The rapid development of inclusive and special education within the contemporary education system has increased the need to prepare special education teachers who possess not only a high level of professional competence but also well-developed personal and emotional qualities that enable them to interact effectively with children with special educational needs. In this context, empathy is considered an important component of the professional preparation of future special education teachers. Empathic abilities enable teachers to understand learners’ emotional states, recognize their individual needs and psychological characteristics, establish trusting pedagogical relationships, and create a supportive corrective and developmental environment.

The aim of the study is to theoretically substantiate the importance of empathy in the professional preparation of future special education teachers and to empirically identify the characteristics of their emotional responsiveness. The study employed theoretical analysis of scientific literature, comparison, systematization, generalization, and psychodiagnostic methods. The empirical study involved 44 fourth-year students enrolled in the 6B01902 Special Education program at K. Zhubanov Aktobe Regional University. The Emotional Empathic Tendency Scale developed by A. Mehrabian and N. Epstein was used to assess the level of emotional empathy. The findings indicate the need for the purposeful development of empathic abilities among a considerable proportion of the students. Based on the theoretical analysis, professional empathy is conceptualized as an integration of cognitive, emotional, behavioral-communicative, and reflective-regulatory components. The findings substantiate the need to systematically integrate the development of empathy into the professional preparation of future special education teachers and highlight the importance of specially designed training sessions, analysis of professional situations, reflective tasks, and teaching practice.