The heart of teaching: exploring empathy, genuineness and positive regard in the adult immigrant ESL classroom
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Date
2019-04
Authors
Starkey, Ben
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Abstract
While there is a lot of evidence showing that teachers that are more effective are empathetic, genuine and have positive regard in the classroom, which in turn relates to higher achievement, attendance and perceptions of teacher effectiveness, less is known about the effect of these core conditions within adult immigrant English as Second Language (ESL) classrooms specifically. This qualitative study explored the roles of Carl Rogers’ core conditions of empathy, genuineness and positive regard in creating supportive relationships in adult immigrant ESL classrooms. Teacher perceptions of the role of empathy, genuineness and positive regard were explored, as well as the way in which adult immigrant ESL teachers implemented these conditions in their classrooms. In addition, this study gathered data on the relationship between the core conditions in the adult immigrant ESL classroom. A review of the related literature was conducted, as well as gathering of data from twelve adult immigrant ESL teachers through focus groups, observations and post-observation interviews. The findings of this study support much of the previous research on the core conditions in education, suggesting that that empathy, genuineness and positive regard are essential in building supportive relationships in the adult, immigrant ESL classroom. The findings also suggest that empathy is the most important, governing condition in building these relationships. The conclusion proposes adult immigrant ESL teachers focus on their development and cultivation of empathy, genuineness and positive regard. In addition, the conclusion proposes that adult immigrant ESL programs and funders support development and cultivation of these conditions and make them a focal point when planning for the future of adult immigrant ESL education.
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Keywords
ESL, immigrant, empathy, positive regard, genuineness, core conditions, Carl Rogers, Person-Centred Approach, Canadian Language Benchmarks, CLB