Practising vulnerability; presuming equality: towards a pedagogy of care
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.vi35.1349Keywords:
relational ontology, feminist care ethics, higher education marketisation, intellectual equality, student-teacher trust, vulnerable pedagogyAbstract
In this paper, I explore the concept of vulnerability as a cornerstone of caring and compassionate pedagogies in higher education. Drawing on recent feminist thought, I examine how relational pedagogies and ontologies of care can challenge the marketised conceptualisation of student−teacher relationships. I argue that practising vulnerability, when understood non-instrumentally, has the potential to foster more emancipatory classroom environments. I critically engage with the notion of vulnerability, positioning it as a practice of trust and an assumption of intellectual equality. I contend that vulnerability resists instrumentalisation and instead attends to students in their specificity. I reflect on my experiences of practising vulnerability in teaching, emphasising modest yet effective approaches that acknowledge intellectual limits and speak from situated standpoints.
Whilst recognising the risks associated with vulnerable pedagogies, particularly for marginalised individuals and precarious staff, I maintain that some degree of vulnerability should be central to caring pedagogies. I argue that practising vulnerability can rebuild trust between students and teachers, even in challenging material conditions. Ultimately, I posit that practising vulnerability, though often a modest gesture, has the power to maintain liberatory spaces in universities. I conclude by asserting that this approach can keep alive ways of imagining teaching and learning as a celebration of situated, everyday practices of care, fostering emancipatory learning communities.
References
Agamben, G. (1993) The coming community. Translated by Michael Hardt. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.
Agamben, G. (2000) Means without end: notes on politics. Translated by Vincenzo Binetti and Cesare Casarino. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Arendt, H. (1998) The human condition. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Barad, K. (2007) Meeting the universe halfway: quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press.
Biesta, G. (2009) ‘Good education in an age of measurement: on the need to reconnect with the question of purpose in education’, Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 21, pp.33−46. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-008-9064-9
Biesta, G. (2016) The beautiful risk of education. Oxford and New York: Routledge. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315635866
Braidotti, R. (2013) The posthuman. Cambridge and Malden: Polity Press.
Brooks, R., Gupta, A., Jayadeva, S. and Lainio, A. (2020) ‘Students in marketised higher education landscapes: an introduction’, Sociological Research Online, 26(1), pp.125−129. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1360780420971651
Brown, W. (2015) Undoing the demos: neoliberalism’s stealth revolution. New York: Zone Books. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt17kk9p8
Cavarero, A. (2011) Horrorism: naming contemporary violence. Translated by William McCuaig. New York: Columbia University Press.
Cavarero, A. (2021) Surging democracy: notes on Hannah Arendt’s political thought. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Compton, M. and Lindner, R. (2022) ‘A pedagogy of care (hu)manifesto’, Freedom to Learn, 8 December. Available at: https://reflect.ucl.ac.uk/mcarena/2022/12/08/care/ (Accessed: 12 December 2024).
Ellsworth, E. (1989) ‘Why doesn’t this feel empowering? Working through the repressive myths of critical pedagogy’, Harvard Educational Review, 59(3), pp.297−324. Available at: https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.59.3.058342114k266250
Ercikan, K. and Roth, W.M. (2014) ‘Limits of generalizing in education research: why criteria for research generalization should include population heterogeneity and uses of knowledge claims’, Teachers College Record, 116(4), pp.1−28. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811411600405
Gravett, K. (2023) Relational pedagogies: connections and mattering in higher education. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Gravett, K., Taylor, C.A. and Fairchild, N. (2021) ‘Pedagogies of mattering: re-conceptualising relational pedagogies in higher education’, Teaching in Higher Education, 29(2), pp.388−403. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.1989580
Harney, S. and Moten, F. (2021) All incomplete. Colchester, New York and Port Watson: Minor Compositions. Available at: https://www.minorcompositions.info/?p=1032 (Accessed: 12 December 2024).
Haraway, D. (1988) ‘Situated knowledges: the science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective’, Feminist Studies, 14(3), pp.575−99. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/3178066
Haraway, D. (2016) Staying with the trouble: making kin in the cthulucene. Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press.
Huzar, T.J. (2021) ‘Apprehending care in the flesh: reading Cavarero with Spillers’, Diacritics, 49(3), pp.6−27. Available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/dia.2021.0027
Motta, S.C. and Bennett, A. (2018) ‘Pedagogies of care, care-full epistemological practice and “other” caring subjectivities in enabling education’, Teaching in Higher Education, 23(5), pp.631−646. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2018.1465911
Oleksiyenko, A. and Tierney, W.G. (2018) ‘Higher education and human vulnerability: global failures of corporate design’, Tertiary Education and Management, 24(3), pp.187−192. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13583883.2018.1439094
Petersen, C.I., Baepler, P., Beitz, A., Ching, P., Gorman, K.S., Neudauer, C.L., Rozaitis, W., Walker, J.D. and Wingert, D. (2020) ‘The tyranny of content: “content coverage” as a barrier to evidence-based teaching approaches and ways to overcome it’, CBE—Life Sciences Education, 19(2), pp.1−10. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.19-04-0079
Prinsloo, P. and Slade, S. (2016) ‘Student vulnerability, agency, and learning analytics: an exploration’, Journal of Learning Analytics, 3(1), pp.159−182. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.18608/jla.2016.31.10
Rancière, J. (1991) The ignorant schoolmaster: five lessons in intellectual emancipation. Translated by Kristin Ross. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Rancière, J. (2011) The emancipated spectator. Translated by Gregory Elliott. London and New York: Verso.
The Care Collective (2020) The care manifesto: the politics of interdependence. London and New York: Verso.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
