How realistic is the international policy emphasis on schools ‘substituting for families’ of
HIV/AIDS-affected children? We explore the ethic of care in Zimbabwean schools to highlight
the poor fit between the western caring schools literature and daily realities of schools
in different material and cultural contexts. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with
44 teachers and 55 community members, analysed in light of a companion study of HIV/
AIDS-affected pupils’ own accounts of their care-related experiences. We conceptualise
schools as spaces of engagement between groups with diverse needs and interests (teachers,
pupils and surrounding community members), with attention to the pathways through
which extreme adversity impacts on those institutional contexts and social identifications
central to giving and receiving care. Whilst teachers were aware of how they might support
children, they seldom put these ideas into action. Multiple factors undermined caring
teacher-pupil relationships in wider contexts of poverty and political uncertainty: loss of
morale from low salaries and falling professional status; the inability of teachers to solve
HIV/AIDS-related problems in their own lives; the role of stigma in deterring HIV/AIDSaffected
children from disclosing their situations to teachers; authoritarian teacher-learner
relations and harsh punishments fuelling pupil fear of teachers; and lack of trust in the wider
community. These factors undermined: teacher confidence in their skills and capacity to
support affected pupils and motivation to help children with complex problems; solidarity
and common purpose amongst teachers, and between teachers and affected children; and
effective bridging alliances between schools and their surrounding communities–all hallmarks
of HIV-competent communities. We caution against ambitious policy expansions of
teachers' roles without recognition of the personal and social costs of emotional labour, and
the need for significant increases in resources and institutional recognition to enable teachers
to adopt support roles. We highlight the need for research into how best to create opportunities
for teacher recognition in deprived and disorganised institutional settings, and the
development of more culturally appropriate notions of caring.