MIAMI UNIVERSITY The Graduate School Certificate for Approving the Dissertation We hereby approve the Dissertation of Daniel J. Ciamarra Candidate for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy ______________________________ Director (Tom S. Poetter) ______________________________ Reader (Richard A. Quantz) ______________________________ Reader (Denise Baszile) _____________________________ Graduate School Representative (Bob Burke) ABSTRACT SPEAKING UP: USING A PEDAGOGY OF LOVE TO DEBUNK TECHNICAL TEACHING AND LEARNING PRACTICES by Daniel J. Ciamarra At present, our students are valued for their capacities to thoughtlessly absorb and regurgitate standardized facts and figures. Meanwhile, the affective facets of schooling, such as love, relationality, compassion, acceptance, integrity, and altruism are overlooked by politicians and educational decision makers, who claim these elements lack academic rigor. In this study, I use the dominant views of the educational elect to accentuate the current push for a more standardized, accountable, and scientific approach to schooling. Then, I employ the counternarrative as a methodological tool for talking back, offering up personal stories and experiences that frame the power of agapic love to demystify the normative views of schooling. More specifically, I employ personal narrative as means for providing teachers a voice, one which aims to debunk confounding generalizations or refute common claims about what education is or ought to be. Finally, I analyze the divergent stories through multiple theoretic and practical lenses in order to make meaning of my experiences. Moreover, the counternarratives in this study focus on how agapic love can be utilized in pedagogical and curricular efforts to transcend the present conditions that hinder many students and teachers from being and becoming who they really are. These personal narratives of love, relationality, compassion, empathy, passion, selflessness, and more, are used to counter that which have become accepted as good teaching and learning practices. In essence, the personal counterstories are used to give a firsthand account, direct from the frontlines and sidelines, of what it means to be a teacher, how our learning communities are being affected by educational initiatives such as ―No Child Left Behind‖ and ―Race to the Top,‖ and how agapic love can be used as a tool for debunking the presently legitimized scientific aims of schooling. SPEAKING UP: USING A PEDAGOGY OF LOVE TO DEBUNK TECHNICAL TEACHING AND LEARNING PRACTICES A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Educational Leadership by Daniel J. Ciamarra Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2010 Dissertation Director: Dr. Tom S. Poetter © Copyright Daniel J. Ciamarra 2011 Table of Contents Acknowledgements and dedication .......................................................................................................... v CHAPTER ONE – AN OPENING TO THE HEART ............................................................................................. 1 An Introduction to the Study: Love Begets Love ...................................................................................... 1 Overview of the Text ................................................................................................................................. 2 The Purpose of the Study .......................................................................................................................... 5 Existing Obstacles for Agapic Love ............................................................................................................ 6 The “Normal” Narrative .......................................................................................................................... 11 The Other Side of the Coin ...................................................................................................................... 14 Concluding Thoughts............................................................................................................................... 16 CHAPTER TWO – AN ANALYSIS OF LOVE ................................................................................................... 20 “Proven” Practices for Modern-Day Schooling ....................................................................................... 20 Using Love to Debunk the Purposes of Schooling................................................................................... 23 What’s Love Got To Do With It? ............................................................................................................. 24 Unpacking the Agape Suitcase ................................................................................................................ 26 The Pedagogy of Love ............................................................................................................................. 30 Three Critical Elements of Agapic Love ................................................................................................... 34 A Final Word ............................................................................................................................................ 39 CHAPTER THREE – DISRUPTING THE DOMINANT VOICE........................................................................... 40 The Master Narrative: Leading Our Learning Communities ................................................................... 40 Disrupting the “Accepted” Methodologies of Educational Research ..................................................... 43 Speaking for the Unspeakable: A Methodological Journey .................................................................... 49 The Counternarrative: What’s NOT Being Accounted For ...................................................................... 54 Closing Remarks ...................................................................................................................................... 59 CHAPTER FOUR – GETTING RELATIONAL ................................................................................................... 61 The “Legitimate” Teacher ....................................................................................................................... 61 Rethinking “Legitimacy” in the classroom .............................................................................................. 66 It’s All About Relationality ....................................................................................................................... 68 Barriers for Building Relations ................................................................................................................ 76 Putting Relationality Into Action ............................................................................................................. 80 Final Thoughts ......................................................................................................................................... 85 CHAPTER FIVE – EVERYONE NEEDS COMPASSION .................................................................................... 86 “Conventional” Conceptions of Compassion .......................................................................................... 86 Where’s the Compassion? ...................................................................................................................... 90 iii To “Be” Compassionate .......................................................................................................................... 94 Bringing Compassion to Life: Examining the Key Ingredients ................................................................. 99 Final Thoughts on Compassion ............................................................................................................. 107 CHAPTER SIX – A CALL FOR SELFLESSNESS IN SCHOOLS ......................................................................... 108 Today’s Educational Agenda ................................................................................................................. 108 Rethinking Our Educational Aims ......................................................................................................... 113 A Call for Altruism in Education ............................................................................................................ 116 Exploring the Landscape of Altruism .................................................................................................... 120 Final Thoughts ....................................................................................................................................... 125 CHAPTER SEVEN – CONCLUSION: TURNING TOWARDS A PEDAGOGY OF LOVE .................................... 129 Our Schools are “Excellent”…But at What? .......................................................................................... 129 Analyzing the Images ............................................................................................................................ 133 Actualizing a Pedagogy of Love ............................................................................................................. 138 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................................... 145 iv Acknowledgements and Dedication I dedicate this dissertation first to my loved