ABSTRACT
Social justice perspectives provide student teachers and in-service teachers with a means of recognising inequalities within their pedagogical practice. In line with a social justice perspective, we argue that love is an essential element of practice within health and physical education (HPE). Love is intrinsically linked with social justice where we cultivate a democratic classroom through dialogue, hope and imagination. The aim of this chapter is to discuss a pedagogy of love in HPE, to rethink pedagogical practices and to challenge teachers' assumptions that perpetuate domination and social injustice in HPE classes. This pedagogy creates a space for teachers to understand their own privileges and transform themselves. We begin this chapter by defining the concept of love, drawing specifically on the work of Paulo Freire. We argue that a pedagogy of love offers a platform to develop teachers' reflexivity and to help them to reflect on experiences of inclusion and exclusion in their own lives, which will support them to become more competent in accommodating linguistically, ethnically and culturally diverse students. Following this, we provide an illustration of a pedagogy of love based on work emanating from Brazil. We conclude the chapter by outlining points for reflection and critical challenges for future research in this area.
