[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-598849-105":59,"doc-detail-598849-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","composition-forum-34-writing-pedagogies-of-empathy-as-rhetoric-and-disposition","Composition Forum 34 - Writing Pedagogies of Empathy: As Rhetoric and Disposition","","Empathy attracts growing attention inside and beyond academia, yet its meaning and limits are often left underspecified. This essay reviews theories of empathy and argues for two complementary ways to teach it in rhetoric and composition: empathy as rhetoric, requiring critical awareness of empathy’s enticements and boundaries, and empathy as disposition, cultivating prosocial habits of mind rooted in work with texts. Writing is positioned as a uniquely suited technology to combine cognitive and affective practice, shaping engagements with texts and with one another.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/composition-forum-34-writing-pedagogies-of-empathy-as-rhetoric-and-disposition/598849/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/composition-forum-34-writing-pedagogies-of-empathy-as-rhetoric-and-disposition/598849.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"jay","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-05","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":39},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What are the two approaches the essay proposes for teaching empathy?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The essay proposes teaching empathy as rhetoric and as disposition. A rhetorical approach emphasizes critical awareness of empathy’s enticements and limitations, while a dispositional approach cultivates empathy as a habit of mind.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Why does the author stress “critical empathy”?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Because empathy is not unconditionally positive; its meanings and effects need explicit critical awareness of its limits. This helps keep empathic dispositions accountable.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How does the essay relate empathy to perspective-taking?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The essay explains that empathy often involves taking another person’s perspective so one can better understand how the world looks and feels from a different situation. It cites definitions that include cognitive and affective components.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},598849,1792210916,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":39,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},3985747858866,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","Current Issue  From the Editors  Weblog  Editorial Board  Editorial Policy  Submissions Archives  Accessibility  Search  \nComposition Forum 34, Summer 2016  \nWriting Pedagogies of Empathy: As Rhetoric and Disposition  \nEric Leake  \nAbstract: Empathy is attracting increased attention within and beyond the academy. In this essay I review relevant theories of empathy and their place within rhetoric and composition. I propose two approaches to teaching empathy: as rhetoric and as disposition. A rhetorical approach incorporates a necessary critical awareness of empathy’s enticements and limitations, while a dispositional approach cultivates empathy as ahabit of mind. I argue that writing pedagogies of empathy as rhetoric and disposition are ideally suited to combine the cognitive and affective, critical awareness and practice, to inform not only our engagements with texts but also with one another.  \nAt Northwestern University’s 2006 commencement, Barack Obama, then a U.S. senator, took to the lectern. He told the graduates that among the most important qualities he learned in college, one they also should cultivate, is empathy.“There’s a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit—the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes; to see the world through those who are different from us,” he said. Obama’s phrasing of an “empathy deficit” is unfortunate, as it suggests more empathy is needed rather than better empathy, but the empathy that he describes holds promise. In calling for the cultivation of empathy and connecting that to the civic goals of higher education, Obama added his voice to a growing emphasis on the teaching of empathy. A decade later, advocates for teaching empathy champion its potential to address everything from bullying to social inequities, from bridging differences and to promoting prosocial practices. In this essay, I take up the question of teaching empathy for rhetoric and composition. What is the significance and value of empathy in the teaching of writing? And if we are to teach empathy in composition, how might we do so in full awareness of empathy’s enticements and limitations?  \nI begin with an overview of the calls to teach empathy within higher education and then propose two complementary approaches to teaching empathy: as rhetoric and as disposition. To teach empathy as rhetoric is to make apparent the ways empathy works to create meaning and how it moves us. A necessary component of teaching empathy as rhetoric is the practice of a critical empathy that is aware of empathy’s limits. To teach empathy as a disposition is to teach prosocial habits of mind that are rooted in our work with texts but with the potential to extend beyond the writing classroom. It is to teach writing in ways that develop more empathic practices and tendencies in how we understand and respond to one another. These approaches—empathy as rhetoric and as disposition—reinforce one another, as a rhetorical awareness of empathy and the practice of critical empathy help keep empathic dispositions accountable. I ground these approaches in classroom applications and argue throughout that writing is uniquely suited as a technology for teaching and cultivating empathy.  \nDefining Empathy  \nFirst, however, it is useful to review definitions of empathy. A full accounting of the definitions and history of empathy, going back to the German Einfühlung (“feeling into”) and sympathy before that, is beyond the scope of this essay. Empathy is a complicated subject with definitions that vary by field. Part of the appeal of teaching empathy may bethe ambiguous nature of the concept: Empathy works as a generally unopposed positive term that connotes caring for others and understanding diverse views. Yet this is one of the liabilities of empathy, because teaching empathy can connote these values without explicitly defining them or how they might be enacted.  \nEmpathy has yet ","cbCaiikFru6LRlEr","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiikFru6LRlEr","pdf",84787,11,"English","# Defining Empathy\n## Calls to Teach Empathy in Higher Education\n## Teaching Empathy as Rhetoric\n## Teaching Empathy as Disposition","[{\"question\":\"What are the two approaches the essay proposes for teaching empathy?\",\"answer\":\"The essay proposes teaching empathy as rhetoric and as disposition. A rhetorical approach emphasizes critical awareness of empathy’s enticements and limitations, while a dispositional approach cultivates empathy as a habit of mind.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the author stress “critical empathy”?\",\"answer\":\"Because empathy is not unconditionally positive; its meanings and effects need explicit critical awareness of its limits. This helps keep empathic dispositions accountable.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the essay relate empathy to perspective-taking?\",\"answer\":\"The essay explains that empathy often involves taking another person’s perspective so one can better understand how the world looks and feels from a different situation. It cites definitions that include cognitive and affective components.\"}]","Composition Forum 34 - Writing Pedagogies of Empathy: As Rhetoric and Disposition | PDF",1792087712,28]