Journal of Social Work Education, 49: \36-\49, 2013 Copyright Council on Social Work Education ISSN: 1043-7797print/2163-581l online

e DOI: 10.1080/10437797.2013.755399

-% p t| rl 1 ^ KOUtieOge 5\ Taylor 6. Francis Croup

Inducing Empathy: Pondering Students' (In)Ability to Empathize With an Aboriginal Man's Lament and What Might Be Done About It
Susan Gair

Empathy is a familiar term in social work education, although how to teach and learn empathy is not well documented. Equally, how non-indigenous Australian practitioners learn empathie regard for indigenous peoples living with the crippling legacies of colonialism is not commonly described in the literature. The primary aim of the classroom-based inquiry described here was to explore and reflect on the concept of empathy with social work students at a regional Australian university using selected real-life vignettes. These findings suggest greater cultivation of empathy is needed for respectful social work intervention by non-indigenous practitioners working with Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and, by implication, with indigenous peoples worldwide.

Empathy is a familiar term in social work and is understood to be a foundational ingredient in any therapeutic engagement. Literature on defining and promoting the importance of empathy is plentiful. Yet comprehensive discussion about how to cultivate, teach, and leam empathy is not common in the social work literature. This absence may be more acute regarding helping across cultures. In particular, how non-indigenous social workers leam to empathize with indigenous peoples who have experienced a different history and culture to settler populations has received minimal attention (Bryant & Clark, 2006). Indigenous Australians are the most disadvantaged groups in Australia. They are overrepresented as service users in health, mental health, child protection, and criminal justice systems and underrepresented in educational achievements, including at a tertiary level. Australia has indigenous social workers, but many more non-indigenous workers provide services to indigenous client groups. In this paper I describe my actions, as a non-indigenous social work educator, to contribute to researching, teaching, and learning about empathy for an Australian practice context. Although more general findings are discussed elsewhere (see Gair, 2009), this paper specifically discusses students' responses to one vignettea small published piece written by Aboriginal elder Charles Perkins.

Accepted: June 2011 Susan Gair is senior lecturer at James Cook University. Address correspondence to Susan Gair, Department of Social Work and Community Welfare, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia. E-mail: Susan.Gair@jcu.edu.au

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REVIEWING THE HELPING LITERATURE Origins and Definitions Empathy is understood as accurately perceiving the experiences and emotions of another person. In the late 19th century, Vischer and Gadamer used the German term Einfhlung when discussing hermeneutics "to mean humans' spontaneous projection of real psychic feeling into people and things they perceive" (Alma & Smaling, 2006; Duan & Hill, 1996, p. 261). Lipps (1897) is said to have advanced the theory of Einfhlung, and Titchener (1924) added to the development of this concept. Other writers have reported that the word empathy comes from the German Verstehen, meaning empathie understanding, or from the Greek empatheia, meaning appreciation of another's feelings (Alma & Smaling, 2006; Davis, Yeager, & Foster, 2001). Stein (1917, trans. 1989) considered empathy to be a three-stage process of deep listening, refiection, and engagement. Other, more contemporary, terms used in discussion of empathy include sympathy, imagination, understanding, kindness, intuition, pity, compassion, caring, spirituality, and intelligence (Arnold, 2005; Crowden, 2008; C. M. Davis, 1990; Goleman, 1998; Hemmerdinger, Stoddart, & Lilford, 2007; Howe, 2008; Hugman, 2005; Phillips & Taylor, 2009). Some authors have conceptualized empathy as "getting into the skin o f another person (Carkuff, 1973; Schell & Kayser-Jones, 2007, p. 146), although conceptualizing empathy in this way may be offensive to some indigenous groups (L. Mller, personal communication, August 27, 2009). Much of the literature asserts that empathie competence is associated with positive outcomes; however, too close an identification with another person's experiences (over empathizing) might lead to self-protective disengagement, compassion fatigue, and burnout, according to some literature (Alma & Smaling, 2006; Astell, 2004; Figley, 2002).

The Empathy Versus Sympathy Debate How empathy relates to sympathy is not clear in the literature. Trevithick (2005, p. 156) and Boulton (1987, p. 271) defined empathy as "feeling with" the client, rather than "feeUng for" the client (sympathy). The opposite seems true (Hojat et al., 2002) in some medical literature, in which empathie practitioners share their "understanding," while sympathetic practitioners share their "emotions" with their patients (p. 1563). Elsewhere in the medical literature, Stepien and Baemstein (as cited in Haslam, 2007, p. 381) defined empathy as including an "appreciation of the patients' emotions" and an "expression of that awareness to the patient." Empathy can also be conveyed nonverbally through facial expressions, body posture, behaviors, and gestures (Alma & Smaling, 2006). Eckermann et al. (2006, p. 113) stated that empathy and sympathy are closely related and that "usage in most cultures overlap." Sympathy, they said, "basically means sharing another's feelings," whereas empathy "is often portrayed as walking a mile in another person's shoes," referring to the familiar adage with its less known origins in the long walks endured by African American slaves (Boulton, 1987, p. 269; Eckermann et al., 2006, p. 113). Brazier (1993) identified that drawing clear distinction between empathy and sympathy is a contemporary notion.

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Contemporary Empathy Research in Brief Research on empathy over the last century has been plentiful; nevertheless, a fuller understanding of empathy still seems elusive. Batson et al. (as cited in Brewer & Crano, 1994) undertook research exploring empathy and motivation. They concluded that people feel empathy and want to help for many reasons, including when they see severe distress in the facial expression of another person, when they actually feel distress at the person's circumstances, when the person is in an identified disadvantaged group, when they (helpers) think they will see the results of their help, and when they are similar to the person needing help. More recently, Krumer-Nevo and Lev-Wiesel (2005) reported that social work students who had experienced similar situations of needing help and who could see clients' distress were more willing to help. Batson, Chang, Orr, and Rowland (2002) suggested that people will be more motivated to empathize if they are asked to imagine how they might feel if the event happened to them. Batson et al. (2002) concluded that empathy is a skill and that helpers can learn. A range of related factors that influence perception of a successful empathie engagement has been identified in research, including similarity and familiarity between the client and the counselor, the counselor valuing differences between himself or herself and the client, the counseling style, the timing of the empathy expressed, the context of the empathy expressed, and the amount of self-disclosure the counselor used (De Vignemont & Singer, 2006; Duan & Hill, 1996). Other empathy researchers have focused on exploring tnirror neurons and neural networks in the brain. The existence of a spontaneous, empathie brain response was questioned by De Vignemont and Singer (2006), who proposed that empathy is modulated by contextual appraisal. Most recently, Gutsell and Inzlicht (2010, p. 841) hypothesized that spontaneous perceptionaction coupling, which they say is essential for empathy, may be limited to perceived "in-groups" and could be constrained by prejudice, which is magnified for "out-groups" and "disliked groups." Regarding research measuring empathy in tertiary students, extensive research has been undertaken (Hojat, 2007; Hojat et al., 2002; Hojat, Mangione, Nasca, Gonnella, & Magee, 2005). These researchers revealed that empathy, as demonstrated by medical students, decreased across their program and was not recovered by graduation.

Critiques of Empathy Critiques of empathy include that it may mirror the social norms of the community; that is, only certain groups deserve empathy. Further, a narrow definition of empathy may ignore social, historical, cultural, and gender differences, and whether empathy is given at all may be determined by, or undermined by, a helper's past experiences (M. H. Davis, 1996; Gair, 2008; Rogers, 1956/1992; Stein, 1917, trans. 1989). A typical social sentiment, less evidenced in research, is that a helper who has lived through a challenging or emotional experience and shares "common wounds" with a help seeker will provide heightened empathy and understanding (Means, as cited in Hojat, 2007, p. 128). Many minority groups speak of healing through shared "common wounds," yet this concept is not commonly discussed in the empathy literature. Equally, a related contrary point about how empathy

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is achieved when circumstances are not shared is minimally discussed. Lather (2009) questioned the legitimacy of the commonly understood act of empathy if the listener must be able to feel and understand through a lens of his or her own common or comparable circumstances before giving empathy, rather than just giving empathy based on listening to the story told. Critiques of the individualistic, humanist conceptualization of empathy have been made in the literature (see, for example, Allan, 2003; Fook, 1993; Jessup & Rogerson, 1999; Mullally, 2007). Other authors have speculated on evidence of a more recent erosion of social empathy, driven by individualistic, biomdical models of health and illness and dominant, market-based ideologies (Bennett, 2001; Hojat et al., 2005). Finally, Van den Hoofdakker (as cited in Alma & Smaling, 2006, p. 202) alerted readers to the notion that empathy is not intrinsically good in an ethical sense and that accurately perceiving vulnerabilities in others could lead to boundary crossings.

The Indigenous Australian Context Since British colonization, Australian history has been characterized by suffering, violence, discrimination, and dispossession from land for indigenous Australians. They continue to face enormous social and economic disadvantage, racism, and exclusion (Atkinson, 2002; Eckermann et al., 2006). Indigenous Australians are, disproportionately to population, the majority of welfare service users in Australia (Atkinson, 2002). Recent research focusing on empathy and stigmatized or oppressed groups in the Australian context by Pedersen, Beven, Walker, and Griffiths (2004) found that inducing empathy can reduce prejudice. Researchers have recognized that indigenous peoples might prefer to seek services from indigenous workers and services (Whiteside, Tsey, McCalman, Cadet-James, & Wilson, 2006), and Australia has many skilled indigenous social welfare workers. However, their numbers are insufficient, and it seems imperative that non-indigenous helpers are able to work in empathie, respectful, and empowering ways with traditional owners and more broadly, with indigenous communities, families, and individuals.

Teaching and Learning Empathy in Social Work Lichtenwalter and Baker (2010, p. 305) wrote that the "pursuit of social justice" embedded within the historical roots and present-day mandate of the social work profession "obligates the discipline" to adequately prepare students to understand and address oppression and inequities. Over time social work skills texts have acknowledged that empathy is crucial for ethical, socially just practice in all areas of social work (see, for example, Boulton, 1987; Geldard & Geldard, 2005; Trevithick, 2005). Yet the helping literature does not specify exactly how empathy is taught or learned. Erera (1997, p. 246) suggested empathy is "frequently but one component" of a communication skills program, but that it is "far more complex than it seems" (p. 257) and "difficult to teach" (p. 258). C. M. Davis' earher work on empathy (1990, p. 32) suggests empathy "cannot be taught," and Hemmerdinger et al. appeared to agree by identifying empathy as a "personality trait" (2007, p. 2). In contrast, psychologist Carl Rogers described empathy as a skill that can be taught along with positive regard and a nonjudgmental, client-centered approach (1956/1992). Batson et al. (2002) also concluded that empathy is a skill and that helpers can learn it. Speaking

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specifically about how to teach empathy, Pederson and Barlow (2008) argued that invoking empathy through exercises with psychology students, particularly focusing on minority groups subject to stereotypes, had measurable benefits. Hojat (2007, p. 197) recommended the use of narratives and storytelling for medical students. Most recently, Gerdes, Segal, Jackson, and Mullins (2011) proposed a social work model of empathy incorporating affective response, cognitive processing, and conscious decision-making action. The authors argued that their model is rooted in both social justice and social cognitive neuroscience. Specifically contributing to limited social work literature on teaching and learning empathy for working across cultures, Pinderhughes (1979) described a model that classifies empathy as a key ingredient to helping neutralize oppressed clients' powerlessness in a cross-cultural helping context. Most recently, conceding the scarcity of literature on empathy in relation to culture and ethnicity and the difficulties encountered trying to take another's cultural perspective, Rasoal, Eklund, and Hansen (2011) distinguished general empathy from ethnocultural empathy. They concluded that ethnocultural empathy can be learned, and it can develop over time through a shared reality, rather than an assumed unidirectional (helper to client) empathie process. They called for a focus on shared similarities, deep awareness, and knowledge of the relevant cultures.

METHODOLOGY This classroom inquiry into empathy, undertaken in 2009, incorporated reflective and phenomenological thinking and deep, reflective ways of understanding (C. M. Davis, 2003; Fook, 1993, 1999; Pease, 2009; Schutz, 1972). C. M. Davis identified that phenomenology is a branch of philosophy that assumes human beings have "the capacity to reflect on experiences in great detail" and that they can analyze and describe their experiences so that deeper elements of the experience can be exposed (2003, p. 269). Similarly, Erera (1997) believed that self-analysis in relation to empathy can develop empathie ability. Therefore, this inquiry combines research and learning processes. The specific aims of this project were for the students to explore and reflect on the concept of empathy using selected real-life vignettes and for the researcher to use the findings to inform social work curriculum development. The research question for this project was "How do students define empathy and perceive of their empathie responses in a learning context?" The final sample consisted of 38 second-year social work and welfare students at a regional Australian university who were enrolled in the same compulsory, interpersonal practice skills course. Students in this class, as far as was apparent, represented the profile of students studying across our degree programs. The majority are mature-aged women; a very small minority are men; a minority are school leavers, or students who have commenced university in the year inmiediately following their completion of Australian secondary school; a very small minority are indigenous Australians and international students; and the larger majority are non-indigenous Australians. In seeking to meet the aims of the study, students were asked to ponder, define, and reflect on the concept of empathy and to consider their own empathie responses to supplied vignettes. The whole class of students participated in this classroom exercise; however, only those students who opted into the study became study participants. Students received no recompense or course credit for their participation. A representative sample was not sought for this study, which constituted a reflective research inquiry into teaching and learning empathy. The study had University Ethics approval. For anonymity, I requested no identifying information from participating students.

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All Students were given consent forms and information sheets that explained that they could opt into the study at the completion of the class by handing in their work; otherwise, it represented a time-tabled, interpersonal skills class for them. Next, I asked students to write a definition of empathy. Students then were presented with comprehensive information, from which the literature review in this article was drawn, including content on historical and contemporary research on empathy, interdisciplinary definitions, and information about cross-cultural empathy. Finally, I gave students four written narratives, or vignettes. I speculated that students would empathize with all vignettes in some way, although to what degree and with what reasoning was of great interest to me. The four real-life vignettes were a brief published statement from Aboriginal leader Charles Perkins (the focus of this article; see Appendix); a published interaction highlighting a birth mother's grief after being forced by her mother to place her baby for adoption; a segment of qualitative data from a published suicide study illuminating a mother's story and her perceived part in the suicide of her son; and a transcribed segment from an ABC Radio Australia interview in which a police whistle-blower described fearing for his life and his family's safety. These brief, factual vignettes were chosen for their range of explicitness of emotion, the gender and cultural mix of main characters, and their links to perceived past and present community biases, stigma, and stereotypes. One key purpose of the project was to explore students' empathy for the lived experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The inclusion of three other vignettes (discussed elsewhere; see Gair, 2009) was considered to be of wider, contrasting research interest, and I concluded that a selection of vignettes might serve to lessen this otherwise evident focus. Use of vignettes is a common teaching tool in social work education, and they are also used in research, although most often vignettes are constmcted fiction based on lifelike circumstances, rather than factual narratives as were used here. Hughes (1998, p. 381) said that vignettes are "stories about individuals, situations and structures that make reference to perceptions, beliefs and attitudes." Barter and Renold (1999) affirmed that vignettes are useful in research exploring sensitive topics. Vignettes used here are real stories written or told by the person who had lived the experience. Students were asked to read and reflect on whether they felt empathy (Yes or No) for characters in the vignettes and to determine how they made sense or meaning of their own responses. Only students willing to participate in the research submitted their work (A^=38). The classroom exercises were analyzed using a thematic approach.

FINDINGS Regarding students' own definitions of empathy (discussed elsewhere, Gair 2009), almost all responses appeared to echo sentiments of putting themselves in the situation of the client. Twenty participants specifically mentioned a variation of the adage "walk a mile in another person's shoes" (Eckermann et al., 2006). Although all students were able to empathize with some of the narratives, in total, 23 students indicated that they could not empathize fully with at least one of the scenarios, and five students could not empathize with more than one. In order of least to most empathy felt by students ("Do you feel empathy: Yes or No, and why or why not?"), the Aboriginal elder's narrative attracted the highest "no" responses. After further thematic analysis on students' comments, where theme saturation was reached by reading and rereading students' responses, four themes were selected that best captured the essence of clustered responses

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(Strauss & Corbin, 1990): compassionate empathy, comparable or common wound empathy, conditional or partial empathy, and dispassionate empathy. Some comments appeared to have subtle sentiments that located them on the boundaries of, or overlapping with, other themes. Compassionate or Connecting Empathy Responses collated under this theme appeared to echo the sentiments of Eckermann et al.'s (2006, p. 113) definition of empathy, with students wanting to understand and "feel with" Charles Perkins even though his experience was not their own: "To be socially decimated in respect to connection to land, to family, to culture, is dispiriting and it is a position of extreme disadvantage and disempowerment. This makes me feel sadness for indigenous people." "I cannot possibly understand what it is like to lose culture, family and people. I can feel though, that this has caused much pain for Charles. I can see that through his eyes Australia's white society has resulted in loss, grief for him." "I feel empathy for Charles Perkins as a human, that he is unable to express himself in whatever way he feels and a sense of that, because he is an indigenous Australian that he cannot live his full life potential." "Charles feels angry, frustrated, disabled in every aspect, such strong feelings of disempowerment in every aspect of his life is affected by colonization. I cannot imagine what that must feel like but he articulates how this affects him which has made me attempt to understand. . . . I imagine myself in his position, I get angry at how many strong feelings (and) beliefs have been shattered, I want to mourn with him." "Because of how articulate he is in describing how it feels to be an indigenous person in white Australia . . . he describes it enough for me to get the sense and emotion of how it feels for him." Comparable or "Common-Wound" Empathy A familiar social understanding is that a person who has "common wounds" (Means, as cited in Hojat, 2007, p. 128) will have a deeper sense of the experiences of another person. Several quotes under this theme allude to this sentiment: "I can understand the situation being indigenous myself. Although I too sense a hopelessness in this piece, which I felt sadness for, however I myself feel hope." "Through my knowledge of Australian history from both a Caucasian and an indigenous perspectives, I can empathise with Charles Perkins... and attempt to understand his feelings on the matter at hand." "I can imagine the difficulty of not knowing my identity. . . . I share his grief in his loss of ancestry and his loss of land." "I too know what it is like to search for identity after a great loss, although his experience is different to mine I have an idea of the feelings of loss he describes." In several of the quotes, it is apparent that the writers were indigenous students.

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Conditional or Partial Empathy Neil (2002, p. 6) revealed a theme of ambivalence or reluctance to give unconditional empathy. In a somewhat similar way, students' comments under this theme appear to identify why they could not fully relate to the circumstances, although they tried to connect or understand in some way and to give partial or conditional empathy to some aspects of the story: "I have not had the experience of this person. I can identify that out of the usual triggers for empathy that they are needy and that they are under severe distress.... I can empathise with his feelings of being ignored and dismissed, and his anger." "I feel sympathy for Charles Perkins but cannot begin to imagine what it would be like." "I understand how hard it would be to ask for the land back when it was theirs already." Charles uses some dramatic emotional points . . . like 'dancing on his mother's grave.'" "On a social level I am connected with his story because I am Australian. I am genuinely interested in his situation and he wants me to know that his past will never be forgotten." "I feel as though I can empathise with part of Perkins' story, feeling lost, unable to move on emotionally. However I don't feel I could fully empathise with the entire story of his life due to the fact that I can't relate, and have only a western understanding of his life events." Dispassionate Empathy The students' comments under this final theme are mostly concerned with why they felt unable to empathize or, more generally, their comments appeared to reflect limited empathy. Some students reasoned that they had little common experience to draw on; they expressed a belief that empathy needed to be based on a similar experience; they found the scenario confusing or hard to imagine; or overall they demonstrated a lack of empathy or an unwillingness to engage at an empathie level with the narrative. One student wrote about feeling "partial" empathy, but the student's subsequent words belied that position. "I personally have not experienced feeling the way Charles Perkins feels about Australia Day so I won't be able to empathise with him." "NoI do not understand the cultural significance. I have never been in a place where my culture was not dominant." "I can feel empathy in the sense that what happened to him is awful however I believe that dwelling on the past is not the answer." "Only partial tho[ugh], don't really understand the situation at all. Can't be empathie for using the situation for their shortcomings in life." "I understand that there is a cultural awareness in the sense of cultural empathy. However I don't belong to that culture. How can I put myself in their shoes when I am classed as 'one of those white westerners.' . . . I have never belonged to a culture that lost their culture."

DISCUSSION A limitation of this study is that only a brief snapshot and not an ongoing picture of students' empathy was captured. However, in medical literature Hojat et al. (2005) revealed decreasing

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levels of empathy reported by medical students by their third year that were not recovered by the end of their course. Such an inference is not possible here; nevertheless, I feel that as an educator, looking at these second-year students' responses, I may need to take steps to further facilitate students' empathy. According to Astell (2004), compassion or empathy for marginalized and scapegoated groups will mitigate against their further scapegoating, whereas Astell infers that a lack of empathy may perpetuate it. Like Charles Perkins in the book Maybe Tomorrow, Monty Prior (Prior & McDonald, 2010) tells heartfelt stories of the impact and trauma of colonization on himself and his people, so he can heal and also "change things" (p. 191). Indeed, many indigenous people tell and write their stories so that non-indigenous Australians can "listen to another side of the story" (Prior & McDonald, 2010, p. 61) and "walk through doorways to new understandings" (p. 5). Yet a commonly repeated response in this inquiry was that the students could not feel empathy because they had not experienced the situation. This finding may suggest that telling a heartfelt story alone may not necessarily evoke empathy from some non-indigenous Australians, and a more ongoing, in-depth focus specifically on eliciting empathy may be necessary in social work education. Fuentes, Chanthongthip, and Rios (2010) stated that ample evidence exists in the literature of the challenges facing educators who pursue a social justice focus in their teaching, particularly with mainstream students who have httle or no experience with people different from themselves. With such students' lived experiences filtered through an invisible lens of White privilege, students are socialized to believe that some people's culture best accounts for their social problems (Fuentes et al., 2010, citing Weiner, 2000). In tum, they say, this assumption perpetuates the myth of "meritocracy" and positions racism and other forms of oppression as "problems of the past" (Fuentes et al., 2010, p. 359, citing Weiner, 2000). Not moving on from the past is a point mentioned in several students' comments, including this comment: "I can feel empathy in the sense that what happened to him is awful however I believe that dwelling on the past is not the answer." It is concerning that a perceived similar lived experience, or lack thereof, may be informing some students' ability to empathize. Most non-indigenous students would not have experienced the range of extremely disadvantaging life circumstances experienced by generations of Aboriginal peoples in Australia. Some students, comparatively, would have experienced quite privileged hves. A related explanation for students' lack of empathy for this scenario may be the concept of White guilt, given that Charles Perkins identifies non-indigenous people as the source of his grief. Whiteness, White guilt, and White confessional literature have become prominent in the last decade (see, for example, Anderson, 2002; Tannoch-Bland, 1998), although groundbreaking work is evident from the 1960s (see Baldwin, 1965/1998; Mclntosh, 1992). This literature identifies the invisibility, power, and privilege of Whiteness and also identifies the unhelpful paralysis of White guilt (Baldwin, 1965/1998). However, these students would have been exposed in previous courses to information on the impacts of colonization, intergenerational trauma, discrimination, and the concept of Whiteness, even if only in a limited way. Still, more critical reflection on White guilt might be useful in future subject content. Some students might have felt worried about giving the "right answer" to these exercises, therefore contributing the "safest" response, which was that they "could not empathise" because they are not indigenous. Harris and Foreman-Peck (2004) identified that empathy is often informed at least in part by our own personal life experiences, and this idea appears to be a belief held by students in this study. Yet this speculation does not effectively explain the

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data when responses are considered across all the vignettes; when students empathized with the other vignettes presented to them, they did not reason that their empathy was the result of having lived through the same experiences. Equally concerning is if students believe they required the same "lived experience" to empathize with it. Of interest, two students similarly commented that Charles Perkins' manner of storytelling evoked their empathy, perhaps suggesting that empathy might only be triggered when clients are able to and willing to clearly identify and describe in detail their emotions. Otherwise unclear from this study is why some students could empathize with some scenarios and not with others. Further research may illuminate other possible explanations. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples frequently call for deeper listening from non-indigenous people, telling painful stories to help facilitate awareness and understanding (Atkinson, 2002; Eckermann et al., 2006; Pearson, 2008; Prior & McDonald, 2010; Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care, 2010; Ungunmerr, 1993). However, non-indigenous people often do not or cannot hear the call, and more proactive facilitation of empathy by educators might be needed for students to be able to hear these stories. Some help might be drawn from Stein's (1917, trans. 1989) early empathy work, highlighted by more contemporary researchers (C. M. Davis, 2003; Dowling, 2007; Gair, 2009). Stein (1917, trans. 1989) recommended helping students learn to listen deeply and to find the feeling, spirit, and humanity in themselves before using that shared humanity or spirituality, rather than a similar experience, to offer help. As noted in the section Teaching and Learning Empathy in Social Work, Gerdes et al.'s (2011) comprehensive framework for facilitating empathy seems most useful for students learning cross-cultural empathy, as would be coverage of the powerful influence of "ingroups" on empathy and the influence of "out-groups" or "disliked groups" in limiting empathy (Gutsell & Inzlicht, 2010, p. 841). Generalizability from this inquiry is limited, yet the findings presented here appear to support a call for more in-depth, ongoing cultivation of empathy in the training of social workers and associated helping professionals. I recognize that as a social work educator I need to focus more on what skills and knowledge students need to empathize, particularly regarding circumstances that have not been experienced by these students. Additionally, as noted in the literature review, it may be the case that in social work literature, empathy is often defined in quite individualistic, narrow terms. Therefore, such empathy may be at odds with more collective, cultural understandings, and at odds with the core tenets of social work, a profession that claims to embrace a broader social, structural, and political stance regarding the experiences of indigenous peoples in colonized spaces worldwide. Whereas some students in this classroom inquiry appeared to draw on compassionate empathy, the majority seemingly did not feel or express compassionate empathy for the story told by Aboriginal elder Charles Perkins. Some students expressed connectedness through perceived compassion or common experience, but many students had conditional or limited empathie regard. Hinkson (2007) identified that it is especially relevant to settler-indigenous relations to highlight the denial by non-indigenous peoples of a shared humanity. Similarly, these findings underscore the need for more sustained dialogue between educators and students to help students tune in through their common humanity and their areas of commonality or sameness, while respecting differences, so they can hear and better connect with heartfelt stories shared with them by indigenous Australians. Classroom theorising about empathy through the use of selected, critical literature and models such as Stein's (1917, trans. 1989) and Gerdes et al.'s (2011), together with the use of real-life narratives and vignettes to support students' deep listening or tuning-in

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skills, may be useful in this endeavor. The need for more research in the area of same-group empathy and cross-cultural empathy seems apparent.

CONCLUSION There may be both a surprising deficit in students' understanding of empathy, and equally, great potential to enhance students' empathy. The study findings presented here suggest the value in more actively facilitating students' capacity to empathize with the plight of past or present oppressed group members through a shared humanity and a respect for differences, whatever the students' own experiences or their society's stereotypes. In particular, students may need more supported opportunities to learn about empathy for a cross-cultural helping context and to gain critical awareness about "in-group" preferences and "out-group" prejudices that can affect empathy. This classroom inquiry has not only direct implications for non-indigenous helpers working with indigenous peoples in colonized spaces worldwide but also broader significance for social work with culturally diverse populations in which helpers do not share the lived experiences of their client groups.

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APPENDIX: VIGNETTE ONEABORIGINAL ELDER I am a descendant of a once proud tribe from Central Australiathe Arrente people. Today we number very few and own nothing.... We cringe like dogs at the prospect of the White backlash. We pray eternally that the White authority structure will not tum on us and impede what little progress we have made. We ask for land rights with tongue in cheek knowing full well in our hearts that the land belonged to us in the first instance. We stagger and stumble into each other in confusion when our identity . . . is contested and thus allow ourselves to be molded by others. Our land our pride and our future has been taken away from us and our people buried in unmarked graves. We wander through Australian society as beggars. We live off the crumbs of the White Australian table and are told to be grateful. This is what Australia Day means to Aboriginal Australians. We celebrate with you but there is much sadness in our joy. It is like dancing on your mother's grave. We know we cannot live in the past but the past lives with us. (Excerpt from Charles Perkins, Australia Day 1984, address to the Rotary Club of Melbourne [Read, 1990, p. ix])

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