Section

Curriculum and assessment design

Abstract

This book review of Relational Pedagogies: Connections and Mattering in Higher Education by Karen Gravett aims to offer a compelling analysis that enhances the scholarly conversations around the importance of building relationships and connections in higher education, particularly in complex and uncertain times. By situating the book's arguments within the wider academic discourse, the review strives to provide valuable insights, meaningful connections and an assessment of the book's impact on advancing relational pedagogies in higher education. By centering the perspectives of Black women and other marginalised groups, the review offers an intersectional critique that strives to expand the discourse on posthumanism and sociomateriality. This critical review of the book may serve as a valuable resource for scholars, educators, administrators and activists interested in advancing intersectional approaches to post-anthropocentric teaching and learning. Relational Pedagogies provides a means for resurfacing often forgotten questions, thinking with different theories and encouraging us to engage various others as we work to address issues of relationality, connection and mattering in contemporary and meaningful ways.

Practitioner Notes

  1. Highlights the growing importance of building relationships and connections in higher education, particularly in complex and uncertain times.

  2. Emphasises the need to move beyond a solely human-centred perspective toward a consideration of the role of spaces, objects, and matter in teaching and learning.

  3. Adopts a sociomaterial and posthuman theoretical framework which educators and researchers can use to challenge the idea of a self-governing individual toward prioritising values of connectedness, entanglement and mattering.

  4. Offers a valuable framework for educators and researchers to explore the ways in which relationships impact student-staff dynamics, collaborations among colleagues, and personal growth within the context of higher education.

  5. Encourages a deepened consideration of the union of critical praxis and critical posthuman thinking in teaching practice.

Twitter Handle

@AmeenaLPayne; @HeyTpayne

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