Care and caring are key to early childhood education and yet love can be viewed as a taboo word within early childhood settings. This book guides practitioners through the potentially problematic area of loving the children they care for. It shows where a loving pedagogy can fit within professional practice and how this can enrich experiences for children and educators. The book explores how educators can support their children by holding them in mind, valuing them and promoting their best interests. Focusing on how relationships, attachment and connections underpin our settings and practice, the chapters cover: the fundamentals of professional love appropriate touch in practice the different ways in which children feel loved the rights of the child empowering children through love working with parents and carers. Including case studies and questions for reflection, this is vital reading for practitioners wanting to develop a nurturing and loving pedagogy that places the child at the centre of their practice.

Love is a necessary ingredient of effective pedagogy, yet to this point there has been a distinct lack of serious theoretical and practical work on the topic. What does it really mean to adopt a loving approach to pedagogy? This book provides a pragmatic and thoughtful treatment of the topic of love as pedagogy, examining the use and role of love in teaching and learning, and providing suggestions on how educators can effectively recognise and use love in their work. This text begins with a discussion of what love is, what pedagogy is, and how the two are inseparable in an effective educational context. It then moves on to address ethical considerations. Drawing on discourse on love found in psychology, philosophy, and religion the text examines various aspects of love and their relationship to effective teaching and learning including kindness and empathy, intimacy and bonding, sacrifice and forgiveness, and acceptance and community. This book concludes with a photographic case study of loving pedagogy in action and practical suggestions for educators wishing to adopt the approach. This text is suitable for educators at all levels, especially those in early childhood, elementary, and secondary school settings along with students in education and related programs at universities and colleges. Tim Loreman, PhD., is Professor in the Faculty of Education at Concordia University College of Alberta, Canada.

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book highlights the importance of developing a loving pedagogy and explains key terms used within this approach. Part of the Key Concepts in Early Childhood Series, this is essential reading for early years practitioners and students that want to know and understand the importance of adopting a loving pedagogy within early childhood.

Despite challenges and continuing inequalities surrounding urban education, there are instances which provide a counter narrative to the dominant discourses of failure. Urban educators who engage conscious caring and “armed love” in their practice are an example of this. This qualitative instrumental case study examines the practices of two transformative urban educators, around caring and armed love in their classroom praxis. This study examines their conceptions and practice of these approaches through interview, field-notes and video data. The findings involve manifestations of both caring and armed love, including connection, nurturance through food, community, directness, relationships, honesty, respect and demand, as well as high expectations. Despite the challenges that surrounded this school, the atmosphere of caring and armed love acted like a protective barrier or space of safety for the students. My conclusion points to the vital significance of re-humanizing our educational discourse in favor of the genuine care and connections that exist in urban settings, and the importance of re-centering our discussion to focus on the human aspects of education which lie at the core of our profession. Firmly anchored in a critical educational tradition of struggle, Fighting, Loving, Teaching reawakens teachers to educational justice and the everyday possibilities of a pedagogy of the heart. With uncompromising passion and commitment, this timely book weaves a narrative of critical persistence and radical hope, in an effort to reinsert the revolutionary power of love into current discourses of democratic schooling and society. Antonia Darder Leavey Endowed Chair of Ethics and Moral Leadership Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles Author of Reinventing Paulo Freire: A Pedagogy of Love

In my project, I develop a teaching practice called "love pedagogy," which has no one definition or set of rules, but, rather, is an ongoing practice of justice, care, and communitybuilding in education. I focus mainly on practices in the postsecondary writing classroom, but much of what I discuss can apply to other disciplines and education levels. Each of the four chapters focuses on a different practice that I see as key to loving students in the writing classroom; these practices include linguistic justice, discourse justice, radical care, and responsive teaching. To build a practice of love pedagogy, I draw from the work of scholars including, but not limited to, Bettina L. Love, April Baker-Bell, and bell hooks, as well as from my own experiences as a graduate student and first-year composition instructor. My project's aim is to work toward building learning environments grounded in anti-racism, social justice, equity, accessibility, community, and love.

In a cold and heartless world, Tammy Shel’s The Ethics of Caring demonstrates that teaching can and should involve care for the student and a pedagogy of caring at the core of education. Combining philosophy with ethnography, Shel examines the definition of caring through the voices of five case studies of five teachers. The book demonstrates that despite the challenges they cope with, teachers can still make a difference in students’ lives and in society, by doing more than teach for the test. The book makes a significant contribution to the promotion of the ethics of caring in education and for humanity’s welfare. Douglas Kellner George F. Kneller Chair in the Philosophy of Education, UCLA Tammy Shel’s study presented in this powerful book adds important dimensions to the understanding of "caring" in classrooms. Furthermore, the narrative and analysis of teachers, teaching, students, learning, and the contexts of schooling and communities provide for a deep theoretical and practical discussion of pedagogy vis-a-vis the larger purposes of education. The discussions of "caring, " as enacted in these cases, are a solid and sophisticated contribution to further comprehend its complexity and challenges, as well as an addition to the literature in the field. This book is a must read for students of teaching, for experienced practitioners, and for teacher educators who are interested in a humanistic, caring, and just education. Jaime Grinberg Professor, Educational Foundations, Montclair State University