A moral madness between policy and practice in the caring role of the cooperating teacher in school placement in Ireland

Recent policy in Ireland enhanced the position of school placement in Initial Teacher Education programmes. This paper considers how care ethics has a vital role in sustaining the goodwill of the coop-eration and guidance from professionals who mediate the school placement setting, noting values of reciprocal caring in placement mentor-mentee roles similar to studies from the international community. Using a qualitative approach, 38 Irish primary and post-primary cooperating teachers were interviewed during this cross-sectional study in order to ascertain insight into the lived experience of classroom teachers during school placement. Participants acknowledged the cooperating teacher role as professionally demanding, a rewarding experience, but also crucially linked to a duty and care premise. Participants show an emplacement of being within a moral dilemma symptomising a moral madness. Recommendations include enhanced collaborative policy development, an understanding of care in such policy, and a national approach to continuous professional development of cooperating teachers