Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011 - rees2009

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education in particular, can learn from disciplines that incorporate empathy and caring as
part of long standing core values and learning outcomes. In this study, we explored the
following research question:
How are empathy/care conceptualized, integrated into standards and taught in disciplines
with a longstanding tradition of being considered “empathetic” and “caring” compared to
engineering disciplines?
An short summary and introduction to empathy and care
Empathy and care are conceptualized and taught in many disciplines.
Empathy/care have been conceptualized and taught in a multitude of ways in the nursing,
medicine, counselling and education fields. For example, Kohut (1984) defines empathy as
“the capacity to think and feel oneself into the inner life of another person” (p10). Berger
(1987) describes empathy as “The capacity to know emotionally what another is
experiencing from within the frame of reference of that other person, the capacity to
sample the feelings of another or to put oneself in another’s shoes“ (p2). Similarly caring is
defined in multiple ways. Hawk & Lyons (2008) define that “an ethic of care is a reflective
and action-oriented process about learning of the other and demonstrating relationship
behavior that seeks to recognize, value, trust, and develop the other” (p.320).
Empathy and care are integrated into professional standards
Our review of professional organizations and their standards shows that care and
empathy have been integrated into a variety of professional standards. For example,
American Physical Therapy Association considered caring as one of the core values of
professionalism in physical therapy and they defined caring as the concern, empathy and
consideration for the needs and values of others.
Although empathy and care are incorporated into standards in many disciplines, it is
rarely the case in engineering fields: In The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025 by
American Society for Civil Engineers, it is expected that the civil engineer should know
how to: “Lead by formulating andarticulating environmental, infrastructure, and other
improvements and build consensus by practicing inclusiveness, empathy, compassion,
persuasiveness, patience, and critical thinking.” While we didn’t find empathy and care
explicitly appear in other engineering standards, it would be premature to draw the
conclusion that other engineering organizations do not include features or attributes of
care and empathy in their standards.
The relationship between empathy and care
There is no consensus in literature regarding the relationship between empathy and
caring. Some authors argue that empathy leads to caring (Batson, 1990), others assert that
caring leads to empathy (Määttä, 2006). Researchers argue that caring is a component of
empathy (Fernández-Olano, Montoya-Fernández & Salinas-Sánchez, 2008), while there
are also ones who think empathy is a component of caring (White, 1997). Given the debate
on the relationship between empathy and care, it can be argued, the two concepts are
Proceedings of Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011
Madrid, 4 th - 7 th October 2011