Liberatory Love: Exploring Educators’ Perspectives in Alternative Education
Establishing an operational understanding of love is difficult. The struggle is magnified when attempting to create a shared vision of love across a group of educators. As Freire (1970/2005) and Darder (2011) affirmed, academic success is advanced when educators demonstrate love as part of their praxis. Continuation high schools represent a population of at-promise students who stand to gain much when their educators employ liberatory love practices. This study examined how educators’ perceptions about liberatory love are shifted or formed when they read, discuss, and reflect on the topic with their colleagues. This study drew on critical pedagogy and engaged pedagogy to conduct an ethnography of a community of educators at a continuation high school. This study explored the following research questions: (a) How do staff members at a continuation high school conceptualize the role of love in education? In what ways, if at all, are these conceptualizations about love aligned to the practices of liberatory love? (b) In their self-reporting, how do staff members reflect liberatory love in working with students at a continuation high school? (c) Based on self-reporting, how do discussions centered on liberatory love affect the praxis of staff members at a continuation high school? Although participants were unaware of the tenets of liberatory love prior to the study, participants were willing and excited to read, discuss, and consider the elements and their praxis. Data analysis revealed aspects of liberatory love (e.g., sharing dialogue and naming assets) were easily incorporated into educator praxis while other aspects (e.g., sharing decision-making) were met with resistance. Findings highlight the need for teacher and administrator training opportunities that unpack the tenets of liberatory love and how a school site can meaningfully incorporate them into educator praxis. This work has the potential to shift interventions for at-promise students to prioritize an epistemology that examines systems and educators rather than pathologizing students.
love, liberatory love, power, dialogue, decision-making, naming, alternative education, continuation high school, critical pedagogy, engaged pedagogy, Holistic Education, Other Education, Other Teacher Education and Professional Development, Secondary Education, Secondary Education and Teaching, Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education, Teacher Education and Professional Development
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