This study explores the hitherto unexamined phenomenon of queer-care in higher education from the teacher educators' perspectives. While care in education has been the subject of scholarly interest for many years and demonstrating caring for the wellbeing of students is an important component of teaching, the lack of attention to queer-care is a significant oversight in the body of care research and teacher education. Pertinent to this study is the investigation of how well Noddings' enactments of care (modeling, dialogue, practice, and confirmation) address the care needs of queer students. / Four teacher educators shared stories of their efforts to care for the emotional wellbeing of their queer students. As the fifth teacher educator in this work, I investigate my journey to becoming a queer-care practitioner, and my own practice of queer-care. The theoretical frameworks of qualitative and phenomenological research and feminist theory undergird this study. Two processes of analysis were employed, the first being the key sensitizing concepts of Noddings' enactments of care as points of entry into an understanding of the teacher educators' narratives of queer-care. The second level of analysis used the insights so gleaned to guide the focus of the self-study undertaken in this work. / Analysis of the teacher educators' narratives indicates that the practice of queer-care, while sharing certain similarities, is idiosyncratic, complicated, lonely, and often exhausting work. Alongside these findings are indicators that queer-care as practiced by these teacher educators is welcomed by queer students as being all too rare in their university experience, and of benefit to their sense of wellbeing. Findings also reveal that Noddings' enactments of care neither include nor address the particular care needs of queer students. This led me to identify particular care needs of queer students as being those of unwavering discretion, absolute safety, full social membership, and unstinting succour. This necessary awareness expands Noddings' model of care allowing it to include and be responsive to queer students. / This research has implications for teacher educators and any educators concerned with the wellbeing of queer students. It provides suggestions to enrich caring practice in teacher education programs and field experience.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.115605 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Benson, Fiona. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Curriculum and Instruction.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 003133785, proquestno: AAINR66301, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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