Staff profile

Harriet is an ESRC doctoral student and Postgraduate Associate of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing, as well as a qualified Montessori early childhood education teacher. Her research is currently exploring compassion in ECE using a multi-sited ethnographic framework. The study entitled "Towards Communities of Compassion: Exploring What Affords a Compassion Enabling Environment in Early Childhood’, draws together the interrelated themes of well-being (human/nonhuman), global citizenship and sustainability, with compassion as the common denominator. Specifically, it is concerned with opportunities afforded by the materiality of the spaces and places to which early childhood settings expand/connect, for children and practitioners to experience compassion in relation to human/nonhuman aspects. This seeks to illuminate what constitutes a compassion enabling environment in support of its embodiment as a 'way of being'. The findings intend to inform recommendations for ECE practice enhancement, 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.

Funded by the ESRC, this study is in collaboration with the Flourish Project and being conducted under the expert supervision of Dr Mazzoli-Smith, Dr Tummons and Dr Taggart (Reading University).

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• Compassion, global citizenship, sustainability and well-being
• Early Childhood Education
• Early learning environments
• Experiences with/in ECE spaces
• Young children's experiential learning
• Montessori Approach

• 2023: Research Affiliate, Flourish Project:
• 2020: ESRC NINE DTP Studentship Award:
• 2000: Project Manager National Children's Day UK:
• 2000: Director of The Children's Voice:
• 2000: Peer Reviewer: European Early Childhood Education Research Journal:
• 2000: Board of Directors Save Childhood Movement:
• 2000: Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy :

Chapter in book

• Broadfoot, H. (2024). The Compassion–Resilience Connection: Their Place in Early Childhood Education in a Global Arena. In Z. Nikiforidou, B. Anderson, & W. Robles-Melendez (Eds.), Resilience and Wellbeing in Young Children, Their Families and Communities: Exploring Diverse Contexts, Circumstances and Populations (113-129). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003345664-10

Conference Paper

• Zhang, Y. (2022, October). Researching Chinese Students in the UK - the Use of Ethnography in Social Media Studies. Presented at Imagining Better Education 2022, Durham, United Kingdom
• Chen, W. (2022, October). Can Teaching Enthusiasm Partially Predict the Reading Attainment of Low-income Students in Secondary Schools in England?. Presented at Imagining Better Education 2022, Durham, United Kingdom

Conference Proceeding

• (2022, October). Imagining Better Education: Conference Proceedings 2022. Presented at Imagining Better Education 2022, Durham, United Kingdom

Journal Article

• Broadfoot, H., & Pascal, C. (2021). An exploration of what conditionsfacilitate experiences of compassion in one early childhood community. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 29(6), 910-924. 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

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Broadfoot, H. (2022). Importance of compassion and its link with SDG13 climate action. [Online Teaching Resource]