ABSTRACT
Applying ideas from Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), I investigate the emotional worlds of early childhood education, focusing on acts of compassion and their constitutive practices in Finnish settings. I conceptualize and analyze compassion as a collective activity, comprising acts of helping, including, comforting and sharing in the everyday life of a kindergarten. These acts of compassion are dynamic, negotiated, constituted and produced in interaction. I focus especially on the formation of compassion related to rules that govern how it is and should be expressed in early childhood settings. I relate my analyses to the emotional worlds of families. Each family and kindergarten has its own emotional world and its rules concerning how compassion should be expressed and when it is deserved. The discussion covers the methods used and the conditions under which compassion is supported.
