As with other sectors of education, further education seems to be locked in endless change with policy unable to resolve what have become to be regarded as intractable problems. In turn, much is expected of teachers who are left to resolve the competing pressures they are placed under. Evidence suggests that they expend much emotional labour and employ a range of strategies, but on the whole, while not ignoring the demands of other stakeholders, they privilege the needs and interests of learners in their adoption of an ethic of care.