The strain between care and service in university teaching

Abstract

From the different contradictions that govern the teaching performance of the university teaching staff and the learning processes of the students, we focus the interest in some gender biases in the didactic processes. We look at how the needs and the training demands of students are addressed. These, far from coinciding, often oppose. We detected that one of the central unrest in teachers is the relationship between caring and serving in the teaching performance. We propose to reflect on this matter from a case study, and we point out that the excess of service can be an impediment to achieve one of the basic objectives of care in formative processes, which is the development of the personal autonomy of the students. At the same time it could mean a source of exhaustion for teachers.