance. This involved active listening from both researchers. The moderator focused on guiding the conversation without dominating it, encouraging participation from all members and being attentive to non-verbal cues. Effective time management was also essential to ensure that all relevant points were covered within the allotted time. All interviews were recorded and subsequently transcribed.
5.2 Interview guide
To ensure relevance to theories of empathy, an interview guide was developed on the basis of IRI [2, 3]. The IRI questionnaire consists of 28 items answered on a five-point Likert scale, from ‘Does not describe me well’ to ‘Describes me very well’ [2]. The items are equally divided between the four dimensions of empathy. While the purpose of IRI is to map empathy profiles, our goal is to understand the development of empathy throughout education. The questionnaire could thus not be converted in any way, but it served as a reference point for how empathy can be investigated.
In focus group interviews for phenomenological research, it is crucial that participants engage deeply with the topics being discussed. Husserl [45] emphasized the importance of returning ‘to the things themselves’, meaning that researchers should concentrate on the direct experiences and perceptions of individuals, free from preconceived theories or biases. To ensure this focus and to prevent the interviews from becoming mere storytelling of emotional situations or theoretical discussions on empathy, respondents were presented with four scenarios. These scenarios were designed to facilitate discussions on the four main aspects of empathy as described by Davies.
The scenarios were:
A boy approaches you during a break and confides that he is being bullied by his classmates. He believes the bullying is due to his unusual and strange smell.
A colleague who has appeared fatigued for some time reveals that her mother has developed dementia. She prefers to keep this information from the rest of the staff to avoid the commotion it might cause.
A colleague seeks your advice on a matter involving a 10-year-old girl who is unfocused, aggressive and clearly unbalanced.
This scenario is provided in two parts.
In Part 1, a teenager discloses that she is in such pain that she resorts to self-harm. In Part 2, the same teenager explains that her self-harm is a result of your inability to help her.
For each of the scenarios, the same questions were discussed. These are:
What would you feel?
What do you think this person needs?
What would you do and why would you do this?
Would you have reacted the same way before you took your education?
What makes you react differently now?
5.3 Analysis
The data analysis was conducted inductively in a collective process. Being present in the same room during analysis emphasized collaboration and reflexivity. The analysis is inspired by grounded theory [44], particularly the concept of developing theories grounded in the data itself and the importance of remaining close to the data throughout the iterative process of revisiting it until theoretical saturation is reached. By engaging in iterative cycles of coding and thematic development, we ensured that our findings were grounded in the participants’ experiences and viewpoints.
During the collective analysis, we frequently revisited relevant portions of the audio files to critically interpret the communicated content. By employing these methods, we aimed to maintain the integrity of the data and provide a robust foundation for subsequent analysis.
First, we identified the sections where the informants described how they would have reacted to the scenarios presented and what made them react differently now. The outlined material we analyzed inductively to identify why they responded differently. From the process, four categories emerged. These are reflected in the four subsections in the findings section.
5.4 Ethics
The research project was reported (Ref 114,710) to SIKT, the data protection services for research used by the Norwegian university sector. Adhering to the ethical guidelines provided, we have ensured informed consent, voluntary participation and the protection of participants’ rights and well-being. Data is stored and protected in accordance with the data management plan. Measures to ensure confidentiality and anonymity are implemented, including anonymization processes and safeguarding data from unauthorized access.
The students were invited to participate in the focus group interviews because they were in the final semester of their education. This frames the situation [46] as a focus group interview with respondents being on the cusp of becoming professionals. The importance of this frame is likely reinforced by the fact that the moderators of the focus group interviews are representatives of the institutions where the students are being educated. This has the distinct advantage of clearly situating the informants in the role we want them to occupy when responding.
The use of quotes from interviews demands careful consideration, especially when translating into another language. We have meticulously adjusted the spoken words from the interviews to align with the grammar of the written language. This step is vital to preserve the authenticity and integrity of the participants’ responses while ensuring the text is comprehensible and coherent for readers. When rephrasing these quotes into English, we focused on capturing the tone and meaning rather than providing a word-for-word translation. This approach ensures that the true essence of the interviewees’ experiences and insights is conveyed, thereby enriching the overall quality and depth of the research.
6. Findings
We aim to explore how the empathy of students enrolled in professional programmes develops throughout their educational journey. In the focus group interviews, the students were all very clear on the need for empathy in their upcoming professions. One of our informants, who is studying to become a social worker, expressed the fundamental importance of empathy to the profession in this way:
In the focus group interviews, the students were presented with four scenarios in which a professional approach demands an empathic response. Despite individual differences, all informants indicated that their education had altered how they would respond to the presented scenarios. They feel they have improved in their ability to empathize and see things from another person’s perspective, thus becoming better at putting themselves in someone else’s shoes.
From our data, it becomes clear that the most important factor behind the change in empathic responses is new knowledge. It is thus the cognitive dimensions of empathy that have primarily been developed. Our data also shows this being a multifaceted development that not only has had an impact on how they think about others but also altered how they perceive themselves in relation to others. One puts it like this:
Obviously, the students begin their education with an initial empathic capacity. This capacity is likely to play a central role in both the students’ empathic development and their decision to pursue studies in the welfare professions. Our data proves that this initial empathy becomes significantly developed throughout education. One respondent expressed the development in this way:
One of the students expresses how new knowledge has developed her thoughts regarding the clients and their situation:
The students describe the transformations as profound and significant, impacting them not only by enhancing their analytical abilities but also by altering their personal identities. One student articulates these changes in the following manner:
In the following sections, we delve deeper into how the knowledge they have acquired has influenced their empathic capacity. We will begin by examining an extended scope of potential causes for the situations encountered by the client. Subsequently, we will explore a transformed understanding of the needs of others. We then delve into how the new knowledge frames their thinking before we finally consider an enhanced awareness of the professional role.
6.1 An extended scope of possible causes
Our data clearly demonstrates that the students have developed a greater appreciation for the fact that a problem can be understood and experienced in various ways. It is evident that it is knowledge acquired throughout the educational programme that has extended their ability to understand the situation of the clients as complex and varied.
Our informants indicate that, previously, their own experiences were the primary source of knowledge, which they now view as quite limited. Currently, they aim to understand situations more comprehensively and therefore collect more information before taking action. An illustration of this shift is evident in the responses to the first scenario presented in the focus group interviews, where the informants encounter a boy who reports that his classmates say he smells unpleasant. The students first discuss possible reasons why the boy might smell unpleasant, including the hypothesis that it might not be true that he smells different at all. One of the students articulated their current approach in this way:
Our data reveals that understanding the client is not merely about knowing the possible causes. It also involves an enhanced ability to analyze the situation using theoretical approaches. One of the students articulates her current approach to the situation as follows:
While possessing a broad range of explanations enables approaching the situation from various perspectives, it is the professional standard of comprehending the client’s situation before offering assistance that renders this approach valuable. Consequently, the curriculum of the educational programmes has enhanced the students’ empathetic abilities through a professional approach, encompassing knowledge of causes and theoretical frameworks.
6.2 An extended scope of possible needs
During the focus group interviews, it became evident that education has also transformed the students’ perceptions of the needs of others. The acquisition of new knowledge has heightened their awareness of the diverse range of needs that arise when individuals face challenges, making them more capable of meeting clients in a helpful way. This transformation is illustrated in discussions related to a scenario where a colleague shares that her mother has been diagnosed with dementia.
The students express that education has significantly altered how they approach such situations. Previously, they would have been more inclined to share their own experiences, but now they recognize that this is not what the colleague needs. Their actions are now based on their new understanding of possible needs. In short, they have developed an approach where they do not simply assume that the other person needs what they would have needed. Instead, they approach the situation with the question of what the other may need. One of the students expresses the change in this way:
In addition to recognizing that what is perceived as helpful can vary from person to person, situation to situation, and over time, they also acknowledge that problems have a context. One of the social work students expressed it this way:
An illustration of this can be found in one of the focus group interviews with teachers. During the discussion, our informants emphasize the importance of attending to the professional role of the colleague, considering how the colleague’s mother’s illness might impact both the quality of teaching and the collective of professionals. One of them states:
Subsequently, they explore the characteristics and challenges of being a teacher. One of the students had earlier worked as a mechanic. He states:
Their awareness of the demands inherent in the professional role leads them into a discussion about how home burdens can complicate the job. This raises concerns about the mental health of the colleague in question. One of the participants expressed their concern as follows:
From the interviews, it becomes clear that the students have heightened their awareness of how needs differ among individuals facing problems. Previously, they often understood others’ situations based on how they themselves would have perceived them. Now, they have expanded their ability to grasp what others need, thanks to increased knowledge of diversity. This understanding stems not only from knowledge of needs but also from an awareness of how different situations and roles influence the experience of encountering problems in various contexts.
6.3 The professional scope of actions
The new knowledge acquired throughout the education has not only influenced how the students perceive their clients but also how they view their own roles. In one of the scenarios presented, a girl who engages in self-harm is discussed. The subsequent discussions reveal a difference in perspectives between the social workers and the teachers. Generally, the student teachers were more likely to be emotionally affected by situations compared to the social workers.
A response that exemplifies the teachers’ approach is: ‘
We attribute this difference to the nature of their education. While teacher education emphasizes initiating learning processes, social work education focuses on addressing individuals’ personal issues. Consequently, when someone engages in self-harm, social workers perceive it as a more routine matter compared to teachers. This distinction significantly influences their responses to such situations. Defining the situation as either within or beyond the scope of one’s professional responsibilities restricts the range of empathic responses in a situation.
Empathy as part of professional practice often leads to compassionate and supportive responses that address the emotional and psychological needs of individuals. The education that students receive is thus crucial, as it shapes their compassionate and supportive responses by altering their perception of situations and limiting the range of actions they can take.
6.4 The professional position
In the second part of the scenario involving the girl who engages in self-harm, the students are confronted with the notion that they are responsible for her self-harm. This triggers an emotional reaction expressed in both words and body language. After a short while, they start to analyze the situation by means of their scope of possible causes and her possible needs. In this process, a central issue is the validity of the claim that they are to blame. Still, they never lose sight of the girl. One student expressed his thoughts on the situation as follows:
Our data clearly shows that it is their professional role that shapes how they perceive and respond to situations. Despite their personal feelings, they are there to care for others. This means they must prioritize the client, at least in the moment.
Through their discussions, we notice that our informants distance themselves from the emotional burden of being in the moment. Attuning to others’ needs is at the core of professional practice and ethics, a focus that also persists when they step back and reflect on their own reflective process. One of the informants expresses:
Our data clearly shows that the students’ professional role significantly influences how they perceive and respond to situations. A crucial aspect of this is the suppression of their own feelings, which allows for appropriate empathetic responses. This approach is grounded in the student’s knowledge of possible causes and needs, but equally important is the professional standard of prioritizing the client.
7. Discussion
We aim to deepen our understanding of the development of empathy during the education of welfare professionals. Insights from our focus group interviews reveal that students perceive that education has sparked a significant growth in their empathy, which influences their interactions with clients in various ways. Since empathy is essential to professional practice, we now explore the relationship between this transformation and education. We employ Biesta’s work [25] on the purpose of education to structure our discussion.
Biesta [25] posits that education serves a threefold purpose: qualification, socialization and subjectification. In the qualification process, students acquire the specific skills and knowledge needed to carry out their jobs. Through the socialization process, they adopt the norms and values of the profession. Meanwhile, the subjectification process involves the development of their unique identities and ways of acting as professionals. We will structure the forthcoming text in accordance with these three purposes.
7.1 Qualification
Our findings reveal that education has significantly transformed the empathic capacity of the students in two crucial ways. First, students have broadened their understanding of the possible underlying causes of a client’s situation. Second, students have heightened their awareness of how needs differ among individuals facing problems, thanks to increased knowledge of diversity dependent on persons, situations and roles. This new knowledge has expanded the cognitive components of their empathy by enhancing their ability to comprehend personal and interpersonal factors by means of theoretical frameworks and professional ethics.
By facilitating a deeper understanding of the client’s situation, empathy is crucial to providing effective assistance. This benefits the client, but it can also make the job of a welfare professional more manageable. Truly helpful assistance often leads to positive changes for the client. This provides rewarding experiences for the professional, which can mitigate the risks of compassion fatigue [35, 36]. This can be understood by means of the work of Antonovsky [42].
Finding situations meaningful and being able to comprehend and manage them leads to a sense of coherence, which, in turn, provides positive benefits such as greater resilience and higher life satisfaction [42]. This can explain why professionals, despite experiencing significant stress and adversity in their jobs, do not experience emotional depletion or drainage. The expanded understanding of a client’s potential causes and needs, acquired through education, not only enhances empathy but also improves professional coping skills. The student’s enhanced capacity to understand the client thereby benefits not only the client but also the professional.
7.2 Socialization
Biesta [27] defines socialization as the ‘(re)presentation of cultures, traditions and practices, either explicitly but often also implicitly’. This process involves both adopting and practising the norms and values of the profession. Our findings indicate that the socialization occurring throughout the education process impacts students’ empathic responses in two ways: by defining the boundaries of their professional conduct and by shaping how they adhere to professional standards.
As demonstrated above, understanding the potential underlying causes of a client’s situation and being sensitive to the needs of individuals facing problems is crucial for being an empathic professional. When our informants encountered the case of the self-harming girl, we observed that teachers were more likely to be emotionally affected by the situation compared to social workers. In terms of empathy being an amalgamation of cognitive and affective components, this points to the empathy profiles of the teachers reflecting a higher score on the affective aspects of empathy.
The teachers perceived the situation as serious and bordering on their professional scope, while social workers regarded it as a routine matter. We attributed this difference to their respective educations: teacher education emphasizes learning in the classroom, whereas social work education focuses on individuals and their problems. This divergence frames the empathy that is to be exercised during professional work. In this matter, it is important to note that the framing of self-harm is markedly different between the two educational paths.
In social work education, self-harm is considered a relatively normal reaction among the various personal issues covered in the curriculum. For teachers, however, personal problems constitute only a small component of their training. Considering this difference, it makes sense that the two groups perceive the situation quite differently. Consequently, since the curriculum, as we have seen, influences the cognitive aspects of empathy, it also shapes what one imagines as a mundane occurrence or not. At the same time, since the knowledge base of a profession defines whether a professional should take care of the situation or not, it also shapes the scope of compassionate responses available.
By framing how a professional thinks about a situation, the curriculum shapes the cognitive aspects of empathy, which in turn influence the affective components. The curriculum of a professional educational programme is thus not only a representation of what students ought to know, but it also defines what a profession handles, how it should be handled by the profession and how one should feel about it.
7.3 Subjectification
Biesta conceptualizes subjectification as the formation of unique identities and modes of action. Our data clearly indicates that the formation of unique identities is framed by their qualification and socialization processes. One central aspect of this is the professional obligation to prioritize the needs of others, regardless of their own personal feelings.
To truly understand the client, all relevant questions must be asked. In this regard, our informants have realized the necessity of self-restraint. As the focus should be entirely on the client, the client should not be burdened with the professional’s own emotions. Asking all relevant questions is thus not merely about knowing what to ask and how to ask but also about having the courage to ask. This courage rests upon a trust in one’s own ability to receive and acknowledge the responses, understand them, transform this understanding into an adequate response and reflect upon this process.
In the findings section, we also discussed the informant’s self-reflection, exemplified in the example where one of the informants was critical of her own use of theory when stepping back and reflecting upon her approach to thinking about the case where she got the blame for the girl’s self-harm. This illustrates how the contents of the educational programme also influence how they think about themselves and their own thinking.
Consequently, the framing of their role in the qualification and socialization processes, through the formation of unique identities and modes of action, is highly contingent upon their education. In this context, the professional standard of placing the user at the centre denotes both the necessity of self-restraint and the courage to enquire. The curriculum also shapes how they perceive themselves and their own thought processes. This demonstrates that education not only impacts the cognitive aspects of empathy but also inflicts the emotional aspects.
Consequently, the formation of unique identities and modes of action is highly contingent upon education due to their qualification and socialization processes. In this, the professional standard of placing the user at the centre plays a vital role, as it denotes both emotional self-restraint and the courage to enquire. Further, the qualification and socialization processes shape how students perceive themselves and their own thought processes. This demonstrates that education impacts not only the cognitive aspects of empathy but also the emotional aspects.
8. Conclusion
We have explored how the empathy of students develops throughout professional education. Our main finding was that the new knowledge acquired has increased the empathy of the students. Their ongoing empathy has, due to the education, ‘grown’, as one of the students puts it. We have thus seen that empathy can be both learnt and taught.
Our aim is to contribute to the body of knowledge on how educational programmes can better prepare students for their transition into professionals by ‘growing’ their empathy. This aim is motivated by empathy being an important capacity of professionals working in the welfare sector, as it facilitates the understanding of clients and their circumstances.
In the discussion, we have observed that the knowledge acquired during the qualification process expands the understanding of the potential causes of problems and the potential needs of the client. This expanded understanding is a pivotal asset for both empathy and professional coping skills. Furthermore, the contents of educational programmes are crucial to the socialization process, as they define what a profession handles, how it should be handled and how one should feel about it. Additionally, we have seen that the qualification and socialization processes frame the subjectification process, thereby impacting not only the cognitive aspects of empathy but also the emotional aspects.
When considering all aspects, the significance of the curriculum becomes evident. Thorough coverage in the educational programme is easier to handle emotionally than what was just mentioned. It is also easier to provide a suitable empathic response to thoroughly covered topics than to those just briefly mentioned. Although empathic development may seem to occur almost naturally throughout education, the relationship between empathy and well-known content is crucial, ensuring that the empathic development of students is not left to chance. This task may not be as challenging as it appears, and it is unnecessary to find separate means for the three different purposes of education. If the domain of qualification is adequately addressed, the other two domains will naturally follow. Students will then receive tools that can aid them in finding a sense of coherence in their daily work, benefiting themselves, their clients and their colleagues.
Acknowledgments
This project originates from the FYDAD research group at the University of Granada. We are, thus, grateful to Professor Perez, who generously shared ideas and perspectives. Thanks go to Ane Malene Sæverot, Anita Solberg Torsvik and Ieva Kuginyte-Arlausiene for moderating the interviews, and to Kirsten Flaten for participating in the analysis. Furthermore, the authors would like to thank all the students who voluntarily participated in the study. Thanks also go to the editors and reviewers for their constructive and valuable comments on this paper.
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