Empathic Growth Mindset and Equity

Abstract

This chapter explores how student affairs professionals in higher education in the United States can benefit from integrating a growth mindset grounded in empathy in their professional life. The authors examine ways a fixed mindset can impede learning and perpetuate inequities and how a growth mindset can encourage student affairs professionals to see themselves and the students they serve as capable of learning and growth. Therefore, the objectives of this chapter are (1) to provide insight into the meaning of mindset, (2) to highlight how the development of a growth mindset can help student affairs professionals nurture and sustain their capacity for empathy, (3) to examine how empathy supports the building of meaningful relationships with students, (4) how these relationships influence student success more equitably, and (5) provide recommendations on how student affairs professionals can actively develop and maintain an empathic growth mindset.