A Cure for What Ails You? The Perils of Performativity and the Promise of an Ethic of Care

• In Event: Park Central Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Culturally Responsive Leadership: An Ethic of Care

Abstract

In an age of privatization and market-based reform, educators are expected to perform education in certain ways. At the same time, schools are expected to be sites of caring and social support. The present study considers the ways that educators navigate the competing crosscurrents of neoliberal expectations and implementing an ethic of care. Using case study data from two schools, I find that teachers expend considerable emotional energy navigating these tensions, but that the educators who most effectively care for students are those who view education as an investigatory process and view student relationships over a long time horizon. These findings imply the potential for reemphasizing the professional skills and knowledge of school staff members to create authentic, caring schools.

Author

• Jeff Walls, University of Louisiana at Lafayette