Teaching Empathy and Reflexivity in General Education Courses

Abstract

This research article explores how empathy and reflexivity, the keystones of contemporary pedagogical philosophy, can be taught, learned, and applied through general education (GE) courses with an anthropological approach. General education courses aim to offer students foundational, interdisciplinary, and reflexive knowledge of human cultures and societies. Anthropological theories and methodologies provoke researchers to understand cultural differences from a holistic, comparative, and relativist viewpoint. Drawing on focus group interviews with students of the GE courses at BNU-HKBU United International College, the article argues that an effective and affective way of teaching empathy and reflexivity in general education courses is to raise a sensitive understanding of peoples and cultures at the margin of society and to encourage critical analyses of the historicity and complexity of social issues.