Exploring Teacher Care Labor and Possibilities for Just Care

• In Event: Radical Acts of Care in Teaching

Abstract

Within the school environment, student-teacher relationships are central to student success and teacher well-being. Teachers of newcomer students take on this relational work in a context of shrinking resources and growing institutional demands. While research can measure aspects and outcomes of these relationships, the time and energy devoted to caring for another remain immeasurable. This paper builds on Janel Anderson’s (2023) analysis of teacher care labor intensification and extends it by integrating Akemi Nishida’s (2022) concept of just care- caregiving centered on interdependence. Drawing from poststructural analysis and qualitative vignettes from a “low-incidence” California district, this work contributes to educational justice by theorizing care justice as critical to the long-term sustainability of the teaching profession.

Author

• Marie R Fernandez, University of California - Santa Barbara