Thursday, November 21, 2013

educational care

This article has a way of telling a story through the eyes of youth as well as the eyes of a researcher and teacher. When Dr. McKamey questions "...if researchers' deep-seated anxieties and fears are unconscious, then how can a researcher begin to recognize and understand them?" (McKamey 403) she asks a question a great deal of educators probably wonder. How can we resolve our dilemma of understanding what our youth interpret as caring for them without projecting our beliefs about care unto them? It's challenging because there are so many different cultures. I think the best thing that Dr. McKamey did was get in touch with herself. Understanding yourself is the best way to empathize and put yourself in another's shoes. Communicating with youth and simply asking them what care means to them would probably be an affective way to reach them. As stated "...that students conceptualized caring in other ways, including caring about issues that were important to them." (McKamey 414) this is clear that showing an interest in youth and their conflicts or issues in school could be interpreted as caring as opposed to other forms of care we may have. 

Overall this article is extremely useful to our work with youth because it focuses on us getting in touch with our beliefs and values and helping us be open to being aware of youths perspectives as well. 

1 comment:

  1. You have summarized my article so very well! You also make is sound very easy to understand yourself -- I agree it's a great place to start and really important. I have found it an incredibly difficult and never-ending process.

    I love this quote -- It is important for us to engage in the process of "getting in touch with our beliefs and values and helping us be open to being aware of youths perspectives as well."

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