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PHENOMENOLOGICAL PEDAGOGY Origins 606 Phenomenological Pedagogy In Kohlberg’s stage theory, moral development Peters, R. S. (1973b). Reason and compassion. London, culminates in an autonomous stage at the post- England: Routledge & Kegan Paul. conventional level. Although Peters agrees with Peters, R. S. (1974). Psychology and ethical development: A Kohlberg’s view that the culmination point of collection of articles on psychological theories, ethical moral education is the rational autonomous person development and human understanding. London, acting on a principled morality, his conception of England: Allen & Unwin. autonomy is never an absolute one, not even at the Peters, R. S. (1977). Education and the education of postconventional level. Peters, as a moderate liberal, teachers. London, England: Routledge & Kegan Paul. keeps at bay extreme and less intelligible versions of individualism. Autonomy, according to Peters, is a midway attitude between the two extremes of slav- PHENOMENOLOGICAL PEDAGOGY ishly reproducing authorities and originally creating oneself. As an ideal of character, autonomy cannot In Continental educational discourse, the concept be realized unless the child has first been initiated of pedagogy is paired with that of didactics; just into the framework of worthwhile activities, which as in North America, the concepts of curriculum constitutes our shared inheritance. Autonomous and instruction tend to be linked. From approxi- choice only makes sense on the condition that a mately 1910 to the late 1950s in Germany and perspective on the human condition, canonically from the end of World War II to the mid-1960s in enshrined in the humanities, informs it. After being the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries, sev- sufficiently initiated into the human heritage, one eral generations of educational scholars partici- does not have to rely on authorities in the moral pated in an emerging form of inquiry and thinking and existential domains to make something of that became known as Geisteswissenschaftliche one’s own life. At least with regard to the human Pädagogik, commonly translated as “human sci- condition and life’s predicaments—basic features ence pedagogy.” Phenomenological pedagogy is a of any moral life—one can develop some view of form of human science pedagogy that aims to start one’s own. from a presupposition-less experiential perspective. Stefaan E. Cuypers Phenomenological pedagogy asks, “How are we to act and live with children, helping them create their See also Education, Concept of; Education, human capabilities while realizing that we are apt Transcendental Justification of; Knowledge, Structure to do harm?” It reflects phenomenologically on the of: From Aristotle to Bruner and Hirst; Moral meaning of pedagogy and, through situation analy- Development: Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan; sis, tries to understand the world of the child as it is Scheffler, Israel; Wittgenstein, Ludwig experienced by the child. Phenomenological peda- gogy claims that one must begin from the phenom- Further Readings enon of pedagogy itself, as it is experienced, rather Cooper, D. E. (Ed.). (1986). Education, values and mind: than from certain philosophical or theoretical con- Essays for R. S. Peters. London, England: Routledge & cepts or preconceived educational ideas and ideals Kegan Paul. that would predispose one to see the challenge of Cuypers, S. E., & Martin, C. (Eds.). (2011). Reading R. S. bringing up and educating children and young peo- Peters today: Analysis, ethics, and the aims of education. ple in foreclosed ways. This does not mean that one Oxford, England: Wiley-Blackwell. can free oneself from one’s cultural and historical Cuypers, S. E., & Martin, C. (2013). R. S. Peters. London, context, but it does mean that one can orient to the England: Bloomsbury. way in which the pedagogical context is experienced Hardie, C. D. (1962). Truth and fallacy in educational in the here and now. theory. New York, NY: Teachers College Bureau. Hirst, P. H., & Peters, R. S. (1970). The logic of education. Origins London, England: Allen & Unwin. Peters, R. S. (1966). Ethics and education. London, The first proponents of the human science tradition England: Allen & Unwin. in education included Wilhelm Dilthey, Herman Peters, R. S. (Ed.). (1973a). The philosophy of education: Nohl, Wilhelm Flitner, Josef Derbolav, and Theodor Oxford readings in philosophy. Oxford, England: Ballauff. The theoretical corpus of this group Oxford University Press. became known as the Dilthey-Nohl school and was Phenomenological Pedagogy 607 primarily oriented to explicating the meaning of oriented in a double direction: (1) caring for a child pedagogy in human life. Pedagogy was approached as he or she is at present and (2) caring for a child for on the basis of two modes of manifestation: what he or she may become. Third, the pedagogical (1) pedagogy as a primordial human phenomenon relation is an interpretive one. The educator must and (2) pedagogy as a cultural phenomenon. constantly be able to interpret and understand the Interest in human science pedagogy was espe- present unique situation and experiences of the child cially motivated by the desire to be freed from the and anticipate the moments when the child in fuller normative constraints exerted by old pedagogies. self-responsibility can increasingly and meaningfully In the 18th and 19th centuries, the education and participate in the culture. This notion of the peda- upbringing of children were strongly influenced by gogical relation between child and adult has become the norms and values of the church (Catholicism a central theme in the subsequent development of and Protestantism), denominational belief systems, the field of phenomenological pedagogy. and class-driven ideas. With the emergence of the Friedrich Schleiermacher pointed at two ground- human sciences (Geisteswissenschaften), the taken- ing antinomies of pedagogy: (1) the polarity of for-granted beliefs and practices of historical pedago- individual versus social or universal ends of peda- gies were increasingly questioned and philosophically gogical action and (2) the duality of the positive and interrogated. In this critical context, phenomenol- the negative, the good and the bad, in the process ogy and hermeneutics became strong philosophical of encouraging, stimulating, restraining, and dis- platforms for attempts to develop new approaches ciplining the child. These distinctions gave rise to to pedagogy emancipated from the normativi- Theodor Litt’s (1949) Führen oder Wachsenlassen ties and habituated presumptions and prejudices (Giving Guidance or Letting Be), which discusses of the social and ideological milieus in which they the dialectic of giving active direction to a child’s operated. life while being sensitive to the requirements of let- Dilthey argued that the study of pedagogy must ting go or holding back. Human science pedagogy start with an explication of the pedagogical relation became characterized by a continual reflection on between child and adult. Nohl was largely respon- welding together such antinomies—the ideal versus sible for working out a pedagogical philosophy on the real, freedom versus control, dependence versus the basis of Diltheyan starting points and formula- independence—to expose the need to come to terms tions. Like many of his colleagues, Nohl taught a with paradoxical polarities in everyday life situa- portfolio of philosophy, pedagogy, and ethics. An tions, especially at the level of values and pedagogi- early phenomenological theme in Nohl’s approach cal thought. was to place the phenomenon of bringing up and educating children squarely in the lifeworld of The Nature of the Pedagogical Lifeworld everyday thinking and acting. He resisted the com- mon inclination to derive insights into the practice Concretely put, the pedagogical lifeworld is full of of pedagogy from theory. In keeping with Dilthey’s tensions and contradictions. The child wants to do distinction between explanation and understanding something himself or herself, but the parent feels in the human sciences, Nohl resisted using objectify- responsible to assist or restrain the child in order to ing and natural scientific approaches to pedagogi- avoid a dangerous or undesirable situation. A new cal questions. He was keen to relate pedagogy to parent or teacher vows never to say no to a child emancipatory cultural developments in the service but finds it impossible to live up to the determina- of the educated person, for which the Germans used tion. One struggles with the tension between what the term Bildung. Nohl described the pedagogical one would like to be (able to do) and what one is relationship between adult and child as an intensely (capable of) at present. Supper is on the table, but experienced one, characterized by three aspects. the child would rather eat junk food; the child wants First, the pedagogical relation is highly personal, a Facebook account, but the parent worries that she animated by a special quality that spontaneously is not yet old enough. These are examples of the emerges between adult and child and that can be endless contradictions, conflicts, polarities, tensions, neither managed or trained nor reduced to any other oppositions, and so forth that structure the reality human interaction (e.g., friendship, being a buddy, of the pedagogical lifeworld. Most parents or teach- etc.). Second, the pedagogical relation is an inten- ers know by experience the challenges that these tional relation, wherein the pedagogue
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