Ever since Shannon Griffin experienced immersive language education as a student of an innovative high school French teacher, her curiosity about the process and impact of language education—especially on empathy and ethical thinking—has grown. Currently, this interest is manifesting in a Religious Studies Master’s thesis on bilingual education, specifically addressing how students experiencing “the other” through language creates a shared identity, and why that matters to broader discussions of ethics. It is worth noting that language and culture in Griffin’s current and future studies often maps onto religious affiliation as well, adding further weight to the importance of empathy and understanding.
Some of Griffin’s research has brought her to studies that show strong correlations between young bilingual children and the ability to take perspectives different from their own. She comments that these studies really reflect and concretize what she knows to be true from her experience and anecdotally what she has heard from others. Griffin detailed a story where Israeli and Palestinian children were dialoguing about how Israeli Independence Day is a positive holiday for one child and a negative holiday for the other; the children understand that they each see the day differently because of their perspectives. Griffin notes how important language is to this process: “Language exposure really expands [young children’s] capacities to think about an external viewpoint.”
Griffin’s experience with bilingual and immersive language education is expansive. Currently she teaches in French at Heartwood Grove School, a World Language Immersion school in Richmond. When Griffin had returned from three years in Israel and her daughters were young—the oldest is now a first year at UVA—she opened a Hebrew immersion preschool. At least some of the motivation for this was to spare her children the difficulties of learning Hebrew as an adult, which Griffin herself had just done while completing an MA from Hebrew University.
Her current MA project also involves analyzing research from bilingual schools in Israel, but she is broadening the thesis to other contexts, like France, where she intends to pursue doctoral work and include ethnographic research components. Ideally, Griffin’s research will take her to French-Arabic schools, where she can further bridge long-standing scholarly interests. The MA she earned from Hebrew University focused on Medieval Judaism in Muslim Spain. The connection between religion, culture, and language, and particularly how language plays a part in the interaction between religious groups, has been a strong thread throughout Griffin’s research. Despite this, she sees even broader impacts in how language education influences empathy and ethics.
For Griffin, yoga and meditation inform her ideas about empathy. She believes that empathy is so essential to human cooperation, harmony, and personal wellbeing that education should be founded in practices that cultivate empathy in students. It goes back to her story of the Israeli and Palestinian children understanding and accepting their differences; empathy can help individuals feel at ease being themselves. “This comes directly from my yoga and meditation practice in the sense that if you don’t feel good—that is, feel good in your own skin—it’s hard to do anything, including learn.”
It seems likely that her own experiences learning French and Hebrew, and living in France and Israel, have also informed her ideas about the connection between language, empathy, and ethics. Griffin’s journey with French is nothing short of inspiring. Her high school French teacher truly was innovative and impactful; at a time when language education in the U.S. was not very good, this teacher spoke to her students fully in French from the first day of class. Griffin’s French developed rapidly during high school and in college, at UVA, she placed out of the requirements and did not study French, despite advice that she should. She moved to France in 1996 for a year, where her French improved again. She was able to use it during research for her first MA, then maintained her skills on the side through a practice group in Richmond. Three years ago, Griffin went to France on a trip and set a goal to move there. She worked on getting her French skills up and then took a job at the French immersion school, where her French has continued to improve from daily speaking and multiple trips back to France.
It is perhaps these experiences that cause Griffin to state the broader importance of language, that it is a transformative skill: “The hope is that in a bilingual school, a multi-cultural environment, what we are really fostering is respect for one another’s language and culture and not just the ability to be fluent.”