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Creating an Environment for Social Cohesion in Early Childhood Through Humane Education

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Abstract

Early childhood education builds the foundation for students’ academic careers, but perhaps more importantly emphasizes developmentally appropriate practices that encourage social and emotional learning and prosocial behaviors. Similarly, humane education addresses students’ capacity for empathy, compassion, and perspective-taking through connecting the needs of humans, animals, and the environment. This paper describes the development of an emerging framework for humane education grounded in and evolving from Freire’s critical pedagogy and its alignment with Hirschi’s social control theory that sets the conditions for a humane classroom. Highlighting prosocial interactions and social cohesion, this article proposes logical outcomes and measures to move students from an anthropomorphic perspective to an ecocentric one where learners understand their role in this world and their ability to act within it. The result is a roadmap for teaching and learning that connects animal, planetary, and human needs within the crucial timeframe of early childhood development.

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  1. School of Education, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA

    Erin Comaskey & Christine Eith

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  1. Erin Comaskey
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Correspondence to Erin Comaskey.

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Comaskey, E., Eith, C. Creating an Environment for Social Cohesion in Early Childhood Through Humane Education. Early Childhood Educ J 51, 1107–1113 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-022-01407-1

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