Care and performativity: walking the tightrope a case study in an educationally disadvantaged setting

Our experiences of care significantly influence the quality of our lives. Despite its importance, the current and dominant discourses within society have ensured that care continues to be invisible and misrecognised. This has implications for both carers and the cared for in the public and private arenas. In the current educational context, care has a particular importance in a climate of performativity and managerialism. This thesis examines the role of care among eighteen teachers and principals in twelve educationally disadvantaged schools, seven primary and five at second level. It traces the development of the ethic of care as a moral, political and relational framework. Drawing on feminist and sociological scholarship, it attempts to highlight and identify the significance of the normally hidden and unacknowledged aspects of care. This work considers public policy in relation to Irish education and educational disadvantage. Drawing on a sample of both primary and second-level educators, the analysis outlines the background in which the particular teacher narratives are situated and highlights the complex and intricate frameworks of care that are part of the daily lives of teachers. A key conclusion of this research is that care practices are central to the daily lives of teachers. Despite the very obvious differences between the primary and second-level systems, there is a strong and definite commitment to care despite care being unacknowledged within the educational system. It is evident from the narratives that significant emotional labour is involved in maintaining those relationships in which care practices are manifest. In presenting a clear picture of the daily care practices of the teacher, the research also suggests that care is an authentic identity for teachers and moreover, a site of resistance to the discourses of performativity, school effectiveness, managerialism and rationality of the marketplace in the educational field