Being empathic in complex situations in intercultural education: a practical tool

ABSTRACT Empathy, being multidimensional in nature, addresses cognitive, social-emotional, and behavioural components of interpersonal interaction. It is considered a core element of global competence. As schools become more diverse, empathy, which expresses the ability to observe social situations from other people’s points of view plays a critical interpersonal and societal role in the educational arena. Using the Delphi technique, this study developed and validated a practical tool for identifying empathic behaviours through a deep discourse analysis of complex emotionally charged interactions, practiced in simulated encounters. The Empathic Patterns in Interpersonal Communication (EPIC) practical tool, presented in this paper, was developed and validated through a structured instrument validation process that enabled the multifaceted and complex phenomenon of empathy to be addressed in a concrete way. The EPIC practical tool offers a new approach to developing awareness to cultural differences and diversity among teachers while refining the communication and the emotional skills which are significant components in teachers’ socio-emotional learning.