Liberatory Love: Exploring Educators’ Perspectives in Alternative Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 12:40 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Developing Critical Consciousness and Identity Through Community-Based Research (Table 2)

Abstract

Establishing a shared vision of love across a group of educators can be challenging. Freire (1968/2005), Darder (2011), and hooks (1994, 2001) affirm that academic success is advanced when educators integrate love into their praxis. This study examines how perceptions about liberatory love among continuation high school educators’ are shaped by reading, discussing, and reflecting with peers. Rooted in Critical Pedagogy and Engaged Pedagogy, this Ethnographic Action Research explores how staff conceptualize love’s role in education and apply liberatory love in student interactions. Initial data suggest staff are committed to understanding how love can be practiced effectively at a continuation high school, offering insight for educators and school leaders to remedy and repair the harms in education.

Authors

• Kamala Mallipudi, University of San Diego

• Rebekka J. Jez, University of San Diego