This praxeological study focuses on children and practitioner’s lived experience of compassion within ECE settings. Building on my previous research (Broadfoot and Pascal, 2020) it seeks to: firstly, explore what opportunities ECE spaces afford for experiencing compassion within the daily life of a setting; and secondly, illuminate what constitutes a compassion enabling environment, in support of its embodiment as a ‘way of being’. This will involve a holistic exploration of both human and non-human aspects of ECE spaces (and the relations between them) using a theoretical assemblage and multi-sited phenomenological ethnographic methodology. In collaboration with the Flourish Project, the findings intend to inform recommendations for ECE practice enhancement and positive change in pedagogy and curriculum, in a move towards educating for collective well-being and empowering young children as global citizens to live sustainably in our interconnected world.
I am a qualified Montessori ECE teacher and work with the Save Childhood Movement as Project Director of The Children’s Voice; a new initiative that aims to promote children and young people’s vision for the ways in which we can create a more caring and sustainable world. In addition, I manage National Children’s Day UK which raises the importance the rights and freedoms of children to ensure they can grow into happy, healthy adults.
Links
www.thechildrensvoice.net
www.flourishproject.net
Publications
Broadfoot, H., & Pascal, C. (2021). An exploration of what conditionsfacilitate experiences of compassion in one early childhood community. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293x.2021.1985558
Broadfoot, H., & Pascal, C. (2020). Exploring experiences of compassion in the daily rhythms of one early childhood community. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 28(4), https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293x.2020.1783922
Bennion, H., Broadfoot, H. T. Meng, Y. Zhang, Q. Zhou, & K. Fan (2023). Imagining Better Education: Conference Proceedings 2022. Durham University. https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1675899
