Teaching care ethics: conceptual understandings and stories for learning

An ethic of care acknowledges the centrality of the role of caring relationships in moral education. Care ethics requires a conception of ‘care’ that differs from the quotidian use of the word. In order to teach care ethics more effectively, this article discusses four interrelated ways that teachers’ understandings of care differ from care ethics: (1) conflating the term of reference ‘care’ with its quotidian use; (2) overlooking the challenge of developing caring relationships; (3) tending toward monocultural understandings of care; and (4) separating affect and intellect. Awareness of these conceptions of care supports teacher educators to teach care ethics in more meaningful and relevant ways. We explore stories and their dramatization as a medium to facilitate effective and in-depth teaching of care ethics