'An L2 Education without Love is not Education at All': a phenomenographic study of undergraduate EFL students’ perceptions of pedagogical love

Abstract The role of pedagogical love in second language (L2) education has long remained under-explored due to dogmatic religious and cultural beliefs. There is insufficient scholarship on this construct at undergraduate levels. To bridge this gap, the present study employed a phenomenographic design to uncover Iranian undergraduate students’ perceptions of pedagogical love and its features, realizations, and determinant factors. It invited 22 undergraduate L2 learners to attend a semi-structured interview and complete a narrative frame. The results of content and thematic analysis attained through MAXQDA software (v. 20) revealed that the participants had different perceptions of pedagogical love. They considered it as a non-romantic intimacy and respect, deep care for students and their emotions, and pure love based on mutual trust. Furthermore, it was found that pedagogical love is essential for L2 education as characterized by a mutual trust and respect, kindness, care, bonding, intimacy, and forgiveness. Regarding its realizations, the results demonstrated that pedagogical love shows itself through intimacy, classroom engagement/participation, confidence, academic performance, and mutual care, respect, and responsibility. Moreover, it was identified that teachers’ emotional literacy, teachers’ pedagogical expertise, and positive classroom rapport facilitated the implementation of loving pedagogy at undergraduate level. Finally, the findings indicated that loving pedagogy practice was mostly precluded by strict religious beliefs, stigmatizing socio-cultural norms, emotion expression, fear, and traditional educational systems. Implications for L2 teachers and educators are discussed to augment their understanding of pedagogical love, as an opportunity to grasp the emotional side of language education.