Purpose

Despite an ever-diversifying student population, it is still commonplace for US public schools to present Christmas concerts. These concerts can force minority students to choose between their own religious convictions and school participation. For some students, participation in public-school Christmas concerts can damage their personal identity and assimilate them into ways of being that are not their own. This study aims to test a method for teaching preservice teachers to empathize with minority students.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the framework of action research, the study followed a one-group pretest-posttest design. Participants (N = 19), all of whom identified as some kind of Christian, were asked to perform a concert featuring Satanic Worship prayers and a children’s Christmas song. This intervention was meant to induce empathy for religious minority students who feel uncomfortable performing Christmas songs because they are antithetical to their own faiths. Participants’ perceptions of public-school Christmas music performance was measured before and after the intervention.

Findings

The intervention effectively increased empathy for minority students. As a result, participants expressed altered teaching philosophies that were inclusive of religious minority perspectives.

Originality/value

This study demonstrates the effectiveness of empathy-fostering interventions as tools for teaching teachers to work with diverse student populations. The intervention tested in this study is of the researcher’s original design.

中文翻译：

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同理心对公立学校圣诞音乐表演支持的影响

目的

尽管学生人数不断多样化，但美国公立学校举办圣诞音乐会仍然司空见惯。这些音乐会可以迫使少数民族学生在他们自己的宗教信仰和学校参与之间做出选择。对于一些学生来说，参加公立学校的圣诞音乐会会损害他们的个人身份，并使他们融入不属于他们自己的生活方式。本研究旨在测试一种教职前教师同情少数民族学生的方法。

设计/方法/方法

使用行动研究的框架，该研究遵循一组前测-后测设计。参与者（N = 19）都被确定为某种基督徒，他们被要求表演一场以撒旦崇拜祈祷和儿童圣诞歌曲为特色的音乐会。这种干预是为了引起对宗教少数派学生的同情，他们对表演圣诞歌曲感到不舒服，因为他们与自己的信仰背道而驰。在干预前后测量了参与者对公立学校圣诞音乐表演的看法。

发现

干预有效地增加了对少数民族学生的同情。结果，参与者表达了改变的教学理念，其中包括宗教少数群体的观点。

原创性/价值

这项研究证明了同理心培养干预措施作为教教师与不同学生群体合作的工具的有效性。本研究中测试的干预是研究人员的原始设计。