Critical Pedagogy for Healing: Paths Beyond "Wellness," Toward a Soul Revival of Teaching and Learning

Description

This is the first book to explicitly link healing and wellness practices with critical pedagogy. Bringing together scholars from Brazil, Canada, Malta and the USA, the chapters combine critical pedagogy and social justice education to reorient the conversation around wellness in teaching and learning. Working against white Eurocentric narratives of wellness in schools which focus on the symptoms, not the causes, of society's sickness, the authors argues for a "soul revival" of education which tackles, head on, the causes of dis-ease in society, from institutional racism, colonialism, xenophobia and patriarchy. The contributors provide fresh perspectives that address short-term goals of wellness alongside long-term goals of healing in schools and society by attending to underlying causes of social sickness. The chapters bridge theory and practice, bringing diverse historical and contemporary philosophical discussions around wellness into contact with concrete examples of the interconnections between wellness, education, and social justice. Examples of topics covered include: Buddhist practices for healing, Black liberation theology, hip hop pedagogy, anxiety and vulnerability, art therapy and story-telling.

Tricia M. Kress is Associate Professor in Educational Leadership for Diverse Learning Communities at Molloy College in Rockville Centre, NY, USA. She is co-editor of Paulo Freire's Intellectual Roots (Bloomsbury, 2013). Christopher Emdin is Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, USA. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'all Too (2017). Robert Lake is Professor of Social Foundations of Education at Georgia Southern University, USA. He is co-editor of Maxine Greene and the Pedagogy of Social Imagination (2018).

Each of the contributors to this courageous and ground-breaking book grapple with the question of what it means to be human. Drawing on their own unique histories they carefully choreograph a set of powerful ideas and arguments to lay the foundations for a different kind of social imaginary based on the values of radical love. * Barry Down, Adjunct Professor of Education, University of South Australia, Australia * Critical Pedagogy for Healing is well constructed, deep and detailed. It focuses on much needed attention to healing and self in academia, community, and school-based educational settings. The strengths of the book are the vast array of knowledge and representation of communities. Powerful chapters offer insights not usually available to educational communities. * Patricia Paugh, Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA * A stimulating and overdue introduction to pedagogies for healing justice. Grounded in the world of learning practices located outside the force field of heteropatriarchal white Eurocentric education that obscures them, this book re-orients critical pedagogy towards the reverence and defence of life itself. * Sarah Amsler, Associate Professor in Education, University of Nottingham, UK *