Education for being: towards a methodology for cultivating empathy

Abstract

There is a call among researchers and educators to cultivate empathy through the education system. They argue that narration and storytelling as a pedagogical tool has a big role to play in the clarification of academic subjects. In this regard, as a focus of this paper, the travel course ENDS 2361 Field Experience I at the Faculty of the Built Environment of Uganda Martyrs University is being discussed. The research method involved an online survey to find out how decisions students took by themselves contributed to the sum of their encounters, while face-to-face sessions focused on a review of the course in as far as its delivery impacted their learning and awareness of the wider context of people, place and the environment. Findings show that students began to associate with interrogating what culture is and its link to local community and later what this might mean when it comes to issues to do with participation and engagement. In addition, students appreciated the team effort in the multiple media and tools used in collectively expressing themselves. The paper therefore delves into how this process impacted the students and how we could build on this to cultivate empathy.