20. One-one coco full basket — on the value of critical pedagogy of caring for learning and teaching in higher education

Abstract

This chapter argues for the infusion and mainstreaming of a critical, caring pedagogy into higher education institutions in Jamaica. To achieve this, universities must stop privileging a neoliberal focus on economic and global competitiveness, and reinstate genuine concern for student wellbeing. The author advocates that it is possible to accomplish this, if faculty commit to pedagogy underpinned by critical, caring ideologies. Support for this position comes from sharing and deconstructing the author’s experiences as a teacher educator within the context of her beliefs and views about the role and purpose of university teaching and education. Invoking the notion of “intimate scholarship”, the author describes and critically analyses learning moments in her career which demonstrate that critical, caring pedagogy is possible and can make an impact on student experience.