Abstract
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 cooperation 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.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 988-1004 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | European Journal of Teacher Education |
Volume | 47 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2024 |
Keywords
- School placement
- care ethics
- cooperating teachers
- neoliberalism
- policy