This qualitative case study focused on understanding how teachers and students at a girls-only secondary school in the western Province of Kenya described what they perceived to be caring teacher behavior. Further, the study also examined how students’ perceptions of teachers’ behaviors influenced their attitude towards education.
In line with the case study inquiry approach, the present study employed multiple data collection methods including in-depth individual face-to-face interviews, focus groups, participant observation, surveys and document analysis. A total of 36 girls and 10 teachers participated in the study. Girls were interviewed within a focus group setting while teachers were interviewed individually. To analyze the data, a voice-centered feminist relational method of analysis known as the Listening Guide was utilized.
The findings of the present study revealed that girls associated caring with teacher academic support, guidance, advice, responsiveness, empathy, understanding, and mothering. Teachers on the other hand, conceptualized caring as academic support, moral guidance, attentive listening, dialogue and humor, othermothering, friendship, attending to “at-risk” learners, and communally raising young responsible people. An important finding of this study is that both teachers and students projected a gendered view of caring. Male teachers viewed caring solely as a professional stance while female teachers viewed caring as both a professional and maternal stance. Similarly, girls assigned the role of academic support to male teachers and the role of nurturance to female teachers.