Alia

Interview Details

Date: 2/25/2016

Course: Daylong Into To HCD - 2016-02-03 PART 1-2

Interviewee: Alia

Interviewer: Ivonne

1. Demographic information

Sex: Female

Profession: also in curriculum design; studied sociology & women’s studies

Nationality: India

Residence: Delhi

2. Do you think empathy needs to taught? To whom? And why?

I have struggled with empathy, last year when we were trying to teach first year college students about inequality, it was not working; we weren’t getting through to them; questioning: can we really teach empathy, how can we drill it into them when they don’t want it to be there; different approach needed, talk about something else;

now I feel it is important to talk about it, important to cultivate empathy, cannot teach it; some research makes it clear that we can inculcate some things in people but not straightforward;

need to understand that it can somehow be built in 3 months with a one-hour class per week; cannot sit in a class and talk about empathy;

av material can help, trying to tap into film, but need to get beyond that, [Answer merged with previous question]

3. How do you think it can be taught?

I think it is pretty important to teach empathy [to teenagers]… Yep. Empathy would be the ability to place yourself where the other person is at and trying to see the world from they see it.

4. Do you think you are an empathetic person?

What made you that way/how did you become empathetic?

The way that we approach it is really through incorporating feedback mechanisms into our program. We have structured how the feedback is given. We take everyone to the same process. For example creating a video… students have to ask feedback to a peer… Then I do the same with them. It is not that I am teaching “empathy” but I take them to the process and for some it can be very difficult. The whole process of receiving feedback can be uncomfortable for learners. We don’t even expect our learners to get everything right. We try to reinforce the iterative process. It is a new way of thinking for our learners.

It is part of who I am, it is part of how I was raised.

5. Exploring mental models

  • Why do you think people disagree or argue or fight? What drives people to that?

  • Why do people find it difficult to work out their differences?

  • Is there anyone you find it difficult to talk to? Why do you think that is?

  • Is there anyone you do not even feel like talking to? (in your class, your family, your group, your city/town)?

  • Why do you think you feel that way?

  • What makes it easier for you to talk to people you don’t know/ who are very different from you?

I agree with what D said, I feel there have been times when I have been empathetic; became that way during college when I was studying sociology; before that, living in a bubble; middle class family; learnt then about communal riots, tribals in Idia, effect of policy on individuals, world got wider, realized many different people difficult time in the world; struggle to be empathetic with people whose context is far removed from mine; see a homeless person, but how fr will my feeling of empathy take me? I feel bad, question things in life, feel sad, anger at the inequality, end up feeling a lot; another aspect of empathy: I don’t know if I want to be empathetic to people (some categories), big capitalists, right-wing people, but I know if I could, we could probably have better conversations, we go back to the first question about arguing and fighting, if I could cultivate a level of empathy with someone I have never had empathy maybe we could change hearts

I am an empathetic person, but not with everyone

If our context is teenagers, there are disagreements, there are different standpoints, this sense of feeling that you are right, if you belong to a particular group you think you are right, they are right; links to motivation to go and talk to those people , don’t want to destabilize that conviction that you are right; people don’t want to engage because they don’t want to be proven wrong; relate to debate in class; in our education system, thing about being “right” is reinforced, arguments for and against, teams hang on to their points, it’s not about learning something new, or being willing to change your mind, like betraying your beliefs