An Excerpt from “Empathy in Isolation: Lived Experiences of Teachers of Refugee Children”

Adam Scott LeRoy Assistant Professor of Teacher Education

Adam Scott LeRoy joined SVSU in 2021. He earned his Ph.D. from Oakland University and his M.A.T. from University of Phoenix. His primary research interests focus on the use of early intervention for young children identified as having disabilities and epistemology in cultural-historical theory, especially structural understandings of human development. He has published articles in Human Arenas; the Integrative Journal of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences; and Mind, Body and Education. Dr. LeRoy also has a book chapter on characteristics ofinnerspeech.PriortojoiningSVSU, he workedas aspecial education teacher, teacher consultant, and special education coordinator. He lives with his amazing wife and two children in southeast Michigan.

Co-authored by Shawna Lyn Boomgaard, “Empathy in Isolation” appeared in Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science in 2021. The full article can be read at https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-019-09508-0.

Findings

Three collective themes emerged from responses: value in empathic, reciprocal relationships; increased system capacity through programming/resources; and meaningful impact from professional development. For clarity, we identify the themes individually and provide context to form the basis for deeper discussion as it pertains to our research questions. Coresearchers are identified by the order in which they responded to the survey (i.e., co-researcher #1 was the first to complete the survey).

Theme One: Value in Empathic, Reciprocal Relationships

Across responses, co-researchers indicated a deep sense of empathy and concern for the impact of trauma. These themes emerged across reflections on concerns and rewards. For example, in response to our first question, co-researcher #12 commented: “They come with trauma and need to learn the basics to get themselves use [sic] to the United States. Its [sic] more than just language. They have been through severe trauma.”

In a succinct, but equally empathic response, co-researcher #3 simply responded, “I want them to feel safe.” The co-researcher went on to state “Reward-their love... most of them LOVE being here and are so happy.” Here, the realization of safety became a personal reward. Other personal rewards emerged from advocacy (co-researcher #9: “Reward-advocating for them and their family”) and cross-cultural experiences (co-researcher #7: “[...] the most rewarding part is the assets they bring with them for us to learn and grow.”).

It is important to note that responses of empathy occur in response to potential traumatic events suffered by the child and interpreted within co-researcher perception of abilities not possessed by the child (i.e., language acquisition or “proper” behavior). This delineation is useful not only as it highlights divergent motivations for empathic response but also because it provides a distinction in how responses framed perception. Challenges were often described in the concrete (i.e., specific resources) and rewards in events that aid intentionality (i.e., love). Co-researcher #2 best exemplified this contrast: “It is rewarding when you feel like you have created a bond with them and become a safe person for them.”

Theme Two: Increased System Capacity through Programming/Resources

Issues with programming and resources created concrete challenges. These challenges emerged as underlying frustration with available programming. For instance, when we asked coresearcherstoprovideexamplesof useful resources,theirresponsestendedto reflect dissatisfaction and frustration from a perspective of child-advocacy. Co-researcher #2 captured this:

Having time to meet with the counselor or social worker helps my students with their emotions a lot, but our school shares one social worker with 3 other schools and they do not get this service on a regular basis. I think it would help.

This sense of student advocacy and frustration extended to collegial relationships. As explained by co-researcher #9:

In particular, some general ed. teachers can be very callous about these students. One of my colleagues actually told the counselor that he “did not have time” to work with one of my students who was in his math class. This child had survived war, interrupted schooling, and was in refugee camps for about 2 years before coming here. He is a great kid and deserves more.

Academic and emotional concerns were distinct in recommendations. For example, interrupted schooling was a particular frustration when considering academic outcomes. Coresearchers recommended for increased one-on-one time to develop Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills or grouping Level 1 children. Recommendations for assistive technology, such as translation devices, arose from empathic concern for acclimation and shared experience. In both contexts, recommendations were intended to improve present services or to create new models these were not descriptions of an existing continuum. In contrast to theme one, the concrete and intentional are symbiotic. In theme one, co-researchers experienced the intentional as independentoftheconcrete.Forinstance,afeelingof“love”couldoccurintheabsenceoflanguage acquisition. This is not the case in theme two. Intentionality is largely dependent on resource availability namely, the ability for programs to remedy child experience.

Theme Three: Meaningful Impact from Professional Development

Both positive and negative professional development experiences were used to make meaning and typically occurred in tandem. For example, co-researcher #3 wrote: “I was not very familiar with the process before the professional development was offered. Working with the families’ casemanagers atthe beginningoftheyear was very difficult and not efficient or effective. They hadsuchheavycaseloads that contacting them viaphone and email was very time-consuming andineffective.” So,although theco-researchermetafamily’scasemanager(coded as meaningfulpositive), the case-manager was limited by caseload size and ineffective (coded as meaningful- negative). Overall, five co-researchers were able to identify the provision of specific training for resettled children and seven co-researchers were not.

The inclusion of cultural aspects was important to meaning construction. Co-researcher #7 reported “Mostly [language acquisition] training but not enough on Cultural Competency.” Thus, the co-researcher received skill-specific training but expressed a desire for cultural training. In contrast, co-researcher #4 specifically noted the inclusion of cultural information to construct a positive meaning for professional development: “The most helpful information we received about our Syrian refugees came from the district’s ESL coordinator who organized a professional development day on the cultural background and educational needs of refugee students.” https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-019-09508-0.

In this third theme, the co-researcher is most independent professional development (if received) is primarily about building individual teacher capacity with child-benefit a second, assumed outcome. However, positive or negative construction of meaning is dependent on the potential to use information to establish empathic, reciprocal relationships. This focus on culture underscores theme one. The perception that emerged in theme one is dictated by how well external factors address internal need. Therefore, intentionality is achieved through a feeling of internal competence that is hampered by external factors.

For example, co-researchers were comfortable with immediate roles. That is, perceptions of need were frequently external to the co-researcher well-designed professional development or better communication between school, community organizations, and home. Such factors are connected to theme two. Perceptions suggested a need for greater system capacity and in theme three external connections further decrease capacity. The co-researcher perception incorporates factors that are external, over which limited influence can be exercised. For example, co-researcher #9 (as quoted in the prior section) sought to advocate for her student, but experienced dismissive comments from a colleague. Based on the co-researcher’s knowledge of the student’s background, the co-researcher experienced frustration. These responses hasten a process of isolation.

Reprinted by permission of the authors and publisher. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science (2021) 55: 430–443.