Defining caring as a moral and intellectual relation, Reclaiming Caring in Teaching and Teacher Education positions caring as a crucial factor in the teaching-learning process and as a powerful professional stance for teachers. After presenting the findings of a study exploring preservice elementary teachers’ initial beliefs and understandings of caring and examining the ways those preconceptions were challenged during the students’ field placement period, Lisa S. Goldstein develops a model of teacher education that identifies commitment, community, and passion as the cornerstones of caring teaching. Rooted in the moral and intellectual relation view of caring, this model prepares teachers to build a strong foundation for their professional practices and to take advantage of the pedagogical power of caring in their work with children.

The Author: Lisa S. Goldstein is Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches in the early childhood education and curriculum studies programs. She is the author of Teaching with Love: A Feminist Approach to Early Childhood Education (Peter Lang, 1997).