Using English Curriculum to Expand Empathy, Worldviews, and Engagement in Secondary Students

Abstract

Recently, many researchers have explored the relationship between pedagogical practices in secondary English classrooms such as youth participatory action research (Stanton, 2014; Mirra & Garcia, 2015) and mindful text selections (Diaz, 2023; McLean Davies & Buzacott, 2022) and how students develop empathy (Griffin & Schenck, 2023; McLean Davies & Buzacott, 2022; Mirra, 2018; Yates, 2024). Though these studies emphasize helping students with perspective taking, especially trying to take on another’s perspective, it seems like there is little research on helping students understand the worldviews that establish their own perspectives before moving onto exploring worldviews that differ from their own. My study responded to this gap and sought to understand how teaching students explicitly about worldviews–how they form and how they can interact with each other in peoples’ lives–might change the ways students empathize with each other and with people they don’t know. It also considered ways that studying worldviews explicitly may affect the ways students engage with their learning. I used teacher action research in the school where I teach as well as group interviews to study this problem. My results showed that inviting students to explore and share parts of themselves—whether through writing, reading, or projects—also allowed them to see and take on the perspectives of others, demonstrating the power of English curriculum and the ways we implement it. Additionally, student empathy and engagement levels increased over the course of the study. In conclusion, adapting the curriculum in the way that I did had profound effects on my teaching and students, and I plan to continue to use the methods I tested as I continue my teaching career.