Negotiating the Ethics of Care and Justice

Abstract

This article explores the competing demands imposed by the ethics of care and justice in an urban high school. Beginning with theoretical constructs of each ethic, the author contrasts care and justice as ideal types and discusses the tensions in educational administration around negotiating the two ethics. Presenting the specific case of a multiethnic urban high school grappling with attendance and truancy problems, the author describes the various perspectives of students, teachers, administrators, and staff members with respect to their school as caregiving and justice seeking. The findings of the study suggest that school members negotiate, rather than reconcile, the ethics of care and justice in actual practice.