"Love, love, and more love for children": exploring preservice teachers' understandings of caring

The development of an ethic of care is seen as a central concern of teacher education, however little attention has been paid to the preconceived conc eptions of eating held by preservice teachers. In this article we share the results of a recent study of a group of preservice elementary teachers in which we examined the understandings of the relationship of caring and teac hing brought by these novices to their first field placement experiences. R ather than seeing our students' partial and limited understandings as probl ematic, we argue that the student teachers' preconceptions can be an ideal starting point for productive, educative dialogue about caring and elementa ry school teaching practice. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights rese rved.