The relationship between compassion and social justice beliefs among preservice educators: the mediating role of empathy

While awareness of the need to teach with social justice has increased, research suggests that significant disparities in educational opportunities continue to negatively affect marginalised students. Scholars have suggested teachers with certain caring dispositions are more likely to teach with social justice and there is some evidence that empathic and compassionate teachers are more likely to enact stronger social justice beliefs and attitudes. Therefore, promoting these characteristics among preservice teachers might be beneficial. To further explore the relationship between these constructs, the current study examined the relations among dimensions of compassion and social justice among preservice teachers and whether this relationship is mediated by empathy. Results indicated that, in most of the mediation analyses, empathy conveys the effect of compassion on preservice teachers’ social justice beliefs. We also obtained evidence for a direct effect of motivated compassionate engagement and action on educational social justice beliefs, which might be partially explained by the nature of the empathy scale used. Extending previous research, we suggest that fostering preservice teachers’ compassion alongside empathy may support the development of social justice-oriented pedagogies. Further implications of these findings are discussed.