Transforming conditions of lovelessness : a critical inquiry into radical forms of love and pedagogy

Abstract: Within the body of educational research, limited research exists on the role of critical and political forms of love in reshaping pedagogical practices and motivating liberatory social movements and struggles. Critical education scholars have adopted the terms radical or revolutionary love in order to distinguish a politically-oriented conception of love from dominant notions of love as romantic, universal and unconditional. Combining theoretical frameworks of coloniality and critiques of neoliberalism, this study explores the role of radical love as a guiding force for liberatory pedagogical projects, and collective social movements and struggles. While some research has recognized the significance of radical love within a context of coloniality, the role of colonial, capitalist and neoliberal logics in complicating or obscuring engagement with radical love within critical pedagogy has not been largely explored. Through a textual analysis of three key texts, this study explores the following research questions:

1. What is radical love, and what is its relationship to critical pedagogy?
2. How do colonial and capitalist logics complicate or obscure educators/students/community members from authentically engaging in radical love?
3. How can radical love deepen our understanding of contemporary social movements and struggles against violence, and critical educational contexts. More specifically, what does radical love look like in the present context of social and political unrest, including the Black Lives Matter movement? This work broadens the discussion around the role of love in motivating collective, political, and liberatory commitments within critical pedagogical contexts.