Practicing Ethical Care in ECE

Many people think that caring for children is simple. However, our research shows that the processing of caring well for children is actually quite complex.

The purpose of this page is to take a closer look at what is involved in the process of caring well – a point of discussion we feel is worthy of attention in early childhood education.

This web page with its focus on educators practicing ethical care must be situated within a broader institutional and policy context. Educators cannot practice care ethically if they do not receive consistent institutional and policy supports. We see people–educators, children, families, directors and policy makers–always engaged in a network of caring relationships that ensures that “everything we do maintains, continues and repairs our world so that we can live in it as well as possible” (Tronto, 2011, p. 36). Care as an ethical practice is not just an individual responsibility; it is a collective responsibility.

Components of Ethical Care

We understand care as both relational and ethical because it always takes place between people and requires constant, active, moral decisions. Care as an ethical practice is a way of being and doing with others that transcends all aspects of our lives.

They are oriented to direct their attention to others and are open to disruption in their personal activities. They are able to imagine that their care in most ordinary ways can have profound effects on others and themselves.

Sometimes the actions are small and subtle, sometimes they’re large and explicit. Both a caregiver and care receiver experience care physically, emotionally and/or cognitively. We feel and know when care is happening. It is the substance of every meaningful relationship we have with others.

Real-life Caring Scenarios

In the boxes are real examples from the Early Learning Centre in the School of Early Childhood Studies at Ryerson University. The scenarios represent ordinary yet life-sustaining experiences between educators and children that illustrate the practice of ethical care. The examples happened within a whirlwind of activities, bodies, language and feelings in a preschool room and show that care and education are always entangled. The examples are not intended to be prescriptive; rather they capture the complexities in thinking about care as an ethical value and practice. We can also imagine hundreds of caring interactions between educators and families, between educators themselves and between everyone and everything in the environment that happen every day in early childhood programs.

Example One

A child wants to blow his nose. The educator shows the child where the tissue box is and the child wipes his nose.

The educator begins to ask the child about where the tissue box goes back but stops and observes the child who wants, as the educator says, to have “one more blow for good measure.”

The educator checks with the child, “are you finished?” The child nods. The educator asks the child "what should happen next?" The child pauses, looks about and then proceeds to the garbage can where he deposits his used tissue.

The child returns to the educator with a smile. The educator says, "Thank you for throwing your tissue out, that was helpful". The educator waits and the child pauses as well. The educator continues to wait. The child's smile grows bigger and then says to the educator "I have to wash my hands."

The educator smiles and says, "You have all the information to take care of yourself." The child responds, "I remembered!" and leaves to wash his hands in the bathroom.

In this example, the educator takes an ordinary experience seriously. The educator feels a sense of responsibility to care because she has an affectionate and emotional connection with the child. She decides to act in a caring and responsible way. She is attentive to and respects the child’s body. She is open to taking time so the child can fully participate in the caring encounter sustained through eye contact, physical proximity and body language (the smiles). The caring encounter is pleasurable for both the educator and child.

Example Two

Two children are putting on their coats when some money falls to the ground. Both children state the money is theirs. One child begins to cry.

An educator asks if she can help solve the problem. The children nod. The educator crouches, holds the crying child’s hand and listens to the children’s insistence that the money is theirs.

The educator then observes, “[the crying child] is really upset and says it is her money”. The other child pauses and agrees that the money is not theirs. The children finish getting dressed and make plans for playing outside.

The educator asks if it would be OK for her to hold onto the money while they are outside. The child agrees.

Later the educator puts the coins in the child’s basket. The educator also checks in with the other child about their feelings on the conflict and solution.

The educator takes the time to care during a typically rushed chaotic transition. She avoids paternalistically managing the conflict, instead offering to work along side the children. She takes time to listen to the children’s perspectives, acknowledges their feelings and gives one child an opportunity to care for another. The care is completed when the educator revisits with the children the question of how well the care process worked.

Example Three

Matthew and Sabrina are sharing ideas about the book “What a Waste." Matthew explains to Sabrina that “the people on the planet...they have so much garbage...you see, but sometimes they don’t even put it in the garbage. My dad says the word 'waste' and that we waste stuff. We have a recycle bin at home the truck comes to get it.”

Sabrina exclaims, “Yes me too, mine is full all the time!” She continues, “What is in the bin at your house?”

Matthew responds, “Well, because my dad likes to drink spicy soda and boxes from my cereal”. He then raises his finger in the air and says to Sabrina, “Hey! Let’s build the recycle truck, want to, you can get the garbage and I can drive.”

Sabrina agrees. Matthew and Sabrina sketch the truck. The children call for the educator and ask, “Can you help us clear all this stuff away because we need a lot of space. We are going to build a big recycle truck with a part to get the garbage up and in.”

The educator responds, “That sounds like an exciting idea, I will help you, so that you can start right away to build your truck.” Matthew pulls out the long blue strip mats and connects them all together, saying “see this is the arm to pick up all the garbage.” Sabrina responds, “I’m going to get these (pulling the large blocks out) for the bottom part where we can sit and put the extra garbage too.”

Sabrina then asks the educator, “What can we use for the thing that is on the end of the truck-the part the garbage stuff dumps in.” The educator responds, “Can you explain what you want it look like, and then we can talk about what you need.”

Matthew and Sabrina answer, “It’s like a bucket.” The educator suggests looking around the room when Matthew says, “Can we use the bucket that you put the blankets in?” The educator responds: “That’s a brilliant idea, of course you can!” The children stack large blocks, hang fabric swatches over part of it, push the blue truck arm to the blocks, add the bucket and climb on-board.

Care and learning are interchangeable in this encounter. In responding to the children’s interests, ideas and questions, the educator responds with genuine curiosity, interest and enthusiasm. She avoids steering the project so that the children can make own decisions. She is open to the children’s ideas even though it may invoke disruption in the environment (the bucket). The educator and the children are present physically, emotionally and cognitively in the encounter. The children are excited and proud of their structure-a sign that the care was completed.

Educators decide to act in caring ways in response to children’s, families’ and colleagues’ needs, desires, concerns, interests and inquiries. They seek to understand the perspectives of others. Therefore, the educator observes and listens respectfully and compassionately, knowing that the ways in which they care is different for each person and for each context. Educators who practice ethical care are not bound by assumptions about others or by rules about how to care for others. Educators who practice ethical care understand that their care practices are never fixed, but always changing. Care, in this sense, is not an instrumental means to an end but rather a value in itself and the ways in which human relations deepen and flourish.

Central to care as a relational ethic is an understanding that receiving care is an activity too. Caring educators, therefore, seek to understand how children feel and think about their care experiences through multiple modes of communication (bodies, language and emotions). Care as an ethical practice is not complete until educators and children jointly understand the care as satisfying. Talking with children about their care may require more dialogue and inquiry, with room for fluidity and change in the educator’s response to a child’s response to care.

When making decisions to act in caring ways, educators must reflect on power imbalances that are present in caring encounters. This is because educators are always making decisions about how to respond to a need for care—they can ignore, and reject them or accept and support them.

In addition, educators are significantly influenced in their care practices by their social positions and their preconceptions of others based on their intersecting social identities. Therefore, the care of young children requires an ethics to highlight the unequal relations between educators, who typically hold power, and children, who do not. The more power exercised by the educator in caregiving—the less likely the care practices will be ethical. Therefore, educators need to critically reflect on their power (and lack of power in relation to their working conditions) and their strengths and limitations in caring for others.