A Case Study of Mentoring High School Students with Care Ethics in a Science Research Apprenticeship

Abstract

To date, few studies have focused on the role of caring ethics in science education. The purpose of this study is to investigate how Nel Noddings’ Caring Ethics in a science research apprenticeship shaped student participation and the collective conceptions of care ethics throughout the experience. A case study approach was used to embed caring ethics in a research apprenticeship at a high school with five students. The researcher was positioned as the mentor and educational researcher working in collaboration with students using Nodding’s components of moral education. Laboratory activities were completed after school and outside at the turtle survey from January to March, 2020. After the COVID-19 pandemic began, the apprenticeship continued with online engagement and activities from March to May. The data sources collected were semi-structured interviews, “What I Did/What I learned” journal entries, and field notes. The first research question found that mentorship with the enactment of care ethics shaped student experiences differently regarding the degree to which they learned scientific knowledge, skills, and developed their own ideas in the apprenticeship. The second research question revealed that student conceptions of care ethics focused on natural caring, but an ethic of caring occurred through students helping each other and caring for the environment. A lack of care ethics occurred when people did not assist with turtle research and revealed the researcher’s own biases. This research has implications for the role of care ethics in shaping student participation in science apprenticeships and the science classroom.