За нуждата от усилването на емпатията в образованието и обществото и ролята на социалните и хуманитарните науки
The Need to Enhance Empathy in Education and Society and the Role of Social Sciences and Humanities

Summary/Abstract: In his book The Audacity of Hope and in his speeches as President of the United States, Barack Obama warns that the empathy deficit is more dangerous to American society than the federal deficit (Zhou, 2022; Obama, 2008). In the context of increasing youth aggression, the undermining of the authority of the teaching profession, the risk of developing depressive states and other destructive psychopathologies, the progressively growing atomization, and the alarming levels of division in Bulgarian society, as well as the reduced ability to conduct meaningful debates on important issues, it may be constructive to pay more attention to the possibilities of introducing programs in the educational system aimed at enhancing empathy in society and taking action to improve mental health care for teachers, students, and parents.The need to strengthen empathy among Bulgarian students was confirmed by the results of the PISA (2022) study. Changing this trend requires the enhancement of social-emotional competence in educational institutions. This includes improving dialogue between teachers, students, and parents. This paper reviews several scholarly studies that support the claim that the study of social sciences and the humanities contributes to the development of empathy among students, and it further emphasizes the crucial role of social-emotional competence in the advancement of the educational system.

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