On Liking the Other

“…what is refreshing about Burke and Greteman’s book is that it engages with theology in a way that eschews instrumentalising education and education research for theological ends. Furthermore, it reclaims theology from conservatism and dogma, foregrounding progressive theologies and discourses, rather than the conventional kinds of orthodox and/or heteronormative theologies one might typically encounter in research on education and religion…On Liking the Other is a book I would recommend to anyone—student, teacher, teacher educator, researcher—who wishes to think through the requisite contours for such work.”
(Click to read the full review in Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, July 2023)

Sean Henry, Secondary and Further Education, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, UK

“Burke and Greteman have together done the apparently impossible. By refusing to accept the polarities either in their profession or our society, and approaching tense issues from the side, rather than head on, they have made possible an anthropology of teaching which is able to be simultaneously respectful and embracing of both queer and religious ways of being within the overall adventure of education. Loving, liking, considering, failing, forgiving, reconciling, and daring: each one of these is filled out and given a life-giving role in the way in which teaching leads us out and on.”

James Alison, Catholic Priest, Theologian and Author

“On Liking the Other explores sites of intersection and implication among three subjects—any of which are fraught with complexity and contestation taken alone: Queer Theory, Theology/Religion, and Teacher Education. Burke and Greteman give complicated depth to all three disciplines by noting their always, already entanglement. The authors eschew the obligatory, predictable, scathing indictments of religion that constitute an easy way. Instead, they invite us into the path of 'liking,' a middle way of relationship that topples our polarized entrenchments in love and hate. This, they suggest, is our best shot at real dialogue with one another. The book is smart, blessedly accessible—in short, brilliant. Read it.”

Ugena Whitlock, PhD, MDiv, Author, This Corner of Canaan: Curriculum Studies of Place and the Reconstruction of the South; Editor, Queer South Rising: Voices of a Contested Place; co-Editor, Queer Studies and Education Series

Acknowledgements

Foreword: Toward Pedagogies of Liking
Dennis Sumara – Series Editor

Introduction: Clearing the Ground

Chapter 1: Reorienting Conversations on Religious and Queer Discourses

Chapter 2: Liking the Other and Lowering the Temperature

Chapter 3: Prophetic Indictment and the Limits of Discourse and Community Understanding

Chapter 4: Considering Legal Landscapes

Chapter 5: Forgiveness Amidst Difference

Chapter 6: Reconciling Subjects

Conclusion: On Accompaniment

About the Authors

Index

NOTE: Table of Contents subject to change up until publication date.

Kevin J. Burke

Kevin J. Burke, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education and an affiliate faculty member of Interdisciplinary Qualitative Studies as well as in the Institute for Women’s Studies at the University of Georgia. He teaches courses on masculinities, Queer Theory, religion and public education, as well as on the practice of, and evaluation in, community based, youth centered literacy research. His most recent books include Culturally Sustaining Systemic Functional Linguistic Praxis: Embodied Inquiry in Youth Art Spaces (co-authored with Ruth Harman, 2020) and Legacies of Christian Languaging and Literacies in American Education: Perspectives on English Language Arts Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning (co-edited with Mary Juzwik, Jennifer Stone, and Denise Davila, 2019).

Adam J. Greteman

Adam J. Greteman is an associate professor of Art Education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work addresses the ethical and political challenges and possibilities that emerge as genders and sexualities are centralized in pedagogical and philosophical thought. He is the co-founder with Karen Morris and Nic Weststrate of the LGBTQ+ Intergenerational Dialogue Project. His work has been published in various journals including Educational Theory, Journal of Philosophy and Education, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, Studies in Art Education, and QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking. He is the author of Sexualities and Genders in Education: Toward Queer Thriving (2018) and the coauthor of The Pedagogies and Politics of Liking (2017).