Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2007 Teaching as consummatory experience: the aesthetic dimension of experience in the later works of John Dewey and its relevance to teaching and teacher education Sevket Benhur Oral Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons, and the Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons Recommended Citation Oral, Sevket Benhur, "Teaching as consummatory experience: the aesthetic dimension of experience in the later works of John Dewey and its relevance to teaching and teacher education" (2007). 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Teaching as consummatory experience: The aesthetic dimension of experience in the later works of John Dewey and its relevance to teaching and teacher education by Sevket Benhur Oral A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major: Education Program of Study Committee: Carl Smith, Co-major Professor Robert Hollinger, Co-major Professor Geoffrey Abelson Katherine Bruna Betty Wells Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2007 Copyright © Sevket Benhur Oral, 2007. All rights reserved. UMI Number: 3289393 Copyright 2007 by Oral, Sevket Benhur All rights reserved. UMI Microform 3289393 Copyright 2008 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 ii For my parents, Çolpan and Hürkan Oral, who have always been there for me Sevgilerimle! iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Despite the hardships over the last three years, I have tremendously enjoyed writing this dissertation. The whole process has been a consummatory experience for me. I would like to express my gratitude to all the members of my committee whose constant support, encouragement and patience enabled me to complete this project. My most sincere thanks goes to Robert Hollinger. Thank you for your guidance, wisdom, sense of humor, generosity, and most of all, friendship. Thank you for being there all along the way. I am also indebted to Carl Smith whose support, flexibility, encouragement, and interest in my work have been essential for the completion of this project. His ability to calm fears was especially helpful. I would also like to extend my thanks to the members of my committee: Betty Wells, Geoff Abelson, and Katherine Richardson Bruna. I am grateful to all of them for their rigorous questioning that helped me clarify my ideas. Their suggestions proved invaluable to strengthening the project. I also owe my sincere gratitude to David Owen, without whom this dissertation would not have been undertaken. To family and friends, for all their years of support and encouragement, I offer my deepest appreciation. Most of all, my thanks go to Miriam Nechama bat Shoshe Golda for renewing the world for me in the most unfathomable and bewildering ways. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT v CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2. THE CONTEXT 22 Part 2.1 Positivistic Ethos and the American Bildung Tradition 22 Part 2.2 Dewey’s Characterization of Educative Experience 44 Part 2.3 The Research Questions 71 Part 2.4 The Methodology 76 CHAPTER 3. DEWEY’S CONCEPTION OF “EXPERIENCE” 86 Part 3.1 The Situation 87 Part 3.2 The Temporal Structure of “Experience” 116 Part 3.3 The Consummatory Experience 139 CHAPTER 4. THE DIALECTICAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE “CONSUMMATORY EXPERIENCE OF TEACHING” AND “EDUCATIVE CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE” 145 Part 4.1 Being and Becoming a Teacher 148 4.1.1 Chronological and phenomenological time. 155 4.1.2 Two cognitive moments. 160 4.1.3 Phenomenological mode of time and non-coincidence. 174 Part 4.2 Two Examples 179 4.2.1 Example 1: Fourth grade science teacher. 179 4.2.2 Example 2: Consummatory experience of an early literacy methods teacher. 196 CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION: IMPLICATIONS OF TEACHING AS CONSUMMATORY EXPERIENCE FOR TEACHER EDUCATION 215 Part 5.1 Clinical Work 216 Part 5.2 Bildung as Self-Cultivation 230 REFERENCES 237 FOOTNOTES 246 v ABSTRACT In this dissertation, what I would like to call “the ideal of teaching as consummatory experience” is discussed in relation to John Dewey’s concept of “experience” as the latter was elucidated in his later works, especially, Art as Experience and Experience and Nature . Dewey, particularly in Art as Experience , focuses on the aesthetic dimension of experience as its most fulfilling and complete mode. The articulation of the ideal of teaching as consummatory experience is grounded within the American Bildung tradition in which John Dewey was schooled and is necessitated as an attempt to reassert an alternative against the unabated dominance of the positivistic ethos that underlies much of the contemporary reform movements in teacher education. The implications and possibilities of a restoration of such an alternative for teacher education reform in the face of positivistic and late-modern skepticism are fleshed out. 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This work is a philosophical research in the field of foundations of education. It inquires into an ostensibly simple question. What does it mean to be fully alive as a teacher? This philosophical research therefore focuses on the quality of teachers’ experience. It explores in a philosophical way what it means to be fully alive as a teacher and what happens when teaching is experienced in such a manner. In other words, what is the relationship between teaching that is truly fulfilling for the teacher and experience that is truly educative for the student(s)? There is no doubt in my mind that the two are intimately connected. Truly fulfilling teaching and truly educative experience go hand in hand. It is not only possible to be fully alive as a teacher, it is also essential for educative experience to unfold in students. In addressing this crucial issue I draw upon my own journey of thinking about what educative experience means and what it entails for teaching in general, and for my own teaching in particular. In very general terms, educative experience is about being connected with the world in a meaningful manner. It is about making sense of things. As a teacher, when you experience the world and therefore yourself with a heightened sense of meaning, you provide the essential condition for creating educative experience for your students. The relevance of this philosophical research lies in the fact that most of us teachers most of the time do not experience teaching in a fulfilling manner. There is a lack of a heightened sense of meaning in what we are doing. More often than not, teaching becomes a routinized activity and turns into a deadening experience, not only for 2 us but for our students as well. This, in turn, leads to miseducative experience in our students. In order to experience teaching with a heightened sense of meaning, that is, in order to feel integrally connected with our students, our surroundings, and ultimately with ourselves, we as teachers have to be in touch with the world we live in. We are in touch with our world when we actively participate in it. When we risk touching and being touched, we fully participate in the unfolding drama, that is, life. When we have the courage to go out there and engage, we experience life with a heightened sense of meaning. We are not in touch with our world when we are merely spectating. We are not in touch with our world when we cringe in fear from it. Being in touch with the world requires a deliberate interaction with the world with an attitude of openness to the world, which entails a sense of trust. The world is a locus of meaning. This meaning, however, is not always simply given and transparent. It needs to be understood and interpreted by the individual. It requires a sustained effort on our part to be willing to engage with it, and not just once but at all times. In the process of engaging with the world as a locus of meaning, ambiguities, uncertainties, disruptions, confusions, and anxieties are encountered. Despite these difficulties, we maintain our trust in the world and in our ability to engage with it in the most fulfilling way possible. Such an attitude of openness does not emerge of its own accord. It is something that needs to be brought into existence and deliberately cultivated in each individual. This is the goal of educative experience. When experience is educative, the individual is open to the world in such a way that her interactions with it provide a heightened sense of meaning. Similarly, providing an environment that makes the formation and cultivation 3 of such an attitude possible in teachers is the goal of teacher education. To attain this goal, a broad liberal arts and sciences education that is firmly rooted in practice needs to be in place. We cannot be in touch with the world with an attitude of openness merely by acquiring some narrowly defined technical skills designed to manipulate a limited sector of the world one lives in. The goal of teacher education programs should be to help teachers engage in their self-formation to become individuals who do not fear to be open to the world as a locus of meaning.