Teachers' care in higher education: contesting gendered constructions

Abstract

There is little research on care in higher education, and yet for many of those who teach in higher education institutions, care is an important part of their work. Care in the compulsory education sector has traditionally been linked to the feminine, and this paper considers whether this is also the case in higher education. It investigates how care is conceptualised and gendered in the literature and in narratives of teaching staff from New Zealand universities. It finds that there is much more to care than traditional models offer, and shows how this complexity of care challenges gendered stereotypes. It concludes that a broader understanding of care can help break the link to the feminine and acknowledge the value of care in higher education and beyond.

Constructing the caring higher education teacher: A theoretical framework

“…The central concept that appeared to stand behind all others together was that a caring teacher within higher education places 'a relationship at the centre' and the conceptual narrative was teachers' enduring belief that caring could be enacted through particular forms of relationship and in turn, that it would lead ultimately to more effective learning environments than the ones currently validated within their institution. This is a significant finding considering that there is a dearth of research to link caring with learning outcomes of any kind within higher education (Mariskind, 2014;Zembylas, Bozalek and Shefer, 2014). Nevertheless, the narrative surrounding these teachers' beliefs that students are being empowered, being made intellectually richer because of their particular types of interactions with them, remains very powerful, and agrees with research into students' testimonies that such relationships are precious and valued but costly for both students and academics if they falter (Docan--Morgan, 2011;Hagenauer and Volet, 2014a).…”

“…This study suggests that such existing theory is incomplete: the dichotomy between the centrality of caring above all else and the acute emotions that existed alongside it, was adopted into sophisticated beliefs about caring, and how and whether particular principles could be translated into effective practices that ultimately helped students progress on all educational fronts. The link between this category and the two other emergent categories, 'caring as resistance' and 'caring as less than', support this strand of the theory, suggesting that in this institution at least, caring pedagogy was frequently misunderstood and a reappraisal of pedagogic practice that deconstructed polarities of cognition--emotion, and intellect--affect, was long overdue (Author, 2010;Mariskind, 2014). In common with some school--based studies on caring teaching and teachers, there appeared to be a natural discursive environment that construed the caring teacher not as someone who privileged purposeful pedagogic interaction, but as a practice that exemplified deeply entrenched views of institutional relationships that were constructed as deficit or detrimental (Hauver James, 2012), and that this somehow ran contrary to these teachers' pedagogic theories--in--action.…”

“…There is also scarce empirical research identifying the broader contextual dimensions of being a caring teacher in relation to the diverse institutional settings in which teaching and academic work occurs in higher education, since the majority of scholarship is located in studies on school teachers' caring. Research that examines the tensions between particular types of activity, particularly when seen through the lens of the gendered nature of much teaching and academic work (Author et al, 2006;Harley, 2003;Hauver James, 2012;Mariskind, 2014;Zembylas et al, 2014) would be particularly significant, especially given claims about the feminization of higher education in the UK (Morley and Lugg, 2009), and in particular the tensions between the pedagogic structures that purport to support and nurture diverse student bodies more responsively in the service of key National Student Survey metrics, but in doing so, supposedly reduce valuable research time and thus potentially impact on national Research Excellence Frameworks and ultimately the status of the university (Leathwood and Read, 2009). Another issue that stands behind the motivation for this study concerns the nature of the literature on pedagogic care and what this communicates about the meaning and status of care as a mechanism to effect change, not just in pedagogic, but also social terms within education more generally.…”

Constructing a professional: gendered knowledge in the (self-)positioning of skin and spa therapy students

“…The concept of care is broad and complex, produced in varying ways throughout different discourses, as a historical and cultural specific concept (see Mariskind 2014;Warin and Gannerud 2014: 194;). Accordingly, the types of care work performed by for example beauty workers, elderly care workers (see e.g.…”

Shaped for beauty: Vocational and gendered subjectivities in private education for the beauty industry

“…Care is a wide and complex concept that is produced in varying ways throughout different discourses, as a specific historical and cultural concept (Mariskind, 2014;Warin & Gannerud, 2014). The care work performed in different settings therefore has partly different values and meanings.…”