CARRY ON CARING - THE WORK OF WOMEN TEACHERS

This paper is based on an ethnographic study in one English primary sc hool, 'Hillview'. First, I review feminist and other approaches in the literature to the familiar association between women and caring. Afte r a description of the school and the study, I consider Hillview teach ers' caring activities in the classroom and whether maternal imagery i s justified. Sources of stress and struggle, which lend a sober side t o romanticized notions of teachers as mothers in the classroom, are no ted. Next, I look at the ways in which the Hillview teachers cared for each other, creating a workplace culture characterized by collaborati on, compassion, and community. Although a gender analysis is extremely important in understanding teacher's work, this does not mean that te achers' caring activities or workplace cultures are simply derived fro m any essential qualities of women. Hillview teachers struggled with ' their' children and with material conditions that contained sources of stress and frustration. Their close-knit culture stemmed in part from the need to find collective strategies to compensate for the frustrat ions of their work; the culture gave them the impetus to keep doing wh at often seemed an impossible job.