Social Responsibility Revisited: Critical Thinking and Empathy as Necessary Components of Social Change

The field of Recreation and Leisure has a history of advocacy and social reform. In recent history, there have been spirited dialogues, beginning with the 1991 SPRE Teaching Institute, about the role of recreation and leisure educators in facilitating social responsibility, and by extension, social change. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, we will explore the topics of critical thinking and empathy; and second, we will discuss activities that can be used to teach critical thinking and empathy into the classroom. Our discussion of critical thinking and empathy will be couched in terms of how the teaching of critical thinking and empathy can lead us to work toward issues of social change in the classroom and in the field.