Supporting EdD Scholar-Practitioners through the COVID-19 Pandemic Using an Ethic of Care

Abstract

Given the significant challenges PK-12 educational leaders currently face, the purpose of this essay is to orient EdD faculty with Noddings’ (1984/2003) care ethics as a framework for conceptualizing their work and employing care acts to support EdD scholar-practitioners through the COVID-19 pandemic. Practical strategies for this work are suggested. The author argues that Noddings’ (1984/2003) ethic of care provides a timely lens through which EdD faculty’s actions can be guided. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty have become tasked with supporting their students’ socioemotional well-being in addition to their academic progress. EdD faculty must be responsive to these needs if they are to retain students and effectively train scholar-practitioners to identify and address problems of practice. Stemming from this argument, future research could empirically investigate how employing care ethics affects scholar-practitioners’ well-being, program satisfaction, retention, and completion rates.

Pivoting from Problems to Possibilities in Response to Dual Pandemics

“…In addition to engaging in anti-racist practices, we found it essential to create space for grieving, healing, and support to express our concern for and solidarity with our learning associates who were simultaneously being affected by the dual pandemics. As faculty members we understood the need to show an ethic of care for our learning associates (see Capello, 2023) while pivoting in how we approached support in our program. Noddings (2003) suggested the primary obligation educators have is to cultivate the ethical ideals of their students in a caring manner.…”

“…Noddings (2003) suggested the primary obligation educators have is to cultivate the ethical ideals of their students in a caring manner. Further, Capello (2023) argued EdD faculty are well-positioned to utilize care ethics in their classrooms and programs, which can serve as a model for educational leaders who also act as sources of support and care for students, colleagues, community members, and others. As Capello (2023) stated, "the question [is] not should EdD faculty engage in an ethic of care to support their students through the COVID-19 pandemic but rather how can EdD faculty effectively do this" (p. 38).…”

“…In 2020, COVID-19 and continual acts of systemic racism in the U.S., which have been described as dual pandemics (Coley & Thomas, 2023;Jones, 2021), introduced new realities and rapidly brought about changes to our daily lives and norms. Within education, faculty and educational leaders were forced to frantically strategize new approaches to engaging and supporting learning associates (students) in ways unimaginable (Capello, 2023). In the midst of much uncertainty, the COVID-19 pandemic required faculty in EdD programs to: 1) traverse the abrupt transition from in-person and hybrid to virtual and hybrid-flexible methods of teaching and learning, 2) manage care and safety for themselves and their families including young children, aging parents, and the immunocompromised, 3) comply with new and changing policies at the federal, state, and local levels around mask and vaccine mandates, and 4) maintain doctoral program studies and quality (Browning, 2021;Bukko & Dhesi, 2021;Capello, 2023).…”

“…Within education, faculty and educational leaders were forced to frantically strategize new approaches to engaging and supporting learning associates (students) in ways unimaginable (Capello, 2023). In the midst of much uncertainty, the COVID-19 pandemic required faculty in EdD programs to: 1) traverse the abrupt transition from in-person and hybrid to virtual and hybrid-flexible methods of teaching and learning, 2) manage care and safety for themselves and their families including young children, aging parents, and the immunocompromised, 3) comply with new and changing policies at the federal, state, and local levels around mask and vaccine mandates, and 4) maintain doctoral program studies and quality (Browning, 2021;Bukko & Dhesi, 2021;Capello, 2023). Likewise, learning associates had to manage and navigate the personal and professional implications of the new normal ushered in by COVID-19.…”

“…Although educators sought to provide academic and emotional support to students prior to 2020, the unprecedented, socio-political impact of the dual pandemics within the field of education required EdD program faculty to be amenable to change while also providing intentional, nuanced support for learning associates (Capello, 2023). As faculty in an EdD program at a regional institution that follows the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED, 2022) Framework, the concerns for providing quality engagement and learning experiences in an online format were essential for us.…”