Through interviews, students’ experiences of good teaching practice in Literature and Physics during a school year at the first, second and third grade of high school in Greece, were explored. The present paper is an investigation of a pedagogical quality which was identified through the analysis of the interviews and named Teacher’s involvement in students’ learning and in teaching subject matter. This part was further analyzed to find main involved aspects.

The last decades, several educational scholars criticized the contemporary educational discourse and practice as mainly rationalistic and intellectualistic and disclosed the significance of relational, emotional and moral aspects of teaching (Garrison & Liston, 2004; Jackson et al. 1993; Liston, 2008; Noddings, 2005; Van Manen, 1991).

Moral Relationships in Teaching Practice

Noddings (2005), based on a relational ontology and ethic, suggests a caring approach to education. To Van Manen (1991, 1994) the crucial dimension of education is the special relation that emerges spontaneously and naturally between students and teachers in pedagogic situations. Hansen (2000, 2004) claims that teaching is both an intellectual and moral enterprise. Good teachers work hard to create a sense of community and trust in their classrooms, he means, establishing relations that make possible the intellectual and moral growth of all participants.

The Ethics of Emancipatory Teaching and the Liberating Love

Critical pedagogy aims at learners' critical awareness of oppressive social conditions as the beginning point of their liberatory praxis. Educators, as learning partners, need to be ready to disclose their own preconceptions for students’ examination (Shor & Freire 1987). This is an act of humility, love and faith in the possibilities of each student which can emerge through the dialogical process. Several scholars have examined various aspects of love in teaching the last decades (Garrison & Liston, 2004; Game & Matcalfe, 2008). O’Quinn & Garrison (2004) point out that, loving relations, although fragile as all intimate relations, can supply guidance to teaching practice.

Passion for Teaching and the Eros for the Good

Burch (2000) argues that eros as passionate desire to know the good, activates an infinite questioning and search for connections and meaning in the world. Garrison (1997) argues that the education of eros and the related powers of poetic creativity and pedagogic “prophesy’ are essential teaching competencies. Fried (1997) shows how teachers’ love of their subject matter and their ability to handle the syllabus creatively, influences students’ way of acquiring the desired content and skills.  Goldstein (1997) suggests commitment, intimacy-in-community and passion as the cornerstones of loving teaching

The Embodiment of Teacher’s Ethos and Passion

According to Van Manen teachers’ embodied qualities, internalized values and thoughtful habits enable them to act tactfully in teaching practice. Hansen (1993), adopting the term style, argues that teachers’ habitual ways of conducting themselves and attending to students reveal their personal values and expectations, and saturate the ethos of the classroom. Teaching quality relates as well to teachers’ embodied knowing of the subject matter. Kubli (2001, 2005) suggests storytelling and ‘carnival’ laughter to enrich and improve teaching of science at high school.

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