‘I always live in a quebrada [favela] and today I am here. So, you can be also here one day’: Exploring pre-service teachers’ perceptions of love for youth from socially vulnerable backgrounds

Abstract

In recent years, socially critical scholars have argued that love, as a moral basis for socio-critical work, should not be colorblind or power blind and that marginalized populations may understand caring within their sociocultural context, creating spaces for youth and teachers to challenge the racism, sexism, class exploitation and linguicism imposed on their communities. While there is advocacy of love in education and physical education, there is little research that aims to explore how pre-service teachers’ (PSTs’) conceptions change across time. The aim of this study was to explore PSTs’ changing perceptions of love as they worked in an activist sport project with youth from socially vulnerable backgrounds. Participatory action research framed this four-semester research project. Participants included the lead researcher, four PSTs and 110 youth. Data collected included the following: (a) the lead researcher’s field notes; (b) collaborative PSTs’ group meetings; (c) PSTs’ generated artifacts; and (d) PSTs’ focus groups and interviews. Data analysis involved induction and constant comparison. The PSTs understood that love was represented by the following: (a) creating democratic spaces for students to care for each other and their community; (b) trusting and understanding the students, and dreaming possible futures with them; (c) being the best teacher in order to facilitate students’ learning; and (d) making sure all students are included. We concluded that the PSTs’ embodied experiences of oppression and the reflexive experience lived in the activist approach created a space for the PSTs to see themselves in the youth, reconnect with their own identity and develop empathy and love for the diverse youth.

The Analysis of Teachers’ Perceptions of Moral Education Curriculum

“… Thornberg (2008) stated the lack of expertise in value education and explored preventive or proactive approaches, designing and implementing clear rules or standards of behaviors, creating a sense of community among students, and creating a positive school-wide climate and primary response methods for teachers. Luguetti and McDonald (2020) used radical pedagogical approaches to explore pre-service teachers’ perceptions of love for young people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. Teaching strategies or approaches have always been a critical area of research in teaching and learning.…”

“…Moreover, it can fill gaps and contribute to the construction of curricula that can make curricular goals a reality in the classroom ( Roux and Dasoo, 2020 ). For students, it can bring changes in behaviors and greater interest in participating in society ( Luguetti and McDonald, 2020 ). It can improve existing teacher education, promote teachers’ professional development ( Thornberg et al, 2013 ), promote patriotic education, and give students a global perspective ( Wong et al, 2017 ; O’Flaherty and McCormack, 2019 ).…”

Rethinking pedagogical practices with care-experienced young people: lessons from a sport-based programme analysed through a Freirean lens

“…Having care-experienced volunteers working with young people might help in the process of developing mutual trust and respect and consequently the translation in the concept of radical love. In a similar finding, Luguetti and McDonald (2020) studied pre-service teachers from socially vulnerable backgrounds who were working with young people from the same backgrounds and found that they embodied experiences of oppression, which created a space for them to see themselves in the young people, to reconnect with their own identity, and develop empathy. They concluded that these experiences helped them give back to their community, creating more socially just communities.…”

Towards a culturally relevant sport pedagogy: lessons learned from African Australian refugee-background coaches in grassroots football

“…There is an absence of studies in the field of sport for development that apply CRP as an analytical lens. However, culturally relevant pedagogies have been illuminated in previous studies that discuss critical pedagogy to co-create social change with young people (e.g., Luguetti & McDonald, 2020;Nols et al, 2018;Spaaij et al, 2016;Spaaij & Jeanes, 2013). These studies discuss a culturally responsive pedagogy based on dialogue and problem posing.…”

“…Community-driven sport programs potentially offer an alternative to the deficit model which positions young people as 'problems' to be fixed, overlooks their agency and/or associates refugee-background young people's difference and marginality with deficit and lack (Keddie, 2012;Thorpe, 2020). By centring young people through culturally responsive pedagogies, programs can create spaces to better address their needs and aspirations, focused on generating changes within local communities through empowering both coaches and young people and developing a critical awareness of their relationship with the world (Luguetti & McDonald, 2020). In this approach, programs are co-designed specific to the local context and the conditions in which young people live, amplifying their voices and respecting their knowledge as legitimate (Thorpe, 2020).…”