A community of practice approach can enhance educators’ capacity for developing young children’s empathy for natureEarly childhood is an important developmental phase to foster empathy for animals and nature. This study explored nature preschool educators’ capacity to facilitate empathy development in young children through their participation in a Community of Practice (CoP) participatory learning process. The CoP served as a professional learning community that supported practitioner collaboration to deepen understandings of empathy and improve teaching practice. The study adopted a Two-Worlds approach which acknowledges both Indigenous and Western perspectives.
Fifteen Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators participated in a seven-month long CoP in Minnesota, U.S. The CoP was co-facilitated by an Indigenous mentor and engaged educators in monthly community building through meal-sharing and collaborative knowledge development of empathy practices through discussion and critical reflection. From this group, seven nature preschool teachers were invited to participate in a ripple effect mapping (REM) process. REM is a participatory research method that was used to capture educators’ reflections of the impacts of the CoP on children in the nature preschool, as well as “ripple effects” that extended to the larger community. Participants engaged in reflective journalling to document their experiences and observations of empathy between children or in their interactions with nature. Peer-to-peer interviews and group discussions were conducted through an appreciative inquiry approach to facilitate educators’ reflection, interpretation, and evaluation of their empathy practices. These understandings were applied to the REM which provided a visual representation of the effects resulting from the CoP.
Impacts of the CoP are described from Indigenous and Western perspectives as Being/Affective (teachers’ dispositions), Knowing/Cognitive (knowledge and skills), and Doing/Behavioral (teaching practices). Participation in the CoP shifted the ways teachers interacted with children and in the ways they approached connecting children with nature. Teachers reported “embracing a slower pace, with more pauses, more listening and observing, more storytelling, greeting the more-than-human relatives by their Anishinaabemowin name, modeling the honorable harvest, and letting children ask questions rather than asking the questions themselves.” Teachers modeled empathy and supported children in practicing empathy, which enhanced children’s empathy towards peers and nature and also supported a variety of beneficial outcomes for children. Empathetic interactions with nature were apparent in children’s care and stewardship of the land. Findings from the REM process suggest that the impact of the CoP extended beyond the children with impacts “rippling outward to the parents and families of those children.” Impacts to the surrounding community, both “human and more-than-human,” and the larger early childhood profession were also identified.
Overall, the CoP was an effective approach to professional learning that supported teachers’ capacity for empathy development that impacted the teachers themselves, children, their families, and larger communities. The participatory REM process was also an effective evaluation method which enabled teachers to expand their awareness of the impacts of their empathy capacity-building work. The REM process was viewed as “transformative” by teachers who felt it bolstered their motivation and commitment to nurturing empathy development in young children.
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