Touchy subjects: A risky inquiry into pedagogical pleasure

Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of pedagogy as an erotic field. The complexity of pedagogy work is addressed in terms of what the notion of an ambiguous and duplicitous 'erotics of pedagogy' can contribute to our understanding of teaching and learning. I note the ambivalence of feminist and other progressive educators about desire and pleasure in pedagogy, and attempt to make a case for reclaiming the notions of pedagogical 'erotics' and 'seduction' away from the 'merely malevolent'. I draw on literary criticism to provide new conceptualisations and some historical exemplars of pedagogical events. This analysis is then brought to bear on a terrain of current educational discourse. In this sense, the paper is attempting to introduce into educational scholarship ways of theorising pedagogical events that have been developing for some time in the humanities.