Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/meeting-nel-noddings/5025670/
Care Colleagues
We, Lynnette and Carol, met at a NYSAEYC conference in 2014. Lynnette was writing her dissertation and she was presenting a workshop called Who Cares in Child Care, which Carol attended. Carol had just started writing a book about care. We connected over our passion for care, and discovered that we shared a favorite author: Nel Noddings. Just about every year, at the annual state conferences thereafter, we met up and continued our care conversations. We discussed our admiration for Nel Noddings, and the validation we felt as we read her work and learned about the history of feminist ethics and the theory of care. In 2018, Lynnette finished her dissertation, “Measuring Care: A Mixed Methods Study of the Professional Practices and the Ethic and Fidelity of Care of Early Childhood Educators,” and in 2019, Carol finished her book, “Illuminating Care,” soon to be published by Exchange Press. As a celebration, we decided to email Dr. Noddings and tell her how much she had influenced us as early childhood teachers, scholars and humans. Nel kindly wrote right back and invited us to join her for a conversation at her home in New Jersey.
Nel’s Home, A Nest of Care
On ...