Revisiting and Reinventing a Feminist Freire: Woman of Color Pedagogies of Love

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium explores the relationship between love and Paulo Freire’s critical praxis. Despite the culture of lovelessness and dehumanization students and teachers encounter in urban contexts, we draw upon women of color epistemologies and experiences to take on Freire’s (1998) task to teach with “a forged, invented, and well-thought-out capacity to love” (p. 3) within various learning spaces. We build upon education and feminist theories and practices to offer new pedagogical strategies to articulate, understand, and practice liberatory forms of love within school and community settings. We imagine ways love can be used as a tool to work towards spiritual healing and social justice. Ultimately, these presentations highlight the foundation of love as imperative for working towards social justice.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Critical Educators for Social Justice

Chair

• Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, San Francisco State University

Papers

• Teaching and Learning Toward Decolonial Love in High School Ethnic Studies Classrooms - Jocyl Sacramento, California State University - East Bay

• Dangerous Unselfishness: An Agape Framework of Love as a Means to Address Suffering Within Urban Communities and Schools - Tiffani Marie, San Jose State University

• Conceptualizing and Cultivating Love:
 A Pedagogical Paradigm to Intervene on Trauma in the Classroom - Sharim Hannegan-Martinez, University of Kentucky

Discussant

• Angela Valenzuela, The University of Texas at Austin