Love, Trust, and Camaraderie: Teachers' Perspectives on Care in an Urban High School

• In Event: Perspectives on Urban Student-Driven Pedagogy

Abstract

Many scholars have found that student-teacher relationships are an integral part to student success in schools (McHugh, Horner, Colditz, & Wallace, 2013; McGrath & Van Bergan, 2015). The most successful student-teacher relationships have characteristics of the ethic of care (Noddings, 1998). The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the perspectives of two teachers on the concept of care within a classroom based on a peer learning structure in an urban school. In peer enabled restructured class [PERC], student facilitators work with teachers to lead instruction in science and mathematics. The findings indicated that teachers did see themselves as caring, but that their perceptions regarding the composition of care varied from authentic care to a more aesthetic care.

Author

• Julia Camille Ransom, Hunter College