Abstract
This study attempts to locate care and caring in teaching practice. Specifically, the study examines how one pre-service teacher, with a personal imperative to care, mediates the space between performativity and caringUsing self-study methodology, the study attempts to make sense of the “theory/action dialectic” (Osborne, 2003, p. 17) of enacting care theory in a classroom through these tensions. Through the recursive analysis of a self-study research portfolio with a critical friend, the study revealed two key tensions between one’s actions and intent and between safety and challenge. The study produced significant implications for my own personal and pedagogical development as a beginning teacher. Furthermore, it has implications for future research into pre-service teacher learning and the way teachers both problematise their practice and consider care in early childhood classrooms.
Highlights
An Ethic of CareThere is no doubt that education is a caring endeavour
An English study by Luff (2012) found that, in early childhood education, caring is both evident and considered as pedagogically skilled work, yet this very dimension of early childhood pedagogy undermines the status of the work
The research focus: The aim of this study is to articulate, document and analyse the tensions associated with enacting care theory whilst preparing to be a teacher in a North Queensland early childhood context
Summary
There is no doubt that education is a caring endeavour. The very roots of early childhood education, in particular, are grounded in child-centred principles and caring pedagogies (Feeney, Christiansen, & Moravcik, 2001). Care is not highly prevalent in early childhood education literature. An English study by Luff (2012) found that, in early childhood education, caring is both evident and considered as pedagogically skilled work, yet this very dimension of early childhood pedagogy undermines the status of the work. The study concluded by calling for fuller exploration into care in relation to the work and experiences of early childhood educators. Whilst there were several studies which have identified the role, importance and paucity of etropic 14.1 (2015): Education Graduate Student Symposium 2014 | 124 care and care discourses (for example, Hackenberg, 2010; Lewthwaite & McMillan, 2010; Nichol et al, 2010; Waghid & Smeyers, 2013) there is limited literature specifying the ways teachers themselves recognise and manage the tensions in implementing care in early years or primary school settings
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