Working with empathy in preschool : How preschool teachers work with children's empathetic ability in preschool

Empathy is an important human trait that we need to communicate with other individuals. According to the research found in this paper, the lack of empathy in children leads often to developing of aggressive behavior that causes communication difficulties with the children. Research has also shown that children attending preschool has more empathic development.The purpose of this paper is to provide knowledge about how teachers in preschool work with empathy in the pedagogical practice and in preschool education. By interviewing six different preschool teachers at two different preschools around the Växjö area in Småland, Sweden. The analysis showed that different factors such as size of the child group and the age of the children influence how the preschoolers choose to shape their pedagogy. The result shows that the preschool teachers have worked with different conversation technique, they have tried to act as good role models for the children and they teach the children that different feelings can be felt and displayed in different ways. In the discussion it shows that the paper could be done differently if there was more time and more preschools to interview. Finally, the effect of empathy on preschool teachers is taken into account and the consequences of empathically charged situations