Ineffable education, the uncommunicable and the uncommunicated

ABSTRACT

This article is a philosophical and theological exploration of the role of the ineffable as one of the central features that religion and religious traditions can bring to schooling. The ineffable is described as itself related to the uncommunicable and the uncommunicated – in all of life and specifically in schools. Drawing especially on Anglophone and Polish sources, the conclusion of the article draws on Moore’s earlier account of ineffability and mystery in schools, to make a case for this as one of the most significant of the ‘gifts’ that religious traditions may offer to schooling – including to secular schooling.

KEYWORDS:

• Mystery
• silence
• tacit knowledge
• uncertainty

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Broader answers are given in Stern (2007), Stern (2017b), Stern (2017a).

2. What is between the lines in the relationship described in Hopper’s picture may be positive or negative. Some see the couple in the picture representing ‘emotional or existential bleakness’ as ‘the very proximity of man and woman seems to suggest even greater isolation, a more unbridgeable gap or lack of communication’ (Nochlin 1981, 139). Others see two people each with their own inner lives left uninterrupted, just as Hopper himself, when painting on the day of the attack on Pearl Harbour, ‘simply can’t be interrupted!’ (Jo Hopper, Hopper’s wife, quoted in Levin 2007, 348).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Małgorzata Wałejko

Małgorzata Wałejko is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Pedagogy, University of Szczecin, Poland. She is the author of Osobno i razem. Personalistyczne wychowanie do samotności i wspólnoty [Separately and Together: Personalistic Education to Solitude and Community] 2016, The Bloomsbury Handbook of Solitude, Silence and Loneliness (edited with Julian Stern, Christopher A Sink and Wong Ping Ho, 2022), ‘Solitude and Self-Realisation in Education’, Journal of Philosophy of Education, 54:1, pp 107-123 (with Julian Stern), and numerous chapters and articles. She can be contacted by telephone on 0048 (0)609 471214, and by email at [email protected].

Julian Stern

Julian Stern is Professor of Education and Religion at Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, UK, General Secretary of ISREV: the International Seminar on Religious Education and Values, President of the International Society for Research on Solitude, and Editor of the British Journal of Religious Education. He was a schoolteacher for fourteen years, and has worked in universities for thirty years. Julian is widely published, with eighteen monographs and contributions to many other books, and over thirty articles. Books include Middle Leadership in Education: Care, Carefulness and Being ‘Caute’ in the Middle (2022), The Bloomsbury Handbook of Solitude, Silence and Loneliness (edited with Christopher A Sink, Małgorzata Wałejko and Wong Ping Ho, 2022), Mastering Primary Religious Education (with Maria James, 2019), A Philosophy of Schooling: Care and Curiosity in Community (2018, @2018Care), Teaching Religious Education: Researchers in the Classroom: Second Edition (2018), Can I Tell You About Loneliness (2017), Virtuous Educational Research: Conversations on Ethical Practice (2016), Loneliness and Solitude in Schools: How to Value Individuality and Create an Enstatic School (2014), The Spirit of the School (2009), Schools and Religions: Imagining the Real (2007), and Involving Parents (2003). He can be contacted by telephone on 0044 (0)7422 688964 and by email on [email protected].