Empathy as a factor of barrier-free communication and the development of an inclusive culture in a university

The article is devoted to the processes of creating barrier-free communication and inclusive culture in the university in connection with the development of empathy as a general cultural competence. Empathy is important to build an inclusive environment, as it is a conscious experience of the emotional state of another person. For the formation of a society without communication barriers and a high inclusive culture, it is important that the majority could adequately perceive and interpret the feelings of a minority, for example, people with disabilities. Therefore, we consider the level of empathy to be one of the markers characterizing the level of development of inclusive culture in society. To study empathy on the basis of Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics, we selected 101 students of all faculties. They filled out the questionnaire of A. Mehrabian and N. Epstein. The test of the level of communicative competence was used as an auxiliary questionnaire. In general, the average, modal and median indicators of empathy were calculated for the university and for all the faculties. Also we calculated correlations between faculties, the level of empathy and communicative competence of a particular faculty. A correlation was established between empathy and communicative competence, on the one hand, and impulsivity, on the other. There was no connection between different courses and gender in terms of empathy, although girls are more sociable. We also found that there are three groups of faculties: with a high level of empathy, a level of empathy above the average for the university, and with a level below the average. We assume that such a result is a natural consequence of the previous professional orientation of the applicants upon entering the university. However, we also believe that in order to develop an inclusive culture, faculties with a low level of empathy need additional efforts to increase it. One of the ways to make this process easier is the introduction of special courses on the development of empathic abilities into the curricula of such faculties. In addition, it is very important to make wider use of social advertising, to promote the participation of students from various faculties in the activities of the Center for Education Accessibility. This problem can also be solved with the help of faculty curators and the special course “Educational design” which is already introduced into the educational plans. Since empathy is closely related to the level of communication, we believe that it will be useful for graduates of any profile. It is also possible to hold their own inclusive events at each faculty. The implementation of these recommendations will lead to an increase in the level of empathy, and therefore to the development of an inclusive culture and barrier-free communication.

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