This paper examines the potential of cultural-historic activity theory to develop rich analytic accounts of the practice(s) of care. Contemporary theories of development argue that the presence of care in the classroom contributes to learning and social competence (Noddings 1992, 2013), and that teachers ‘not only have to create caring relations in which they are the carers, but that they also have a responsibility to help their students develop the capacity to care’ (Noddings 2005, p. 18).

This paper is founded on the premise that care, in teacher practice, is shaped by social, cognitive, and emotional factors that are situated in the social space of the classroom, and can be thus be revealed through analyses of ‘activity systems’ (Engestrom 1987). In particular, the use of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) helps to interrogate the relationship between agency and structure within the social space between teachers and learners, and recognizes that ‘the relationship between the way we are as continuously changing beings and the activity we engage in’ (Radford, 2010, p. 6).

Analysing teacher practice as enacted in contexts at the extremes of educational advantage and disadvantage, the specific research question guiding the discussion focuses on:

What are the theoretical, conceptual, and analytical intricacies, strengths, and weakness of this research approach in revealing the explicit connections between structure and agency (Layder 1998) in relation to enacting practices of care?

 In analyzing the practices of care in teaching using cultural historical activity theory, the ways in which different practices of care are mediated, within different systems of social spaces and relationships, can be identified. Further, through a focus on activity systems on the contextual extremes of advantage and disadvantage in schooling, practices and tensions particular to these settings are exposed with special regard to the implications for developing a social justice agenda for care within educational practice.

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