A Caring Teacher: Explorations into primary school teachers' professional identity and ethic of care

Abstract

This article explores primary school teachers' conceptions of caring within teaching and discusses the relevance of an ethic of care for teaching. Thirty-two Swiss and English primary school teachers participated in this exploratory study. The methodology included semi-structured interviews as well as image-based approaches employing photographs and drawings. Caring within teaching can be understood in a range of ways: caring as commitment, caring as relatedness, caring as physical care, caring as expressing affection, such as giving a cuddle, caring as parenting and caring as mothering. The author suggests that these definitions of caring within teaching can be placed along a continuum. Caring understood as mothering at one end of this continuum is distinctly associated with traditional Western notions of femininities whereas caring as commitment is non-gender-specific. Caring as relatedness can be linked with the concept of ethic of care, which has been conceptualised as a moral perspective more often held by women. The findings of this study challenge this view, as an ethic of care understood as responsibility for and relatedness to their pupils emerged amongst men as well as women.