Date Created

5-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Teacher Education, Teacher Education Student Work

First Advisor

Kyser, Christine

First Committee Member

Harding-Middleton, Jennifer

Second Committee Member

Erekson, James A.

Third Committee Member

Anderson, Jacqueline R.

Abstract

Inclusion for students with disabilities is often limited to access to the general education curriculum and school environment. Previous research has indicated that teacher relationships are essential to student success. Missing from the research was the practice of care as relational inclusion, as described in Nel Noddings’s ethic of care theory. The purpose of this qualitative, multi-case study was to explore inclusion through care relationships as experienced by students with disabilities ages 12-15 and to contrast their experiences with Noddings’s care as inclusion, as described in the ethics of care theory. Using the philosophical lens of Nel Noddings’s ethic of care, this study employed case study methodology to investigate two Research Questions. Research Question 1 asked How do select cases of students with disabilities, ages 12-15, describe their care experience with non-related adults? Five students with disabilities from the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado, aged 12 to 15, were enrolled through purposeful sampling. Participants completed semi-structured interviews using personal artifacts as elicitation tools. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts, developmental questionnaires, analytic memos, and student artifacts led to findings that care was experienced as positive, supportive behavior present in the carer and the environment. Moreover, the five students with disabilities who participated in this study connected with and experienced care through multiple non-related adult relationships. Results of the single case studies suggested that the caring adults who engaged in cycles of care emphasized attributes of Noddings’s engrossment and motivational displacement, leading to goal attainment for study participants. Research Question 2 asked How do the findings of the student care experience coincide or contrast with the description of inclusion as defined by Nel Noddings? Document analysis and elaborative coding were used to develop an exemplar of inclusion as established by Nel Noddings, and this exemplar was then compared with the findings of Research Question 1. The findings revealed care as described by Noddings’s ethic of care theory; it takes place in the moment and accumulates over time, happens with, not to, and transforms the cared-for and the carer. The findings of this study offered insight into the care experiences of an under-studied population and a relational approach to student inclusion that has not been practiced in schools.

Abstract Format

html

Keywords

students with disabilities; Nel Noddings; care cycle; ethics of care; inclusion; student care experience; multi-case study; cross-case; semi-structured interviews; thematic analysis; elaborative coding; Atlas.ti

Language

English

Extent

218 pages

Rights Statement

Copyright is held by the author.

Digital Origin

Born digital

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