Through Other Eyes : Developing Empathy and Multicultural Perspectives in the Social Studies

What happens when children develop their capacities to think about how the world might look and feel through someone else's eyes? They build the foundations of multicultural and historical understanding, according to Joan Skolnick, Nancy Dulberg and Thea Maestre.

Full of practical strategies and lesson plans, their book Through Other Eyes is brimming with clear and inspiring ideas for teachers eager to help their students develop an empathic and accurate understanding of history. Devoid of jargon, it employs key social studies themes and the tools of the historian to help students understand the perspectives of others in historically authentic and developmentally appropriate ways. The authors provide a curriculum model - adaptable to any curriculum context - of carefully constructed learning sequences they term the "Thinking-Feeling Spiral." Following this model, teachers can design standards-based lessons using primary sources, literature, writing and the arts. Students learn to understand the feelings of people in history and in the present who are different from themselves (empathize), explore how the world might look through their eyes, and then try to explain it (take perspective).

Illustrated with realistic, poignant and, at times, humorous examples from the authors' own extensive teaching experience, Through Other Eyes will appeal as much to experienced teachers looking for fresh inspiration as to those just beginning to implement a multicultural social studies curriculum.

The authors bring to their writing over 30 years of experience teaching in public schools and teacher education programs in diverse communities. Drs. Joan Skolnick and Nancy Dulberg are Professors of Teacher Education (K-8) at Saint Mary's College of California. Dr. Thea Maestre is Coordinator of the Multiple Subject Credential Program at Holy Names University. Both programs emphasize cross-cultural teacher preparation.