DEVELOPED EMPATHETIC CAPACITIES AS A PREREQUISITE FOR QUALITY INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN A SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

The specific issue of the quality of educational process requires a quality
school environment, which can be observed at several levels: first of all,
through quality interpersonal relationships, and then through quality curricula
and syllabi and the ecology of the school environment (Relja, 2006). A
quality school atmosphere is based not only on а humane/altruistic approach
to students but also on the satisfied teacher, who is characterised by a
number of positive qualities, as well as on the equally satisfied student, who
cultivates positive feelings towards the authority of their teachers, towards
the school itself, and towards the educational process in general. Good
quality relationships between people are based on empathy, which is an
ability to relate to the feelings of other people. It is via empathy that the teacher, however briefly, puts on their students' shoes and thereby feels the
same emotions, which is what actually allows them to truly understand their
students' feelings, actions, and problems and to respond positively to them.
In doing so, they show a full understanding of their needs directed towards
the well-being of students. Empathy includes both cognitive and emotional
components and, therefore, in the process of empathising, knowledge and
emotions interact. As most authors consider it to be a regulator of different
forms of behaviour, especially within the context of altruistic behaviour
(Batson, Duncan, Ackerman, Buckley, and Birch, 1981), empathy represents
very important kind of motivation for altruism, given the degree of emotional
unity established, which is a prerequisite for effective and sincere interaction
between people and an initiator of a close understanding of another
person's emotional world.