Recounting the experience of love

reflections from a queer pedagogy of affections

Abstract

Opening our gaze to think about the experience of love in education confronts us with truly uncomfortable questions: why does it seem that when we talk about love we refer to the romantic couple or the family only? does love exist beyond these structures? and if it does, what is this love like? is it possible -and necessary- to learn to love? what competences could serve a healthy and caring practice of love for oneself and for others? through reflection, based on the ideas of different authors, we will defend a queer pedagogy of affects as an analytical, interpretative and action tool for the de/reconstruction of this experience: in terms of its meanings, how it is assimilated and its practices; in order to enable a kind of respite -individual and collective- by opening the door towards the recognition of all possible loves as equally valuable, as well as other ways of loving and, consequently, of making the world beyond the traditional dictates -couple, heterosexual, monogamous, human and familial- inherited.