Is empathy a factor in academic success?
When we first proposed focusing on empathy this month there was some debate over the definition that we should use …and after some discussion… our team agreed that showing empathy was to be able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes or mindset. This simple definition really represents a huge developmental stage for early childhood and those familiar with the work of Piaget and Vygotsky (amongst others) will be familiar with academic research which suggests that many children find it hard to move through this stage of development and that it can have significant impact on the relationships with caregivers, educators and their peers. Most commonly this is a theme of early childhood research but others, such as Elkind, have taken this theory into adolescent research with the idea that some aspects of egocentric behaviour are related to how teens adapt to their rapidly changing identity and their place in the world.
In fact, as I was writing this article, I was talking to Barry Armstrong, our Assistant Director for Safeguarding, and our conversations turned to the challenges which would face teenagers who have yet to acquire effective empathy skills. For example, we asked each other can empathy affect academic success? You are likely to have your own thoughts on this (as did we) so Barry suggested that I include a link to Ugo Uche’s work, published in Psychology Today a few years ago. Here’s a thought provoking quote:
“Teenagers who struggle with being empathetic, tend to be more self absorbed and less caring towards others, and ironically themselves. As a result their pursuits in any part of their lives, tend to be based mostly on what they can only receive in return. Most notably, acceptance and recognition. Take for instance academia, teenagers who succeed in this area, commonly do so … out of a strong desire for the acceptance and recognition that will typically come from parents and elder relatives.”
That does not mean that all successful students have to be able to show empathy, but rather Uche suggests that success and failure and through it learnt empathy will provide a framework for success. I recommend that you read the whole article to better understand Uche’s argument and whilst you are not all likely to agree with everything Uche says I agree with Barry that it’s food for thought or rather food for a discussion and perhaps we can talk about it on NAU? I hope you decide to join us to talk about it (and that your response is as fiery as our conversation was!)
Joanna Lay
Programme Lead, NAU
Education Team
Barry Armstrong
Assistant Director - Head of Child Safeguarding
Education Team