Transforming Conditions of Lovelessness: A Critical Inquiry into Radical forms of Love in Education

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Abstract

Drawing on Freire’s (1970) notion of ‘armed’ love, this conceptual paper explores framings of radical love to move beyond romanticized, liberal, and apolitical forms of love, towards a pedagogical practice of love rooted in a commitment to struggling against conditions and relations of violence. I put into conversation Ahmed's (2012) analysis of ‘multicultural’ love along with Love’s (2019) notion of ‘loving darkness’ to develop more critical concepts of love in education. This paper puts these three philosophical notions of love in conversation in order to understand the ways in which 1) radical forms of love can offer insight into sustaining long-term commitments to struggle against violence and 2) how colonial and capitalist logics complicate pedagogical enactments of love in education.

Author

• Celine Vallejo Norman, The University of Texas at Austin