The Empathy, Narrative and Cultural Values (ENCV) project explores how engagement with literature and narrative can support empathy, reflection, and critical thinking in educational contexts. The education strand focuses on classroom-based work with students, examining how reading practices can open up new ways of understanding texts and lived experiences.
Working closely with teachers and students at our partner organisation, Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College in Birmingham, we have been exploring how structured yet flexible approaches to reading can support deeper engagement particularly, with unseen passages.
Our Approach
Our work in education is grounded in collaboration and co-creation with teachers and students. Together, we develop classroom activities that centre students’ responses, encouraging them to reflect on their thoughts, emotions, and personal connections to texts. Here are two of our main exercises:
- Unseen Reflection Exercise
Students engage in class with a short unseen, anonymous extract or short poem. They are encouraged to individually record their initial responses, paying attention to the feelings it may evoke, any memories it stirs, and any thoughts it prompts. (The chosen passage may be from a text engaging with issues of cultural difference, either from the syllabus, or chosen by the teacher.) - Perspective Shift Activity
Students are invited to creatively reimagine or respond to a text from a different perspective. This supports empathy and encourages consideration of multiple viewpoints. - Story Exchange
Students were introduced to the story exchange model pioneered by Narrative 4. This works as a trust building exercise allowing students to work in pairs to share their experiences in response to a series of thematically-focused prompts moderated by a facilitator.
These approaches draw on narrative-based frameworks and emphasise the importance of dialogue, interpretation, and shared discussion in the classroom.
Examples of texts used in Unseen Reflections and Perspective Shift exercises.
Research and Outputs
The education strand combines classroom-based activities with qualitative data collection, including student reflections and teacher feedback. This enables us to explore how students engage with texts over time and how their reading practices develop.
Findings from this work are informing the development of an ENCV Education Resource Pack, designed to support teachers in embedding reflective and empathetic reading practices in their classrooms.