Fear and the Pedagogy of Care: An Exploratory Study of Veteran White Female Teachers' in Urban Schools

Abstract

This dissertation poses the question, “Who cares and who does not care for poor, black, brown, red and economically disadvantaged children in urban school settings?” The study takes a deeper look at some of the underlying human dynamics that inform teacher retention and student academic achievement as an education problem, specifically related to notions of care and emotions in the urban school environment. The central focus of the study is on identifying what might be the factors that contribute to the development of a “pedagogy of care” by white female teachers, and the impact of hidden dimensions of affect in the environment on their motivations and commitment. Exploring care and fear is central to the framing of this study and is done by looking beyond the cognitive structures that inform the perceived rational processes of the teachers’ engagement in the environment. This study explores the process by which the phenomenon of care and emotions is connected to the personal and professional developmental tasks of the teachers and is viewed through the interactions of their biographies and event episodes across their life story. Phenomenological Variance of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST) (Spencer, 2006) is used as a human development frame for situating this study. This work provides the context for understanding how pre-service teachers’ beginning identity formation is impacted by their perceptions and experiences when they enter the urban environment, and how practicing teachers’ real time experiences can help us understand the ways in which veteran teachers have negotiated perceptions and developed emotional resilience to remain in the environment. The findings of this study identified the process by which veteran white female teachers vulnerabilities led to aspects of their generative caring concerns and served as supports towards the development of their emotion-capacities and caring motives for becoming resilient in the urban environment. Data from this study could be used to help schools of education, teacher educators, professional development initiatives, and policy makers to construct and implement more appropriate and stage specific trainings, curriculum, in-service supports, and legislation that would provide a variety of critical supports to help retain teachers in urban schools.