What can I do? Teachers, students and families in relationship during COVID-19 lockdown in Scotland

TY - JOUR

T1 - What can I do? Teachers, students and families in relationship during COVID-19 lockdown in Scotland

AU - McLennan, Carrie

AU - Mercieca, Daniela

AU - Mercieca, Duncan

PY - 2020/12

Y1 - 2020/12

N2 - Engaging with the ethics of care as developed by Nel Noddings, this paper unpacks the perceptions of three primary teachers working in Scotland during COVID-19 lockdown. Noddings constructs her ethics of care as relational. This focus on the ‘relation’ is central to the paper and the three themes that emerged from analysing the in-depth interviews conducted with the teachers show different facets of the relations teachers were engaged in during the lockdown. The first theme looks at the teachers’ work during COVID-19 lockdown as embedded within a larger Scottish discourse that has care as central to its formation. The second theme discussed the idea of reciprocity – care ethics focuses on acknowledgment of the relation between the carer and the cared for. The third theme focuses on parents as being intermediary between the teachers and students.

AB - Engaging with the ethics of care as developed by Nel Noddings, this paper unpacks the perceptions of three primary teachers working in Scotland during COVID-19 lockdown. Noddings constructs her ethics of care as relational. This focus on the ‘relation’ is central to the paper and the three themes that emerged from analysing the in-depth interviews conducted with the teachers show different facets of the relations teachers were engaged in during the lockdown. The first theme looks at the teachers’ work during COVID-19 lockdown as embedded within a larger Scottish discourse that has care as central to its formation. The second theme discussed the idea of reciprocity – care ethics focuses on acknowledgment of the relation between the carer and the cared for. The third theme focuses on parents as being intermediary between the teachers and students.

KW - COVID-19 lockdown

KW - Scottish primary teachers

KW - ethics of care

KW - Nell Noddings

KW - students

UR - http://www.mreronline.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/3-Mercieca-Mercieca-McLennan_Caring-Relationships-Paper-MRER.pdf

M3 - Article

SN - 1726-9725

VL - 14

SP - 163

EP - 181

JO - Malta Review of Educational Research

JF - Malta Review of Educational Research

IS - 2

ER -