Tensions associated with enacting care theory: a self study

This study attempts to locate care and caring in teaching practice. Specifically, the study examines how one pre-service teacher, with a personal imperative to care, mediates the space between performativity and caring. Using self-study methodology, the study attempts to make sense of the "theory/action dialectic" (Osborne, 2003, p. 17) of enacting care theory in a classroom through these tensions. Through the recursive analysis of a self-study research portfolio with a critical friend, the study revealed two key tensions between one's actions and intent and between safety and challenge. The study produced significant implications for my own personal and pedagogical development as a beginning teacher. Furthermore, it has implications for future research into pre-service teacher learning and the way teachers both problematise their practice and consider care in early childhood classrooms