Pedagogy Jan 2026

“Not a Detour from Rigor”

Krysten Stein ; Kishonna Gray

Abstract

Abstract This article argues that care — especially care grounded in Black feminist traditions — is not an affective supplement to teaching but rather the radical foundation of liberatory pedagogy. Amid rising attacks on critical education and the austerity logics of the neoliberal university, the authors theorize care as infrastructure, method, and resistance. Drawing from the work of bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Patricia Hill Collins, Mia Mingus, and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, they offer a framework for care-centered teaching that foregrounds mutuality, trust, and collective accountability. Through vignettes, student reflections, and practices such as trauma-informed design, mutual aid, and collaborative assessment, the article demonstrates how care fosters relational transformation and deep intellectual engagement. It also interrogates the structural devaluation of care labor, particularly for women and faculty of color, and challenges dominant educational paradigms that equate rigor with detachment. As one student reflected, “You believed me when I said I needed more time, without asking for proof. That made me want to do the work even more.” Drawing from their institutional experiences, the authors position teaching as a form of organizing — an insurgent, relational practice that refuses extractive academic norms while building collective conditions for educational and institutional transformation.

Journal
Pedagogy
Published
2026-01-01
DOI
10.1215/15314200-12097258
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
writing pedagogy teacher development collaborative writing assessment gender and writing
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (13)

  1. Berlant (2011)
    Cruel Optimism
  2. Boring, Anne , KellieOttoboni, and Philip B.Stark. 2016. “Student Evaluations of Teaching (Mostly) …
     ↗
  3. brown (2017)
    Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds
  4. Collins (2000)
    Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment
  5. Freire (1970)
    Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Show all 13 →
  1. Harney (2013)
    The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study
  2. hooks (1994)
    Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
  3. Kezar (2019)
    The Gig Academy: Mapping Labor in the Neoliberal University
     ↗
  4. Lorde (1988)
    A Burst of Light: Essays
  5. Mingus, Mia . 2011. “Access Intimacy: The Missing Link.” Leaving Evidence (blog), May5. https://lea…
  6. Piepzna (2018)
    Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice
  7. Pittman (2010)
    Race and Gender Oppression in the Classroom: The Experiences of Women Faculty of Color wi…
    Teaching Sociology  ↗
  8. Young, Jeremy C. , JonathanFriedman, and KaseyMeehan2023. America's Censored Classrooms 2023. PEN A…
CrossRef global citation count: 0 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Composition Forum Oct 2025
    Collaborative and Equitable Assessment: Graduate Student Responses to Co-Creating Feedback Guidelines in a Graduate Composition Pedagogy Course ↗
    writing pedagogy graduate education teacher development collaborative writing assessment literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies editorial matter
  2. Pedagogy Apr 2024
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism feminist rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy creative writing teacher development collaborative writing assessment technical communication professional writing grammar and mechanics literacy studies gender and writing literary studies book reviews editorial matter
  3. Pedagogy Oct 2023
    Contributors ↗
    rhetorical criticism first-year composition writing pedagogy writing across the curriculum two-year college teacher development collaborative writing assessment writing centers qualitative research multimodality literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies affect and writing literary studies book reviews editorial matter
  4. Pedagogy Apr 2022
    Contributors ↗
    rhetorical criticism writing pedagogy creative writing writing across the curriculum teacher development collaborative writing assessment writing program administration technical communication professional writing digital rhetoric literacy studies gender and writing disability studies literary studies book reviews editorial matter
  5. Pedagogy Jan 2022
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory discourse analysis african american rhetorics decolonial rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy basic writing writing across the curriculum graduate education teacher development argument collaborative writing transfer assessment portfolios writing program administration writing centers peer tutoring technical communication professional writing archival research digital rhetoric social media grammar and mechanics literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies public rhetoric community literacy literary studies editorial matter