The bare classroom- representation and the liminal presence of others

ABSTRACT

This article begins with an account of an improvised classroom in a refugee camp. From this account, and building on Heidegger's' analysis of spatiality, two fundamental characteristics are identified as: first, that classrooms are 'sanctioned-off' from the world, and secondly, that educational situations involve attention to the world.

Arendt's distinction between education and politics is presented not only as a normative call to action, but also, and perhaps primarily, as a phenomenology of education as a basic human activity. The article turns to Mollenhauer's account of the emergence of a pedagogical sphere in early modernity, and particularly to his notion of representation, to understanding the way things of the world appear in classrooms.

The article proposes the concept of liminality to describe the classrooms as neither 'inside' nor 'outside' the world, and could therefore offer their inhabitants (i.e. students and teachers) opportunities for imaginative exploration, as well as ethical encounters.

KEYWORDS:

• Liminality
• representation
• ethics
• presence
• encounter

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.