ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4758-8529

Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Education (Ph.D)

Department

Curriculum and Instruction

First Advisor

Mary Beth Schaefer

Second Advisor

Donald McClure

Third Advisor

Liz Chase

Abstract

This narrative case study examined how four middle grades English Language Arts (ELA) teachers enacted care in a suburban Northeastern U.S. middle school. Drawing on interviews, classroom observations, instructional artifacts, and notes, the study developed narrative portraits to examine how care was experienced and enacted within daily instructional practices. Guided by Nel Noddings’s (2013) care theory and Geneva Gay’s (2018) culturally responsive care framework, the study explored how teachers sustained meaningful and equitable instruction amid post-pandemic academic, social-emotional, and technological shifts. Findings revealed care as the instructional foundation, making equitable and meaningful literacy learning possible with three interrelated dimensions: trust, responsive instruction, and advocacy. Trust was cultivated through deliberate relationship-building, consistent routines, and structures that elevated student voice. Responsive instruction included differentiated scaffolds, flexible pacing, and culturally and linguistically sustaining literacy practices that maintained rigor while increasing access. Advocacy extended beyond the classroom through collaboration with colleagues and families to secure equitable opportunities and challenge deficit narratives. Across the four cases, care functioned as pedagogical decision-making embedded in curriculum, assessment, and professional collaboration. This study responds to calls within middle level education research to improve learning, belonging, and equitable opportunities for young adolescents. These findings extend existing frameworks by illustrating how culturally responsive care in post-pandemic middle grades ELA contexts operates as a developmentally grounded, collaborative practice supporting equitable and humanizing ELA instruction.

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