Mad to the bone: learning outcomes of critical grief pedagogy

We outline critical grief pedagogy as a Mad feminist response to the silencing of loss that often occurs in academic spaces. This pedagogical framework creates openings for students to “break open the bone” of their own and others’ losses, particularly through community-engaged learning and research. Using collaborative autoethnography, in this essay we (a professor and her mentees) explore our experiences working with the Scraps of the Heart Project—a community-based research collective focused on empowering families following the loss of a baby—to understand student learning outcomes that were born from our engagement with critical grief pedagogy. Our collective narratives revealed that these learnings included: gaining compassionate communication skills, embracing and unpacking failure as a method of mourning, becoming empowered and empowering others to share their stories of loss, and building a community of Mad grievers. We put these learning outcomes into conversation with cultural discourses surrounding pedagogical and academic norms. Additionally, we offer insight into how loss and mourning can be invited into the classroom so that students learn to engage grief critically, meaningfully, and Madly—and to learn important communicative skills along the way.