Social Perspective Taking: Advancing Empathy and Advocating Justice

National demographic changes and current educational policies are in conflict. The consequences of this conflict, if not resolved, will be long-lasting and detrimental. Our nation is rapidly becoming more diverse — ethnically, racially, and linguistically. Recent educational trends, however, signal a move away from responsible actions that would honor and address the increasingly diverse populations in our public schools. As teacher educators, we seek to understand the public dialogue pertinent to this conflict, to facilitate the education of “culturally relevant” teachers (LadsonBillings, 1992), and to investigate whether there is merit in a specific “social perspective taking” activity we conducted in our university courses.