ABSTRACT
Based on the American educational philosopher Nel Noddings’ concepts of ethics of care and results from a semi-structured narrative interview, this chapter aims to explore the values of a long-serving Danish teacher and her colleagues who work at a high-risk urban school in Denmark. Why do the teacher and her colleagues continue to work for more than 20 years at the disadvantaged school – even though most of the teacher attrition literature argues that teachers more often tend to leave high-risk schools – defined as schools with a large concentration of low-income families, minority students, and/or low-achieving students? What keeps this teacher and her colleagues going? What is their understanding of teaching quality? The results indicate that a close relationship with the students, while taking care of them and expecting receptivity from them, and a holistic approach to teaching are some of the keys to understanding why these teachers stay. For the long-serving Danish teacher, the goal of education and teaching goes beyond the mere acquisition of knowledge and represents a more rounded understanding of the learning process.
