Literature Review: An Ethics of Care in Online Learning
The title above is linked to a viewable pdf of this assignment. I’ve also uploaded it to the discussion thread.
Discussion Paper: Can we enact an ethic of care in an online learning environment?
Abstract
In her seminal work, Nel Noddings (1988) situates caring as a relational ethic, focused on people and their connections to each other. She argues that these caring connections are crucial for education, but how can we enact an ethic of care in our online and distance learning environments? My search of the key phrase “ethic of care” in the International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning yielded no results so I expanded my search to the University of Calgary library database, finding 33 journal articles and book chapters for consideration. I then focused on research on online learning in post-secondary settings, as well as studies that explicitly incorporated Nodding’s ethic of care model in their discussion. Preliminary findings emphasize the importance of student-teacher relationships, as well as the inclusion of all four components of jj I will also discuss the potential for open pedagogical practices, “democratic and collaborative pedagogical practice[s],” to provide a strategy for implementing an ethic of care in online and distance environments, (Maultsaid & Harrison, 2023, p. 77). Further research areas will also be identified and discussed, such as the promise Al-Freih and Robinson (2024) identified in “anticipating student needs” through course design (p. 9). This could potentially provide an area for further research into the importance of the invisible work of instructional designers.
References
Al-Freih, M., and Robinson, H. (2024). A qualitative exploration of students’ perception of care when learning online: Implications for online teaching and faculty professional development. International Journal of Online Pedagogy and Course Design, 14(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJOPCD.333715.
Maultsaid, D., & Harrison, M. (2023). Can Open Pedagogy Encourage Care? Student Perspectives. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 24(3), 77–98. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v24i3.6901
Noddings, Nel. (1988). “An ethic of caring and its implications for instructional arrangements.” American Journal of Education, 96(2), 215–30.