The Significance of Cultural Empathy in Border area Schools : A case study of the Thailand-Myanmar Border area

Cultural empathy refers to the ability to understand and emotionally empathize with the experiences of others who have different cultures or ethnic backgrounds. Border regions are places where groups with diverse cultural backgrounds live together due to immigration, and it is a place where cultural empathy is easily found and its importance is even more demanded. This study analyzed the elements of cultural empathy found in schools located in the Thailand-Myanmar border region based on the teacher's experience and teaching journey by utilizing autoethnography, and presented the significance of the role of cultural empathy in the educational community. To this end, the four sub-elements of the cultural empathy measurement tool, ‘Empathic feeling and expression, Empathic perspective taking, Acceptance of cultural differences, and Empathic awareness’ were extracted and cases observed in local schools on the Thailand-Myanmar border were analyzed. This article aims to reveal the role of cultural empathy in border regions where various cultures coexist, and to suggest the importance of accepting cultural differences that anyone can experience from the perspective of cultural empathy.