In a lecture with faculty, students, and development workers at the Areté’s Loft, an acclaimed US professor introduced and deepened concepts that find their roots in Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy.
The February 1 evening talk featured Antonia Darder, the Leavey Presidential Endowed Chair of Ethics and Moral Leadership at the Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
Dr. Darder talked about different ideas that focus on Freire’s pedagogy of love. Among these are ideas on the importance of teachers’ love for teaching, the need to acknowledge and engage students’ resistance to certain topics, the relationality of love manifested in the teaching act, and the focus on love as a political force.
During the spirited open forum, Dr. Darder engaged questions on students’ use of social media, creation of improved trust in school settings, Freire’s relationship with the Catholic Church, and concerns about how to appropriate critical pedagogy to science and technology classes.
The talk is the first in the series of PassTheSALT talks by the Ateneo SALT Institute. Other sponsors for the event included Teach for the Philippines, Ateneo Teacher Center, Loyola Marymount University, Ateneo EDGE, and Areté.