Chapter 6: The Impact of Ethic of Care on Teacher Work

In this chapter, we explore the notion of care as a major part of teacher work. The theory of ethic of care is discussed, and the potential for teacher ethic of care to impact on teacher work, workload and well-being is considered, both as a benefit and a challenge. In education, an ethic of care denotes the importance of relationships and connection in interactions and decision-making (Koonce & Kreassig, 2020). While schools and settings are traditionally thought of as caring places, many teachers report the uncaring nature of schools as places of work, often citing accountability and performativity in the workplace as contributing factors (Perryman, 2006). The increasing performativity and accountability agendas in our school systems make relationships less of a priority, and it has been argued that this has led to an erosion of the informal relationships teachers have with children, summarised by Bronfenbrenner as ‘in order to develop, a child needs the enduring, irrational involvement of one or more adults in care and joint activity with the child’ (1978, p. 773) – someone has to be ‘crazy about that kid’ (1978, p. 774). Where teachers can prioritise care and relationships and collaboration with colleagues to manage pressures, research suggests they are more emotionally attuned (Glazzard & Rose, 2024), but this is not easy, and in this chapter, we discuss how an ethic of care in the education workforce has exacerbated the challenge of teacher workload, well-being and burn out – who is crazy about that teacher? And for that matter, if we expect school leaders to solve this, who is crazy about that school leader?