Encountering a student with pedagogy of love

Abstract

The topic for this thesis is pedagogy of love and the possibilities and tools it gives for a teacher to encounter a student in a school context. The aim of this research was to understand the concept of pedagogy of love and its history, and to establish ways in how a teacher could better understand how to implement this pedagogy in the classroom and their teaching.

Love is often seen as a private feeling, which doesn’t have a place in a school context. Other words connected to the school world are empathy, compassion, engagement, positive school climate, and very often care. In this research love is studied as a political act, which aims for a more just school environment. With pedagogy of love, teachers consider the students’ histories when planning and implementing their teaching. Schooling is still seen as a one-way road, where teachers oversee teaching and students are passive listeners. Pedagogy of love questions this and invites the teacher to reflect and question their teaching methods, and what kind of knowledge is present or absent in the classroom.

The research has been conducted as a qualitative, narrative literature review. The literature included consists of classical books from critical pedagogy and pedagogy of love, focusing on the seminal work by Paulo Freire and bell hooks. In addition to those peer-reviewed articles and books from the past ten years have been used, and two dissertations.

The results show that encountering students with love requires that students’ histories, back-grounds, families and their experiences are considered when planning teaching. Teachers should adjust their pedagogical practices according to the needs of the child. This kind of encounter is dependent on how capable and open the teacher is for reflection and willingness to be fully present, and open for dialogue. The pedagogy of love emphasizes how both the teacher and the student are learning in the classroom, and teaching is conducted with inquiry-based projects. Dialogue plays a crucial role in pedagogy of love. Through dialogue, students are encouraged to think critically, to ask questions, and to question oppressive structures and methods around them.