(Re)Claiming Our Joy: Uses of the Love Ethic for Joy-Centered Pedagogy

Abstract

This chapter discusses how the authors as Black women educators enact joy in the university classroom through teaching and practicing bell hooks Love Ethic as defined in their book all about love (2001), and as reimagined in Godden’s (2017) article, “The Love Ethic: A Radical Theory for Social Work Practice” and Odozor’s (2022) article “A Love Ethic for Black Feminisms: The Necessity of Love in Black Feminist Discourses and Discoveries”. The incorporation of the Love Ethic in social work practice strives to reduce harm within a profession that has a long history of violence toward Black community members. Through their offerings in this chapter, the authors will illuminate the possibilities of redressing that harm by centering joy-centered pedagogy through various uses of the Love Ethic. The authors begin by sharing their stories of how they were introduced to the Love Ethic, including how it shaped their approach to fostering communities of care with and among students. The authors then move on to provide examples of their respective uses and interpretations of the Love Ethic to inform a joy-centered pedagogy, with a particular attentiveness to how the ethic underlies an intersectional practice approach for work with people who have been relegated to the margins based on their race, gender/identity, ability, and other marginalized identities. The authors close out their chapter by noting the profound impact the Love Ethic has had on students’ ability to humanize, decolonize, and deconstruct social work practice and how adopting the ethic has supported them to (re)claim their joy.