Compassion Science: Embracing and Cultivating Compassionate Minds in Early Childhood Classrooms

Abstract The critical and persistent impact of violence, abuse, and social injustice on the overall development of young children has necessitated a global discourse on the importance of cultivating compassion during children’s formative years. This article links the defining elements of compassion to the discipline of early childhood education and calls upon stakeholders to integrate more concerted and systematic knowledge from compassion science research into contemporary early childhood classroom practices.