TOWARDS A PHENOMENOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE ONTOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
TOWARDS A PHENOMENOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE ONTOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

Summary/Abstract: In this essay, written for educators who might be unfamiliar with the more technical aspects of “existential-phenomenological” philosophy, I focus on diverse and alternative forms of meaning arising from the lived experience of educators and students in the process of learning, in order to reacquaint practitioners with the forgotten and more original aspects of education. Through a modified phenomenological method, I attempt to show how teacher/student alienation from the curriculum might be transcended through an understanding of authentic education, by means of recovering the forgotten ontological aspects of living and learning, which might lead in a positive direction to the reassessment of the standards, practices, and values of contemporary education. It is my claim that this “existential” form of insight into the human and education holds the potential to enrich our current notions of teaching and learning and inspire authentic professional development in order to improve the quality of our teaching and teacher education programs.

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