This paper  investigates  student teachers' understandings of caring, professional identity and their developing praxis. Traditionally, caring has been taken for granted as an important aspect of the role of primary and second-level teachers in Ireland (TC 2011) and indeed internationally. In the current context however, teachers are being reformed as neo liberal subjects (Ball 2003) whose responsibilities are recast as the education of worker citizens for a knowledge society. Aspects of teacher professional identity are now transformed as teachers’ performances are honed to deliver on national priorities and for a global economy. This culture of performativity, back to basics emphasis, and narrowing or packaging of the curriculum to produce tangible and specific outputs, squeeze the space for care, the time for care, and perhaps even the very desire to care in schools and classrooms. While undergoing an intense period of structural reform, initial teacher education has also felt the cold winds of performativity culture, the demands for productivity, and the privileging of national priority agendas. In this paper, we explore in-depth student teachers' (primary level) perspectives on care as a praxis and identity to shed light on how significant the caring dimensions of teaching are from their perspectives, and to understand the challenges that student teachers face in relation to care practice.

The growing feminist literature on care and its implications for education inform the framework for the research. Feminist voices such as Carol Gilligan(1995) on connection, gender and care, Nell Noddings influential scholarship on care and education (1984), care and teacher identity (2010), care and justice (1999) provide a particular note that links care to human development and greater equality and inclusion. Many care theorists suggest that caring is not just a practice but also and identity (Bubeck 1999) which creates both benefits and challenges for those who undertake caring work. The extent to which becoming teachers feel this is  worthwhile and/or problematic for them as young teachers is explored against  this scholarship.

The research methods adopted are qualitative, ethnographic and explore students' own understandings of care and professional praxis. Data was gathered from engagement with a group of 19 students who selected into a specialist seminar on care and professional praxis over 11 weeks as part of their final (4) year in a university based programme. Analysis was conducted on two elements of students’ work submitted for the module-1) their weekly reflections and 2) their final poster artefacts. Their work (the data) is analysed across students' own 2 submissions (1 and 2 above) and then across students, to consider common emergent themes in relation to well-being and care, its relation to their teaching experiences, and to their understandings of professional role and responsibilities. Students gave written permission for the materials produced to be used for both research and programme development. Ethical guidelines of the university have been followed to protect anonymity of participants.

The findings will provide insights into the ways that final year, teacher education students understand their role in relation to care, the caring they feel is appropriate, the gender challenges in relation to care within a feminised profession,  the significance and challenges to care within the  educational landscape.

The findings will inform teacher educators as to how students see their role as professional educators, and what has been valuable in shaping a professional caring identity. The research will provide insights into the challenges experienced or imagined by young teachers in their final year. Teacher education  can benefit from these insights into the care values of becoming teachers, and especially in relation to their reflections on  school placements and the care dilemmas they articulate.

Ball, S. The teacher's soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of education policy 18.2 (2003): 215-228. Bubeck, D. E. (1995). Care, gender, and justice (pp. 27-29). Oxford: Clarendon Press. Frank, C,and Uy, F. (2004). Ethnography for teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 55(3), 269-283. Gilligan, C (1989) In a Different Voice . Harvard University Press. Gilligan, C. (1995) Hearing Difference: Theorising Connection, Hypatia Hammersley, M. (2006) Ethnography: problems and prospects, Ethnography and Education, 1:1, 3-14, DOI: 10.1080/17457820500512697 Hollway, W. (2006) The Capacity to Care: Gender and the development of Ethical Subjectivity. London: Routledge. Kelchtermans, G. (2011). Professional responsibility. Persistent commitment, perpetual vulnerability? in Sugrue, C. and Solbrekke T,(eds.) New Horizons of Professional responsibility. London: Routledge. Lynch, K. (2010). Carelessness: A hidden doxa of higher education. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 9(1), 54-67. Murray, J. and Maguire, M. (2007) Changes and continuities in teacher education: international perspectives on a gendered field, Gender and Education, 19:3, 283-296, DOI: 10.1080/09540250701295437 Noddings, N. (1994) The Challenge to Care in Schools: An Alternative Approach to Education. New York, Columbia: Teachers College Press. Noddings, N. (2012) The Caring relation in Teaching, Oxford Review of Education, 38, 6, 771-78. Noddings, N. (2013). Caring: A relational approach to ethics and moral education. Univ of California Press. O’Brien, M. (2011) “Care, Well-Being and Professional Responsibility” in C. Sugrue and T. Dyrdal Solbrekke (eds.) Professional Responsibility, London: Routledge. O’Brien, M. (2012) “Care Relationality and a Humanising Education: The Significance of the Affective Context in Initial Teacher Education” in Waldron W. Smith, J., Fitzpatrick, M and Dooley, T. (eds.) Re -Imagining Initial Teacher Education: Perspectives on Transformation. Dublin: Liffey Press. Sugrue, C., & Solbrekke, T. (2014). Professional responsibility: New horizons of praxis. Routledge. Tronto, J. C. (1993). Moral boundaries: A political argument for an ethic of care. Psychology Press. Wærness, K. (2009). 19 Ethics of care. Handbook of Economics and Ethics, 138.