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Pursuing An Ethic Of Care: A Case Study Of One Female Superintendent, Rachelle Grace Rico

Dissertations

This instrumental case study explores how the Ethic of Care is experienced within one Midwestern school system as an alternative approach to traditional school system hierarchical infrastructures. Through the qualitative tradition of portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997), this study documents the caring leadership actions, behaviors and styles of a superintendent who has transformed the identity of a Midwest school district. Analysis of triangulated data from multiple in-depth interviews, teacher surveys, field observations, district archival data, superintendent publications, and shadowing days, provide a narrative account using thick description (Rossman & Rallis, 2003) to illuminate how care translates into practice and how …