Caring for “others”: Examining the interplay of mothering and deficit discourses in teaching

Data from a year-long narrative inquiry, involving six American women elementary school teachers, suggests that teachers’ conceptions of caring are primarily shaped by their biographies. Despite teachers’ claims that they knew their students well, their conceptions of caring were relatively fixed across contexts rather than malleable to differing students’ realities. Here, I raise questions about the interplay of mothering and deficit discourses as they serve to legitimize and perpetuate single-loop caring. Implications for teaching, teacher education and care theory are discussed.

► Teachers’ conceptions of caring were primarily shaped by their biographies.
► Teachers’ conceptions of care were not malleable to differing students’ realities.
► Teachers’ static notions of care were bolstered by mothering and deficit discourses.