Showing papers in "Phenomenology and Practice in 2013"
231 citations
TL;DR: In this calling of his young son, and in this lingering moment of reflecting, Michael Ondaatje experiences a pedagogical moment as discussed by the authors, taking the form of a personal responsiveness: acting (saying "good night" to his son, though after letting him wait expectantly) and reflecting (asking himself: "What was it like for my son to have to wait like that?" And by implication perhaps, "Should I have been more attentive?”).
Abstract: In this calling of his young son, and in this lingering moment of reflecting, Michael Ondaatje experiences a pedagogical moment. This pedagogical moment takes the form of a personal responsiveness: acting (saying “good night” to his son, though after letting him wait expectantly) and reflecting (asking himself: “What was it like for my son to have to wait like that?” And by implication perhaps, “Should I have been more attentive?”). This simple moment of a goodnight kiss may actually be filled with psychological and pedagogical significance, as the many references and studies about the goodnight kiss in Marcel Proust’s writings attest (1981): his staying awake while waiting for his mother to come, and whose kiss would finally be able to put Marcel to sleep, his father’s disapproval of him, and the psycho-analytic entanglements.
43 citations
TL;DR: The authors proposes to draw on the student voices at the Environmental School to posit a series of five distinct orientations, each of which is potentially available to us and each offers a different way to understand, attend to and communicate with the natural world.
Abstract: This paper begins with an assumption that the natural world is literally able to speak. What follows is research around a new place-based, ecological and imaginative public school in Maple Ridge, BC. The school has no building to speak of as there is an attempt being made, as part of the day-to-day pedagogical practice, to listen to the more-than-human as an active voice and co-teacher thereby moving from human teachers/researchers speaking in , about and for the more-than-human towards speaking with and listening to it. Drawing on our lived experience as researchers, theorists, and ecological educators, this paper proposes to draw on the student voices at the Environmental School to posit a series of five distinct orientations. Each of these orientations is potentially available to us and each offers a different way to understand, attend to and communicate with the natural world. These orientations have implications, if taken seriously, for educational practice and content. In this paper, we focus on clarifying these orientations and anchor them with examples from interviews done over the course of several school years with three different students. We end the paper by pointing out some of the educational implications that might arise if we are to take these students and, as a result, the proposed orientations seriously.
33 citations
TL;DR: This article explored the lived experience of being vegan or vegetarian in a society and culture that is primarily non-vegetarian, and brought forward themes that emerged from in depth conversations with two vegans and vegetarians.
Abstract: This phenomenological investigation aims to explore the lived experience of being vegan or vegetarian in a society and culture that is primarily non-vegetarian. As members of a unique minority group, vegans and vegetarians can sometimes be misunderstood by non-vegetarians and stereotyped as judgmental or difficult to deal with. Living with this type of misunderstanding from others can lead to feelings such as worry, loneliness, and fear. As such, the use of phenomenological inquiry is well suited to uncover the lived experience this phenomenon in such a way that no other method of inquiry could. The author brings forward themes that emerged from in depth conversations with two vegan/vegetarian participants, and draws from her own personal experiences as a vegetarian to supplement the data and further uncover the phenomenon. Themes are brought forward through the use of, among other works, Hyppolite’s (1956) and Bachelard’s (1994) descriptions of “inside vs. outside” and van Manen and Levering’s (1996) notion of secrecy.
21 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored two dominant approaches to climate change education and asked how these approaches articulate an understanding of the essential relationship between humans and the larger living world as reflected through changing climatic conditions.
Abstract: In no other time in human history has the relationship between human beings, and the biosphere on which we depend, been fraught with such a sense of urgency. Responding to the imminent threat of climate change has focussed our attention on education. There has been a proliferation of international, national and regional programs designed to change attitudes, behaviours, and beliefs associated with the causes of climate change. This paper will look to phenomenology and pedagogy to attempt describe the experience of climate and to help us consider how we may allow the young to live in a time of inevitable climate disruption while nurturing what seems to come to them naturally, an embodied integration into the wonder and awe of the places they live. Also, this paper explores two dominant approaches to climate change education and asks how these approaches articulate an understanding of the essential relationship between humans and the larger living world as reflected through changing climatic conditions.
12 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to education is suggested and the thought of seeing and telling as interwoven representations is put forth, however, despite a phenomenological inquiry's immense qualities as a pre-reflective experiential source to understanding, the authors believe that phenomenology cannot overcome or erase the aporetic unavailability of a pedagogical practice and a pedagogogical-ethical language.
Abstract: The paper exemplifies how we as teachers see children, and indicates ways of understanding the existential educational meanings of what we see. The authors suggest that the phenomenon of seeing is a personal and relational intentional act that opens up, as well as delimits educational practice. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach to education is suggested and the thought of seeing and telling as interwoven representations is put forth. However, despite a phenomenological inquiry’s immense qualities as a pre-reflective experiential source to understanding, the authors believe that phenomenology cannot overcome or erase the aporetic unavailability of a pedagogical practice and a pedagogical-ethical language. The paper intends to show that seeing pedagogically always will be more complex, paradoxical and unsettled than what can be shown and told phenomenologically.
12 citations
TL;DR: For over 2000 years, the sublime has been a source of fascination for philosophers, artists, and even the general public at times as discussed by the authors. But, despite our efforts, our understanding of the sublime remains elusive.
Abstract: For over 2000 years, the sublime has been a source of fascination for philosophers, artists, and even the general public at times. We have written hundreds of treatises on the subject, put forth innumerable definitions and explanations, and even tried to reproduce it in art and literature. But, despite our efforts, our understanding of the sublime remains elusive. In this paper, the sublime is explored as a potential human experience that can be evoked by an image. Drawing upon concrete experiences, the phenomenon of sublimity suggests a compelling, embodied response to the visual object that can evoke a fundamental change of being.
8 citations
TL;DR: The teaching caress as mentioned in this paper is a gesture of care for another person, without fastidious carefulness, in its contact with the beauty, truth and value of the teachable moment.
Abstract: Attention is drawn to the movements of the body and to the ethical imperative that emerges in compelling, flowing moments of teaching. Such moments of teaching are not primarily intellectual, discursive events, but physical, sensual experiences in which the body surrenders to its own movements. Teaching is recognized momentarily as a carnal intensity embedded in and emerging from the flesh. The ethical imperative to this teaching is felt proprioceptively and kinaesthetically when one holds in self-motion the well-being of another as being of the same flesh. The teaching caress offers a primary example. This gesture of intimacy discloses an embodied ethic that contrasts with the transcendental ethics of curricular prescriptions, professional codes of conduct, and the presumptions of self-monitoring behavior. It is a gesture of care for another person, without fastidious carefulness. It is a gesture of pure duration, without sanctimonious purity, in its contact with the beauty, truth and value of the teachable moment. From earliest engagements with children to the dynamics of the university classroom, what makes for good teaching is essentially attentiveness to intimate gestures, such as the caress, that guide teachers kinethically in the moment.
8 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed peer- reviewed papers from 2003-2012 and scrutinized the arguments used for dividing men and women into separate groups in empirical nursing studies based on phenomenology.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to discuss in the light of phenomenological philosophy, whether it can be argued that men and women have different lifeworlds and how this may legitimize the segregation of men and women in empirical nursing research. We analyzed peer- reviewed papers from 2003-2012 and scrutinized the arguments used for dividing men and women into separate groups in empirical nursing studies based on phenomenology. We identified 24 studies using gender segregation and posed the following questions: 1. What is the investigated phenomenon as explicated by the authors? 2. What arguments do the authors use when dividing participants into gender specific groups? The analysis showed that a variety of phenomena were investigated that were all related to a specific medical condition. None appeared to be gender-specific, though the authors argued for a sole focus on either women or men. The most common argument for segregating men and women were reference to earlier studies. A few studies had references to methodology and/or philosophy as argument for a segregation of men and women. Arguments for gender segregation in empirical nursing studies based on a phenomenological approach tend to build on the conviction that experiences of health related phenomena are gendered. However, it seems to be difficult to identify conclusive arguments for this division within phenomenological philosophy. Therefore we recommend that segregation should be used with caution. Otherwise other research approaches may be more suitable.
7 citations
TL;DR: Using phenomenological methods, the author examines the experience of living sustainably, exploring her own background and the idea of restoring the earth to consciousness, before examining the lives of two students dedicated to living sustainable as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Living sustainably evokes ideas of lived, bodily engagement with and perception of the earth. Yet, modern ways of thinking and speaking have slowly alienated the earth from consciousness. Using phenomenological methods, the author examines the experience of living sustainably, exploring her own background and the idea of restoring the earth to consciousness, before examining the lives of two students dedicated to living sustainably. Components of upholding the earth, in-volving humanity, perceiving differences in studying and embodying sustainability, and engaging in choices fill the experience of living sustainably.
6 citations
TL;DR: This article explored the pedagogical call as an articulated or unarticulated appeal from children in classroom settings and the many facets of pedagogy responsivity as they in vignettes stemming from a research project, funded nationwide in Austria.
Abstract: In this paper, the authors explore the pedagogical call as an articulated or unarticulated appeal from children in classroom settings and the many facets of pedagogical responsivity as they in vignettes stemming from a research project, funded nation-wide in Austria. While instruction can be planned, the pedagogical call can be understood as an appeal that occurs in medias res, in the midst of an event in the pedagogical situation, and can at best be anticipated. This dilemma of planning for the unplannable is constitutive of the pedagogical relation and addressed in the discourse regarding pedagogical tact in both North America and Europe. In seeking to gain insight into educational processes and learning through the lived experiences of 5th-grade students in Austria’s “New Middle School” reform pilot, researchers were faced with a similar dilemma: How to capture the experiences of others, of children at school in medias res? The authors therefore provide background to their vignette research as a framework for their readings oriented to the pedagogical call as they arise in two vignettes. While articulated calls, and articulated responses, tend to be more straightforward, the authors address the difficulty of recognizing an unarticulated call of which the student is unaware, as well as recognizing no response as a response on the part of the teacher. Refraining from judgment as to the pedagogical quality of the teachers' actions, the authors conclude by addressing two critical aspects of the discourse on pedagogical tact driven by the principle of individuality: the underlying assumption that the other can be understood and the inherent concept of the pedagogical situation as one-to-one contact, the former ignoring the inaccessibility of the other and the latter neglecting the institutional laws that govern school reality.
TL;DR: In this article, a phenomenological study of the student's experience of making eye contact with a teacher is presented, showing that pedagogical eye contact, a usually taken-for-granted dimension, mediates the teacher's attention and calls for teacher's thoughtfulness.
Abstract: Eye contact, a subtle, pedagogical encounter in our classrooms easily slips teachers’ attention because of its transient nature. Teachers see their students almost every day. Yet, what does a moment of eye contact mean experientially to our students? By asking the question, ‘what is the student’s experience of making eye contact with their teacher,’ this paper represents a phenomenological study that captures this phenomenon and delves into its pedagogical meanings. Through lived experience description and phenomenological reflection, this research shows pedagogical eye contact, a usually taken-for-granted dimension, mediates our pedagogical relation and calls for teacher’s thoughtfulness.
TL;DR: The authors argue that Wittgenstein's account, while quite similar to that of Mollenhauer, arrives at an impasse, particularly insofar as training (Abrichtung), education and upbringing is concerned.
Abstract: Augustine’s autobiographical Confessions (1909) contains one of the first accounts of a child learning to speak. This account, in turn, is central to Klaus Mollenhauer’s Forgotten Connections: On Culture and Upbringing (1983/in press), a book internationally regarded as one of the most important German contributions to philosophy of education and curriculum theory in the 20th century. This book’s interpretation of Augustine’s description, as well as its divergence from an earlier interpretation by Wittgenstein in his Philosophical Investigations (1953) form the initial focus of this paper, which undertakes close readings of both approaches to Augustine. We argue that Wittgenstein’s account, while quite similar to that of Mollenhauer, arrives at an impasse, particularly insofar as training (Abrichtung), education and upbringing is concerned. In his subsequent attempt to “rescue” Augustine from Wittgenstein’s critique, Mollenhauer develops three highly original notions that are central to his own understanding of upbringing: presentation, representation and Bildsamkeit. Significantly, the divergence of Mollenhauer’s and Wittgenstein’s interpretations also throws into sharp relief Mollenhauer’s particular, dialogical and pedagogical interpretation of “the call,” as it is originally articulated in Augustine.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the possibilities of articulating a theory of teacher actions in light of a critical or constitutive phenomenology of action, through the use of a video analysis project, a case from a learning session is presented as a point of departure.
Abstract: This article explores the possibilities of articulating a theory of teacher actions in light of a critical or constitutive phenomenology of action. Through the use of a video analysis project, a case from a learning session is presented as a point of departure. The general question is whether constitutive phenomenology as a kind of reflective analysis may help to explore and understand the practical knowledge of a teacher in a classroom interacting with children. The situation is deliberately seen from the teacher’s point of view, and seeks to demonstrate how the knowledge of teachers’ actions in relation to a teaching subject, and in interaction with students’ and children’s calls, may be analysed. A general theory of teacher actions is formulated as a dynamic combination or balance of focal and global beliefs, values and practices, while different types of combinations of these phenomenologically described thetic "positionalities" are described to understand ignoring more generally. The ignoring of children in a classroom is further analysed and described according to the German Bildung tradition and the pedagogical paradox of formation. The article also discusses contributions and limitations of phenomenology in pedagogical research, and in relation to teacher student pedagogy in particular.
TL;DR: This paper considers this particular dimension of the wait – I question the experiences and meanings of contact that occur within the pre-weight loss surgical period, and reflects on the possible ethical and clinical significance of contact within this particular context.
Abstract: Weight loss surgery is an increasingly common treatment for medically defined class III obesity and related comorbidities. A rise in demand has resulted in progressively longer waiting times in Canada, lasting upwards of ten years. Extended surgical waits impact the lives of people pursuing the procedure, no doubt – I wonder in what way? What is the experience of waiting to have weight loss surgery? I sought to explore this question using a human science approach to phenomenology of practice. It is within this broader inquiry that this particular text is situated. The multiple interviews I conducted with people who were awaiting surgery revealed the experiential import of contact, of touch, metaphorical and otherwise, to the overall waiting phenomenon. In this paper I consider this particular dimension of the wait – I question the experiences and meanings of contact that occur within the pre-weight loss surgical period. I reflect on the possible ethical and clinical significance of contact within this particular context while focusing on the relational aspect of the phenomenon, particularly between patient and clinician. Ultimately this deeper understanding of the experience as it is lived may elicit new and possibly more tactful ways of being with, of making contact – as in touch, hearing from or connecting with – within weight loss surgery-related clinical encounters.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the student experience of simulation in the context of midwifery and nursing, and find that students are more captured by the simulated experience than with the human world, and that the intertwining of self-body-world blurs the sense of where human body ends and simulated world begins.
Abstract: The journey into the world of midwifery or nursing requires the student to attend to the intertwining of self-body-world in order to shift their knowledge of self-body-world into a client/patient-centered context. One of the teaching-learning strategies used to provide safe opportunities is the use of simulations and virtual practices. Rather than learning intimate acts of touching, or life and death decision-making in situations with actual clients/patients, students enter their learning world with rubber torsos, cloth babies, and cyber clinics. The “other” is a simulated other, not a human. How does the student shift from seeing this simulated other as object to a sense of other as subject? In our world of constant use of technology for communication and entertainment, do students shift in and out of a cyber world easily or are they more captured by the simulated experience than with the human world? Has the human world redefined itself where the intertwining of self-body-world blurs the sense of where human body ends and cyber or simulated world begins? What is the place of Bildung when engaged with a cyber other? As a result of educational challenges, including rising enrolments, limited clinical placement opportunities, and increasing risk management concerns, there has been a proliferation in the use of simulation as a teaching strategy (Fox, Damazo, 2013; Schmitt, Gilbert, Brandt, Weinstein, 2013). This has left us –the authors– wondering about the student experience of simulation. What do they learn? How do they learn? How can this learning be applied in practice?
TL;DR: The call to act ion by Merleau-Ponty as mentioned in this paper leads to an improvisatory eco-theatre; however, it is not a move towards environmental act ivism.
Abstract: Illustrating how Merleau-Ponty’s enigmatic phenomenology lends itself beautifully to both theatrical and ecological analysis, this essay examines how his work heralds a call to engage with our world on an embodied, improvisatory level. Exploratory improvisation and Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology mitigate notions of distance into a causal relationship towards (re)engaging wholeness, by inviting the sensuous intimacies of interaction: with ourselves, with each other, with earth…. in distance, in proximity. Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology must be embodied and experienced with a consciousness, an alertness and perceptive awareness of the act of engagement. The call to act ion by Merleau-Ponty begets an improvisatory eco-theatre; however it is not a move towards environmental act ivism. This paper illustrates how improvisation is a means to experientially make clear this delineation, which is crucial to overcome the dichotomies of separation and otherness that have been so entrenched in the Western world. Re-engaging our sensitivity of improvising as tool for survival, in a world where our sensitivities are all too often socially-placated and dulled is where the work of Merleau-Ponty and where theatre can be an act ive tool for re-imagining a future, our future. Merleau-Ponty’s eco-theatre is holistic, is inclusive and is most definitely a form of act ivism (or act-of-vision): a phenomenology that, properly and fully grasped, can be embodied through a ‘theatrical’ practice, specifically through exploratory improvisation.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that an ethic of survival is conditioned by the survival of humanity as a moral, responsible species, and that the main challenge of this responsibility is the clash between the autonomy and dignity of the individual and the vital needs of the larger community in the struggle for survival.
Abstract: The primary concern of environmental ethics pushed to the limit is the question of survival. An ethic of survival would concern the possibility of morality in an environmental crisis that promises humanity immeasurable damage, suffering, and even the possibility of species extinction. A phenomenological analysis of the question of moral response to such future catastrophe reveals—in Heideggerian fashion contra-Heidegger—that the very question positions us in a relation of responsibility towards a world and a humanity that lies beyond one’s reach and extends into the future. Responsibility, then, arises as a constituting element that defines humanity and therefore cannot be bracketed away or suspended in a time of crisis. Through a reading of Hans Jonas’ notion of responsibility and a critique of some major notions of Environmental Ethics, this article argues that an ethic of survival is conditioned by the survival of humanity as a moral, responsible species. The main challenge of this responsibility is further suggested to be the clash between the autonomy and dignity of the individual and the vital needs of the larger community in the struggle for survival.
TL;DR: The authors explores the lived experiences of AP English teachers in public high school, as the author addresses the question: "What is it like to teach Advanced Placement English while caught in the tension between teaching and testing?" The phenomenological text constructed from conversations and written reflections with six AP teachers brings forth aspects of the experience of dwelling right in the Zone of Between in AP English teaching.
Abstract: This article explores the lived experiences of Advanced Placement English teachers in public high school, as the author addresses the question: "What is it like to teach Advanced Placement English while caught in the tension between teaching and testing?" The phenomenological text constructed from conversations and written reflections with six Advanced Placement teachers brings forth aspects of the experience of dwelling aright in the Zone of Between in AP English teaching: between teaching and testing, high school and college, and childhood and adulthood. The teachers use the exam as a foundation for courage and encouragement, confidence and passion building, and creative ways-of-being with students. The study suggests a need for Advanced Placement teachers to participate in the development of curriculum, to retain the autonomy to teach from the self, and to be trusted to provide students with meaningful experiences in the art and craft of literature study. The article also reveals the importance of widening the narrow definition of student achievement to include more than test scores.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the phenomenology of mothers as they return to memorable photographs, and how such experience might reveal basic ontological aspects of motherhood, including the connectedness she has with her children, and the awareness that her children have become separate individuals.
Abstract: This article explores the phenomenology of mothers as they return to memorable photographs. [i] It reviews research on three mothers who articulate the lived experience of photographs, and how such experience might reveal basic ontological aspects of motherhood. The phenomenology of a mother’s memorable photographs discloses an aporia of human relationships that involves the connectedness she has with her children, and the awareness that her children have become separate individuals. These two themes – separateness and coexistence – are indissolubly at odds. Each constitutes a mother’s potential lived experience of photographs as viewed in front of her. A concluding discussion reviews how each of these contradictory themes provides the necessary context for the other to arise, mutually presupposing the other. [i] The Duquesne University IRB approved the research conducted in this article (Protocol #11-27). The author would like to thank Eva Simms, Patrick Howard, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful feedback while preparing this article. This article is indebted to the three mothers who participated in this research.
TL;DR: In this article, a theoretical approach is proposed to uncover fundamental differences within different disciplines' scientific thinking, and their use of theories and models, which then manifest themselves in the discipline's scientific assessments and practical actions.
Abstract: This essay initiates a fundamental discussion about education’s nature and character, and raises the questions: Is education reliant on other disciplines as, for example, psychology, sociology and philosophy? Or may education be thought of independently, without being reliant on other disciplines? These questions are discussed in the light of Theodor Litt’s educational reading of Hegel’s understanding of dialectics, as it appears in the book Phenomenology of Spirit, in order to support that education has a relational and dialectic nature. In the second part, we connect the concept of ‘Hegelian dialectic structure’ with scientific theory. More specifically, we introduce a theoretically oriented concept, based on semantic theory construction; namely, ‘relational parameter bundles’. This concept clarifies the difference between education and other ‘scientific,’ often more empirically based disciplines, such as psychology, on which education, or rather, educational researchers, traditionally rely. Through our theoretical approach we aim to uncover fundamental differences within different disciplines’ scientific thinking, and their use of theories and models, which then manifest themselves in the discipline’s scientific assessments and practical actions. An uncritical integration of other disciplines in education may destroy the ‘true’ nature of education, and thus pose a danger to education’s character, problem areas and ways of conducting research. That does not mean that education shall be isolated from other disciplines, it is rather a question of when perspectives from other disciplines should be included in educational matters. Not before the educational questions are raised and worked through will it be appropriate to obtain knowledge from other disciplines, if, that is, it is deemed necessary based on educational judgment.
TL;DR: Larson as discussed by the authors presented historical and cultural frameworks to contextualize evolutionary and current environmental sustainability narratives, and demonstrated the importance of breaking down narratives of duality, and seeing ourselves as one with nature, not separate from it, in addressing issues concerning environmental sustainability.
Abstract: Brendon Larson’s Metaphors for Environmental Sustainability: Redefining our Relationship with Nature is a thought provoking treatment of what can be a challenging and sometimes controversial subject. Primarily, but not exclusively, through four feedback metaphors: progress, competition, barcoding, and meltdown, Larson challenges the dominant scientific discourse, highlighting the limits of a single-lens scientific narrative while emphasizing the value of welcoming ambiguity, and diversity as a means to fruitful discussion and inquiry in addressing the issues surrounding environmental sustainability. Furthermore, rather than fencing ourselves off from nature, Larson demonstrates the importance of breaking down narratives of duality, and seeing ourselves as one with nature, not separate from it, in addressing issues concerning environmental sustainability. This book is valuable not only for its message, but also for how its concepts are presented. Larson presents historical and cultural frameworks to contextualize evolutionary and current environmental sustainability narratives. This book exemplifies phenomenological practices and perceptions, and is a valuable and insightful read for any individual, practitioner, or academic with an interest in environmental sustainability.