The Poverty Simulation: Developing Teacher Empathy Toward Students who Live in Poverty
Location
Moody
Proposal Track
Research Project
Session Format
Presentation
Abstract
Recent research regarding children who grow up in poverty reveals increasingly negative effects on developmental areas (e.g., cognitive, linguistic, socio-emotional, affective, psychomotor). Teachers need to be aware of this research, and in so doing strive to develop empathy for their students living in poverty. One strategy to accomplish this goal is to experience a poverty simulation wherein participants (i.e., teachers) learn what it is like to “walk in their students’ shoes.”
Analysis of quantitative data, collected via surveys administered before and after recent poverty simulations, revealed the following findings: increased teacher understanding of poverty, increased teacher recognition of their own biases toward their students and their families who live in poverty, and increased teacher empathy toward their students and their families who live in poverty. Findings also showed that teachers plan to apply their new understandings regarding poverty in their classrooms.
Keywords
Poverty Simulation, Teacher Empathy
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
McCall, Linda Ann; Goleman-Rice, Aviva; and Ogden, Jacqueline, "The Poverty Simulation: Developing Teacher Empathy Toward Students who Live in Poverty" (2017). Georgia Educational Research Association Conference. 56.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gera/2017/2017/56
The Poverty Simulation: Developing Teacher Empathy Toward Students who Live in Poverty
Moody
Recent research regarding children who grow up in poverty reveals increasingly negative effects on developmental areas (e.g., cognitive, linguistic, socio-emotional, affective, psychomotor). Teachers need to be aware of this research, and in so doing strive to develop empathy for their students living in poverty. One strategy to accomplish this goal is to experience a poverty simulation wherein participants (i.e., teachers) learn what it is like to “walk in their students’ shoes.”
Analysis of quantitative data, collected via surveys administered before and after recent poverty simulations, revealed the following findings: increased teacher understanding of poverty, increased teacher recognition of their own biases toward their students and their families who live in poverty, and increased teacher empathy toward their students and their families who live in poverty. Findings also showed that teachers plan to apply their new understandings regarding poverty in their classrooms.
