Pedagogies of generosity: Towards a multidimensional understanding that nurtures ‘critical generosity’

Abstract

This paper builds on discussions about what sort of generosity might be nurtured in pedagogy when perspectives of affectivity, corporeality, and politics are foregrounded. The paper focuses on highlighting a multidimensional understanding of generosity with specific emphasis on the ways in which affective/embodied/corporeal and political dimensions reframe the dominant discourse of generosity as a personal moral conduct. In particular, the paper takes up the challenge of theorizing generosity beyond dualisms of active giving and passive receiving, by thinking through how affectivity and corporeality motivate political action. In bringing together different thinkers and concepts around generosity to theorize ‘pedagogies of generosity’, the reader is invited to reconsider how ‘critical generosity’ as an ethical, affective and political practice invokes insights about the role of the teacher in nurturing modalities of ‘generous’ actions that can be socially and politically transformative.