The empathy of university teachers in education degrees as a key competence for sustainable and humanized education

Abstract

Transversal competences are essential for the sustainability of higher education degrees, particularly programmes which prepare students to serve as educators at critical developmental stages. This study aimed to determine the empathic profiles of 206 university teachers in Early Childhood and Primary Education degrees at a Spanish university. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale was used to measure empathy whilst data was also collected on sociodemographic and work-related information. The results revealed that the participants showed high empathy values across all dimensions except for empathic stress, indicating signs of healthy empathy. Additionally, differences were observed according to gender. The implications of the results are discussed in terms of the benefits of fostering empathy as a transversal competence in both teachers and students in teacher education programmes.