Facing paradox everyday: a Heideggerian approach to the ethics of teaching

Abstract

In this paper, I wish to offer insight into the role of paradox in teaching. I will do so by analyzing teachers’ everyday work, taking a qualitative approach and constructing a small-scale empirical study. Philosophically, my attempt is framed by Heidegger’s thought. Drawing from research data, I argue the following: (a) paradoxes and dilemmas are the very basis of teaching, and a teacher cannot see paradoxes and dilemmas if she/he has already made an (unaware) choice of disengagement from the profession. Stated otherwise, the sense of dependency, laceration, and even helplessness experienced by teachers I met and interviewed are not occasional or unwanted outcomes, but rather the very nature of the ethics of teaching. (b) The rationale of teaching – curricula, objectives, and learning outcomes – is framed by teachers’ intentionality, namely, by teachers’ ‘being thrown’ and involved in leaving teaching situations. (c) Teachers are simultaneously thrown into the projecting and understanding that constitutes teaching and positioned as the authors of such projecting and understanding. Understanding this ripping condition is a step towards accomplishing the edge situation that teaching can be.

Keywords:

• Educational paradoxes
• ethics of teaching
• Heidegger
• intentionality
• projecting

Acknowledgement

I wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers for many valuable comments on an earlier version of the paper, as well as for the freedom they gave me in writing the paper as I did.

Notes

1. In a sense, the research path was itself an educational path, both for myself and the teachers.

2. A number of scholars have emphasized the role of choice in Heidegger’s thought, framing it in terms of a call. See, for instance, Dreyfus (1991), Olafson (1998), Standish (1997), Bonnett (2002), Gur Ze’ev (2002).