Abstract
In the article that follows, I take up a debate that has arisen over the past three years concerning the following issue: Does every act of listening involve the listener in questioning? I argue that the answer to the questions is yes. I give background on the question and then consider one instance of listening that may suggest no role for questioning to play. Drawing upon Gadamer, I present an argument in support of my claim. I conclude with an implication for research.
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Notes
In an earlier draft of the article presented at the annual meeting of the Philosophy of Education Society, 2006, I considered two cases—that of “empathic listening,” which I focus upon here, and that of “compassionate listening,” as presented by Garrison in “Compassionate, Spiritual, and Creative listening in Teaching and Learning,” forthcoming in Learning in Context: Reflections on Teaching, Learning, and Engagement, S. Haroutunian-Gordon and L. Waks, Eds., (in preparation). Due to limitations of space, I have omitted Garrison’s case in the present article. However, I believe that compassionate listening, as he defines it, suffers from the same problem as Waks’ “empathic listening”: both make use of categories, so that the cataphatic/apophatic distinction does no work.
For example, S. Rice and N. Burbules (1993), “Listening as a Communicative Virtue,” presented American Educational Association annual meeting, 2004; Burbules, “Pretending to Listen: A Useful Fallback for Teachers,” presented at American Educational Research Association annual meeting, 2005; J. Garrison (1996), “Compassionate Listening,” presented American Educational Research Association annual meeting, 2005; S. Haroutunian-Gordon (2004), “Case Study: Listening in an Interpretive Discussion,” presented American Educational Research Association annual meeting, 2004; W. Parker, “Students as Insiders, Teachers as Outsiders, & Vice Versa: Listening and Social Position in Classroom Discussion,” presented American Educational Research Association annual meeting, 2005; S. Rice, “The Relation between Listening, Teaching, and Education,” presented American Educational Research Association annual meeting, 2005; K. Schultz (2003), “Learning to Listen to Silence in Classroom Settings,” presented American Educational Research Association annual meeting, 2004, and “Listening to Silence,” presented American Educational Research Association annual meeting, 2005; L. Waks, “Several Kinds of Listening Across Difference in Educational Contexts,” presented American Educational Research Association annual meeting,” 2004, “Deep Listening,” presented American Educational Research Association annual meeting, 2005 (both of these are drafts of a paper now entitled “Two Types of Interpersonal Listening”), “Listening and Questioning, A Response” presented Philosophy of Education Society annual meeting, 2006; S. Wortham, “Listening at the Meso-Level,” presented American Educational Research Association, 2004 and “Listening to Intertwined Academic/Interactional/Moral Messages in Classrooms,” presented American Educational Research Association annual meeting, 2005.
These include: listening to silence, listening to music, listening in classrooms across timescales, interpersonal listening, compassionate listening, spiritual listening, listening as a virtue, listening to learn, learning to listen, listening to a challenging perspective, and pretending to listen.
Waks’ paper in successive drafts has been read at various conferences and widely circulated. It will appear in Listening in Context, see note 1 above.
Waks, “Interpersonal Listening,” p. 3.
Ibid, pp. 5–6.
Ibid, p. 1.
Ibid.
Ibid, p. 9.
Even the listening of the Bodhisattva, as described by Garrison mentioned above (AERA 2005) and forthcoming in Listening in Context, occurs only in the presence of questions, which explains why the Bodhisattva comes to new understanding.
References
Gadamer, H.-G. (1985). Truth and method. Trans. Sheed and Ward, Ltd, New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company.
Garrison, J. (1996). A Deweyan theory of democratic listening. Educational Theory, 46(4), 435–439.
Haroutunian-Gordon, S. (2004). Listening—in a democratic society. In K. Alston (Ed.), Philosophy of education yearbook, 2003 (pp. 1–18). Urbana-Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Rice, S., & Burbules, N. C. (1993). Communicative virtues and educational relations. In E. H. Alexander (Ed.), Proceedings of the philosophy of education society, 1992 (pp. 34–44). Urbana-Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Schultz, K. (2003). Listening: A framework for teaching across differences. New York: Teachers College Press.
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Haroutunian-Gordon, S. Listening and questioning. Learn Inq 1, 143–152 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11519-007-0017-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11519-007-0017-x