Developing Relational Empathy in Virtual Ethnographic Intercultural Teaching

Conceptualizations of empathy have been most fully developed in a variety of fields in recent years. Many approaches to empathy dwell on the cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects, the intra-psychic processes that cause one to feel emotions more like those of another, rather than the interpersonal functions of empathy, which may be influenced by the variables during the communication process. Therefore, this study designed and implemented a virtual ethnographic intercultural project between Chinese and American university students with WeChat as the main social medium. The whole process included three phases: exploring the unique cultural experiences of Chinese and American students, seeking an empathy based on commonality and seeking a relational empathy, a form of harmonization and integration through interactive and continuous intercultural dialogues. During the process, the method of discourse-centered online ethnography (DCOE) was employed, which involved systematic observation and interaction with WeChat users. We used the collective data to analyze how relational empathy was developed through understanding cultural differences, seeking similarities, and creating a third culture by engaging students in a substantial and dynamic natural and interactive setting. The study shows that the most challenging process to nurture relational empathy is to move from Phases One and Two to Phase Three, during which, some strategies to build relational empathy need to be taught and practiced in a specific cultural setting. In conclusion, virtual ethnographic intercultural teaching is an effective approach to offer students a long-term intercultural dialogue and insight into developing shared meaning, or dynamic relational empathy with culturally different others.