Krysytna Nowak Fabrykowski

I have always been interested in the phenomenal question of how people think and what is the reason for certain actions. This guided me to symbolic representation, which became the focus of my PhD. Symbolic representation appears in language and mathematics, but there are cultural symbols as well that we find in actions and behavior. I started wondering about the basis of people's thoughts and reasons for actions, conducting research first in symbolic representation. From there, I moved into caring, publishing many articles and books with my colleagues on caring characteristics, caring teachers, and caring children. My research then went deeper into empathy and heroism. I conducted research with colleagues from Poland and Turkey on caring, and then moved further into empathy. My current research focuses on how to help children develop empathy and children's understanding of empathy, because there are two types: cognitive and affective. I conduct research here in the U.S. on both children's awareness of empathy and how teachers teach empathy to young children. I have presented this research internationally, including last year in Bologna, Italy, and upcoming presentations in Poland. As a representative of OMEP (International Organization for Early Childhood), I work to make changes in children's lives and advocate for children around the world. OMEP works with the UN with the goal of changing situations in the world. Through my research, I am trying to improve the lives of children around the world, trying to understand children and how they think and why they think, and the reasons to be empathetic and how to develop empathy.