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Empathy for the Instructor: A Reflection of Using Empathy-Based Pedagogy as a Graduate Teaching Assistant

by Kristen Venegas | Xchanges 19.2, Fall 2025


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Contents

Introduction

What Exactly is Empathy-Based Pedagogy?

How Did I Teach it?

Empathy-Based Pedagogy in the Writing Classroom: Reflection, and Responsive Instruction

Grand Takeaways

Works Cited

About the Author

Works Cited

Banks, Jessean, “Towards Professionalization: The Experiences of Adjunct Professors Within an Academic Department” (2022). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 7157. https://ecommons.udayton.edu/graduate_theses/7157

Borek, Jennifer. “Talking about Listening: Urban Teacher Responses to Empathetic Listening Training,” Essays in Education, vol. 5, no. 1, 2003.

Dohrenwend, Anne M. “Defining Empathy to Better Teach, Measure, and Understand Its Impact.” Academic Medicine, vol. 93, no. 12, Dec. 2018, pp. 1754–56, https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0000000000002427

Ganczarek, Joanna, Hünefeldt, Thomas, and Belardinelli, Marta O. “From "Einfühlung" to empathy: exploring the relationship between aesthetic and interpersonal experience.” Cognitive Processing, vol. 19, no. 2, 2018, pp. 141–145. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-018-0861-x

Goffman, Erving. “On Face-Work: An Analysis of Ritual Elements in Social Interaction.” Psychiatry, vol. 18, no. 3, Aug. 1955, pp. 213–31, https://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.1955.11023008

Goldsworthy, Richard. “Designing Instruction for Emotional Intelligence.” Educational Technology, vol. 40, no. 5, 2000, pp. 43–48.

Hanley, Natalya. “The Contribution of Empathy-Based Pedagogy in Global Citizenship Education: Kazakhstani Context.” International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, vol. 13, no. 2, 2021, pp. 79–93.

Lackritz, James R. “Exploring Burnout among University Faculty: Incidence, Performance, and Demographic Issues.” Teaching and Teacher Education, vol. 20, no. 7, Oct. 2004, pp. 713–29, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2004.07.002

Machiavelli, Niccolò, and James B. Atkinson, editor. The Prince (Atkinson Edition). Hackett Publishing, 2008.

Mercer, Stewart W, and William J Reynolds. “Empathy and quality of care.” The British Journal of General Practice: The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, vol. 52, 2002, pp. S9–12.

Peterson, Jordan B. 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, Penguin Books, 2019.

Riess, Helen. “The Science of Empathy.” Journal of Patient Experience, vol. 4, no. 2, 2017, pp. 74–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/2374373517699267

Rogers, Carl R. "What understanding and acceptance mean to me." Journal of Humanistic Psychology, vol. 35, no. 4, 1995, pp. 7–22.

Salovey, Peter, and Daisy Grewal. “The Science of Emotional Intelligence.” Current Directions in Psychological Science, vol. 14, no. 6, 2005, pp. 281–85.

Salovey, Peter, John D. Mayer, David Caruso, and Seung Hee Yoo. “The Positive Psychology of Emotional Intelligence.” Counterpoints, vol. 336, 2008, pp. 185–208.

Smollin, Leandra M., and Arnold Arluke. “Rites of Pedagogical Passage: How Graduate Student Instructors Negotiate the Challenges of First-Time Teaching.” Teaching Sociology, vol. 42, no. 1, 2014, pp. 28–39.

Sommers, Nancy. Revision Strategies. Yale University, n.d. Web.
https://psychology.yale.edu/sites/default/files/sommers_onrevisionstrategies.pdf

Tettegah, Sharon, and Carolyn J. Anderson. "Pre-service Teachers’ Empathy and Cognitions: Statistical Analysis of Text Data by Graphical Models." Contemporary Educational Psychology, vol. 32, no. 1, 2007, pp. 48–82.

Tobin, Lad. “Self-Disclosure as a Strategic Teaching Tool: What I Do—and Don’t—Tell My Students.” College English, vol. 73, no. 2, 2010, pp. 196–206.

Yalom, Irvin D. Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 2008.

Zhang, Zhichao. “Toward the Role of Teacher Empathy in Students' Engagement in English Language Classes.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 13, 2022, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.880935

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Posted by nicole_oconnell on Dec 08, 2025 in Issue 19.2

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