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Teaching the unknowable Other: humanism of the Other by E. Lévinas and pedagogy of responsivity

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Abstract

In this paper, the author investigates what kind of challenges contemporary pedagogy has confronted, focusing on the question of knowability of radical otherness of the educated and the makability of the human being through education. Starting from two different narratives reflecting on their personal educational relationships and their identity as an educator, the author sketches the contrasting development in the history of pedagogy from Comenius via Kant and Buber and expands on the pedagogical reception of the philosophy of the Other by Lévinas. Differing from the ego- and subject-centeredness of modern pedagogy, Lévinas proposes a rather humble concept of a subject who is always and already responsive to and responsible for the Other. Based on this contrast, the author suggests that modern educators can be freed from an all-knowing and almighty complex and get to a more sympathetic, sensitive, and ethical dimension for their pedagogical practice.

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Notes

  1. For example, besides the various references in the following chapters of this paper, Benner proposes as a prerequisite of educational theory and educational practice that "modern pedagogy does not deal with an already known origin and future of human being, but with the not-knowing and the unknowable in regard to the identification of the individual" (Benner 1999: 9; cf. Wimmer 2008: 116f). In addition, in regard to the hypothetic nature of pedagogical knowledge, see Mollenhauer (2003: 89f). According to him, pedagogical knowledge on the Other is neither definable nor certain.

  2. Representatively three occasions are to mention; Philosophy of Education (2001), Studies in Philosophy and Education (2003, Special Issue) and Egéa-Kuehne, D. (Ed.)(2008). Lévinas and Education. NY: Routledge.

  3. In this regard, Biesta’s advice is worth mentioning: “we should not approach Lévinas as a traditional teacher, as someone who knows what we do not know yet, and where it is our task to come to know what the teacher already knows. Reading Lévinas is like being with a teacher who asks questions, and in doing so invites, summons and perhaps even forces to respond.” (Biesta 2012: 206; cf. Biesta 2003: 66).

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  1. Graduate School of Education, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 130-701, Korea

    Jeong-Gil Woo

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Woo, JG. Teaching the unknowable Other: humanism of the Other by E. Lévinas and pedagogy of responsivity. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 15, 79–88 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-013-9301-x

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