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The Complexity of Teacher Empathy: A Complex Dynamic Systems Role-in-Context Perspective
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Thesis/Dissertation
Date
2024-12
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Psychological Studies in Education
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http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/10893
Abstract
Teacher empathy is important for students and teachers. However, this complicated construct has varying, non-linear consequences. For instance, teacher empathy can improve grades (Gehlbach et al., 2022), reduce school-based discipline (Okonofua et al., 2016) improve teacher interpersonal decision making (Aldrup et al., 2022), but also increase stress and emotional exhaustion (Kliś & Kossewska, 1998; Wróbel, 2013). Thus, it is paramount that education researchers examine the patterns of teacher empathy in teachers’ lived contexts (Gehlbach et al., 2022). Yet, while some have sought to explore teacher empathy in context, none have explicitly investigated the motivational mechanisms that are part of teacher empathy’s adaptive and maladaptive forms using a complex dynamic systems approach. As discussed, role-in-context sensitive complex dynamic systems methods are apt to capture teacher empathy phenomena, as well as identity, motivation, and emotions (Marchand & Hilpert, 2024). Thus, this study aimed to fill this gap in the literature through explication of teacher empathy by attending to teachers’ identity, motivations, and context using a role-in-context complex dynamic systems approach that utilized the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity framework (DSMRI; Kaplan & Garner, 2017). This convergent mixed methods (QUAL, quan) design (Creswell & Creswell, 2018) addressed the motivations and role identities of teacher empathy by collecting qualitative and quantitative data in parallel, analyzing these types of data separately, and finally merging understandings from the analysis of these two data types. I recruited four teachers and collected data over three time points: (a) a pre-interview survey, (b) a 90-minute narrative inquiry interview, and (c) a 90-minute video stimulated recall interview. I analyzed the data using DSMRI protocols, calculating survey psychometrics, nonmetric multidimensional scaling, state space landscapes, and cross-case analyses. Analysis from the qualitative and quantitative data suggested that teacher empathy is a context and role sensitive social phenomenon that emerged from role identity contents, structures and processes, which were framed by dispositional, social, and contextual factors. Therefore, teacher empathy is not a single construct that can be easily captured but is a highly situated and dynamic social phenomenon, whose expressions manifested adaptively and maladaptively. This work has implication for theory, methodologies, and practices. I conclude with limitations and recommendations for those who seek to support teachers express adaptive forms of empathy and mitigate the negative forms of teacher empathy that are associated with emotional exhaustion and burnout.
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