In Their Shoes: Active Empathy Through Emotional Literacy With Theatre of Awareness
In Their Shoes is a pedagogical intervention model for preschool, primary, secondary, and special education centers in Spain. The program promotes emotional literacy through consciousness theatre for the entire educational community — teachers, students, families, and non-teaching staff — with the goal of improving coexistence and preventing violence.
The program is built on the understanding that the root of violence can be found in the inability to manage emotions, especially anger, and unhealed emotional pain. Violence also stems from the inability to empathize — “to put oneself in another person’s shoes” and act accordingly — and from a lack of skills in resolving conflicts positively. The assumption is that aggressive or violent behavior in some children may be driven by unrecognized and unaddressed emotional pain.
An article in the March/April issue of Childhood Education Innovations magazine highlights this unique intervention model.
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