Tronto's notion of<i>privileged irresponsibility</i>and the reconceptualisation of care: implications for critical pedagogies of emotion in higher education

TLDR

The article examines how Joan Tronto’s political ethics of care, particularly the concept of privileged irresponsibility, can inform critical pedagogies of emotion in higher education. It proposes that such pedagogies, grounded in Tronto’s framework, provide concepts and opportunities to critically investigate emotions arising from unmet needs and privileged irresponsibility, encouraging educators and students to reflect on their emotional positions and caring responsibilities. The authors argue that this approach enriches the transformative potential of critical pedagogies by exposing how power and emotion operate through (ir)responsibility.

Abstract

This article takes on some of care theorist Joan Tronto's ideas on care and responsibility and asks what implications they have for critical pedagogies in higher education. The authors argue that Tronto's political ethics of care framework enriches the transformative potential of critical pedagogies, because it helps expose how power and emotion operate through (ir)responsibility. It is argued that critical pedagogies of emotion grounded in Tronto's political ethics of care provide the concepts and openings to critically explore the emotions arising from failing to recognise different teachers' and students' needs and from engaging in practices of privileged irresponsibility. Also, critical pedagogies of emotion encourage students and educators to be attentive to their own emotional positions and practices with regard to caring responsibilities and (gendered and other) privileged irresponsibilities.