Abstract
Empathy, considered here as a teaching cognitive-emotional competence, is the ability to understand and share the emotional state of other people and constitutes a fundamental process for establishing positive personal interactions. In the school context, empathy allows teachers to improve their relationships with students in the classroom, and also to prevent situations of bullying and school violence starting with young children. The objective of the research that gave rise to this article was to analyze teachers´ empathy in preschool education, from a multidimensional perspective. Participants were 110 educators from four preschool-level centers located in different cities of the State of Puebla, Mexico. Cognitive and Affective Empathy Test (TECA) was used as it integrates two major dimensions: cognitive and emotional. Results show that most educators present average levels of empathy, characterized by flexible thinking, adaptability to different situations, tolerance, and ability to establish positive interactions with others. There are differences in dimensions of empathy depending on the school the professional belongs to, mainly in the way they see and understand empathy. Based on these data, training initiatives should be proposed to further develop empathy skill in preschool teachers in the Mexican context.
Emotional competences; Empathy; Teacher; Child education
