| The purpose of this thesis is to explore teachers' perspectives of the perceived benefits and challenges of the Roots of Empathy program.; Roots of Empathy is a classroom parenting program (grades K-8). A baby and parent visit a classroom nine times throughout the school year. A Roots of Empathy Instructor/Facilitator who is not the students' classroom teacher, works with them before, during, and after each visit.; As an instructor and facilitator, I am keenly interested in how classroom teachers make sense of the Roots of Empathy program. I conducted in-depth, open-ended interviews with five teachers who had the Roots of Empathy Program being implemented in their classrooms. There were three females and two males, all with varied years of experience in teaching (from 2-13 years) in elementary schools.; Findings suggest that the Roots of Empathy program has a positive effect on students. Each of the participants shared how the Roots of Empathy program enabled several positive relationships to begin to develop. The relationship between the students and the baby seemed to be the most significant one. In addition, some of the participants discussed several of the benefits that they perceived to be gained from taking part in the program. They felt there were benefits for the students when they came in contact with the baby and as they learned information and skills about child development and parenting, and that there were also personal benefits for them. The participants also expressed the challenges that they encountered regarding information about the program and their roles in its implementation. |
