empathic education as a missing link in the intended curriculum for english student-teachers at farhangian university

Empathy has long been cannon of many studies within the field of psychology, and has been a heart of many studies in the realm of educational psychology. although it can be simply defined as a personal skill in sharing and understanding others’ emotional states, it has been theorized from different perspectives. accordingly, it has been an indispensable part of many theories such as effective intelligence, emotional intelligence, and universe intelligence, as well. it also has been discussed within the field of teacher training, mostly with reference to cognitive-affective orientation to the issue. in accordance with this perspective various empathic educational styles were identified, namely, subjective, objective, and intersubjective. within this framework, this study examined the current intended curriculum for english teacher education at farhangian university to explore the extent to which this curriculum can potentially promote empathic education. a directional content analysis method was adopted and the whole document was analyzed. the findings of the study indicated that there were only two instances of potentials for directly promoting empathic education, one in “principles and methods of counseling” and the other in “practicum 1”. the findings implied that the curriculum has to be strengthened with regard to empathic education in the future. in addition, supplementary sources, courses, and tasks may be added to the current curriculum for promoting empathic education.