Caregiving Labor and Teachers’ Work: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

This review analyzes how care labor has become embedded in teachers’ work and professional identity, including significant racial, gender, and labor-related complications of care. Results indicate five key findings: 1) While embraced as a pathway toward responsive schools, care theory results in complications for teachers’ work; 2) care literature suggests teachers provide academic, social-emotional, and physical care that extends beyond the school setting; 3) care is described through a student lens, with less insight into teachers’ conceptions of or experiences with care labor; 4) care work in schools is gendered and racially constructed in ways that lead to oppressive double binds; and 5) theorizing around ethical care includes little discussion of ethical limitations or professional boundaries for teachers’ work. This review asks readers to consider whether the heavy burdens care imposes on teachers’ labor require reforms to ensure teachers can provide the care students need, without reproducing oppressions in the field.