Exploring experiences of compassion in the daily rhythms of one early childhood community

ABSTRACT

Compassion is of high global relevance, being positioned as a core global competency for sustainable lifestyles promoting well-being, global citizenship and peace, which should be fostered in education. However, as a contested concept there is a vast gap in knowledge regarding compassion in early childhood education (ECE). In response, this research explored how one Pre-School community in England experience compassion in their daily lives. Within a sociocultural framework it illuminates children's and practitioners’ experiences to raise awareness of compassion's role, what conditions facilitate it, and the ways it is experienced and expressed. Fieldwork involved observation, interview and focus groups, gathering different perceptions and interpretations to produce a multi-voiced account. Thematic analysis was applied to the data, with the findings providing a provocation for embedding compassion in ECE as an approach to sustainability, shifting perspective towards needs, rights, capabilities and well-being for the betterment of daily lived experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Compassion
• sustainability
• global citizenship
• well-being
• phenomenological ethnography
• multi-voiced account

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 For colour versions of figures, please contact the corresponding author: Harriet Broadfoot