Don’t Throw the Rocks!: Cultivating Care With a Pedagogy Called Rocks-in-the-Basket

Abstract

Due to the current focus on individual achievement in education, relational ethical stances, such as care ethics, are particularly important. To be prepared to teach care ethics, teachers need exposure to pedagogies that cultivate students’ capacity to care. Care refers to the capacity to become aware of and attend to others’ needs. This study examined a case of care theory in practice through a pedagogical strategy called “rocks-in-the-basket.” The findings illuminate what is involved in translating care ethics into pedagogical features: (1) without predefining caring, the rocks-in-the-basket experience increased students’ awareness of what constitutes care through reflection, (2) a dialogue fostered learning about care, and (3) the practice cultivated a focus on caring acts that otherwise might be overlooked and therefore gave rise to opportunities for students and teachers to develop the habit of mind to confirm each other. These pedagogical features illuminate how to translate a care perspective toward moral education into practice.

Keywords:

• caring
• case study
• teacher education
• moral aspects

Notes

1. 1. Pseudonyms are used throughout.

2. 2. Kindergarten students often needed to dictate their responses to their teachers; thus, the surveys with these children were not anonymous.