Dr. Noddings' Philosophy of Education

Dr. Noddings' Philosophy of Education

Nel Noddings is a name unfamiliar to most people outside the educational community; but

within it, even at 78, she remains one of the most influential voices. Her central passion which has carried her through 23 years of public school teaching, 10 children, a masters and Ph. D. degree, and over 20 years as a member of the faculty at Stanford can be summed up in one word: care. She writes of it, speaks about it, and practices it.

What does Noddings mean when she writes of guiding teachers, “toward greater sensitivity

and competence across all the domains of care.” Does it have a practical methodology behind it? Is it an appeal to pathos? It is difficult to thoroughly unpack all the Noddings has said about caring, but we can initiate our exploration of her concept by reading Maxine Greene's summary of the idea:

“...the caring teacher tries to look through students' eyes, to struggle

with them as subjects in search of their own projects, their own ways

of making sense of the world.” (129, Philosophical Documents…)

The idea appears exciting and innovative at first glance, but upon further analysis (as well as comparison with competing educational philosophies) we see that it is a modern form of one of two predominant, competing paradigms within Western tradition. The first paradigm tells us that a welleducated person is, as Locke puts it, “produced” (55) by the educator. The second paradigm is apparent in Reed and Johnson's summary of Aristotle, “...to assist human beings in developing their unique capacity to contemplate the world and their role in it.” (18) Noddings compels her reader to the furthest corners of the “assist” paradigm. For a teacher to “care” as Noddings prescrib...

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...ed about just as much as theirs.

Bibliography

Noddings, Nel. “Renewing Democracy in Schools.” Phi Delta Kappan. Bloomington: April 1999.

Vol. 80, Iss. 8; pg. 579, 5 pgs.

Noddings, Nel. “Educating Whole People: A Response to Jonathan Cohen.” Harvard Educational

Review: Summer 1999. Vol. 76, Iss. 2; pg. 338.

Noddings, Nel. “Teaching Themes of Care.” Phi Delta Kappan. Bloomington: May 1995. Vol. 76, Iss. 9; pg. 675, 5pgs.

Noddings, Nel. “Thinking About Standards.” Phi Delta Kappan. Bloomington: Nov 1997. Vol. 79, Iss. 3; pg. 184, 6 pgs.

Noddings, Nel. " Two Concepts of Caring." Philosophy of Education Yearbook. May 29, 2007 <

http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/eps/PES-Yearbook/1999/noddings.asp>.

Reed, Ronald; Johnson, Tony W., ed. "Aristotle,” and “Maxine Greene." Philosophical

Documents in Education. 2nd ed. Vol. 77. Addison-Wesley Longman, Inc., 2000.