Learning & Development: First-hand experiences - 'N' is for Nel Noddings

Who is Nel Noddings?

Nel Noddings is a professor of education at Stanford University, California, and author of an inspiring book, The Challenge to Care in Schools. Her formal biography lists her academic achievements, and her 15 years as a high school mathematics teacher, administrator and curriculum developer in public schools in the United States (equivalent to maintained schools in England). But Noddings writes primarily as a feminist, a philosopher, a mother, a compassionate and caring person, who is committed to the principle that the main aim of education is a moral one, 'to encourage the growth of competent, caring, loving and loveable persons (2002:94).

An introduction to her work, by herself

'In the 1992 introduction to this book (The Challenge to Care in School: An Alternative Approach to Education) I argued against an education system that puts too much emphasis on academic achievement defined in terms of test scores and the acquisition of information. Today (2005) the case could be made even more strongly. Students spend weeks - even months - preparing for and taking tests. Many of us believe that these are weeks that should be spent exploring new ideas, discovering new interests, extending established ones, and expressing thoughts in art, drama, music and writing. In particular, we believe that students should be given opportunities to learn how to care for themselves, for other human beings, for the natural and human-made worlds, and for the world of ideas. This learning to care requires significant knowledge; it defines genuine education.' (Noddings 2005a:xiii)

What is the problem as she sees it?

'In general, teachers may infer a need for children to learn the standard school subjects, while children - through their behaviour or verbalisations - express a need to learn how to live.' (Noddings 2005b:148)

'"Why do we gotta study this stuff?" is a question that deserves an answer ... What need is expressed here? Almost certainly, it is a need for meaning. Students need to know how school is related to real life, how today's learning objective fits into their own interests and plans, and even whether there is any meaning to life itself.' (p154)

'The original impetus to learn in early childhood - "the need to engage in learning for its own sake" - gives way to a need that educators reward - the need to work hard for good grades.' (p156)

'If standard test scores rise, what real gain has been made? ... Do we risk producing a generation of young adults whose attitude to learning and work will be just "tell me what to do?"' (p152)

What is the alternative?

Noddings starts from the premise that 'there are centres of care and concern in which all people share, and in which the capacities of all children must be developed'. She includes six centres of care, and argues that education should be organised around these six themes, rather than around the traditional disciplines. In brief, in her alternative model, all students would be engaged in a general education that guides them in:

- caring for self
- caring for intimate others
- caring for strangers and distant others
- caring for animals, plants and the earth
- caring for the human-made world
- caring for ideas.

Noddings emphasises, above all else, the relationship between the one who cares, and the one who is cared for; between the ones who care and the aspects of the world they care for.

The six centres of care

Care for self includes care for the physical self, for health and grace; care for the spiritual self, the questing, searching, introspective self; care for the 'occupational self', the various interests, talents, skills and family duties of every student.

Care for intimate others: how to live in caring relations, as friends, neighbours, sons, daughters, colleagues.

'If we regard our relations with intimate others as central in moral life, then we must provide all our children with practice in caring. Children can work together on a host of school projects ...' (2002: 96)

Care for strangers and distant others includes caring at a distance, for global others; understanding the power of community and the dangers of erecting barriers against those outwith the community; keeping the lines of communication open between groups, opponents, nations; studying issues of race, ethnicity, religion, class and gender.

Care for animals, plants and the earth includes a serious study of animals. 'Such study draws on literature, science, history, economics, politics, art, mathematics, psychology and religion, but it concentrates on a centre of care - on something that really matters.' (2005a:131)

It includes a study of plants, an opportunity to study response, beauty and interdependence; direct hands-on environmental projects; a reflective examination of one's own life, learning a sense of efficacy and responsibility.

Care for the human-made world: the world of objects, tools, instruments, includes learning how things work, a study that 'has to be related to how we want to live, to the obligations we feel as moral people, to our sense of beauty, to our desire to preserve the natural world.' (2005a:142)

Care for ideas includes our concern as human beings about who we are and what we will become, who loves and cares for us and whether we belong.

Review (main themes of chapter N)

Noddings writes, 'Here's what I think we must do:

1. Be clear and unapologetic about our goal. The main aim of education should be to produce competent, caring, loving and loveable people.

5. Give at least part of the day to themes of care.

6. Teach children that caring in every domain implies competence. When we care, we accept the responsibility to work continuously on our own competence so that the recipient of our care - person, animal, object or idea - is enhanced. There is nothing mushy about caring. It is the strong resilient backbone of human life.' 2005a:174-5

This is an edited extract

More information:

To order a copy of Learning: what matters to children - an alphabet of what learners do by Diane Rich, Mary Jane Drummond and Cathy Myer (Rich Learning Opportunities, £25.00), visit www.richlearningopportunities.co.uk, e-mail: office@richlearningopportunities.co.uk, fax: 01473 737613, tel: 01473 737405

By the book

Practitioners, whether excited, daunted or depressed by the arrival of the Early Years Foundation Stage, would have much to gain from this book.

Taking readers chapter by chapter from A to Z, the authors:

- remind readers that children love learning, and examine the characteristics of effective learners

- explain the importance of first-hand, sensory explorations, and describe the internal processes that accompany the play, exploration, enquiry and talk of active learners

- illustrate how to support children's explorations, and outline opportunities through which children can express and consolidate their learning.

Each chapter includes stories about children's learning, their play, writing and drawings, and summaries of a recommended children's book and one by an educational thinker.

The A to Z format makes the book easy to dip into and allows for a varied mix of material, from the first-hand and accessible accounts of children's learning to some thought-provoking pieces on eminent thinkers.

For inexperienced practitioners, it will provide clarification about best practice in the Early Years Foundation Stage (and a welcome relief from developmental grids?); for the well-informed, it will provide inspiration and a valuable resource for self-reflection.

The authors state that they have written the book 'because they want educators to reclaim their responsibility to think for themselves about curriculum, and to use the fruits of that thinking in the interests of children.'