Otter.ai Summary

Paramita Roy, an educator and founder of Virtual School Australia, emphasized the importance of action-oriented pedagogies in fostering empathy. She discussed how empathy has become fragile in a world of constant stimulation and polarization. Roy shared examples from her school, where students practiced empathy through real-world projects like fundraising for earthquake victims and collaborating with students from war-affected regions. She highlighted that empathy is not just about feeling but also about taking action, which transforms both the giver and the receiver. Roy concluded that empathy must be practiced to grow and that educational systems should prioritize action-oriented methods to cultivate empathy effectively.

Action Items

Outline

Introduction of Paramita Roy and Her Work

• Cara Wilson introduces Paramita Roy, highlighting her roles as an educator, filmmaker, and founder of Global Empathy Conferences and Virtual School Australia (VSA).

• VSA is recognized internationally for teaching empathy through action, integrating performing arts, storytelling, filmmaking, and reflective writing.

• Paramita is organizing the eighth Global Empathy Conference and will speak on the topic "From Understanding to Action: Why the Empathy Movement Must Prioritize Action-Oriented Pedagogies."

• Cara emphasizes the importance of action-oriented pedagogies in the empathy movement.

Technical Difficulties and Acknowledgements

• Paramita thanks Cara for the introduction and acknowledges Dr. Stuart Nolan for his engaging and thought-provoking activities.

• Paramita expresses her eagerness to share Dr. Nolan's practical ideas with her students at Virtual School Australia and looks forward to his upcoming book.

• Paramita mentions the topic of her talk, "From Understanding to Action," and the focus on physical empathy and evidence-based practice.

• She references the seventh Global Empathy Conference where the question was raised about growing the empathy movement to reach 1 million people and sustaining it as a global force.

The Importance of Moving from Understanding to Action

• Paramita discusses the need to move from understanding empathy to taking action, emphasizing that understanding alone is not enough in a fragmented and conflicted world.

• She shares an example of how people quickly scroll past headlines of war and destruction, indicating a disconnection from emotional responses.

• Paramita reflects on historical perspectives from Greek and Italian poets on the human capacity for empathy and the current fragility of empathy in a constantly stimulated world.

• She argues that empathy is essential for living together and that it demands understanding, not agreement.

Examples of Action-Oriented Pedagogies

• Paramita shares an example of elementary school students in Canberra who organized a school-wide fundraiser after learning about an earthquake in a distant land.

• She describes how students in Virtual School Australia collaborate with students from war-affected countries, creating art exhibitions, theater, and storytelling to share their real-life stories.

• Paramita emphasizes that empathy is practiced through these activities, leading to meaningful and humanizing education.

• She highlights the importance of giving students opportunities to act on their empathy, rather than just teaching it.

The Role of Empathy in Education and Society

• Paramita discusses how empathy is modeled through everyday actions and responses, with children learning from the behavior of adults around them.

• She argues that empathy in action not only helps others but also transforms the person practicing it, creating connections, restoring purpose, and building hope.

• Paramita mentions that empathy is still an emerging field of study, but early signals indicate that living empathy is stronger and more lasting.

• She concludes by emphasizing the need to create spaces where people can practice empathy through collaboration and action, rather than just feeling it.

Cara Wilson's Reflections and Closing Remarks

• Cara Wilson expresses her admiration for Paramita's talk and reflects on the importance of action-oriented pedagogies.

• She questions whether people are disconnected or protected from emotional responses and plans to think about this further.

• Cara emphasizes that empathy doesn't require agreement but demands understanding and asks if children are given opportunities to practice empathy.

• She agrees with Paramita that action matters in education and that it transforms learning into a meaningful and human experience.

Otter.ai Transcript

Transcript Preview

Cara Wilson  0:00  

It is now my pleasure to bring up paramita Roy. She is an educator, filmmaker and founder of global empathy conferences and virtual school in Australia, VSA, virtual school Australia is internationally recognized for teaching empathy through action. Paramita integrates performing arts, storytelling, filmmaking and reflective writing into education to help young people engage with real world social issues. She is currently organizing the eighth global empathy conference, and will be speaking to us today from understanding to action. Why the empathy movement must prioritize action oriented pedgo, jeez, pedagogy, pedagogies, easy for you to say.

Speaker 1  0:55  

Oh, thank you so much. But thanks Kara, Kara, right Kara, for such a kind introduction. Yeah, pedagogies, that is the method of teaching, what we usually use in our education. I don't know why I'm not able to share my I'm having some difficulties this morning sharing the just, I'll try just last one more time, and then I'll move on, because I understand we have limited time here. You have co host. You should be able to screen share, okay, yes, I have been able to can you see my screen now? 

Yeah, okay, before the I begin, I would like to say thank you, Dr Stuart Nolan, for sharing such an engaging and thought provoking, you know, range of activities. I really appreciated the practical ideas that you shared, and the way you made them so accessible and meaningful, I would love to share those with my students at the virtual school Australia, and I'm very much looking forward to your book as well as Kara just said, I'm paramita, and I'm joining you from Adelaide, Australia. It's 2:50am in the morning, and our topic today is my topic, at least, from understanding to action, as Dr Nolan also said, talked about physical empathy, evidence based practice. 

So that is the main focus, we call it by the empathy movement must prioritize action oriented pedagogies in 2025 at the seventh global empathy conference, a powerful question was raised By Jenna and Edwin from the empathy center, how do we grow the empathy movement to reach 1 million people and sustain it as a truly global force? Because in a world marked by fragmentation, inequality and conflicts, understanding empathy is no longer enough. We must move from understanding to action. Let me start with a with an example. You're on your phone, like we always are. 

You're scrolling a headline flashes, war, loss, destruction, a cry for help. You pause for a second, and then you keep scrolling, not because you are cruel, not because you don't care, but because somewhere along the way, we have learned how not to we're just not to feel much. And I realized something uncomfortable. It wasn't just the world that had changed. We had changed. There was a time when a single story would stay and move us deeply all day, thinking about the people, imagining their life, feel their pain, but now we move on in seconds, not because we didn't care, but Because caring felt overwhelming, and I started to wonder. I started to wonder, have we protected ourselves so well that we have disconnected from each other 1000s of years ago? 

The Greek poet Homer wrote that the human heart must. Learn to glow for others good and melt at others, woe, that was the ideal of being human. Centuries later, the Italian poet Dante algari imagined something darker, a world where people lose that capacity, where they move through life without moral feeling, a kind of living death. And I sometimes wonder, are we closer to that world than we think? Because today, empathy feels fragile. We are more connected than ever, and yet somehow more emotionally distant. And maybe that's not surprising. We are living in an era of constant stimulation, rising conflict and deepening polarization.

Speaker 1  5:56  

We are always connected and yet rarely present, and over time, something begins to erode our emotional well being, our sense of connection, our ability to truly listen in a world like this, empathy is no longer optional. It is essential, not because it makes us nice, but because it allows us to live together, empathy doesn't require agreement, but it demands understanding, and in that space, We respond thoughtfully instead of reacting impulsively. Here's the paradox, even primates, even rats, respond to the suffering of others. So the question isn't, can humans feel empathy? The question is, why are we forgetting how? At the global conference, global empathy conference, in 2025 the question that emerged and discussed by Edwin and Jenna and others from the empathy center, how can we expand empathy beyond an idea and turn it into a movement? 

My answer is simple. As an educator, I believe we have misunderstood how to teach it. Empathy comes from the German word anfun long I hope I've pronounced it correctly, but mainly it means feeling into for a long time we have interpreted that as sharing in someone else's emotions. But there is a limitation in that view, feeling by itself isn't enough when empathy only becomes meaningful when it evolves from feeling into action. What doctor Nolan just said about talked about physical empathy, let me share what that looks like in an elementary school classroom in Canberra, 10 year old students learned about an earthquake in a distant land. They heard about the loss, the displacement, the suffering and something happened.

 They didn't just listen. They cared. And then, without being told what to do, they acted. They organized a school wide fundraiser, collected second hand goods, engaged their families, and together, they raised money to support people they would never meet. 10 year olds, not because they were extraordinary, but because they were given the opportunity to respond, and that changes the question for us, it's not, can young people be empathetic? It's, are we giving them opportunities to act on that empathy? So let me tell you another story, not from theory, but from practice, a classroom that doesn't look like a traditional classroom, virtual school Australia. Imagine this, students in Australia working with students in exile and war affected countries, different worlds, different realities. 

Some live with stability, others with uncertainties, and sometimes most of the times in fear. Now imagine those. Students creating something together. Imagine being a student who cannot safely tell their story, and then through a digital space, they meet someone who says, your story matters. Let's tell it together. Imagine writing those real life stories, rehearsing them, hearing them spoken on a stage, and for the first time, their experience is not hidden. It is seen, it is heard. It is honored at

Speaker 1  10:36  

virtual school Australia, students don't just learn empathy, they practice it through art exhibitions, through theater, through storytelling, through global collaboration at festivals like the Adelaide fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, and sometimes remarkable happens, They listen. They don't, they don't just understand each other, they act. Because when you stand on a stage and share these stories, you cannot remain distant. 

When you create together, you cannot remain indifferent. And when audiences witness those stories, they don't just learn, they feel. Dr Helen reads in her book The Empathy effect reminds us when art is at its best, there is nothing more powerful to move society toward a more empathetic stance, and we see this happen in theaters, in exhibitions across global communities, empathy spreads not as information, but as experience. 

Through fringe plays, VSS, students shared their stories in Australia, in Scotland, virtually with audiences from around the globe. Another example of action oriented pedagogies I would like to share here during the covid 19 pandemic, pandemic in one of the Australian schools, a chemistry teacher did something, something very special. Her students learned how to make hand sanitizer, and then they gave it to people who needed it. It wasn't just learning. It wasn't just chemical reaction, chemical composition. It was learning with purpose, and when students see that their actions matter, education transforms. It becomes meaningful. It becomes human. And here's something we often forget. 

Empathy is just not taught. It is modeled. Children are always watching they're watching their teachers. They're watching adults around them. They are watching their parents. They watch how we respond to others, how we handle differences, how we show care, and in those everyday moments, they learned what it means to be human. And there is one more thing, empathy in action doesn't just help others. It transforms the person who gives it creates connections. It restores purpose. It builds hope. Now is this empirical research complete? No, this work is still emerging, but the early signals are clear. When empathy is lived, not just taught, it becomes stronger, more real, more lasting, more likely to lead to action. So maybe the problem isn't that we don't care. 

Maybe the problem is we haven't been given enough ways to practice caring. So let me leave you with this, if even the smallest creatures can respond to the suffering of others, then empathy is not something we have lost. It's something we have stopped exercising. And like any human capacity, if we don't use it, it fades, but you if we practice it, it grows. So if we truly want to rebuild empathy in this world, we must stop asking people simply to feel more and start creating spaces where they can create, collaborate and act, because empathy doesn't grow when we watch it.

 Rose when we step into each other's stories and choose to act. And perhaps the future of humanity will not be defined by how much we know, but by how deeply we are willing to feel and how courageously we choose to act on that feeling, and that is why the empathy movement must prioritize action oriented pedagogies. Thank you.

Cara Wilson  15:32  

That was amazing. Action oriented pedagogies. Action oriented education. Y'all, I got it. You so proud of me. I'm proud of me. Good screen. Share. Just sorry, just quick. Yeah, I love asking, Are we protected or disconnected? I am going to sit with that for quite some time, I think today, and saying, empathy doesn't work. Oh, empathy doesn't require agreement. It demands understanding. 

Thank you. Are we giving our children access to activities to practice that empathy, where they are seen, where they're heard, where they're honored together? You're providing, not only online but in person, access to bridge all of those gaps, not just learning, but feeling and 100% agree when action matters, education transform.