Literature as a Pedagogical Tool for Empathy Development: A Survey-Based Study of Adolescent Well-Being in Indian Schools

Abstract

Rising academic pressure, family expectations, future uncertainty and teacher-student relational gaps present compounding socio-emotional challenges for Indian adolescents. Despite the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020’s emphasis on holistic development, structured socio-emotional learning (SEL) frameworks remain largely absent from mainstream school practice. This study investigates adolescent emotional well-being among school students in Rajasthan and Delhi and examines the potential of literary engagement as a deliberate pedagogical instrument for empathy development and SEL. A descriptive survey research design was employed. A structured questionnaire comprising ten close-ended items and one open-ended item was administered to 137 school students from Grades VI–XII in Rajasthan and Delhi through school teachers and principals, via Google Forms. Quantitative data were analysed using frequency-based descriptive statistics; qualitative open-ended responses (Q11) were subjected to Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis framework. Academic pressure (22.1%), family expectations (21.2%), and future uncertainty (18.6%) emerged as the dominant stressors. A substantial 72.3% of respondents reported hiding their feelings either sometimes (42.9%) or very often (29.4%). Teacher-student relational distance was pronounced: only 21.4% felt very comfortable sharing concerns with teachers, while merely 3.2% sought teacher support during difficulties. Paradoxically, while 72.2% of respondents reported moderate-to-high self-confidence and 59.5% expressed general life satisfaction, emotional concealment and institutional trust deficits persisted. Reading was identified as a coping strategy by only 9.5% of respondents, the lowest of all options, despite its established socio-emotional benefits. Thematic analysis yielded six emergent themes: empathetic failure, academic overload, comparison and self-worth, communicative safety, student agency, and systemic reform. The study proposes a five-strand framework of Pedagogical Translation, wherein literary engagement, encompassing Indian folk narratives, reflective fiction reading, guided storytelling, Socratic discussion, and bibliotherapy functions as a culturally grounded bridge between abstract emotional concepts and lived empathetic experience. Integrating this framework with the holistic vision of NEP 2020 offers a scalable, evidence-supported strategy for nurturing emotionally responsive classroom communities.