This book explores how academic leaders throughout higher education experience and practice care and the ethics of care. Drawing on a narrative inquiry study of experiences and practices of feminist care ethics in higher education leadership, Schultz counters academic norms, including expectations of competition and criticism across all activities, by uncovering the common experiences of academic leaders who intentionally adopt practices guided by an ethics of care and relationality. Within the context of institutions of higher education responding to present-day social movements, the book highlights how practices of care-centered leadership can enable change that begins on campus and reaches outwards to positively impact the community.
Author(s): Christie Schultz
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 165
Preface
Acknowledgements
About the Book
Contents
About the Author
Part I: Introduction
Chapter 1: Coming to Care Ethics in Higher Education
Theme and Scope
Coming to a Research Puzzle: A Narrative Beginning
Foregrounding Personal Justifications
Feminist Care Ethics as a Theoretical Framework
My Earliest Stories Linking Care and Higher Education
Noddings’s Language of Care
Using Narrative Inquiry to Understand Leadership Experiences and Practices
Narrative Inquiry’s Methodological Commitments
Philosophical Commitments
Ontological Commitments
Epistemological Commitments
Relational Commitments
Research Design Summary
Methodological Characteristics and Considerations
Towards an Understanding of Experiences, Practices, and Possibilities
References
Chapter 2: Care Ethics that Matter
Practical Justifications
Contextualizing Change
Higher Education in Neoliberal Times
Higher Education Leadership
Social Justifications
Care in Education
Care in Higher Education
Tensions
(En)Countering the First Tension: Organizations as Obstacles to Care
(En)Countering the Second Tension: Leadership as a Barrier to Care
(En)Countering the Third Tension: Gendered Care and Caring
Beginning to Understand Care Ethics in Higher Education Leadership
References
Part II: Stories of Experiences and Practices of Care-Centered Leadership
Chapter 3: Beth
Introducing Beth
Beginning in the Middle
Where Care Comes From
Beginning Again
Weaving Care and Self-Care
As Care Seeks and (Sometimes) Finds Visibility
Being Cared For: Friendship and Feeling Seen
Caring into the Future
References
Chapter 4: Lynn
Introducing Lynn
Connecting
Journeying Towards Leadership
Embracing Leadership
Care in Her Midst
The Relational Nature of Care
Caring for the Work, Too
Tending to Tensions, Too
The Whole Self-Caring
Self-Care and Rest
Leaning into the Future
Postscript
Reference
Chapter 5: Abby
Introducing Abby
Learning to Show Up, to Participate, and to Listen
Learning to “Think on My Feet”
“There Was No Care”
Enacting Feminist Care and Care Ethics
Deep Listening
Being Genuine
Caring and Chairing in Neoliberal Times
Enabling Care, Now and into the Future
Being Surrounded by Care
Lighting the Way
References
Chapter 6: Genevieve
Introducing Genevieve
Beginnings
The Work of Care
The Hard Work of the Work of Care
Receiving Care
An Arc of Care and Not Care
Creating Care
Research as Self-Care
Making Care Visible
Feeling Cared for as a Leader
Caring and Chairing
Seeing Care
Coda
Reference
Part III: Towards Care-Centered Leadership in Higher Education
Chapter 7: Resonant Threads
Thinking with Resonant Threads
Situating the Writing of the Resonant Threads
Awakening to Three Resonant Threads
Learning to Care: Awakening to Where Care Comes From
Experiences of Care from Mentors
Familial Experiences of Care
With the Threads of This Resonance
The Challenge of Care: Caring in Challenging Moments and Times
The Limits of Care: Tensions in Challenging Moments
The Labor of Care: Risking the Work of Care in Challenging Times
With the Threads of This Resonance
Care for the Self: A Condition of Care
Care for the Self with Movement and Music
Care for the Self with Research and Writing
Care for the Self with Rest and Recalibration
With the Threads of This Resonance
References
Chapter 8: Conclusion: Care-Centered Leadership in Our Midst
Emerging Visibility of Care-Centered Leadership
Making Care in Leadership in Higher Education Visible
Revisiting Social, Practical, and Personal Justifications: Implications and Possibilities
Revisiting Social Justifications: Social and Theoretical Implications and Possibilities
Lingering with the Language of Care
Lingering (with) Wonders
Revisiting Practical Justifications: Practical Implications and Possibilities
Using the Language of Care-Centered Leadership
Countering the Narrative of Neoliberalism
Revisiting Personal Justifications: Implications and What I Will Remember
The Courage to Care
The Need to Care for One’s Self
Listening to Care
The Promise of Care
References
Epilogue: Leading with Feminist Care Ethics in Times of Change
Index
