Empathy-MInded Practice in Higher Education: The LGBTQ+ Experience

Introduction

The focus on equity and equity-minded practice in higher education continues to gain ground as gaps in academic achievement persist throughout the United States (U.S.). Achievement gaps are now being understood as opportunity gaps or equity gaps as educators learn that these gaps are a product of the larger education system within the U.S. rather than personal deficiencies within individual students. This understanding shifts the onus for these gaps to the social and educational institutions responsible for the students they serve and the practitioners and educators who provide direct student support (Bensimon, 2005; Pendakur, 2016). Within higher education and across the U.S., students who are first-generation, underrepresented, and from low-income backgrounds are frequently the topic of discussion, investigation, and the focus of potential interventions in and out of the classroom to remedy these equity gaps (NCES, 2012). Additionally, gender (from a cis-gendered binary biological sex-based perspective) is a growing topic of interest as the gap in achievement increases between students who identify as female and their male counterparts.

While the movement to deconstruct how we understand equity gaps and the systems and structures within higher education that perpetuate inequities gains momentum, this chapter proposes there are students whose identities and educational experiences have yet to be meaningfully considered and counted. Several students' individual and collective identities remain at the margins of education; students who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) are among them. Quaye and Harper (2015) asserted that when student identities are missing from how educators equate student success, the student and their academic experience are not well understood, and efforts to support them are likely to be ineffective. Therefore, to close the equity gap in student achievement, higher education leaders, staff, and faculty must begin to broaden how they define student success, how the factors that support achievement are understood, and how they consider what it truly means to serve and educate a diverse student population that includes multiple, intersecting, and salient social identities.

This chapter asserts that empathy is an inter-and intra-personal quality required to improve equity-minded practice that can consequently decrease the opportunity and equity gaps experienced by students who continue to be marginalized. Therefore, to effectively serve students from diverse backgrounds, educators must cultivate empathy. Empathy is a crucial and missing piece of student support in higher education that must be incorporated both in and outside the classroom to effectively address equity gaps. This chapter will (1) define empathy; (2) discuss LGBTQ+ students' experience in higher education; (3) provide a personal experience example to model the importance of empathy in LGBTQ+ student success; (4) and explore various ways of putting empathy into practice within higher education.

Background

Feelings or demonstrations of empathy do not always come naturally, especially when encountering an individual whose experience is very different from our own. While people are typically born with the capacity for empathy, empathy is learned throughout a lifetime and takes intention and continual practice (Brown, 2018). Crucial components in cultivating empathy are a willingness to learn about others and a willingness to examine personal biases, prejudices, and privilege in relation to difference. Because empathy requires the ability to acknowledge and honor others' experiences, the lack of these components can act as barriers to empathy.